CHARLOTTE — The 36-hole leader of the PGA Championship works it into his practice swings routine on occasion. So do two former PGA Championship winners in the field. Two players in T-2 coming into Saturday use it during competition, to hit shots around the greens.
We’re talking about gripping the club cross-handed. Rather than a conventional hold, which means putting your right hand below your left for right-handed golfers, a cross-handed grip means putting your left below your right. It’s a common grip that has traditionally been used for putting, but has been increasingly leaking into full swings.
Why it works ✅
The legendary teacher Pete Cowen assigns this grip as a drill to many of his students—notably Brooks Koepka and Padraig Harrington—on full shots. You can see Harrington demonstrating it.
If arms get too far behind your body on the downswing (otherwise known as “stuck”) you could be a good candidate for this drill, because a cross-handed grip makes it harder for golfers to release the club with their right hand, which in turn pulls the club more around your body on the way through.
- “It pulls the right elbow more in front of your body [on the downswing],” Cowen says. “It teaches a body release. You have to turn to hit the ball.”
It has similar benefits around the greens.
Parker McLachlin is a renowned short-game coach who is releasing a 15-video cross-handed chipping guide dropping on his website, which is full of fantastic content, next week. (You can check it out right here).
Fitzpatrick goes cross-handed around the green, and so does one of McLachlin’s students, Matthieu Pavon. Pavon was a longtime sufferer of the chipping yips until he adopted the cross-handed method. It was a career-saver.
- “The grip helps maintain a consistent swing arc radius,” McLachlin says. “It minimizes wrist action, which engages more body pivot.”
Still unconventional, but increasingly normal. And if it’s good enough for tour players, it may be for you, too.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
