McIlroy makes radical change to putting grip

RORY McIlroy has taken the dramatic step of changing his putting grip and will play left-hand-belowright for the WGC Cadillac Championship, which tees off in Doral, Miami, today. With the Masters a month away, McIlroy (right) is giving himself little time to right his wrongs on the greens but he felt he had no choice. ‘I felt like over the past few weeks, my right hand was becoming a little bit too dominant,’ said McIlroy yesterday. ‘I practiced over the weekend just with left below right and it felt really, really good so I’m just going to stick with it regardless of what the outcome is tomorrow or this week or next week.’ The PGA Tour putting stats illustrate McIlroy’s problems. With an average of 29.71 putts per round, he lies 169th on Tour and is outside the top 110 for putts holed from three feet to 25 feet. Things came to a head at the Honda Classic last week where he missed the cut. ‘I missed a couple of putts on Friday at Honda that I felt even before I made contact with the ball, that my right hand had (taken over) and I missed it left,’ he said. ‘So it was, “I need to do something here”,’ said McIlroy. The world No.3 is not the only top player to go with the grip. Jordan Spieth putts left-hand low and is second in strokes gained putting this year; in contrast McIlroy is 189th. ‘The unknown is the difficulty,’ said Honda Classic winner Adam Scott, who has changed putters and grips over the years. ‘But I like the fact that (Rory) isn’t afraid to make a change.’ Meanwhile, Tiger Woods is hitting nine irons and practising his short game at home but says there is ‘a lot of work ahead of me’ before he plays again. ‘While there is no timetable on my return to competitive golf, I want to play this game at the highest level again. In order to do that, I have to get healthy,’ he said. Woods, 40, last played in August and underwent back surgery in October, for a third time.