Article by Keith Barker
Golf for beginners can be a tough challenge so let’s get to the basics. The first skill that a beginner should learn is the golf grip or how to hold a golf club. Most beginners overlook the grip because they do not understand it’s importance. Your grip has to be good because a player’s only contact with the club is through their hands. The grip can be a dead giveaway of a person’s knowledge of the game of golf and often their ability to play. I can assure you, with a poor golfing grip, everything else will be off and you’ll wind up hating the game before you really get started. It will affect your set-up, your takeaway, your ability to manage your club at the top, as well as, your success at striking the ball correctly. In order to achieve success, a golfer needs to know that they must maintain a fixed relationship throughout the golf swing between their hands and the face of the golf club. Never underestimate how you hold your club, because I started out with a very weak grip and, without any instructions, I slowly figured out what to do, as I learned more about the game of golf. Do not worry if you don’t get it at first because most don’t. Just keep trying and you will get it.
You have your three basic golf grips. The first is your standard grip of today or the overlapping grip. There are two others-the interlocking grip and the ten-finger or baseball grip. Let me just say right here and now that I would not use the ten-finger grip unless its just completely natural and you rock with it because it can lead to other issues. Anyway, the overlapping grip was perfected by Harry Vardon over a century ago, around the 1890′s. In a good grip both hands work as a unit. In the overlapping grip, your little finger of the right hand, left hand if your a lefty like me, overlaps the forefinger of the left hand. The first step is to place the left hand on the golf club so that the back of your hand is facing the target. The shaft sits under the muscular pad at the inside heel of the palm, and the shaft runs diagonally across to the top joint of the forefinger. Now, hook the forefinger around the shaft. Close the hand with the rest of the fingers. The thumb runs down the top of the shaft or slightly to the right. When you have completed the left hand grip, the V formed between the thumb and forefinger will point toward the right side of your head. When completed, the main pressure points are the last three fingers. While these keep pressure on the shaft, the palm pad pressure does three things. It strengthens the left arm throughout the swing and prevents the golf club from slipping out of your grasp at the top of the backswing and it also acts as a firm reinforcement at the time of impact.
Too tight of a grip will immobilize your wrist so be sure to not over-do it. Probably the most common fault among beginner golfers is that their golf grip is too much in the palms. This restricts your wrist from hinging properly. Place your golf club in the right hand so that the shaft lies across the top joint of the four fingers and directly below the palm. Your two middle fingers supply the major part of the pressure. With your left hand on the club, overlap the little finger of your right hand with the forefinger of the left hand. Then bring your right thumb down on the shaft, just slightly to the left. The knuckle of your right forefinger, directly above the shaft, should exert pressure inward toward the thumb. This should form a good V. This V points toward the right side of your face and runs parallel to the V of your left hand. The proper right hand grip will enable the greatest amount of controlled clubhead speed. This will deliver a square clubface to the target at impact. For the most power, the fingers should be touching each other and not spread wide apart. If you are a player whose golf club is slipping or spinning in your hands during your swing, you may want to try the interlocking grip. Instead of overlapping the forefinger with your little finger, you place your little finger in between your forefinger and middle finger. This grip will take a little practice but, most golfing tips do when you’ve never practiced it before. This grip also works well for players with sweaty hands so that they can keep their golf club under control. Stay tuned for another golf swing tip on how to golf in the very near future. Our goal is to help you with your golf game in every way possible. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all could play some free golf every once in a while? See you on the blog side.
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