Nearly every golfer has had that feeling of being lost on the greens (maybe Brad Faxon and Ben Crenshaw were exceptions). You’ve lost your confidence. You start guarding against three-putts on longer attempts and those 3- and 4-footers that you used to make with regularity have turned into painful grinds.
Is it mental or physical? Probably a little bit of both. And the best way to address a putting slump is to take everything back to the basics, says Cameron McCormick, an official SuperStroke brand ambassador and one of the world’s top instructors who regulary works with some of the best players in the world.
McCormick, who is probably best known for coaching three-time major winner Jordan Spieth, says the key is to understand what was working for your stroke before you got off track.
What was your blueprint for success?
“A blueprint or template would start with things as simple as distance from the ball, ball position, the eye position over the ball, and then we go into how they are going to move the putter to accomplish the task of start line control and just as much as that, speed control,” he says. “Without that blueprint, a lot of times people ride that carousel of trying X, Y, and Z without it being connected and getting back to the best version of their former self.”
McCormick says that that’s why it’s common to see tour players out there with stance aids, ball position aids, mirrors, and other training aids that give them good feedback on putting.
“You’ve got to know what you do when you do it well, and you have to have means of feedback to ensure you’re doing it as you’re supposed to be doing it,” McCormick says. “When there’s a disconnect between what you’re doing and what you should be doing, you have to have ways to get it back on track.”
It’s also important to note that while there are certain fundamentals, what works for one player might not work for another. Everyone has their own style. McCormick uses Xander Schauffle and J.T. Poston as examples.
“They putt so completely differently – like their distance to the ball, the way they move it. It’s on two ends of the spectrum. And that doesn’t mean that either is right for any specific person. But there’s one that’s right for JT and one that’s correct for Xander. They’ve both figured that out,” McCormick says.
For a clearer primer on finding your way back to sound putting basics, check out this VIDEO from Cameron McCormick.
They also use different tools, and more specifically, grips. For example, Poston uses his hands more in his putting stroke than many other tour players. So he might opt for a smaller grip. While players who want to limit hand movement might choose a larger diameter grip to keep everything locked in.
Fortunately, SuperStroke, the leading putter grip in professional golf, offers a menu of grip options that has grown exponentially. The options are seemingly endless, from the Zenergy Flatso 2.0 to the Zenergy Wrist Lock, to the new Zenergy TLT Off Axis, which is designed for zero-torque and lie-angle balanced heads to promote a forward-leaning shaft position without needing a forward press at address.
“With the TLT, we’ve got some lower loft impact built at address, so a player doesn’t need to accomplish that necessarily with a forward press or some sort of dynamic loading of the clubhead behind the handle to accomplish the desired launch angle by using that grip,” says McCormick, who is currently employing the TLT grip on his own putter after doing a content piece on it.
The bottom line is that no company has more options on putter grips than Superstroke, which has taken the industry by storm since its introduction 15 years ago. And for those who are looking for club grips, Superstroke has you covered there, too, with a wide variety of solutions for your irons, woods, hybrids, wedges, and driver, including one of its latest, the REVL Player 360 4X. It’s designed with an enlarged lower hand profile that simulates four extra wraps of tape to a more even grip pressure and greater consistency though impact.
“Back when I was playing college and beyond professionally, the menu of options from a grip standpoint was way limited,” McCormick says. “But now with the options that SuperStroke provides, you can fit a grip for what a person is trying to accomplish.”
