My goofy grip

So I've been working on eliminating the "worst case scenerio" games. I'm keeping a cap now and hope to compete next year. It's going good, almost at SD, have to do better though.

Here's what I've found, many of my bad game are caused by a strong right hand.

Some time in my teens I modelled my grip after that pic of Hogan late in his career, some pictures of Jack at impact weren't all that different either. I took it a bit far with the right hand.

So now I have a tented grip, neutral left hand and very weak right. Here's the thing, I'm up the creek without a paddle if I try and strengthen this at all. I have no idea how you guys with a strong grip can even hit the ball, it's completely beyond me.

When I first discovered that one kind of grip was called strong and the other weak, I naturally assumed the grip I used was the "strong" one, lol, wrong...

So I've been trying to strengthen my grip as is my natural tendency to move towards what it commonly considered the standard.

For what it's worth I've come to a few conclusions.
1) I completely disagree with any teaching involving a strong grip
2) weak grips don't always mean slice
3) I'm better off accepting I have a bit of goofy grip and going with it

For what it's worth I'd advocate a neutral grip to anyone starting out.

Why am I posting this, ahh why not, I like talking about it and this forum has the only people I know that might remotely care about this kind of stuff

So why don't weak grips always slice? Well it depends on which hand. I think weak left hands slice, strong right hands hook.

I also think a lot depends on which hand you hit the ball with.

I remember watching TGC filming VJ on the range, and his right hand was almost falling off the club. I think strong grip golfers tend to hit the ball mostly with their left hand. I'm the opposite, I tend to slam down with my right hand, which I think is true of some neutral grip golfers as well. I'm guessing this is one reason why I have trouble with a strong right hand, it's not just "along for the ride" with me. I can drive with a stong grip, nice sweeping motion, but forget the rest of my game.

Then there's the back swing, a weak right hand has some things in it's favour, In many ways it's anti slice, it's pretty hard to take the club outside and chicken wing.

I see a lot of good swings that lay the club off at the start of the back swing, it's what I do when my grip is too strong because It feels natural breaking my wrists up the "V" in my right hand. With a weak right hand grip the back swing stays pretty close to a decent plane.

So part of the reason for this post, I'm working on getting more comfortable with a stronger right hand and other steps tjhat aren't ideal for me in an attempt to raise the lowest common denominator. I'm curious what anyone else has to say that plays this way or just has a comment in general.

And you golf mechanic wizards, is there an inherent drawback with a tented grip with a weak right hand? Honestly I see none other than it's unconventional. In fact I think the palms facing each other is a load of bull crap, I'm not sure anybody actually plays this way. Many good tour players with a neutral right hand tend to have a strong left hand.

I have, at various times, used the following grips:

Interlock
10-finger
"Natural Golf" / Palm
Overlap

I have played as a single digit with the last 3 in the list and am currently playing with an overlap.

My two cents. If your grip is comfortable and does not in some way prevent you from making a repeatable swing, don't sweat it. There are all kinds of grips on tour. Everyone's hands are different sizes and shapes. What works for person A won't necessarily work for person B.

I will say this. Changing a grip takes time. When I switched back to overlap this season it took me about 3-4 weeks to get really comfortable with it. That translates to about 10 rounds of golf and 12 trips to the range.

an illustration

Attachment 30252

I think there's a HUGE difference between how your hands come together (what Jvincent listed) and how your hands actually sit on the club (what the OP listed). Just because your grip is comfortable or "works for you" doesn't mean that it's right or isn't causing some other flaw in your game. There's a reason why certain things are "commonly" taught and others aren't. Personally I have never heard anyone recommend a "tented" grip on the club. I think if you were to look at all of the top players in the world, they will be pretty close to having the same grips. Either both "V's" point to the back shoulder or slightly neutral. I think you only hear people talk about weakening the grip when it might be a little too strong or for a specific type of shot (none comes to mind at the moment). If you are becoming serious about golf I would go and get some lessons. If you are as serious as you say and actually practice what they are teaching you, you will be surprised how effective it actually is.

Well another day sacraficed to the gods of a classic grip. Took me most of the round to realize I had left my grip shift back to something recognizable as a normal grip. Parred the last 4 without raising a sweat once I sorted it out. I couldn't drive in the fairway today if my life depended on it. I should take some solice that at least I stayed on the same hole most of the time.

A lot of the top pros don't play with their "palms facing each other". Tiger and Hogan come to mind, probably Couples too. It's ironic that most of my life I have changed the way I play to move towads the "classic" swing, only to find out at this point I have irraversably adopted on unconventional grip.

I'm not alone :), although my leading hand is a little stronger when I'm playing my best I think
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhoKQXEsvqM

You should watch the Golf Fix tonight. He addresses your grip on the show and explains the affects of gripping the club the way you are currently.

ahh... if only I had the golf channel.

I was at the range today, hit enough balls with a strongish grip untill I started getting them in the air. It's a completely different impact position, obviously, but the hardest part is it's a different backswing key. Good practise though for becoming more "agile" if ya know what I mean.

If I don't look down I settle unto a decent grip much of the time, but I really don't know what that is lol. So if I get mechanical trying to "right the ship" I can overdo it either way. I think It's likely that I've played my best with a neutral leading hand and a weak trailing hand.


I'd love to hear what golf FX says about this. Personally I think 99% of what I read about weakish grips is nonsense. Anything that can be theororetically associated with a slice get's a bad wrap. I can't tell you how many chronic slicers I've seen with a grip so strong their trailing hand's thumb isn't even on the club.

I feel I might be finally putting this to bed, and getting comfortable with other options while I do. I probably wouldn't even be having these problems if I never found out my grip is considered "weak" :facepalm:

Now if I can start keeping my drives on the same hole I'l be set.

You can practice a good grip without hitting any balls. Something new isn't going to feel "good", in most cases it feels uncomfortable. You can work on a better grip watching TV. It sounds like you are mixing a bunch of things while trying to find a grip with working on a number of different changes. My suggestion would be to start with one thing (the grip). When you know how you want / how your hands should be on the club, then start working on the take away and other things.

It's too bad that you don't have the golf channel as the Playing Lessons with the Pros with Matt Ryan addresses some different things about the grip and where the "V's" should be pointing and when you might want to have a weaker grip. You might be able to watch it on their website.

thyink I made some progress. Little history, I've only had a proper driver in my bag for the last 5 or 6 years, and I dsidn't play much the last 3 so, hence all the messing around. I'm comfortable with my iron game (err, well more comfortable let's say lol) , but playing around with my driver swing can ruin my whole game for the day, or week etc...One reason why I've managed to drop my cap this year is I stopped focussing on the driver and started playing golf again, just limp off the tee all day if I have to. I'm starting to get sick of that though. I've certainly had great driving days, weeks, over the last bunch of seasons, but often at the expense of the swing on the rest of my game, and never anything that stayed.

I made some progress today. I don't think I need the grip pictured in that swing in the pic. When I setup like that with my hands way ahead of even the modern driver, it's a bit hooded and my weight is forward with my shoulders probably a touch open. There the right hand wants to get really weak to make a backswing and I'm likely hitting down on it too much, classic driver problem for me.

If I setup a little more square and behind the ball with the club lying in a sweepable position, like today on the range after my round, I was getting away with a grip that was weak but seemed rational. I was hitting some really nice shots with that "bomb" trajectory and what seemed to me to be just the right amount of spin. It's a zone I've found before over the years, not really knowing which or what. I need a reliable driver swing though, and it has to be related to the rest of my game, that's the mission this year, I do that I can start playing.