Everything started with an intuition. Like many things in golf and the life of Nacho Elvira. The Cantabrian almost always moves by feeling, by a certain something that seems like it might work, so why not try it. That’s how he presented it to his caddie, David Morago, the one responsible for putting Elvira’s intuitions into a test tube, crunching the numbers, and finally, together, making a decision.
Nacho told David that he had the feeling that his putts were better when he executed them with a cross-handed grip, right hand on top and left hand below, in his case. His intuition told him that they held the line better and, therefore, offered much more performance, especially on short putts, let’s call them the makeable ones.
Morago listened and deployed the Vertex, the putt sensor he uses to analyse the movement and draw conclusions about what works best and what can be corrected. The test tube. The data was unbeatable. Indeed, as Nacho intuited, the putt was much more effective and efficient with the cross-handed grip. The numbers were even more eloquent when the grain was against or crossed in the ball’s path to the hole.
Intuition and science made a match. Decision made. It had to be tried. And that’s what they’re doing at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Elvira has taken the makeable putts in the first two rounds of the tournament with the cross-handed grip and the result is more than notable. It can be verified. On Thursday, he made ten birdies, some given, true, but not all, and this Friday there were six. Sixteen birdies in two days is more than enough of an argument to approve the new method.
Some clarifications should be made to this intuition made flesh by Elvira. What does a ‘makeable’ putt mean? Well, it’s one where the line is more important than the force. If we had to draw a line, we’d say those from six-seven metres downwards, although it’s not something mathematical. There will be eight-metre putts that are ‘makeable’ and, therefore, he takes them cross-handed and others of five that for whatever reason are not so holeable and he executes them with the traditional grip.
Another important clarification. Why does the cross-handed grip work better for him on that type of putts? Well, the answer is that the clubface arrives more on the upswing, so the ball comes out a bit looser, better launched and is not as affected by the grain, while with the traditional grip the face arrives a bit more on the downswing. The difference is minimal, but we know how things are at these levels of professionalism.
In any case, things have rolled well for Nacho on the greens of Leopard Creek in the first two days. Just yesterday, for instance, he was the best in number of putts (24) and also number one in putts per greens in regulation (1.3). The intuition, for now, stays.
