Why do so many players rub or touch the face of their putter before a putt?

['Noles2013]

Why do so many players touch or rub the face of their putter before a putt.  Koepka was the first one I remember doing this and people on here were accusing him of applying some kind of substance to the putter face back in the day.  Now it seems virtually everyone does it.  
 

And in turn do you do it?

[ChipStrokes]

i play early, and between the freshly mowed greens and the dew, it doesn’t take much to have a bunch of crap all over the sole and face of the putter. 

 

right before i take my setup, i wipe the face clean so there’s nothing between it and the ball. 

 

it has become part of my routine now and i do it whether the face is clean or dirty without even thinking about it. 

[tatertot]

I do it all the time ... after a practice swing (or just leaning the club on the ground), all sorts of particles can get on the club and cause problems between between the face and the ball.

[cocolamb22]

I also have a habit of wiping the face of my putter. I take my practice strokes from behind the ball and wipe the face when stepping in to address the putt. 
 

This was a habit created while living in Hawai’i. It would rain often or was always misty so I just started wiping it and now it’s just part of the routine 10 years later!

[isaacbm]

Been doing Literally every single putt for the last 45 years. Lots of early morning golf with heavy due. Made it  part of my routine to ensure there was never anything on the face. 
 

 

i’ve literally seen thousands of players do it over the years. Not sure you can credit Koepka with doing it first… 

[JDCON]

I make sure to never wipe the face of my putter so when I miss, I can blame it on the debris on my putter instead of my poor stroke.

['Noles2013]

8 minutes ago, isaacbm said:

Been doing Literally every single putt for the last 45 years. Lots of early morning golf with heavy due. Made it  part of my routine to ensure there was never anything on the face. 
 

 

i’ve literally seen thousands of players do it over the years. Not sure you can credit Koepka with doing it first… 

I never credited Koepka with doing it first.  Just saying when he burst onto the scene there were people on this very forum asking why he did this twice as part of his routine.  Some were even suggesting he was attempting to apply sort of foreign substance to the putter face.  
 

Who are the thousands of big name golfers who did this as part of their routine before him?  Genuinely asking.  

[ChipStrokes]

5 minutes ago, 'Noles2013 said:

Who are the thousands of big name golfers who did this as part of their routine before him?

considering there are only 164 men and women in the world golf hall of fame, thousands seems like a bit of a stretch 😂😂

[isaacbm]

6 minutes ago, 'Noles2013 said:

I never credited Koepka with doing it first.  Just saying when he burst onto the scene there were people on this very forum asking why he did this twice as part of his routine.  Some were even suggesting he was attempting to apply sort of foreign substance to the putter face.  
 

Who are the thousands of big name golfers who did this as part of their routine before him?  Genuinely asking.  

I didn’t say big-name players. Just players in general. I’ve literally played in hundreds of tournaments in the last 35 years. Seems like every single day I play with somebody who has that as part of their pre-shop routine with putting. 
    There was even a guy on the Dakota‘s tour one year who was trying to market this terrible Velcro patch for the bottom of your pant leg so that when you’d wipe off your club before a shot you wouldn’t get grass stains on your regular pants.

 

If you watch closely on tour you’ll see quite a few people do it.. Jack used to, David Duval used to, Nick Faldo used to. Those are just quickly off the top of my head.

[RainShadow]

It's an old Scotts - Irish custom......

 

[tatertot]

Wasn't it Spieth that licked his fingers and then wiped the sole of his putter? Now that I'd never seen before.

['Noles2013]

7 minutes ago, isaacbm said:

I didn’t say big-name players. Just players in general. I’ve literally played in hundreds of tournaments in the last 35 years. Seems like every single day I play with somebody who has that as part of their pre-shop routine with putting. 
    There was even a guy on the Dakota‘s tour one year who was trying to market this terrible Velcro patch for the bottom of your pant leg so that when you’d wipe off your club before a shot you wouldn’t get grass stains on your regular pants.

 

If you watch closely on tour you’ll see quite a few people do it.. Jack used to, David Duval used to, Nick Faldo used to. Those are just quickly off the top of my head.

Gotcha.  I’m just saying Golf.com even ran a story about Koepka’s routine several years ago so it obviously wasn’t as commonplace as it is now.  Yes I know I should’ve utilized Google before I made a thread lol.
 

https://golf.com/instruction/putting/brooks-koepka-putting-routine-2019-pga-championship/?amp=1

Edited June 17, 2022 by 'Noles2013

[isaacbm]

For me personally it started when I was a member at a course that was spending a huge amount of time sanding their greens to try to build a better base. The whole season seemed  like they top dressed every two weeks. So if you played  in the morning you constantly had pieces of sand on your putter after you took a practice stroke. I just learned to wipe it off and that became part of my routine 

[MadGolfer76]

Probably some Freudian thing...

