Putting Grip Tension – How Tight Should You Hold Your Putter?

Making putts is never easy. As a golfer, you already know that to be true – this area of the game is famous for giving players fits.

One of the reasons putting is so challenging is simply the number of variables that you need to dial in just right. If only one or two variables are out of place, the ball is going to slide by the edge time after time.

One important putting variable that doesn’t get the attention it deserves is grip pressure, or grip tension.

This refers to how tightly you hold the putter during the stroke.

It’s common for amateur players to hold the putter far too tightly, and a number of negative side effects can result from that mistake. By dialing in your grip pressure just right, you might be surprised at how much your stroke can improve.

Why Does Putting Grip Tension Matter?

It’s important to maintain proper feel during the putting stroke. If you can’t feel how the club is moving, you’ll always struggle to control the distance of your putts. And, if you are going to have good feel, you’ll need to use light grip pressure.

When you grip the putter lightly, it’s easier to make a smooth, flowing stroke. If you watch professional golfers on TV, for example, you can see how the putter flows beautifully back and through.

What you can’t see, however, is that they are holding the putter quite lightly in their hands. This is a key fundamental which significantly helps them achieve the kind of distance control required to play at the highest level.

Even if you aren’t playing at a high level just yet, you can still improve your game by mastering a light putting grip pressure. Let’s discuss how you can find just the right grip pressure to get the best results out of your stroke.

An Experiment in Grip Pressure

The best way to find your ideal putting grip pressure is to experiment during a practice session. Fortunately, this experiment should only take a few minutes of your time, and it could continue to pay off on the greens for years to come. The setup goes like this:

1. Pick a hole to use as your target and put a tee in the ground to mark your starting point roughly 10-feet away from that hole. The ground between your starting point and the hole should be relatively flat.
2. Start with your normal grip pressure and hit one or two putts from next to the tee.
3. For the next putt, relax your grip pressure just slightly. Then, hit another putt with your grip relaxed even further.
4. Continue this process until your grip is so light that you can no longer maintain control of the putter during the stroke. At this point, you will have gone too far and will need to add back just a bit of pressure to keep the putter under control.

The point of this process is to teach you what it feels like to putt with light grip pressure. Somewhere along the spectrum between where you started and where you finished will be a grip pressure that works best for your stroke.

Feel free to continue experimenting up and down the pressure scale until you settle on a grip that feels comfortable and produces good results.

Consistent Practice is Required

It may only take a few minutes to identify the grip pressure that will be best for your game, but it is going to take significantly longer to master that new feel.

Regular putting practice is important for a variety of reasons, but perhaps none more critical than allowing you to get comfortable with your grip. You want the putter to feel like an extension of your hands and arms, and that will only happen with plenty of practice time.

Consider taking a short time at the start of each practice putting session to focus on grip pressure. This habit will be a good reminder of the importance of grip pressure.

Once you’ve dialed in your grip pressure feel for the day, you can then move on to working on other things like distance control, the path of your stroke, reading the green, etc.

Taking Your New Putting Grip to the Course

A funny thing is likely to happen between the practice green and the first green on the course – your putting grip is going to get tighter again. Most likely, even if you have put in focused practice time working on your grip pressure, you will naturally tighten back up when you get on the course and feel some nerves. This is normal, but you’ll need to have a strategy to combat it.

A good pre-putt routine is a smart way to keep your grip pressure in check. After you get your read, go through some kind of quick routine that includes a moment for you to think about grip pressure. You can build this routine any way you like, as long as it doesn’t take too long or get in the way of other players.

For many golfers, simply standing behind the ball while taking a couple of quick practice strokes is an effective routine. While making those strokes, focus on getting your grip pressure right so you’ll be ready to hit a quality putt when you walk up and take your stance.

It’s the Simple Things that Matter Most

The importance of grip pressure when putting is another example of how the simple, basic fundamentals in golf can take you a long way. There isn’t much exciting about working on your grip pressure, and others you play with won’t even notice you have made an adjustment.

Your stroke will feel different, however, and you should find that you have a better feel over the putter on all of your putts.

If you can dedicate yourself to continuing to work on the basic fundamentals of golf over the long run, you just might be able to transform your game.