The pitch goes like this:
If I handed you a golf ball and asked you to roll the ball to the hole, how would you do it? Assuming you’re right-handed, you’d probably face the hole, put your left foot forward, and roll the ball underhand towards the hole. The hammY Putter enables you to putt the same way; the natural way.
After all, a three year old can roll a ball to a hole, right? They don’t do it by standing facing perpendicular to their target and throwing the ball straight sideways. That’s how most of us putt, however. Sideways. The hammY Putter aims to change that (pun intended).
To putt with the hammY, you set up differently:
- Open your stance about 45° left of the hole.
- Put your right hand on the lower grip.
- Make a nice, smooth stroke back and through, using your shoulders.
Opening your stance, the company states, allows you to visualize the line and distance more so than you can in a traditional putting stance. The company’s slogan is “makes putts, makes sense.” It seems to.
Construction
The hammY came about when the founder strained his hamstring playing softball and realized that he could putt with less strain by following the steps above. 27 prototypes later, the hammY was born. The hammY consists of a 38-inch “triple-bend” shaft (which you can find in several other kinds of putters) that puts the shaft over the ball, resulting in an automatic forward press.
The putter head itself is nothing to write home about. As you can see to the right, it’s a fairly standard putter head. It is also available with a polymer insert for $30 more. The grip, seen below, is comfortable and thicker than most putting grips, which helps to encourage quiet wrists through the stroke.
Playtesting
I’m fairly confident as a putter. I’ve got a Scotty Cameron mallet putter that I use with a traditional putting stroke. I recruited two additional testers.
Rob is 35 and has played hockey for a number of years. He plays golf only occasionally, and suffers from both poor distance control and an inability to putt along the right line, resulting in numerous three-putts per round.
Kati is a fifteen-handicap female golfer who relies on her short game to keep her in some of the longer holes. She currently uses a belly putter and has putted cross-hand. Always experimental, Kati tries new things each week because nothing seems to stick.
After two practice rounds (and an hour or so on the putting green each), both Rob and Kati expressed a great amount of pleasure with the hammY. Rob, who previously averaged 42 putts per round (yes, 42!) lowered his average to only 33 putts per round. That’s a savings of nine strokes. Rob said:
I play hockey, and this feels a lot like hockey. With the hammY, I just step up and hit the putt. I can see the line, and my distance control becomes almost second nature.
Kati had some success as well. She’s used belly putters, cross-handed grips, and more because her putting stroke has long been a bit too wristy. The hammY, she says, “eliminated all of the wrist movement and made my stroke far more pendulum-like.” Her putting average dipped from 28 putts per round to 26 in the two test rounds. Two strokes in two rounds is not statistically significant, but Kati said that “this feels like something I might keep in the bag for awhile. Even if the two strokes were an anomaly, I’m a bit more confident with this putter than any other I’ve used in the past few years.”
As for me, well, I putted worse with the hammY. I am comfortable aligning my eyes along the line of the putt, and I could not adjust to putting with the hammY. I line up my ball’s logo with the intended line of the putt from behind the ball, eliminating the need for me think about the line while I’m over the ball. I line my putter up with the logo and then concentrate solely on distance. I always judge the distance by pacing off putts and looking at the putt with my eyes horizontal. When putting with the hammY, I found it more difficult to control putterface through the stroke, resulting in off-line putts. My distance control, however, was equivalent to that obtained through my traditional stroke.
In the End
In a golfing public filled with belly putters, chin putters, long putters, cross-handed grips, claw grips, and putters as funny looking as the Futura or the Ping Docs, the hammY and the method you use with it is actually relatively subdued. If you struggle with the putter, the hammY offers a simple way to do something that may be more natural to you. For $149.95 ($30 more for the polymer insert), the hammY costs less than most brand-name drivers and offers a much greater chance to improve your scoring.
