Putting in the wind

[bunkerputt]

Played 9 yesterday in the most gusty conditions I've played in some time.  At a couple of points, my push cart blew over and it's pretty weighed down.  I had to back off of shots quite a bit because I couldn't keep my balance and the ball kept moving.  By far the biggest difficulty I had was with putting.  I tried to take a really wide stance and grip it down to the metal, but the wind moving me around, and the difference in putting stroke feel meant I failed to convert a couple of birdies and 3-putted instead.  Do you practice a different putting setup for windy conditions?  At what point do you throw in the towel?

[dbwood]

I don't throw in the towel on account of wind, but it can get pretty unnerving.  I just do the same thing you did, widen my stance and try to get stable.  It was so windy here yesterday that my ball was blowing around while I was setting up.  I also had to adjust for "windage", the ball refused to break downhill into the wind, and it broke like mad with the wind pushing it on level ground.

[turtleback]

I live in a very windy area and pay a lot in the wind.  One thing that sometimes helps is going a little pigeon toed on my putting stance.  For some reason pointing the toes a little in towards each other helps me with stability.

[senorchipotle]

jerry jeff, is that you?

[zeg]

Wow, I just played the windiest round I've ever played (well, the last 5 or 6 holes of it anyway, it was calm to breezy until then) and *pow* this thread is waiting for me! I definitely find it hard to settle and concentrate on the stroke, and I had a couple putts that I'm 95% sure would have dropped had they not been held up by the wind like dbwood is talking about. One was a shame, a long (25-foot or so) putt that should have broken about another inch for an awesome par save. The one good thing about the wind is that it is a great explanation for why all those putts you missed really went in, except for all that wind..... Oh, also remember Tom Watson's tip: don't ground the putter when you're putting in high winds so you don't take a penalty stroke if the ball moves after address. That saved me a penalty stroke today when the ball moved a small amount just after I began my backswing.

[NI4NI]

Putting in windy conditions is always extra "fun".  My steps to handle:

1.  Wider Stance (stabilize)

2. Bend down a bit more (get closer to the ball)

3. Shorter stroke (less for the wind to muck with)

4. Expect that the wind will screw around with putting (expect more putting strokes to be taken).  This is the big one for me to remember

[bunkerputt]

My favorite windy putting round was one where I shot a 90, hit 14 greens and took 45 putts.  There's something about 4-putting from 10 feet that just makes you laugh.

Needless to say, that was the 1/5 dropped for my handicap calculation that time...