Posted by Jason Sobel
Maybe you're
that guy. The one who needs all of the latest golf gadgets. The one who simply can't take a year-old driver out on the course. The one who gets ridiculed by buddies for the new "swing-training devices" you're constantly trying out.
Sound familiar? If so, chances are you're still tinkering with keeping two drivers in the bag, a la Phil Mickelson, who used the "two heads are better than one" theory to win The Masters a few weeks ago.
Well, hopefully you didn't have any pressing needs this week; you know, like work or family obligations -- things of that nature. That's because this past week's Zurich Classic provided plenty more fodder for your foursome when it comes to copying the pros.
I expect all the tinkerers out there to be hitting cross-handed wedge shots around the backyard, in imitation of Chris Couch. In case you missed it, Couch holed a 55-foot chip for par on the final hole in New Orleans to win his first career PGA Tour title. And yes, he did so with a cross-handed grip on the club.
It's not as easy as it looks (and it doesn't look easy at all). And despite the miraculous final chip and five previous Nationwide Tour wins, I'm still not convinced Couch's bread-and-butter shot holds up too well under pressure-intensified situations. After all, just one hole earlier, Couch thinned a bunker shot over the green and had to knock in a 10-footer just to save bogey. And before his tournament-winner on 18, he had a tough lie in a back bunker and barely got the ball out.
If by chance you are able to get your ball onto the green using Couch's unconventional style, you might as well try a new putting grip, too. Fred Funk, who finished in a share of second place at the Zurich, just one stroke behind Couch, switched to the claw putting style just two weeks ago. He finished first in both putting average and putts per round using the method popularized by Chris DiMarco and Mark Calcavecchia. But this, too, should come with a warning label: "The claw putting grip is not for the faint of heart. Use at your own risk."
Just goes to show that there's more than one way to find success on a golf course. Too often, instructors will tell pupils there is only one correct way to hit a shot and be successful. Couch and Funk each proved, once again, that unconventional methods are sometimes the best ones.
