World No. 3-ranked golfer Rory McIlroy has struggled to make putts through the early part of the season, so he is making a major change to his technique.
McIlroy shared a video on Instagram earlier this week that showed him practicing his putting, and he was using the left-hand-low grip. He told reporters on Wednesday that he has used the grip during drills in the past but has decided to give it a try in tournament play.
“It’s a drill that I’ve always done,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “And I’ve putted a lot just with my left hand. It’s one of those things where the drill started to feel a little bit better than the real thing, so I’m just going to stick with it.”
McIlroy decided to make the switch after shooting back-to-back rounds of 72 at The Honda Classic last weekend. He says his confidence was shot and there were a couple of short putts he knew he missed before he made contact with the ball.
“So it was, ‘I need to do something here,'” McIlroy explained. “I was sort of playing around with a few different grips on the putting green over the weekend. This one felt more natural to me because I’ve done it before and I do it quite a lot when I’m just practicing in drills. I thought, `Why not give it a go?'”
McIlroy said he will stick with cross-handed putting for a bit even if it doesn’t go well over the next couple of weeks. That means we’ll likely be watching it at the Masters in roughly a month.
Between his new putting grip and the surgical procedure he recently underwent, McIlroy should hit his stride again in no time.
