By James Leitz

It's Masters week, which means that we'll see a lot of players at Augusta hitting shots off of pine straw. I've been the head golf professional at Pinewood Country Club in Slidell, Louisiana for 31 years, and as the name suggests, I've seen my share of pine-straw lies -- though the lies are not as prevalent in recent years, because Hurricane Katrina took out over 1,000 pine trees in 2005.

Playing out of pine straw can be tricky. The first thing you must do is assess the thickness of the straw, just like you do with sand in a bunker. Pine straw can be very slippery, especially on a slope; you can lose your footing very easily when starting your downswing, so be sure to work your feet into the straw and find the bare ground. Your footwork should be very quiet, as in a fairway bunker. Use mostly upper body to swing the club when hitting out of thick straw.

Some lies are trickier than others. If your ball is sitting on top of a significant clump of straw, watch out: You could hit almost completely under it, or strike the ball too high in the face. Also, don't ground the clubhead at address because touching the needles with your club can make the ball move.

While a ball hit out of pine straw reacts similarly to one hit from the first cut of rough, you can control the curve of the ball better hitting out of straw than from the spinach (just ask Bubba Watson, who hit the shot of the tournament off pine straw in 2012, pictured above). This comes in handy because there are usually trees to negotiate when hitting out of the straw!

James Leitz is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher

(Photo: Al Tielemans/Sports Illustrated)

Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online today at 10:30 a.m. Eastern to answer swing questions and analyze swing videos. If you have a question for Brady, leave it in our CoverItLive chat below.

When I was a young golfer, the prettiest putting stroke in the game belonged to Ben Crenshaw. Gentle Ben's graceful motion stood out at a time when the PGA Tour's practice putting greens were a mix of leftover strokes from the 1950s and '60s, as well as more modern arm-and-shoulder moves developed on faster greens. Many junior golfers -- including me -- copied his more erect posture, with his lead arm and heel-shafted Wilson blade putter staying in-line through impact. My version of his stroke didn't last more than a couple years, and most of the other players doing their Ben impressions didn't amount to much either. But one stroke did, and it won a Tour event as an amateur. It belonged to Phil Mickelson.

Since that 1991 win in Tucson, Phil Mickelson's putting stroke has been a favorite of golfers and TV analysts. Early on, Phil seemed to me to be doing a Crenshaw impersonation on the greens. It wasn't an exact copy, though. The subtle differences in his early-career stroke and Crenshaw's were partly due to Phil's more aggressive game and nature as well as Lefty's more bent-over posture at address (he has about five inches on Ben). As arm-and-shoulder dominated as Crenshaw's stroke was, Mickelson's was even less wristy. As "up the lead arm" as Ben's impact was, Phil had even more forward hands. But Phil made lots of putts from all over the greens, and the wins piled up. Eventually, like many champions before him, his problems came on the short ones.

Phil has worked on his stroke with a few putting coaches, most notably Dave Pelz and Dave Stockton. He's had the short ones under control at times and struggled at others. In 2012 Mickelson finished 10th in the Tour's new Strokes-Gained Putting category. Out of 191 ranked golfers, that's an enviable position. Coupled with his length off the tee and magical short game, Phil's putting stroke gave him the chance to challenge any time he teed it up.

That success aside, golfers in their 40s are always looking to putt like they did in their 20s. And Phil is no exception.

He has recently experimented with the claw grip and this week in Houston, Mickelson used a fat, oversized grip (pictured). Here's what he's trying to accomplish with both of those oft-attempted variations.

A claw grip puts your lower arm and hand in a different location at address than a conventional grip does. Your lower arm is more parallel to the ground, which places that wrist in a spot that encourages some flow and wrist-straightening through the ball. For someone whose stroke has gotten stiff or stale, it can add some new and improved feel. Also, taking what feels like a radical new grip on the club helps your brain forget the old stroke, and sometimes a little putting amnesia can go a long way.

Using a putter with a fat grip can often limit small wrist movements in both the vertical and horizontal planes of the stroke. Mickelson says he likes the feel this grip gives him, and perhaps that feel recalls the more arm-dominated stroke of his youth. I've seen golfers use both the claw grip and a fat grip at the same time, although last weekend in Houston Phil appeared to have abandoned the claw style in favor of a conventional putting grip.

Weekend golfers are always looking for an edge on the greens, and PGA Tour players are no different. Maybe the fat grip will help Phil on the slick, sloped greens of Augusta, a place he has won before and would love to win again.

Brian Manzella is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher.

RELATED: More putting tips on Golf.com
RELATED: Phil Mickelson's homepage

(Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online today at 3 p.m. Eastern to answer swing questions and analyze swing videos. If you have a question for Brady, leave it in our CoverItLive chat below.

Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online today at 11 a.m. Eastern to answer swing questions and analyze swing videos. If you have a question for Brady, leave it in our CoverItLive chat below.

Just one big victory by a talented student can make the career of a teacher. That was certainly the case last week at the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral. Tiger Woods took only 100 putts en route to a two-shot victory. It was a career-low for Tiger in a 72-hole event.

In this case the "teacher" of record was none other than tournament runner-up Steve Stricker. His early-week advice to Tiger on the Doral putting green certainly helped Woods win the event, and whether Stricker wanted the credit or not, he got it. I'm sure his phone is ringing right now with someone else who would love some magic dust to be sprinkled on him as well.

Obviously, he's playing a limited schedule this year and has quite a few dollars socked away for a rainy day, so I doubt that Stricker is looking to become the Tour's next Stan Utley. But in the upside-down world of golf instruction, you can be a hero or a goat in five minutes -- or one tournament.

The lesson consisted of a slight weakening of Tiger's left-hand grip and getting his hands a bit more forward at address.

Why could this help so much so soon?

Tiger uses a lot of face rotation in his stroke, both on the takeaway and the follow-through. When the grip is too strong, it is far too easy to over-rotate the face and miss putts to the left. Just think about some of the golfers who have used strong grips -- LeeTrevino, Paul Azinger, David Duval. They all hit fades because it is easier to hold the face off with a strong grip. A full-swing face-rotator supreme? Try Corey Pavin. He had the weakest grip on Tour for a long time.

Having the hands too far back on the putting stroke can have an even more detrimental effect for Woods. That would add loft and make it way too easy to close the face too soon, which would cause the ball to roll out differently than he is used to.

My dime-store analysis is that with his grip strong and his hands back, it was difficult for Tiger to close the face on his follow-through. Tiger normally closes the face a lot with his putter when he's putting well. Now that Dr. Stricker has him back to where he needs to be at address, the putts are dropping again for Tiger.

RELATED: SI's Best Shots of Tiger's Win at Doral

RELATED: See Tiger's Winning Clubs from Doral

(Photos: Alan Diaz / AP)

Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online today at 11 a.m. Eastern to answer swing questions and analyze swing videos. If you have a question for Brady, leave it in our CoverItLive chat below.

Posture is basically your setup at address, that is, it's the way you stand to the ball before initiating the golf swing or stroke. Some people might not regard the posture as an important fundamental in putting because we see so many different methods and styles on Tour and elsewhere.

For example,

* Arnold Palmer, knocked-kneed and crouched...

* Gary Player, closed with his feet but square with his shoulders...

* Phil Mickelson, long arms and open to the target...

But let’s compare two players with double-digit major wins...

Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are two of the best putters of all time, but Nicklaus had a much different posture compared to Tiger, but both of them were arguably two of best putters ever. Jack was bent over the ball and Tiger stands very upright. In other words, their spine angles in the address position are much different. Jack’s spine angle at address was much more parallel to horizontal whereas Tiger is parallel to vertical. Jack had his eyes close to the ball whereas Tiger is tall to the ball.

These seemingly trivial differences in their setups had a significant and profound effect on their putting strokes. Remember, the body is the engine of the putting stroke, the generator of energy. Good putters use rotational forces to create this energy.

So what does that mean?

The golf swing is all about rotation, circular motions.

It isn't different in the putting stroke?

We want the ball to roll around its own axis thereby eliminating spin and skid. We create energy by turning the shoulders around the spine and that is why the position of your spine will determine the type of putting stroke you will have.

Tiger’s stroke has a lot more rotation and arc when compared to the stroke of Jack. But why? Because Jack’s spine angle was more horizontal, rotation around such an axes will result in a straighter arc with minimum rotation.

Conversely, Tiger and Rory McIlroy stand tall to the ball, thereby turning their shoulders on a flatter plane resulting in more rotation and arc. We could even compare that to a full swing! Traditionally, shorter players had a flatter swing and taller players a more upright plane. That is all determined by and a result of their spine angle at address.

Does that mean the one is better than the other? Absolutely not!

My recommendation: Find a comfortable, relaxed setup and let that model your putting stroke.

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Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online today at noon Eastern to answer swing questions and analyze swing videos. If you have a question for Brady, leave it in our CoverItLive chat below.

** UPDATE: Brady Riggs will conduct his chat WEDNESDAY at noon ET. Be sure to check back for his answers to your questions.

Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs will be online today at noon Eastern to answer swing questions and analyze swing videos. If you have a question for Brady, leave it in our CoverItLive chat below.