Andrew Rice Golf

Posts Tagged ‘grip in fingers’

View the HD video lesson HERE

Here is an excellent method to ensure that your grip stays in the fingers and favors the strong end of the spectrum.

Remember – a strong “ish” grip helps the handle get in front of the clubhead at impact and encourages all golfers to keep their hands passive through impact.

Have a friend draw a “channel” on your glove diagonally across the base of the fingers (as illustrated left). Be sure that the guidelines are not too high up in the palm – if this is the case the wrists will have a hard time setting the club and the grip will always look weak.

When gripping the club be sure to position the handle along the lower of the two guidelines – this will make sure that the handle does not sneak up into the palm.

Be sure that once your glove hand is positioned on the club you can see at least two knuckles and the V formed between the thumb and the index finger is pointing to the trailing shoulder.

As we saw with Louis Oosthuizen and his glove – you can draw or write whatever you want on any part of your equipment, in any color too!

View the HD video lesson HERE

For additional information on the grip:

•  Golf Grip: Where should it be?
• Golf Grip: Strong, Neutral or Weak?
• The Grip and how it pertains to Impact

Should I have a strong grip?  What is a weak grip?  Whose grip should I copy?  These are just some of the queries I see every day on Google and various other search engines.  There is good news for all golfers – your grip does not have to be perfect, merely functional! 

Patty Berg's Very Strong Grip

 Here are a few answers to the many ‘grip’ questions I have seen:

• A strong grip is one where both hands, whether you are a righty or a lefty, are rotated away from the target on the club.
• A weak grip is just the opposite – the hands are both rotated toward the target.
• The dominant hand on the club is the top hand on the grip – the one closest to the butt-end of the club and the one most golfer’s buy gloves for.  This is the most important hand to position correctly.
• The club should be held primarily in the fingers, just like a pen or a ball or just about anything else you are trying to control.
• There is very little difference between the Vardon grip, the interlock and the ten finger, baseball type grip.  Use the one that feels most comfortable to you (a novel idea!).  Golfers have achieved success with all of the above grips.

Ben Hogan's Slightly Weak Grip

I selected the two illustrations for this post because I believe Ben Hogan and Patty Berg had the most extreme grips out of all the great golfers.  Patty pushed the envelope in the “strong” end of the spectrum while Ben pushed the envelope in the “weak”  end of the spectrum.  Keep in mind that Ben Hogan was a hooker of the golf ball for the most part of his early career and as a result built this weaker, hook deterring grip.  Not only were Patty and Ben both fantastic golfers who won a total 25 majors between them, but they are an ideal illustration that a golfers grip does not have to be “text book” perfect in order to function.  Remember that your grip should be positioned on the club somewhere between these two extremes; somewhere between the range that these two great golfers have established.  A range within which your grip will be allowed to feel comfortable and most importantly function, think of it as the range of function!

 Position your grip anywhere on the club that falls between the two grips pictured and when coupled with an excellent impact position, you will be able to play the golf of your dreams.  When in doubt favor the strong end of the spectrum – most of golf’s all-time greats have done so for years.