Big Grip
Fitting a big grip to your putter is a quick way to improve your putting without taking a lesson. Tilt forward from the hips and let your arms hang naturally under your shoulders. You will notice that the palms of your hands are level with each other. This is how your body balances itself without interference. This is also how you should place your hands on your putter – the best anatomical fit, so to speak. Up until now this side-by-side position has not been possible as the circumference of the standard putter grip is too narrow. There is not enough bulk in the grip to comfortably accommodate your hands. In putting you want your hands to be neutral - ideally not involved in your putting stroke at all. The age of using your wrists has given way to using your shoulders as the means to power the stroke. This has come about as a result of smoother and faster green surfaces. However, each of us has a dominant hand. In the case of most people, it is the right hand. By placing your right hand below your left on your putter, you are promoting this dominance. Your right hand is controlled by the left or analytical side of your brain when you really want to be using the right or creative side of your brain when you putt. You certainly don't want to be thinking when you are over the ball. As a counter-measure some golfers have taken to using a left hand low position. Others have adopted a claw grip which in effect takes the right hand out of play.
These are only partial solutions and ignore the even simpler solution of arranging your hands on the grip in a prayer-likefashion. Another advantage of this neutral positioning of your hands is that it automatically brings your shoulders in line. The standard reverse-overlap grip has a tendency to bring your right shoulder forward changing your parallel alignment to your aimline (target line). You can correct this, but it is just another thing to remember. The problem with the big grip has always been its weight. The standard grip weighs around 60 grams, but the big grip has been well over the 150 grams. This has thrown out the swingweight of the putter and changed the feel of the putter head. Of course, you can add back weight to the putter head, but this increases the overall weight of the putter. Putting with a different swingweight is not insurmountable as K.J. Choi has shown us. But now there are the 'BigLite' and 'Jumbo 10' putter grips on the market that are only marginally heavier than the standard grip.
There is no excuse to grip your putter in a sub-optimal way. The only negative to the big grip is that it does not fit into the putter tube on your golf bag. Get to it. It may feel strange in the beginning and you will hear the sceptical comments that a big grip takes away the feel. Baloney. To paraphrase the words of the song by Queen 'You can have it All, and You can have it Now'.
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