Unless you own one of those putters, keep your hands at the very end of the grip and use the full length of the putter to roll the ball nicely. This would increase the swing speed by making the club as long as possible, although some control of the ball flight could be lost. Make sure you watch this video and check this the next time you place your grip on the club. After just 15 shots, you probably have a fair number of practice balls remaining to finish out the bucket. How Tight To Grip A Golf Club, What Should I Focus On? Remember above that the 1/2” of club length will not exactly the same as the 1/2" in the vertical direction (0.5" x sin 61° = 0.44"). Even if you think you already have your hands in a comfortable position, it would still be worth your time to go through this exercise just to confirm. If that’s the case, really, this bit of the golf club should get removed because you don’t need the extra length or the extra weight. Also, choking down on the grip of your driver is going to usually lead to a lower ball flight, as the club shaft will play stiffer when you don't use its full length. For short shots, you can pretty much toss out everything you have read above – it is a totally different situation when playing on and around the green. If you use less of the club, you should hit the ball shorter, and using more club should send the ball longer through the air. If you need to take a few yards off the typical distance that you would get from a given club, you can choke down. The grip is an individual thing, and different positions will feel right for different players. Every level of golfer can benefit from learning how to make these kinds of adjustments. As you might expect, the shots that are produced by this grip position should fall somewhere in between the first two sets of shots – they should have a medium trajectory and should carry short of the first set but beyond the second. The V shape made by the right thumb and forefinger should also point at the right shoulder. So get the clubs custom fit for you, then you can use the length or the lower down on the grip to actually change the type of shot you are going to hit. However, be careful not to come down too far as the club will start to feel lighter as you keep moving down the grip. A shorter club is generally going to produce a shorter flying shot, as there will be less swing speed at the bottom to apply to the back of the ball. The V shape made by the thumb and index of the left hand should point towards the right shoulder. You can never have too many options on the golf course, especially when it comes to knowing how to alter your trajectory and your distance on command. Moving your hands down on the club should help you to produce a lower flight, but moving the ball back in your stance can do that as well. If I place my left hand half and ease down from the … Then, hold your golf club with a relaxed grip and place the club face next to the ball. Golf Tip from Paige Spiranac: Adjusting Thumb Position on Your Grip. #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,PW,GW,SW,LWRight Handed / Left Handed, Only $109 eachIncludes Free Pro-Fitting Service, My Account | Sitemap | Support This Site | Suggest A Tip, Golf Info Guide copyright 1998-2020, Privacy Policy, How Far Up Should We Grip The Golf Club Golf Tip, Backswing How Far Back Should a Golfer Take the Club Back Senior Golf Tip, Hybrids: Which AT725 Hybrids Replace Your Standard Irons & Fairway Woods, Are You Taking the Club Back Far Enough? Practice using a light grip pressure on the driving range (while maintaining control of the club, of course), and then transfer that feeling out to the course. Golf. This will be your 'go-to' grip, and you will only change it when you want to produce some sort of alternative flight. Grips are easy to replace. When you need to hit a low shot – for instance, when you are playing into the wind – it is helpful to both move your hands down the club and move the ball back in your stance. Good golf begins with a good grip. Ball position matters as well. Address position adjustment. When you're ready, bring the club back and above your head while rotating your torso so your weight shifts from your front foot to your back foot. You don't want to have to strain or swing extra hard to reach your target, so make sure it is on the short side of your range. In fact, you don't even have to choose just one hand position – you can customize your hand position for each shot based on what you are trying to do with the golf ball. The positioning of your hands on the grip will say a lot about the kinds of shots you can hit, so this is certainly a point that is worth your time and attention. The positioning of your hands has a major impact on the flight of your shots, so be sure not to overlook this element of the game. Depending on which method you prefer, the right hand joins the left hand on the grip with either a ten fingered (baseball), interlocking or overlap grip. Backswing In Golf, Am I Taking The Club Back Far Enough? I have been to the range many times; reading your article here, I do realize that a proper grip could certainly improve my swing and increase my distance. If I then place my right hand on, I’ve still got 2 inches spare at the bottom, and I’ve got relatively big hands. And you don’t need to go top to bottom, it could be a sliding scale, maybe even just moving half an inch per swing as you drop down would change the distance that you are hitting the shots. It will only cost you around 20-30 minutes and a bucket of balls, which is a fair trade in exchange for an improved golf game. If we did not make this change, then the golfer would have to grip down on the club, bend less at the waist or knees, or raise their arms higher producing a non-athletic position (in more extreme conditions). So if you got smaller hands and you are gripping at the top, you probably feel there could be up to a third or even a half of the grip that hasn’t been used. On the other end of the scale, if a player really wished to hit the ball a long way with a driver, for example, they could hold the handle at the very end of the grip. In the same way, you should move back away from the ball slightly if you are going to be using more of the club than usual. Someone more knowledgeable than me will have a more informed opinion. You could place your hands all the way at the end of the grip, you could choke up close the steel (or graphite), or you could land somewhere in the middle. However, the word 'grip' in the golf world can also refer to the actual piece of rubber that is on your club. We want to keep it simple on guiding you with your proper golf grip, so we are just narrowing it down into 3 Easy Steps.. 