Rory McIlroy will putt with a cross-handed, left-hand-low grip at this week's WGC-Cadillac Championship.
The world No. 3 shared a video on Instagram showing him practicing putting with a different grip than he has used in the recent past. McIlroy confirmed at a news conference that he will use the cross-handed putting grip for the first time since his rookie pro season in 2008.
On Wednesday at Doral, McIlroy explained his decision to switch hand positions.
"Over the past few weeks my right hand was becoming a little bit too dominant, so I practiced over the weekend, just with left below right and it felt really, really good," McIlroy said, explaining that the drill he was doing made sense to become his putting stroke moving forward.
"So I'm going to give it a try this week and see where we go with it. It felt really, really good, the roll of the ball is really good, the contact is much better and it really just takes my right hand out of it and that's really what I wanted to do."
McIlroy has been a streaky putter through his career, and he hasn't been especially sharp with the flat stick to start 2016. So far, in limited PGA Tour action, he ranks 189th in strokes gained putting. Last season, he would have ranked 127th on the PGA Tour. The prior year, he was 42nd.
The four-time major winner works with Dave Stockton Sr. on putting, and Stockton has said in the past that McIlroy doesn't need a lot of help in fine-tuning his stroke. Maybe McIlroy disagrees. We'll find out on Thursday at Doral when McIlroy tees off with Jordan Spieth and Jason Day in the first of a two-day blockbuster threesome.
