{"id":272507,"date":"2025-11-19T23:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/272507\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T23:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:48:16","slug":"hand-off-approach-pays-for-schenk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/272507\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand-off approach pays for Schenk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"A one-handed putting grip served Adam Schenk fine at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Kenneth Richmond, Getty Images<\/p>\n

It would have been understandable had 33-year-old Adam Schenk seen himself as what legendary golf writer Dan Jenkins referred to as a dogged victim of inexorable fate.<\/p>\n

A golfer chasing a destiny that can\u2019t be changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo stupid to quit\u201d is how Schenk described himself on the eve of winning the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, his first PGA Tour victory in 243 career starts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the wicked magic of the game that keeps someone like Schenk \u2013 or thousands of others who play their golf without the attendant attention of the PGA Tour \u2013 coming back for more despite the frustrations.<\/p>\n

It is also the desperate fuel that drives players to defy convention because, frankly, nothing else seems to work.<\/p>\n

That brings us back to Schenk, who changed his career path by surviving Bermuda\u2019s gusty winds and, when the conditions were calm enough, putting with only one hand (his right hand) on the club.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to hit one-handed putts on the practice green \u2013 it has been a part of Tiger Woods\u2019 pre-round putting sessions \u2013 but it\u2019s something else entirely to do it in competition knowing that one more lousy week could force a trip back to Q-School just to keep your job.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Schenk found himself last week, windblown and wondering if what he was doing was the right thing or just another Band-Aid. The wind, which gusted over 30 mph at times, made it too difficult for Schenk to putt one-handed all the time but the fact that he did it and intends to do it again at the RSM Classic this week is a testimony to his willingness to try something radical.<\/p>\n

Call it the any-port-in-a-storm approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say I don\u2019t care what anybody thinks, but I have a belief in what I do and how I do things and that was, that was probably bigger than anything this week is just seeing that belief go through and how I do things,\u201d Schenk said after the victory moved him from 134th to 67th on the FedExCup Fall points list.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a method to the madness. It\u2019s not always right, but that\u2019s fine. I\u2019d rather go down swinging doing it my way and learn along the way and take advice from a small circle. It\u2019s just unbelievable that it finally came true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I hit a couple and I\u2019m like, OK, that\u2019s kind of weird. Can you do that in front of people? That\u2019s a big question. Like can you do it on tour? That\u2019s another big question.\u201d \u2013 Adam Schenk<\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve only made the cut in 11 of 27 starts and twice missed six cuts in a row, there is an abundance of data confirming something needs to change. At age 33 with a wife and two young children, there\u2019s also the nagging question of whether you are doing the right thing.<\/p>\n

Then Mike Hulbert shows up.<\/p>\n

Hulbert won three PGA Tour events in the 1980s and \u201990s and was a steady presence for years on the tour. He also putted one-handed for a full season on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

\"\"Schenk contends that most players \u201clove the grind.\u201d\u00a0 Mike Mulholland, Getty Images<\/p>\n

When Hulbert saw Schenk searching for a stroke to believe in at the 3M Open in late July, they struck up a conversation. Hulbert explained that he played a complete season without putting his left hand on the putter when he made a stroke.<\/p>\n

As Hulbert talked, Schenk saw him hole five of six medium-range putts with a one-handed motion that looked as easy as buttering a warm biscuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I hit a couple and I\u2019m like, OK, that\u2019s kind of weird,\u201d Schenk said. \u201cCan you do that in front of people? That\u2019s a big question. Like can you do it on tour? That\u2019s another big question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schenk isn\u2019t afraid to dive down rabbit holes chasing one theory or another and, asked to explain his one-handed putting decision, he went into a dissertation about how the left hand can get in the way of both a putting stroke and on short shots.<\/p>\n

In Bermuda, the carpet in Schenk\u2019s hotel room was ideal for practicing his putting so he worked on the one-handed method for an hour, all the while seeing a graphic on the television warning of high winds on Sunday. That meant adding the left hand on most putts but, like children are sometimes told, it was there to be seen but not heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I kind of let my left hand rest on top. The only thing you can do is line up to it, get a little bit left and take it back smooth and just release it and hit it off the center of the putter. If it goes in, it goes in, great,\u201d Schenk said.<\/p>\n

Needing to hole a 4-footer on the 18th hole to win, Schenk \u2013 with two hands on the putter \u2013 rolled it in and assured his place on the PGA Tour for another two years.<\/p>\n

Schenk sounded like he was half joking when he said he should write down his various putting thoughts so he can laugh about them in 10 years but what he found in Bermuda, if only for a little while, was enough.<\/p>\n

Is there a lesson there?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just really difficult to get better at golf is what I would say,\u201d Schenk said. \u201cIt\u2019s really challenging. I think it\u2019s something that drives a lot of us to keep grinding and I think most golfers love the grind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 Global Golf Post LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A one-handed putting grip served Adam Schenk fine at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Kenneth Richmond, Getty Images It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[112021,5904,8693,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-272507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-adam-schenk","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-pga-tour","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}