8 ways to putting things in perspective

AUGUSTA • Accurate putting is widely considered the most pivotal golf skill, and the most intractable. While golfers generally hold their clubs the same way for a full swing, when it comes to rolling a little white ball into a hole roughly four inches wide, even the best players in the world contort their hands and arms into exotic grips to calm their nerves and foster consistency.

Here are eight ways that top golfers at this week's Masters try to solve the eternal puzzle of putting.

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JORDAN SPIETH

The left-hand low grip is likely the most widely used nontraditional way to grip the putter for right-handed golfers.

It puts the left hand below the right hand and in an authoritative position to control the path of the putter head instead of a golfer's dominant right hand.

The claw grip, in right-handed golfers, features a right hand that does not merge with a stabilising left hand at the top of the putter.

The right hand branches out on its own, with the putter pinched claw-like between the thumb and forefinger, which can purposely make the right hand more passive in the stroke.

DeChambeau was ranked 145th in putting on the PGA Tour until he converted to the arm-lock method and improved his putting ranking to 28th.

It is all about keeping the proper angle; he turns his elbows outward in opposite directions and his wrists inward.

Wallace has his palms facing each other with both thumbs on the top of the putter shaft and the index fingers placed along opposing sides of the putter.

In theory, this creates symmetry and permits the hands to hang straight down, rather than one above the other in a conventional grip.

Mickelson is right-handed in most things he does other than golf, and his right hand, with a pointed index finger (sometimes called a pencil grip), becomes the top part of his version of the claw grip.

The left hand is in the guiding position and Mickelson values the claw because it makes it easier to have "a longer, smoother stroke" on the fast greens of the Masters.

Koepka has adapted the reverse overlap by extending his right forefinger rather than curling it around the shaft.

One intended advantage of this style is that the angle of the right wrist can remain the same through the stroke so that the putter face does not waver open or closed and cause an inconsistent ball path.

Scott is the only Masters champion to have used the older version of a long putter, which could be anchored against the chest.

Revised rules forbid the top of the putter touching the body frame, but Scott has adjusted with a right-hand low claw grip.

Rose likes to think of his left arm as the driving force of his stroke, and he frequently practices putting with his left hand only.

His version of the claw has his two right fingers over the top of the shaft instead of resting on the side as "it feels simpler".

NYTIMES