[Cwebb]

49 minutes ago, 'Noles2013 said:

I never credited Koepka with doing it first.  Just saying when he burst onto the scene there were people on this very forum asking why he did this twice as part of his routine.  Some were even suggesting he was attempting to apply sort of foreign substance to the putter face.  
 

Who are the thousands of big name golfers who did this as part of their routine before him?  Genuinely asking.  

 

Not necessarily "big name" golfers, but a lot of good players have done it for decades

[philly2kuk]

I’ve seen players do this for decades and I’m pretty sure tiger has done it a couple of times by wiping the face on his trouser leg. Nothing suspicious going on. Just removing water and debris from the face.

[Hankshank]

Done that since 1981

[jonsnow]

8 hours ago, isaacbm said:

I didn’t say big-name players. Just players in general. I’ve literally played in hundreds of tournaments in the last 35 years. Seems like every single day I play with somebody who has that as part of their pre-shop routine with putting. 
    There was even a guy on the Dakota‘s tour one year who was trying to market this terrible Velcro patch for the bottom of your pant leg so that when you’d wipe off your club before a shot you wouldn’t get grass stains on your regular pants.

 

If you watch closely on tour you’ll see quite a few people do it.. Jack used to, David Duval used to, Nick Faldo used to. Those are just quickly off the top of my head.

After his final practice stroke, Larry Mize would take his left hand off the club & with his right hand he would wipe the face across the lower part of his left pant leg. He did it when we were teenagers & through his years on tour. I bet he still does it. I also bet if you asked him why he does it, he would look at you in a puzzled manner & ask, "What are you talking about?"

[JohnnyCashForever]

10 hours ago, 'Noles2013 said:

 

Koepka was the first one I remember doing this...

 

9 hours ago, isaacbm said:

Not sure you can credit Koepka with doing it first… 

 

9 hours ago, 'Noles2013 said:

I never credited Koepka with doing it first.  

 

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a Nathan Thurm experience...

 

 

 

[golfandfishing]

According to Gary Player, Gary Player was the first to do this as a tribute to Gary Player’s righteousness. Other players adopted it as it also removes dew, sand or grass from the face before putting. Gary Player said it revolutionized the game. 

[jonsnow]

22 minutes ago, golfandfishing said:

According to Gary Player, Gary Player was the first to do this as a tribute to Gary Player’s righteousness. Other players adopted it as it also removes dew, sand or grass from the face before putting. Gary Player said it revolutionized the game. 

Gary Player also suggested to Benjamin Franklin that he tie a key to that kite.

[mat562]

Gary Player has wiped more putter faces than any human in history.

 

And if you keep eating bacon you're going to die.

[jonsnow]

6 minutes ago, mat562 said:

Gary Player has wiped more putter faces than any human in history.

 

And if you keep eating bacon you're going to die.

Someone should tell Gary Player that his healthy lifestyle is not going to cause him to live forever. It just feels that way to the rest of us.

[ChipStrokes]

5 minutes ago, jonsnow said:

Someone should tell Gary Player that his healthy lifestyle is not going to cause him to live forever. It just feels that way to the rest of us.

quality rant from gary

 

https://golf.com/news/gary-player-environamental-rant-watch/?amp=1

[North Butte]

It's one of the few habits of the players on TV that hasn't trickled down yet to the people I see on the course. Probably because it doesn't waste any time. 

[mat562]

No one had a more suave trouser rub than Larry Mize.

 

 

[MattM97]

Just give it a little tickle to wake up for my 15 footer.

[Shilgy]

12 hours ago, JDCON said:

I make sure to never wipe the face of my putter so when I miss, I can blame it on the debris on my putter instead of my poor stroke.

Kind of the reverse logic of an old friend of mine……he used to say to me he understood why I fixed ball marks and such on my putting line but he left them on purpose….his logic was he was not going to start the putt on line anyways so maybe a mark would bounce it to the proper line.😆

[JimmyC59]

12 hours ago, RainShadow said:

It's an old Scotts - Irish custom......

 

"Scotts"?

[Shilgy]

6 hours ago, JimmyC59 said:

"Scotts"?

Yeah…me.😎