Phil Mickelson: Putting

I my prior two posts (here and here), I described Phil Mickelson's bunker and chipping style based on the "hinge-and-hold" swing. The primary issue with the hinge-and-hold style is keeping the arms and hands moving toward the target without flipping the hands. Phil feels that putting raises the same issue: the hands and arms must continue forward toward the target (see Phil's explanation in the video above).

I have been using Phil's approach to chipping, bunker play and putting for the last week, and so far the results have been great. I have always been a good bunker player (it seemed easy, just hit the ball fat), but the hinge-and-hold has added more control and better direction to my bunker play. My direction control, distance and line have improved using the putting approach. For chipping (which is the weakest part of my golf game) I have had some great shots and some bad shots. It seems I will need more practice, but the hinge-and-hold gives me something to work on (notice that Phil says he doesn't really "hold" the club, just accelerate the hands toward the target after hinging--I have had some success starting the forward motion before the hinge is complete, at least mentally).

From looking at a lot of Phil's instructional videos (here and here), it seems that he uses hinge-and-hold chipping (with a 60 or 64 degree wedge) and putting exclusively around the green. If he is on the fringe with a smooth path to the green and the hole, he will typically putt the shot. Otherwise, it's some variant of hinge-and-hold. Given Phil's great short game (and strong work ethic for practice), the approach is in some ways a simplification of conventional chipping, where any club in the bag (to include hybrids and fairway woods) can be used around the green (see my earlier post here). The problem with the conventional approach is knowing how far each club will run out on the green (in many videos you will see, the instructor knows this from having hit lots of shots before the camera starts rolling). Phil's simplification is worth considering and practicing. The goal is to get the chip shot within a three-foot radius of the hole for the easy up-and-down.