I use a Hammy and believe it is the best way to putt a golf ball. It will take a true commitment to it really master it. It can not be mastered or even appreciated in two rounds. It may take 6 months and you have to use it every single round. You can never switch back and forth between the Hammy and a “normal” way of putting. This is a whole new way to putt the ball. You really have to forget all you ever knew about putting and start fresh. That is VERY hard to do. You can not do it 2 or 3 or 15 rounds. A few reasons why I think it is the best way to putt.
1-Like what was said about it in the test. It is like rolling a ball with your hand. If you give ANYBODY a tennis ball and tell them to roll it to a hole or garbage can 50 feet away they will just do it with out even thining about it. Your mind just instinctivly knows how much to give it.
2-It is much much easier to go straight back and straight forward with only using your right arm. I know there are 2 ways of thoughts on putting. Straight back and a little arc. I believe common sense and science tells us straight back and straight thru anything will be your best way to go about getting a ball to roll stright forward.
As far as seeing the line with 2 eyes and all of that. I don’t think that does anything. At least not for me. I have a line on my ball. I line that up to something about 6 inches infront of my ball , I walk up to it, line up my putter, look at the hole, my mind now knows about how hard to hit, i take it straight back and straight thru.
Just a question regarding the Hammy. For those that have the yips and have been fighting them for years how if at all does the Hammy alleviate them. Has anyone had success alleviating this disease. Thanks, D.G.
I recently bought a hammy at a yard sale. I’m a fairly new golfer, maybe 20 games over the last 3 years. The people I golf with have never seen a hammy before, so no one can give me advice on my putt. I need to take a lesson or 2 but I’m concerned that the golf pro won’t know anything about it either. I’m not bad with it, I 2 or three putt most holes, but I’m hardly ready to blame that on the equipment.
B Hall. Your right your pro will not know how to show you anything about using the hammy. chances are he/she really couldn’t even show you anything about putting with a conventional putter as not many pro’s know or teach anything about putting. In 6 years I have never seen any of my 3 pro’s give any putting lessons. in fact of all the hundreds of courses I have been to over many years, I can’t think of more that 3 or 4 occasions where I have seen a pro giving a putting lesson. It’s all on the range with swing lessons.
Here is a quick hammy Lesson. I may try to post something on youtube.
1- hold the top of the hammy with your left hand. This hand will only act as a hinge. Your inside of your left forearm should rest against your belly and stay there. then the only part of your left side that moves is your left wrist.
2- grip down on the hammy with your right hand wherever it feel most comfortable and you feel like you have the most control. I go low with mine about 3-4″ from the bottom of the lower grip. Natalie Gulbis grips it much higher.
3-Position the ball about a hammy putter head distance from your right foot and pretty much have your eyes positioned over the ball. so the ball will be away from you about 5-7″ and over about 5″ to the left.
4- your left foot should kind of flare out towards the hole. maybe about a 45 degree angle from your right foot which should be perpedicular to your putting line. this will open your body up to the hole and/or line of putt. your stance should be comfortable for you.
5- just try to make a straight back and straight through down the line to your target stroke. it is very easy to do.
d.g–i forgot to add. the only way I have seen the yips cured is with a hammy, a belly putter a long putter or a sidesaddle. any 4 of those should cure the yips.
the fact of the matter is that convetional putting is the absolute hardest way to putt a golf ball straight and consistent time and time again. the 4 ways mentioned above are so easy, it makes one laugh watching so many convetional putters including hundreds and hundreds of Tour pro’s struggle so much with their putting and have good days and bad day. with the 4 ways mentioned there are only good days and great days.
Thanks for the precise explanation on Hammy style putting. It’s very difficult to look at pictures of Hammy style practicioners and figure out how they’re doing it, where the ball placement should be and how the feet are planted. The Hammy website is sadly deficient. Simple foot and ball placement diagrams would be very helpful.
Placing my right foot perpendicular to the target line with the ball four inches in front and five inches to the left has resulted in a far more repeatable straight back and through stroke. I’m still experimenting slightly with the position of my back (left) leg. 45 degrees left seems about right. Do you have any insight on weight placement?