He has changed putters. He has adjusted grips. He has tried almost every fix a touring professional experiments with when the ball refuses to drop. Yet the adjustment that now defines him is also the one that looks the most unusual. The PGA Tour’s newest champion has decided that he will continue putting with one hand, regardless of what anyone thinks.

Adam Schenk earned his breakthrough victory at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship by finishing at 12-under, one shot ahead of Chandler Phillips, and he did it while relying on a stroke that he admits is unconventional. His success with the method did not appear suddenly. It started with a specific moment during the first round in Bermuda. 

In his words, “The first putt I hit was on Thursday of Bermuda on hole 18, my ninth hole. I hit that putt, was the first putt I hit one-handed from 20 feet or so, almost made it.” The next stretch reinforced the feeling that something was changing for him. “Next putt was on hole one, my tenth hole, you know, 17 feet on the back of the green, made that one, and then made an eight-footer on the next hole, and then almost made the next one from 20 feet, almost made the next one from 20 feet.”

From that point, the pattern was impossible to ignore. Schenk said, “So, I mean, the writing’s kind of on the wall at that point.” His mechanics played a central role. He explained that his right hand simply releases the putter in a way that feels natural. “I released the putter so much better with my right hand. I release it, but I do not necessarily close the face, so it is just a lot more natural with my right hand.” His difficulty appeared when his left hand rejoined the grip. “When I put my left hand on the putter, my left hand wants to drag the putter across the stroke instead of, like, the right hand kind of releases.”

He described a simple visual that convinced him. “If you think about, like, the butt end of the putter grip coming back into your belly button, in a sense, when I do it with both hands, you know, it kind of drags a little bit, maybe finishes on my left hip, but when I do it right-handed, if you stick a tee in the butt end of your putter, and if you putt with just your right hand, the tee kind of points back at your belly button.” For him, the improvement was immediate. “I do not push or pull as many putts. It smooths out my stroke, and I aim it a little bit better. It is nothing more than, hey, I make more putts when I do this.”

The decision to trust the technique on Tour was influenced by a conversation he had earlier in the season. Schenk spoke with former PGA Tour winner Mike Hulbert, who used one-handed putting during stretches of his career. Hulbert first turned to the method at the 1995 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am after struggling with rhythm, and Schenk remembered Hulbert’s reasoning. 

The older player found that one-handed putting allowed the ball to “flow toward the hole” instead of becoming mechanical. That stayed with Schenk, although he still questioned if he would ever attempt it in competition. “Can you do that in front of people? That is a big question. Like, can you do it on Tour? That is another big question,” Schenk said.

Before Bermuda, another moment pushed him further. “I saw something on Instagram like a day or two later,” he said. The message pointed out how often the left hand interferes with release in the short game. Schenk recognised the same issue in his own stroke. “Your left hand’s kind of releasing way out here,” he recalled, which reinforced his belief that removing his left hand entirely could simplify his motion.

At Port Royal, in winds that Schenk described as “laughable at times,” he committed to the stroke. Even without ShotLink available, the Tour recorded putts per green in regulation, and Schenk placed twenty second with an average of 1.73. On the final day, he controlled his ball flight in the wind, hit recovery shots when required and completed an even-par 71 to secure his first win in 243 PGA Tour starts. The method stayed with him through every pressure moment.

After the win, he made it clear that he will not abandon the technique simply because it draws attention. “Going, look, that is totally wild, man, but it works. It is great,” he said. The question now is not whether the public notices his unusual style. It is whether he feels confident enough to keep trusting it when the pressure rises. He answered that directly. “For me, if I cannot see that I am putting better one-handed, and I want to go back to two hands just because maybe I am a little nervous, or you know everybody’s going to kind of be whispering and talking about it, but at the end of the day, I just make more putts that way,” he said.

He also acknowledged that he may continue to adjust in the future. “I would like to think I could figure it out and not have to putt one-handed next year, but I am also not scared to.” That confidence reflects his broader view on improvement. “I can tell you 10 different ways, theories, techniques I have used in my hotel room this week just trying to kind of figure it out,” Schenk said after the win. “I think the answer I come up with is there is no answer, it is just whatever works for you works for you.”

For now, what works for him is clear. He putts better with one hand. He wins with one hand. And until his results change, Adam Schenk is prepared to ignore every voice except the one in his own grip.

Written by

Joyita Das

Edited by

Joyita Das