1. The grip is the only connection point between the player and the golf club. For example when playing a low punch shot, as well as adapting their ball position, weight distribution and swing, many golfers grip the handle closer towards the shaft. As you gain experience with moving your hands up and down the club, you will find that this is one of the most-powerful tools you have as a golfer for controlling your shots. Not just if the golf club is too big or too small, ideally the clubs are custom fit to you. Jack Nicklaus liked to curve the ball by opening or closing the clubface … That would give you a bit more control; higher up the grip gives you a bit more power. It’s been one of the greatest changes I’ve made with my clubs. Work your way through the rest of the bucket using various grip positions until you are settled on one that you can use for the majority of your shots. The Trailing Hand (Lower Hand) Grip. As you are practicing your ability to manipulate the shots you produce, keep the following tips in mind –. I have just started playing golf, and looking back at the last time I played 18 holes I’m pretty sure that I did not grip the golf club properly. If the grips on your clubs get too worn, they will become difficult to hold onto as you swing through the shot. • To get the distance of a 9-iron with the height of a 7, grip down on the handle of the 7 until your right index finger (for right-handers) touches the shaft itself and make your regular swing. I used to be the opposite and grip way up the top of the grip, with the butt of the club enclosed by my left palm. For most players, the ball is going to carry a shorter distance as the hands move down closer to the club head. Equipment Spotlight: Premium brand Thomas Golf - Custom golf clubs with Shot Accuracy Technology, Drivers | Woods | Hybrids | Irons + Wedges | Putters | Chippers | Accessories | Clearance, #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,PW,GW,SW,LWRight Handed / Left Handed, Only $109 eachIncludes Free Pro-Fitting Service, My Account | Sitemap | Support This Site | Suggest A Tip, Golf Info Guide copyright 1998-2020, Privacy Policy, How Can I Ensure I Create Enough Shoulder Rotation In My Golf Back Swing Video - by Peter Finch, Consistent Golf Starts With Proper Alignment For Every Shot Video - by Pete Styles, Pitching Wedge A Handy Tool For Many Shots, Golf Video - by Pete Styles, How To Complete A Long And Slow Takeaway During The Golf Swing Video - by Peter Finch, Click Here for a Free Professional Fitting for Custom Clubs. Photo by Kelly Lamanna Hold the club about three feet in the air, in front of your body. For your chip shots, you will want to come down on the club at least a little bit. All of the content above has focused on the full swing, but you are going to need to know how to position your hands for your short game shots as well. Even moving down the grip by just an inch or two can go a long way toward improving your accuracy. Take hold of the golf grip in the fingers, not the palm, of your top hand. You may want to bend slightly more than usual at the knees, as well. Now we know the grip in the golf club is important but one area we often overlook is well, whereabouts on the grip should we grip. Then, once the old grip is off, remove any tape that's leftover on the shaft. How do you grip a golf club? Beginner Golf Tip: Which Club Should You Use to Chip? When you grip the club incorrectly, you make the game harder than it needs to be. This includes how far up or down the hands should be placed on the handle. And so if your thumb is straight down, just move it off to the side and you should be good to go. Place your hands all the way at the end of the. If you find that you frequently make poor contact with the ball when using the whole club, coming down an inch or two off the end of the grip might actually lead to improved performance overall. Since the game began, golfers have discussed and debated how to properly grip a golf club. • Use pairs for distance control: choking down as described above lessens distance by two full clubs. Gripping too far down can narrow your swing arc causing you to lose distance. How Far From The Golf Ball Should I Stand? Most likely the ball is going to come out low and fly significantly shorter, but watch your own results to confirm this outcome. To complete this portion of the practice session, place your hands right in the middle of the grip and hit five more shots. By dedicating a bucket of balls or two just to figuring out your hand position, you should be able to settle on the right spot for your swing pretty quick. It is hard to make in-swing adjustments on the fly to produce various ball flights, as the swing moves much to quickly to process changes on the go. The golf grip is the only physical connection between you and the golf club, so the grip can ultimately determine the outcome of your swing. What Sort Of Grip Pressure Should I Use To Hit The Golf Ball Further? Even just a short practice session or two working on this fundamental can pay off in a big way. With the clubface square, place the club at an angle through the fingers, following the line of the dots pictured in the previous image. Next, apply new double-sided tape over the same area where the old tape