Your grip is the only connection between you and your putter, meaning it has a massive influence on where the clubface is pointing at impact. Mastering how you hold the putter is the first step toward draining more putts and building unshakable confidence on the greens. This guide will walk you through the core principles of a good putter grip and detail the most effective styles so you can find the one that works best for you.
Think of your putting grip as the steering wheel for your stroke. The primary goal is to keep the putter face square to your intended line from the moment you take the club back until it makes contact with the ball. A faulty grip causes the clubface to open or close, forcing you to make mid-stroke compensations with your hands and wrists. This leads to inconsistency, missed putts, and frustration.
A good putting grip removes the small, twitchy muscles of the hands and wrists from the equation. Instead, it unifies your hands, arms, and shoulders into a single, stable unit. This promotes a feeling of the shoulders "rocking" back and forth like a pendulum, creating a simple, repeatable motion. The foundation of this "pendulum" stroke is neutralizing the hands, and that all starts with two things: light grip pressure and proper hand placement.
Before we look at specific grip styles, let's cover the two universal constants that apply to every putting grip. If you get these two elements right, any grip style you choose has a much higher chance of success.
This is arguably the most common mistake amateur golfers make. Nerves and a desire to control the stroke often lead to a "death grip" on the putter. Excessive grip pressure creates tension that runs all the way up through your forearms and into your shoulders. This tension completely shuts down your ability to feel the weight of the putter head and engage the large, stable muscles of your back and shoulders. It forces you to rely on the small, unreliable muscles in your hands, which is the primary cause of a "jerky" or "flippy" putting stroke.
Imagine you are holding a small bird in your hands, you want to hold it securely enough that it can't fly away, but not so tightly that you would harm it. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is squeezing as hard as you can, your grip pressure on the putter should be a 3 or 4. It should feel secure, but relaxed. This light pressure keeps your hands passive and allows the bigger, more reliable muscles of your shoulders to control the stroke.
While a full swing grip sits more in the fingers to promote wrist hinge, an effective putting grip is typically more "palm-oriented." Placing the grip more in the lifeline of your palms helps to lock your wrists out of the stroke. The idea is to make your hands, wrists, and the putter feel like a single, solid triangle with your shoulders.
There is no single "best" grip for putting. The best players in the world use a variety of styles. The goal is to find the one that feels most stable and comfortable for you and gives you the most confidence to make a repeatable stroke. Here are the three most common and effective grip styles. Experiment with all of them on the practice green to see what clicks.
This is the most traditional and widely used putting grip. It's a fantastic starting point for any golfer because it offers a great blend of feel and stability.
This "reverse overlap" further locks the hands together and helps to ensure they move as a single unit throughout the stroke. It allows the right hand to guide the stroke for feel, while the left hand provides stability.
Who it's for: This grip is a great all-rounder and the standard for a reason. If you're new to golf or you've never thought much about your putting grip, this is the place to start.
Popularized by players like Jordan Spieth, the cross-handed grip has become incredibly common for one main reason: it's excellent at quieting down a dominant trail hand.
This arrangement does two powerful things. First, it naturally levels out your shoulders at address, which can make it easier to get your eyes directly over the ball. Second, by placing the non-dominant (left) hand in the lower, power-guiding position, it effectively "handcuffs" your dominant right hand, preventing it from getting too active or "flippy" around impact. This encourages a pure shoulder-rocking motion.
Who it's for: Golfers who struggle with putts moving left (for right-handers) or feel they suffer from a "yippy" stroke where their right hand takes over. It's fantastic for promoting consistency, even if some players feel they lose a bit of the fine touch for speed on long putts.
The "Claw" is less a single grip and more a family of grips (including the Saw, Pencil, and various other permutations). But the core philosophy is the same: to get the trail hand into a position where it has almost zero influence on the path of the putter face.
This feels very unusual at first, but it accomplishes the ultimate goal of separating the right hand's roles. The left hand guides the putter on its path, while the nearly-detached right hand acts only as a stabilizing point. It becomes almost impossible for the right hand to add any manipulative force.
Who it's for: This is a go-to for players who have severe yips or simply cannot stop their right hand from twitching or manipulating the clubface. It's the ultimate method for forcing a pendulum motion driven by the shoulders.
As you experiment, keep these final thoughts in mind to refine your chosen grip even further.
Finding the right way to hold your putter is a personal journey, centered on disabling your twitchy wrist muscles and encouraging a stable, repeatable stroke powered by your shoulders. Whether it's the classic reverse-overlap, the steady cross-handed style, or the radical-feeling claw, the goal is to find what gives you the most confidence to stand over a putt and know you can send it on the right line, every time.
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