Alistair Docherty had a strong start to his 2026 Korn Ferry Tour season with a T2 finish in the Bahamas in his second start of the year, but two straight missed cuts followed and he went searching for answers.
A problem was his putter.
“I was working with a putting coach this offseason, and we were doing a bunch of drills, and I just couldn’t get my hands to sit properly,” Docherty explained on the latest episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast. “I kept hitting the tees, I couldn’t get it started on line. And I grabbed a wedge, and I told him, ‘I putt so good with a wedge, what’s the difference?'”
The coach asked Docherty what he felt with the wedge in his hand.
“Well my hands don’t have any flat part [to grab] — I just grip it and I roll it,” he told him. “And I’m looking at a spot and I roll it over the spot. There’s nothing else to it.”
But that exercise made Docherty think a little more about his equipment, particularly his grips. So he went home and grabbed a putter he liked, put a regular grip on it and cut it down to just short of his 60-degree wedge length. He then went to the course to put it in play and “pretty much hooped all day.”
He liked it so much he brought it with him to his next start — the Argentina Open — and won. He’s still using it now, and it’s what makes his bag so unique from other fellow pros.
“I have 14 of the exact same grips on my clubs,” Docherty said.
That win in Argentina was crucial, too, as it helped Docherty secure enough points to eventually earn his PGA Tour card for next season. He’ll be a PGA Tour rookie come 2027, a major accomplishment after he had so many close calls while trying to secure his card years earlier.
“If there’s one part of my game that is something that needs to be worked on, it’s the putting and short game,” Docherty said. “But if the putter starts feeling good, I kind of take care of business.”
You can listen to the entire interview with Docherty here, or watch on YouTube below.
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