Do you hover or ground your putter at address?

[Tifosinumerouno]

I ground my putter. It's part of my routine to ground the putter and let go of the grip then regrip. It allows me to keep my hands loose and tension free.

[GaijinGolfer]

Lately I started playing around with hovering my putter and I find that it helps a little bit to be more smooth on my takeway because there isnt any turf interaction on the takeaway.

[binga7]

I have recently begun to not hover, but lighten off the grounding. I found if i firmly rested it on the turf, then the backswing seems jerky and offline like others mention. Lightened it off a bit and my putting stroke feels much more fluid. Easier to hit a nice putt. Like phil says, 25 back, 75 through.

[RonTheSavage]

Hover.........more of a fluid relaxed takeaway for me. If I ground, I have to lift and then go.

[dchoye]

Bump this topic back, as I find that I do both, most of the time I ground my putter and sometimes tap the toe of my putter on the ground during my pre putt routine.

Sometime when I have a short putt  especially one that might have a significant break, I will hover my putter at the equator of my ball and and gentle push the ball to the hole.

aside note I tend to ground my SW outside the bunker and then take my grip with my left hand then enter the bunker, then I dont feel the need to ground the club in the bunker as its a penalty.

[dchoye]

Just an update. I been using a routine where I either wipe the blade of the putter or hold the putter up in pumb bob motion(I dont actually plumb bob) but it gives me the feeling of the weight of the entire putter in my fingers and I feel my confident of my stroke when I can feel the whole weight of the putter.

For chipping though, I have been grounding the club and initial forward press..

[vangator]

I ground the putter while aligning, but I find that when I first start the backswing, the putter waivers. So often I will reset by hovering and then start back. I believe it helps me get it on line.

[Pretzel]

I ground my putter, but I know my backstroke is initiated by an upwards motion that prevents the putter from dragging or jumping during the stroke.

[dchoye]

I dont think it a matter or hover or ground. but more so ``unweight the putter `` by lifting putter up to feel the entire putter or tapping and forward press to feel just the putter shaft.

[VOX]

Before the recent rule change, I always hovered my putter on windy days so I would not incur a penalty if the wind moved my ball. Now I ground my putter regardless of he wind conditions.

[rkim291968]

I ground it, tap it, keep on moving my body subtly until I'm ready to take it back -- then I hover it and make the stroke.

I do similar to this.  Ground it, tap it 3 - 5 times, lift it a bit, and start the stroke.

[Matt66]

I ground my putter. I'm guessing that what you have found is that when you have your putter on the ground at address when you start your backstroke the putter can jump in a direction because of the sudden movement after having your putter resting on the ground. Whereas when the putter is hovering you feel the weight of the putter better and am able to take the putter back smoothly.

I have suffered from this as well so am curious to see some of the responses here, however i don't think hovering the putter is the answer as like a previous poster stated it is extremely difficult to accurately line up your putter. Two things that have worked for me as opposed to hovering the putter at address are:

1. Keeping my wrists really firm on the way back to keep the head under control, a problem i have encountered doing this is that it tends to encourage a straight back-straight through stroke as opposed to an arc stroke which is what i'm going for.

2. Not getting tense and stiff over the ball, you can do this by either standing over the ball for a very short amount of time e.g Aaron Baddely, this should stop you from getting tense over the ball. If this doesn't work you could try having a sort of movement over the ball such as bobbing the putter up and down e.g. Charlie Wi (i think?)

Hope that helps.

I used to ground the club but then the takeaway looked as though I was trying to control a full grown Rottweiler!

Its interesting that this thread has come up, as Putting has always been my biggest struggle. I read in golf monthly last issue (I believe) Shane Lowry talking about not exactly grounding the putter but at the same time not hovering. I guess its a bit of half and half & I believe this is what you refer to as 'feeling the weight of the putter'.

Well its something I have done ever since, for me at least it helps, ease the tension and give me grater feel on the putting stroke, putted pretty well Saturday!