was, and spray some grip solvent over the new tape. Think about the shots that you just hit and the results that you achieved. The Shoulder Turn When Taking The Golf Club Back Far Enough, Check Points When Taking The Golf Club Back Far Enough, Ensure Width And Length When Taking The Golf Club Back Far Enough, Are You Taking The Golf Club Back Far Enough, How Far Should An Ideal Golf Backswing Be. So have a little bit of an experiment trying to grip the club near the top, trying to grip the golf club near the bottom and see how it changes the control that you have and the distance that you can hit your shots. When you grip the golf club correctly, you set yourself up to execute and get everything else right. Shorter means shorter, and longer means longer. To work through the process of finding the right hand position, follow the simple steps below –. Place the club face behind the ball, keeping it square to your intended target. It helps the golfer to hit the ball correctly and increase precision or maximize his/her distance on the game. Of course, shorter and lower shots are not always a bad thing, as there is certainly a time and place on the course for using control to position your ball successfully. Using the whole length of the club will lead to the maximum swing speed that you are capable of producing, and it should lead to the highest possible shot as well. After the neutral grip has been deployed, players must decide on how high or low on the handle the club should be held. But first, let me tell you why the golf grip … Take some time to learn how to produce a variety of shots through grip position adjustments and you will be a better player in the end. Going off of those results, experiment with other grip positions between the ones you used in the drill. Roll your left pointer finger and thumb over … The grip should run down your fingers and palm in your … For as long as golf has been a sport, the grip has always been considered a fundamental of the swing. Grips are relatively inexpensive to replace, so consider putting a new set on after every season or two. The right hand sits on the grip with the left thumb covered by the base of the right thumb. You want a grip that feels good in your hands, and is in good condition. That piece of equipment is also a key component to hitting good shots, so make sure you don't overlook its condition or design. How you actually position your left thumb (top hand) on the club will lead into another set of options for your golf grip. For a consistent game, making sure you have the correct hold on the club is essential. How Tightly Should I Grip The Golf Club Throughout The Swing? Gripping a club down in this way increases the amount of control a player has over the shot but decreases the possible distance achievable. So, if you can hit a seven iron 150 yards normally, pick a target that is somewhere around 140-150 yards away. A good grip is the foundation for a good golf game. And generally speaking, higher up the club, will give you more distance, more power but actually a bit less control and gripping down on the golf would give you less power but more control. On a scale of 1 – 10 (1=club sliding out of your hand, 10=white knuckled, tightest grip possible), grip pressure should be about a “3”. I never really like to see the left hand falling off the back end of the club here, if that’s happening, you’ve got less control than you should have and all of the hands should be on all of the grip rarely with the white line at the end there completely unbroken. If you would really like to get to the bottom of this issue and determine exactly what hand position on the grip is going to work best for you, the best thing to do is set aside a range session for specifically this point. Determining where you are going to place your hands on the grip at address is one of the key components to building a great overall grip. So if I’m pitching or chipping the ball out there, less than a full swing, I would often encourage you to go down onto the grip. Your grip for these shots should be halfway between the top of the grip and the bottom, and you should again be hitting shots at the original target that you selected. Follow my six steps to create your own grip. Without a good grip, you will struggle to hit quality shots on a regular basis, even if the rest of your swing is mechanically sound. The best grip enables the golfer better position and control over the clubface. If you want to hit the ball higher or lower than normal, that kind of change can usually be made by sliding your hands up or down the grip. (Please see How to Grip with Your Left Hand) The position of your left thumb can determine the clubface angle at the top of the golf swing. You’ll grip a club anywhere between 70 and 100 times per round, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get it right every time. The only exception to this rule is some of the new counter-balanced putters which are designed intentionally to be used with a choked down grip. Does it even matter how high or low your hands are on the grip? The grip is one of the single most-important aspects of your golf technique. Many players think they aren't good enough to bother with trying to adjust their ball flight, but that is simply the wrong way to think. Essentially, the position of your hands on the club is going to determine the length of the club that you are using for the shot. ... just check your grip. Also, having the ability to take distance off of your shots can come in handy from time to time, and that objective can also be hit by moving your hands (usually down the grip). Indeed, you can either position it so that it extends onto the grip or you can leave it somewhat recessed. Whether you are a high handicapper or a player who regularly shoots in the 70's, the goal is always the same – to learn more shots that you can use to get your ball around the course safely. American golfer Ben Hogan once said, "Good golf begins with a good grip," and yet