Building the Perfect Golf Grip Part 3

Now that you have quality golf grips on your clubs that feel comfortable in your hands, you can move on to the matter of actually placing your hands on the club. This is more complicated than it seems, and is actually a point where many golfers go wrong. If you can simply form a good grip with your hand around the club, you will be well on your way to making a quality swing.

Note: All of the instruction in this section is based on a right handed golfer. If you play left handed, simply reverse the directions.

Before you make your grip, you need to decide which style of grip you will be using to hold the club. While there are technically countless possibilities for your grip, most players use one of three different styles –

The overlap. When using this grip, you will first place your left hand on the club, then add your right hand to the grip by resting your right hand pinky finger on top of your left hand, in the crease between your second and third fingers. This is a grip that is most useful for players with large hands – those with smaller hands and fingers will likely find it too difficult to control the club throughout the swing.

The interlock. Another popular grip, this option is very similar to the overlap, except you will put your right hand pinky finger in between the second and third fingers on your left hand so that it is locked in place. As you might guess, this grip is a popular option among those with smaller hands because it does a good job of giving you control over the club and placing power in your hands.

The baseball grip. As less common grip, this option keeps the hands separate and just has your right hand pinky finger pushed up against the pointer finger of your left hand (but not interlocked or overlapped in any way). The main reason to try this grip is to gain additional release through the impact area. You might be able to find more power using this grip, but it can be difficult for many golfers to control the club head this way.

Again, there isn’t necessarily a ‘right or wrong’ when it comes to what style of grip that you use. The important thing is that your grip makes sense for the size of your hands, and the style of swing you make.

With your style selected, the final step in taking your grip is getting your hand oriented on the club properly. To do this, you will want to start by standing in your normal address position with the golf club in your left hand only. The left hand is the main determining factor in the position of your hands on the club – the right hand is simply added at the end to complement the position of the left.

As you look down at the left hand grip that you have taken, note how many knuckles you can see on the back of your left hand. Two? Three? All four? This is the best way to figure out what kind of position your hand is in, and what adjustments need to be made. A grip that only allows you to see one or two knuckles is considered a ‘weak’ grip, while seeing three or all four at address is a ‘strong’ grip. For most golfers, seeing three knuckles at address is going to be the perfect balance. Too much weaker than that and it will be hard to develop club head speed – too much stronger than that and you may have trouble hitting solid shots without the ball hooking to the left.

It is important to note that you need to experiment with different left hand positions on the club while you are at the driving range hitting some practice shots. Not all golfers are the same, and your grip has to work together with the rest of your swing to create good shots. There are plenty of talented golfers who use weak grips, and there are plenty who use rather strong grips as well. You need to be comfortable with your grip, and it needs to produce good results.