Rickie Fowler Backs McIlroy on Left Hand Low Grip (Video)

Rickie Fowler knows why McIlroy changed his grip.

Rickie Fowler thinks Rory McIlroy’s adjustment to his putting grip makes perfect sense.

Earlier this week, Rory McIlroy announced on Twitter that he was going left hand low with his putter at the WGC Cadillac Championship. It is a technique that he has used in practice.

Rickie Fowler said he supports McIlroy’s new method.

“I’m all for it for him,” Fowler said in a press conference.

“From probably when I was 13 until I was about 24, 25, I would go back and forth all the time between regular and cross-handed,” he continued. “Won my first PGA Tour event cross-handed.”

While he used it often in the past, he has been conventional for the last two seasons.

“I’ve kind of stuck to what I’ve done pretty precisely grip-wise, stroke-wise, setup and everything,” he continued. “There’s been times where in tournaments I’ve putted conventional for distance putting, just because I feel like it’s better for speed. Then I’ve putted cross-handed on shorter putts because I felt like it was a little more sound fundamentally at times.”

He said he could go into a long and detailed reason why left hand low is better but shortened it to say it gets his shoulders in a better position and gets them more level.

“Seeing on camera, my stroke would be a lot better cross-handed. The way I took it back was a lot better. I didn’t pick it up, and it wouldn’t get outside,” he explained about the reasons he used that method. “I’ve seen both sides of it, but I’ve just stuck to traditional ( lately).”

One reason he can see for anyone to make the change is if a setup or something else in the putting sroke is uncomfortable.

“A little change can help reset things,” he added, although most amateur players going from regular to cross-handed, it might not seem like a small adjustment. “It’s more of a personal feel thing. Sometimes it helps you feel a little better over the putt with the basic setup fundamentals.”

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Fowler said he currently works on having his head and eyes square to the line on the ground. He said to do that he has to have his feet, hips and shoulders square and parallel to the ground, which taken together allows him to allows to see lines properly.

“Going cross-handed can actually help some guys who, if anything, they get their shoulders open, it would actually help them get back to square, which then puts the head in position at setup,” he added.”I completely understand and can back up Rory’s decision to go cross-handed.”

Next: Rory McIlroy Changing His Putting Grip

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