Altering Hand Placement During A Round Of Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Altering Hand Placement During A Round Of Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now for most golfers, once they've settled on a grip and a way they want to hold the golf club, it's going to be very difficult to encourage that golfer to make that change. Some golfers really struggle to make even the slightest adjustment to their grip.

So, in a round the grip changes need to be taken very, very carefully and it's not something we would encourage every golfer to do. Certainly they want to tinker with it shot to shot, hold to hold, messing and changing with the arm placement. Try and make the hand placement good and consistent and then stick with it. However, there are some very rare occasions and extreme occasions when we might want to deliberately change our grip to favor a particular ball flight. So let's put yourself in a position where you've been completely blocked out by a tree and you need to make a draw shot go round the tree. And if a draw shot isn't your natural shape of shot, trying to hit a draw shot on command can be quite difficult. So let's say that out in front of me here on the driving range I've got a tree and I need to send it out to the right to draw it back around onto the green. If a draw is not my normal shot, I can swing out to the right to make the path go over here but I need to have something that's going to make the facing more left than the path. So the ball stops more left and then draws away from path. Now one of the easiest things might be just to strengthen my grip up for this particular shot. So I could take my left hand as my top hand and rotate it to the right so I can now see three knuckles. I could then take my right hand more underneath in a slightly stronger position. That, in turn, is going to want to close the club face on the way back and try and hook the ball through here with plenty of hand action and arm action. So I'm going to point down the right side. Swing out to the right and then shot the face. And if I can make that shot happen, I can see the ball go down the right and actually turn back to the left in its ball flight. And that would be how I could successfully change my grip to create a draw. Now the opposite to that obviously is going to be the same scenario but where I need to fade to get around the tree and if a fade isn't my normal shot, I'm going to have to do something that helps me open the face. So, a one knuckle left-handed grip with a right hand that sits nicely over the top. This is going to help me open the face more in the back swing, keep the club face open during the down swing and should encourage the ball to fade. So my weaker grip aimed down the left side and try and hit a little cut. And I can hold that shot off in my follow through and see the ball come back form left to right. So I wouldn't advocate making many pre or also in-round changes to your grip would rather you stick with a more consistent grip. But if you absolutely need a must hit to draw or hit to fade on command, maybe altering the grip to stronger or weaker is one of the ways to control your ball flight. 2016-05-09

Now for most golfers, once they've settled on a grip and a way they want to hold the golf club, it's going to be very difficult to encourage that golfer to make that change. Some golfers really struggle to make even the slightest adjustment to their grip.

So, in a round the grip changes need to be taken very, very carefully and it's not something we would encourage every golfer to do. Certainly they want to tinker with it shot to shot, hold to hold, messing and changing with the arm placement. Try and make the hand placement good and consistent and then stick with it.

However, there are some very rare occasions and extreme occasions when we might want to deliberately change our grip to favor a particular ball flight. So let's put yourself in a position where you've been completely blocked out by a tree and you need to make a draw shot go round the tree. And if a draw shot isn't your natural shape of shot, trying to hit a draw shot on command can be quite difficult. So let's say that out in front of me here on the driving range I've got a tree and I need to send it out to the right to draw it back around onto the green. If a draw is not my normal shot, I can swing out to the right to make the path go over here but I need to have something that's going to make the facing more left than the path. So the ball stops more left and then draws away from path.

Now one of the easiest things might be just to strengthen my grip up for this particular shot. So I could take my left hand as my top hand and rotate it to the right so I can now see three knuckles. I could then take my right hand more underneath in a slightly stronger position. That, in turn, is going to want to close the club face on the way back and try and hook the ball through here with plenty of hand action and arm action. So I'm going to point down the right side. Swing out to the right and then shot the face.

And if I can make that shot happen, I can see the ball go down the right and actually turn back to the left in its ball flight. And that would be how I could successfully change my grip to create a draw.

Now the opposite to that obviously is going to be the same scenario but where I need to fade to get around the tree and if a fade isn't my normal shot, I'm going to have to do something that helps me open the face. So, a one knuckle left-handed grip with a right hand that sits nicely over the top. This is going to help me open the face more in the back swing, keep the club face open during the down swing and should encourage the ball to fade. So my weaker grip aimed down the left side and try and hit a little cut. And I can hold that shot off in my follow through and see the ball come back form left to right.

So I wouldn't advocate making many pre or also in-round changes to your grip would rather you stick with a more consistent grip. But if you absolutely need a must hit to draw or hit to fade on command, maybe altering the grip to stronger or weaker is one of the ways to control your ball flight.