the golf grip is one of the most important but overlooked fundamental parts of the golf swing. The lessons that you learn on the range will help you make your way around the golf course. Before we start to discuss the placement of your hands on the grip, we should first talk a bit about why this is an important point. However, you need to have a clear plan in place when you adjust your grip position so you can be sure to achieve the desired results. As any avid golfer knows, the golf grip is key to keeping the club properly positioned in your hands. The hand you put higher on the golf club is called your "lead … Again, you should take careful not of the ball flights that result from these swings. Now we know the grip in the golf club is important but one area we often overlook is well, whereabouts on the grip should we grip. This is important because gripping off the end of the club can result in worn out gloves and sore palms. Of course, if your standard grip has you already on the end of the club, you aren't going to have the option to go longer – you will only be able to adjust down as needed. In this article, you will get to know every detail of gripping the golf club properly. That could work nicely if I don’t need full distance. To adjust for the significantly shorter club that you are now swing, it will be necessary to stand closer to the ball. How to Properly Grip a Golf Club for Control and Distance. My shaft is already shortened down to 44”, which is about 1 ½” to 2” shorter than standard. For your next five shots, you are going to go all the way down to the bottom end of the grip, to the point that the pointer finger on your right hand is almost directly on the shaft of the club. If you happen to play left handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary. At this point, you should go ahead and attempt to dial in your hand position to a precise spot on the grip. Putters are carefully designed with proper weighting that is based on using the whole club. Now that you have hit 15 shots, you should have a clear picture of what your hand position can do to the flight of the ball. When top professionals look to play different shots, how far they grip the club up the handle can often change. The driving range is a great place to test out a variety of grips in order to find the one that works best for you. If you are using a 45'' driver, and your hands are right down on the end of the grip, you will be using all 45'' of the club for that shot. However, that isn't going to be true for every single golfer. Now that you have your standard grip position decided, the next step in the process is to get comfortable with the idea of changing your grip during a round in order to hit different types of shots. If you want to add or subtract distance to your shots, you need to either lengthen or shorten the club. Where Should I Place The Ball For Each Golf Club? Golf Podcast 355: Putting Tips for Lightning Fast Greens ... You may not hit your driver quite as far when it is teed lower, but the accuracy you gain will be more than worth it. Rather than concerning yourself with how other players are holding onto the club, you will be better off finding your own way through experimentation. The grip should begin at the joint of the little finger and run through the hand until it goes through the middle of the index finger. The amount that you choke down on the grip of the club is a matter of personal preference, but you will probably want to come down at least an inch or two from the top. In the content below, we are going to be referring to the 'grip' in terms of the way you put your hands on the club. For example, consider the case of a driver, which is typically around 45'' in length. It has given me more accuracy off the tee without sacrificing too much distance. Squeezing the club tightly will make it difficult to have good 'feel' in your swing, and your right hand is likely to become too active as a result. A player's grip is as important as anything else in the game. Golf Drill Tip: Irons flying too high - Hands too far back, Golf Drill Tip: Irons flying too low - Ball too far back, Golf Tip Drill: Irons flying too low - Hands too far forward, Golf Drill Tips: Irons flying too high - Ball too far forward, Golf Driving Distance, How Do The Pros Drive So Far, Myth Five You Have To Swing Soft To Hit The Golf Ball Far, What Are The Effects Of How Far You Stand From The Golf Ball, How To Get More Club Head Speed? The grip is always going to be a matter of feel and personal preference, but the content above should have given you some help in determining exactly where to place your hands on the club. In this tip I explain how far down you should grip on the golf club. However, it is easy to change your grip position before the swing even starts, as you will have all the time you need to get set. No matter where your hands are on the club, they should always be holding on with a light grip pressure. In simplest terms, you should have your ‘lead’ hand on the top of the golf club and your trail hand just underneath it. But actually, having that ability to move your hands up and down can be quite useful for particular shots. The grip should begin at the joint of the little finger and run through the hand until it goes through the middle of the index finger. You have reached the maximum number of submissions for today. This leads to an “open” clubface at impact in relationship to your swing path, which, as demonstrated in our Golf Science piece on ball flight laws , causes the ball to slice away from the target. Grip The Club Lightly - Golf Tip, How To Self Correct Golf Divots Pointing Too Far Left, Signs Of Trouble When Not Hitting The Golf Ball Far, Longer Swing Golf Drills - How To Understand You've Gone Too Far, Option When to Far to Chip or Putt by Tom Stickney, Should You Consider A Strong Grip To Square Your Golf Club Face, Why Grip The Club Lighter For Golf Club Head Speed. 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