3 Things To Avoid When Gripping The Golf Club

Gripping the golf club has a huge impact on your performance and overall consistency on the golf course. So, if you are learning the game or simply struggling, then checking your golf grip is a great place to start.

There is no ONE way to hold the golf club, as many great golfers have unorthodox grips and play amazing golf. However, from our experience, there are certain things to avoid and a couple of key things we like to get our students to do as a starting point, especially if you are a “newbie”. 

The club face is mainly responsible for the starting direction of the golf ball, so getting a golf grip that will allow you to deliver a consistent face at impact with power is key.

Here are 3 things to avoid when you hold the golf club……

The High Palm

This is where the club is positioned too high in the lead hand running through the palm.

This limits your ability to use your wrists efficiently and makes it very difficult to create a good wrist set in the golf swing, which is very important for POWER and strike. 

We prefer to see the grip a little lower in the hand, so that it runs diagonally underneath the heel pad through the base of the forefinger.

From here your wrists will have much more freedom to move and can often make squaring the club face much easier.

The Deep Interlock

Most golfers get told that they MUST interlock their fingers when they hold the golf club. This actually isn’t necessary and tends to cause problems.

Most golfers do this by getting their little finger and forefinger too deeply “locked” and often take their golf grip with their palms facing outward.

This tends to put the club too much in the palms in BOTH hands and again causes wrists and club face problems. 

We recommend that golfers START with their palms facing each other and take a “baseball/ 10 fingered grip” so that the hands are in a more neutral position.

Once this feels comfortable they can then either move to the “interlock” or “overlap” grip if they feel that it will benefit their game.

Weak Trail Hand

We very rarely see ANY good golfers with a “weak” trail hand grip.

This is where the hand is too far over to the left (for a right handed golfer) so that the “V” between thumb and forefinger points more to the left shoulder.

The main issue we see with this is that it wants to open the club face during the golf swing and this is one of the KILLERS when it comes to producing power and consistency. 

Place your trail hand on the side of the golf club so that your “V” is pointing more to your right shoulder.

This will help produce a “stronger” club face from here and make things easier when it comes to producing a good consistent down swing and IMPACT.

 Just remember that these are guidelines and are what we see that cause golfers problems when it comes to the golf grip.

The key to holding a golf club is to give you the best chance possible to produce a consistent IMPACT, so follow these and find what works for you.