Grip the Club Correctly

Video Transcript

One of the least appreciated principals in the golf swing is the one that happens before you ever set the club in motion, in other words gripping, how you place your hands on the club. There are four “Ps” to the correct grip, they are as follows: placement, positioning, pressure and precision. Let’s take the first one, placement. Placement is how far up or down on the shaft you place your hands. Also it can mean whether or not you reverse them, some people like to do this when putting, left hand low. So placement is the relationship up or down vertically on the shaft where the hands are placed. You change them for some shots; you might want to take 10 yards off your shot you might go down on the grip a little bit. You want to hit a chip shot, a real short chip; you might want to go down to almost the steel. Sam Sneed used to say “I like to get my hands on the steel, get my hands on the steel.” It makes the club a little shorter and easier to feel. Next one is positioning. Positioning is the rotational location of your hands. In other words rotated to the right or rotated to the left. When we rotate them counter clock-wise we open the face. When we rotate them clockwise that tends to close the face. Very important in your shot shape as to where your hands are positioned. So we have placement, positioning and now pressure. How tightly are you squeezing the club? When you squeeze it tightly it is just the same as if you took at baseball and tried to throw it while squeezing it hard. You can’t get any velocity so the pressure has to be light enough so that you will be able to feel the whip of the clubhead through the ball. If you squeeze it then the club will feel like a stiff stick. So pressure is important. The last one is called precision. That you do it the same way every time. I have played golf for 50 nine years, and yet every time before I get ready to swing the golf club I check my grip. That is how important grip is. Precision, the same way every time. Those four things will help you with your grip.

Gary Wiren
Trump International Golf Club
3505 Summit Blvd.
West Palm Beach, FL. 33406
Tel: 800-FOR-GARY
Tel: 800-367-4267

Dr. Gary Wiren was the PGA Teacher of the Year in 1987 and is also author of the PGA Teaching Manual. He is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #12 instructor in the world.

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