Rory’s key
Putter works
from low to highPUTTING
he most eye-catching aspect
of Rory’s putting is just how
much the putter ascends
through impact. His forward stroke is very
much low-to-high. It’s this rising strike that
helps him apply topspin to the ball and
generate a skid-free, end-over-end roll. On
long putts, the quality of this impact helps
him judge distance; on short putts, a
topspinning ball is much better equipped
to hold its line.
T
The work I have done with Brad
Faxon has helped me become more
instinctive and reactive on the greens.
Those are big words for me. I was maybe
getting bogged down in mechanics, trying
to hit perfect putts, but the hole is quite
wide and you don’t have to hit perfect
putts for it to go in. When you try to be a
little less perfect it can free up your stroke.
The objective is to get that ball in the hole
and that’s it. It doesn’t matter how you do it
as long as that thing goes in and that’s a
mindset that helps me.RORY
SAYS
RORY’S SPIDER X
PUTTER
Adrian says: “Rory switched to the
Spider X this year; he liked it from
the start and it really suits his
stroke. Over a few months we
worked on the weight, taking the
swing weight from D3-D7, because
Rory felt it improved his rhythm
and the strike got better. It’s like
the weight change was the final
piece in the jigsaw. At Portrush the
extra bit of weight might help with
stability in the wind. It could benefit
lag putting, too, and generally the
greens are also a little slower. Rory
tried a single sightline model, but
his centre strike deviation and
distance control was better with
the Spider X with the True Path
alignment stripe.”