Best Putters for Cross-handed Putting Review
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If you’re a seasoned golfer, you’ve probably felt the need to experiment a little bit with your grip and try putting it cross-handed. You may have even found it helps you sink more putts. That said, the cross-handed grip has become more and more popular these days, and even PGA pros such as Jim Furyk and Jordan Spieth have been seen putt this way. With that in mind, we set out to make a best putters for cross-handed putting review to give some tips and alternatives. Of course, you may not agree with some of the choices, but that’s what wonderful about putting – it’s terrifically intimate (they don’t call putting green “the dance floor” for nothing).
What is Cross-Handed Putting?
On a more serious note, though, we should start by explaining what cross-handed putting grip, aka left hand low (if you’re right-hand-dominant), aka LHL, aka cracked grip is. Even if you’re not in the know, you can probably guess from reading the terms for it, especially the second one. If your dominant hand is your right hand, and you put your left hand below when gripping the club, then you’re putting cross-handed.
Is there an advantage using this over conventional putting? Well, if your hands work too much through a stroke (wrists break down before the impact) or your right hand dominates the stroke, playing LHL might help. It will be awkward as hell at first, but soon enough you’ll notice that it stills your right hand and puts the majority of the workload on your arms and muscles, rather than hands.
What To Look For?
As for what features to look out for, there’s not really a definitive guidebook. Most LHL players have found that it helps if the putter is face balanced, and most, but not all mallet putters are like that. Also, a center-shafted putter will typically fall into this category, as well plumber’s neck or double bend ones, even if they’re heel shafted (if it weren’t for the bend, the neck would naturally connect to the head at or near the center).
If you’re not sure whether your flatstick is face-balanced or not, here’s a test you can apply. Take the club and literally balance it on your fingertip. If it’s drooping on the toe-side, it’s toe-balanced, but if the face remains parallel to the ground, you’ve got yourself a face balanced putter.
Best Putters for Cross-handed Putting Comparison Table
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Ping Karsten TR Anser 5 Putter |
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Best Putters for Cross-handed Putting Review
To save you the trouble, we did an exhaustive (and at times exhausting) research and made a short list of what we believe are best putters for cross-handed golfing at the moment. Of course, we made sure to include a little bit of something for everyone and their pocket books. Enjoy the read!
If you’re looking for a nice budget putter for cross-handed putting, then the SeeMore FGP might just be the thing for you. The flatstick comes in two distinct flavours – blade and mallet, but that’s pretty much where all the distinctions stop.
Both are milled (much like the rest of the SeeMore range), and both come with superb alignment system that SeeMore names RifleScope Technology. If you haven’t played with a SeeMore, here’s what this entails – there’s a red dot on the topline to the toe. All you have to do is hide the dot behind the shaft and then use the white sight line to align the putt.
The FGP weighs 355 grams in the head and is face-balanced, which should help appeal to LHL golfers. It comes with a straight shaft that enters the head close to center, so yes, you could consider it a center-shafted model – another feature that should theoretically help with a cracked grip.
Pros
Cons
The Callaway Odyssey O-Works #7 is a face-balanced mallet style putter with a double-bend shaft, which pretty much hits the trifecta of a great putter for cross-handed putting.
Of course, there’s more to the O-Works #7 than just hitting the mark we’ve set in the title.
Much like the rest of the O-Works family, this puppy features the innovative microhinge insert, which softens up the face and helps you get a better forward roll no matter where on the face you hit the ball. This, in turn, reduces the chance of skidding and help you dial-in the ball for a nice 2-putt.
Pros
Cons
Even if you’re a fan of Scotty Cameron, you’ll agree that sometimes his putters are way too pricey for what you get. That isn’t too say they’re not quality, quite the opposite, but one gets the feeling they’re paying more for the name than for the product.
Still, the Select Newport 2 Notchback is pretty much worth every penny you invest, especially if you’re looking for a quality LHL putter. Its double-bend shaft makes it nearly face-balanced, which makes for a rather versatile putter – it’s still better-suited to SBST strokes, but you can also play it with slight arc strokes.
The Notchback comes with additional 50 grams in the head and as much in the butt of the shaft, which goes a long way to stabilizing the swing and calming your hands. Coupled with the standard 38-inch shaft length, the design should appeal to anyone looking for enhanced forgiveness.
Pros
Cons
The Cleveland TFI 2135 Mezzo is a great choice for anyone looking for a putter for cross-handed golfing, but you’ll have to make sure to order it in the center-shafted flavour, as the stock option is heel-shafted.
The feature that makes the Mezzo stand apart from the competition is the copper-infused aluminum face that rests over a copolymer insert. The combo gives a nice soft feel without sacrificing any of the feedback. Plus, the copper gives a nice old-school look.
Appearance-wise, some would argue that there are too many colours that don’t really mix together. On the flipside, the visual cues are helpful and you’d have to be blind to not use them to good effect.
Pros
Cons
5. Ping Karsten TR Anser 5 Putter
Our Rating:
Much like the rest of the family, the Anser 5 is available with either fixed-length or adjustable shaft. The latter allows you to set any length you prefer (between 31 and 38 inches) using the complimentary hex wrench.
Granted, adjusting the length takes a bit of finagling, but on the flipside, the ability to fine tune your putter’s length to your height and type of stroke is hardly unwelcome.
Another great feature is the TR technology, or True Roll milling – what Ping does is mill grooves of varying depth, the idea being that the ball speed is consistent irrespective of what part of the face you hit it with. This, in turn, gives you much tighter distance groupings, no matter the putting distance.
Pros
Cons
The Rife Switchback comes in two distinct flavours, the vanilla Switchback with a straight shaft and the Switchback 2, which comes with a slight slant in the neck that makes it face-balanced.
What sets the Switchback 2 apart, in addition to the slant neck hosel, is the system of replaceable colour-coded weights (all come in pairs) – blue (5 grams each), red (10 grams each), charcoal (15 grams each), and silver (20 grams each). Notice any patterns? Out of the four, only the blue and silver come with the purchase, the other two are sold separately.
That way, you essentially have a putter weighing anywhere from 350 to 380 grams, allowing you to play all sorts of lies and strokes by adding or removing weight at need. Other than the two features, this is pretty much a traditional Anser style blade putter, though somewhat wider.
Pros
Cons
Much like the rest of the White Hot RX family, the 2-Ball V-Line comes with the eponymous insert that gives it a bit firmer sound and feel at impact. This should appeal to those players looking for a bit more feedback on their putts.
What makes this puppy one of the best LHL putters, however, is its face-balanced design (full shaft offset with a double bend hosel), which works great with the excellent visual cues that make alignment a breeze.
If for any reason you don’t like the 2-Ball design, but still want a putter for cross-handed putting, you can always check out the Odyssey Works Versa #7 and Works V-Line Versa. Sure, they’re older models, but you can order well-restored clubs for reasonable price through the Callaway pre-owned program.
Pros
Cons
The Final Word
The bottom line seems to never change, no matter what the topic is – the most important thing you want to do when shopping for a new flatstick is seeing if it helps you shave a couple of strokes off your putt game. That’s it – no science, no specs or features, just the feel.
However… what we can do is help you zero in on as few potential clubs as possible. So, to recap – if you’re looking for the best putter for cross-handed golfing, what you’ll want to look out for is whether it’s face balanced. Straight center shaft or long shaft with plumber’s neck is usually a good indication the thing you’re looking at is face-balanced. Good luck on the putting greens!