You're Correct!

The pressure in your hands when you swing your golf club really influences the connection that the club head makes with the golf ball, so it is absolutely vital to have the correct grip pressure if you want to hit your best golf shots.

When you hold the golf club and take your grip, the pressure in your hands influences the strike that the club head will make on the golf ball. Your best shots are always struck from the centre of the club face, or the sweet spot. Striking the golf ball from the sweet spot allows you to achieve maximum accuracy and distance to shots, as well as the correct shot trajectory.

If you hold the golf club too tightly and you squeeze the handle as hard as you can, then the muscles in your hands, wrists and forearms work. As your muscles work they contract or shorten, so effectively the length of your arms get shorter and you pull the club head up off the ground. If this happens as you swing then the club head is presented back to the golf ball in a higher position and therefore strikes the upper part of the golf ball from the lower part of the golf face. This produces a low golf shot that does not fly very far, known as a thin or a topped golf shot.

To prevent this from happening and to hit better golf shots, it is really important to hold the handle of the golf club rather than squeeze it. To achieve this, try the following drill. Hold the handle with your usual grip. Now squeeze the handle as tightly as you possibly can. We will call this a 10 on our grip pressure scale. Now halve the pressure in your hands to a five and then ideally just lower the pressure one more to a four. Four out of ten with ten being you squeezing the golf club as tightly as you can, is the ideal pressure to swing with throughout your golf swing and will allow you to hit your best golf shots.

The tighter you squeeze the handle of the golf club, the more your muscles in your arms contract and the higher you pull the club head up from the ground. This results in the club head striking the upper part of the golf ball, or even missing it completely. For your best golf shots, relax your grip pressure and hold the club rather than squeezing it.

Squeezing the golf club does not allow you to hit solid golf shots. Solid golf shots are created when the club face strikes the golf ball from the centre of it. Squeezing the handle of the club, results in you striking the top of the golf ball, or even having a complete air.

The harder you squeeze the golf club, the tighter and tenser your muscles become. The muscles that tighten are those in your hands, wrists, arms and ultimately into your shoulders. With tight shoulder muscles you will be unable to make the same turn in your upper body as you could if those muscles were relaxed and a bigger shoulder turn results in more shot distance.