Putting
Golf Putting Grip Styles: The 5 Grips Compared (And How to Pick Yours)
Conventional, cross-handed, claw, arm-lock, prayer — what each one fixes
May 5, 2026 · 8 min read · Stephen Pickering
Conventional, cross-handed, claw, arm-lock, prayer — what each one fixes
May 5, 2026 · 8 min read · Stephen Pickering
Key takeaway: The right putting grip can quiet a wristy stroke, square the face under pressure, and turn 6-footers from a coin flip into a near-certainty. Conventional, cross-handed, claw, arm-lock, and prayer all fix different problems — pick by the miss pattern, then test it with scored drills, not by feel.
Most golfers grip the putter the way someone showed them on day one and never question it again. That’s the problem. The right golf putting grip can quiet a wristy stroke, square the face under pressure, and turn 6-footers from a coin flip into a near-certainty. The wrong one will fight you for the rest of your golfing life.
There are five putting grip styles worth knowing — conventional, cross-handed, claw, arm-lock, and prayer. Each one solves a different problem. This guide breaks down what each grip does, who it suits, and a simple method to test which one drops your putts.
Putting is the only stroke in golf where you don’t get a second chance to recover. A face that’s 1° open from 10 feet misses the hole. The grip is the only thing connecting your hands to the face — so the way you hold the putter has more direct impact on direction than any other piece of the stroke.
If your right hand (for a right-handed golfer) is too dominant, you’ll flick the face closed at impact. If your wrists break down under pressure, you’ll push and pull short putts in equal measure. The grip you choose either fixes that or hides it.
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Bryson DeChambeau and Matt Kuchar have all switched putting grips mid-career. Some did it once, others did it three or four times. None of them treated the grip like it was sacred — they treated it like a tool that either worked or didn’t. You can do the same.
Both hands on the grip with the right hand below the left, index finger of the left hand resting on top of the right-hand fingers. It’s the grip 90% of golfers learn first because it feels like a normal golf grip.
What it does well: blends feel and control. Your dominant hand is in its natural position, which is great for distance control on lag putts.
The downside: under pressure your right hand can take over and flip the face. If you push or pull short putts inconsistently, the conventional grip is often the reason.
Reverse the hand position — left hand below the right (for a right-handed golfer). Jordan Spieth has used this grip his entire career.
What it does well: levels your shoulders at address and quiets the right hand. The lead arm stays in control of the stroke, which keeps the face square through impact. Brilliant for golfers who push, pull, or yip 4-footers.
The downside: feel on long putts can suffer at first. Most golfers need a couple of weeks to recalibrate distance control.
Left hand stays in a normal grip position. Right hand sits on top of the grip with the palm facing your body and the fingers curled like a claw — barely touching the putter.
What it does well: takes the right hand almost completely out of the stroke. Perfect for golfers who get the yips on short putts or whose right hand dominates and twists the face shut. Used by Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, and Tommy Fleetwood.
The downside: feels weird for the first hundred putts. Stick with it.
A long putter pressed against your lead forearm so the shaft and arm form one unit. The lead wrist physically can’t break down because it’s locked against the grip.
What it does well: the most consistent face control of any grip — you literally can’t manipulate the putter with your hands. Used by Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Kuchar, and Webb Simpson.
The downside: needs a specific arm-lock putter (longer shaft, heavier head, more loft). Not a grip change you make on a whim — it’s a putter purchase too.
Both palms face each other on the grip, fingers interlocked or side by side. Some call it the “thumbs together” grip. Used most famously by Vijay Singh and at times by Sergio Garcia.
What it does well: locks both hands into a passive position, which removes any wrist action. Great for golfers who feel both hands fight each other in the stroke.
The downside: low feel for distance. Works best on shorter, faster greens where speed isn’t a major variable.
Whichever grip you settle on, you need scored putting drills to test it under pressure.
See Putting Drills →Grip choice should solve a specific problem. Look at your last five rounds and find the pattern.
- Pushing putts right: try cross-handed or claw — both quiet the right hand. - Pulling putts left: try claw or arm-lock — both stop the lead wrist breaking. - Yips on 3- to 5-footers: claw or arm-lock are the proven fixes. - Bad lag putting (three-putts from 30+ feet): stay conventional. You need feel, not face control. - Wristy or jabby stroke: arm-lock removes the wrist entirely.
Don’t change grip on the course. Test it on the practice green, in a way that gives you real data.
1. Pick the grip you want to test. 2. Hit 10 putts from 5 feet. Record makes out of 10. 3. Hit 10 putts from 10 feet. Record makes out of 10. 4. Hit 5 lag putts from 30 feet. Record how many finish within 3 feet. 5. Total your score out of 25.
Run the same test with your current grip on a different day. Whichever grip scores higher across all three distances, keep it. Your hands aren’t a reliable judge — your scores are.
The Performance Hub runs a full putting assessment so you can compare grips with proper scoring instead of guesswork.
See How It Works →They give up too early. A new grip will feel awful for the first 50–100 putts. That’s not the grip — that’s your hands learning a new pattern. Most golfers panic after a bad putting round, switch back, and conclude the new grip “doesn’t work.”
Commit to two weeks. Track your putts per round across both periods. If the new grip is genuinely worse after 200+ putts of practice and three or four rounds, change again. But don’t judge it on day one.
See whether your putts per round actually drop after a grip change — round by round.
Round Stats →The conventional reverse-overlap grip is still the most common, but the claw and cross-handed grips have grown rapidly over the last decade. Around a third of tour players now use a non-conventional grip — driven mostly by the rise of the claw for short putts and cross-handed for full-stroke control.
If you’re starting from scratch and you struggle to keep the face square, cross-handed is a brilliant first grip. It enforces a quieter right hand and a more rocking shoulder stroke from day one. Beginners who learn cross-handed often have better short putting than golfers who default to conventional.
Yes — most grip changes can be tested on a putting mat. Hit 25 putts a day with the new grip from 4–8 feet for two weeks. The repetition is what locks in the new motor pattern. You don’t need a real green for this stage.
Start with the grip if you have an obvious miss pattern. Then move to scored, pressure-based drills — pure repetition without scoring doesn’t transfer to the course. The combination of the right grip and benchmarked drills will do more for your putting in two weeks than a new putter ever will.
Stephen Pickering
3-handicap golfer with 25 years on the course. Built Scoring Zone to bring structure and pressure to short game practice. Writes about what actually works from the practice green, not the press box.
Test your grip with structured, scored drills and benchmark your putting against your handicap. One session is enough to see what’s working.
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