The grip is the only connection between your body and the club. Every swing thought, every technical adjustment, every piece of advice your playing partners have ever given you travels through your hands. And yet most amateur golfers have never had their grip properly checked — and most of the ones who have are still holding the club too tight.
PGA coach Marcus Webb has spent twenty years watching amateurs grip the club. His diagnosis is consistent: the average recreational golfer holds the club at a seven or eight on a ten-point pressure scale. Tour players average a four. That difference in grip pressure is responsible for more lost distance and accuracy than any swing flaw Webb has ever seen.
The fix is not complicated, but it requires trust. Loosen your grip until the club feels like it might slip — then tighten it just enough that it does not. That is the correct pressure. It will feel wrong for the first twenty swings. Your brain will tell you the club is going to fly out of your hands. It will not.
The secondary issue Webb sees is grip position. Most amateurs hold the club too much in the palm of the lead hand rather than in the fingers. A palm grip restricts wrist hinge and kills clubhead speed. Moving the grip into the fingers — where it belongs — adds wrist hinge, adds speed, and improves the ability to square the face at impact.
Webb's advice for fixing both problems at once: take your normal grip, then open your lead hand and look at where the club sits. If it is across the palm, move it to the base of the fingers. Then close your hand, check your pressure, and hit ten shots. The difference will be immediate.
Filed under
Canesh Arce
Canesh Arce is the Founder of The Par Report, covering the PGA Tour, major championships, and the business of professional golf.