The Grip and Grip Pressure….How tight should you grip the club?

This article describes the grip for a righty golfer. If you’re a lefty, reverse each hand.

I’ve been teaching golf for 13 years and playing since I was 4 years old. My dad would always try to get me to hold the club light in my hands, but I remember how hard that was. I still practice gripping the club with light grip pressure in my right hand and always have to be aware of it. It tends to tighten in a meaningful situation, but if you keep reminding yourself and waggle the club before each shot, you’ll feel the difference. The last three fingers of your left hand can be a little tighter, but your right thumb and index finger should be loose. The pinkie of your right hand should overlap or interlock between your left index finger and middle finger. ( I prefer the overlap because you have a less chance of palming it in your right hand) The middle 2 fingers or your right hand should wrap around the grip in the fingers. When you look down at your hands from the address position, you should see 2 to 3 knuckles of your left hand or the v formed by your left thumb and index finger should point to your right shoulder.

If you’re doing this correct, your hands should be close together and the tip of your right thumb and index finger should lightly touch. When you practice hitting balls, take your right thumb and index finger off the club and you’ll develop a great feel! Ben Hogan would practice this way all the time, and he was known to be one of the greatest ball strikers ever to play. When you watch the pros on T.V., you’ll see them waggle the club before each shot and the move the right thumb and index finger on and off to feel the weight of the club head. It’s so important to do this, but takes practice! It will make you a much better player!
by Eric McInerney

Always repeat your routine!

Tiger Tips: Turn your chest

Don’t swing all-arms on greenside shots

KEY MOVE: TURN YOUR CHEST BACK AND THEN THROUGH ON PITCH SHOTS. PLAYERS WHO STOP TURNING THROUGH MAKE POOR CONTACT.
By Tiger Woods
Edited By Pete McDaniel and Mark Soltau
Photos By J.D. Cuban
July 2007
So many times I see my amateur partners butcher a simple pitch shot because of poor technique, anxiety or both. The biggest reason for their failure is that the upper body stops moving through impact, causing a slight mis-hit at best–at worst, they lay the sod over it or blade it.
One of the keys to consistently good pitching is keeping your chest turning toward the target on the through-swing. Your arms and shoulders follow your chest, not vice versa. Look at it this way: If your chest moves away from the ball on the backswing, your shoulders and arms also move. Therefore, if your chest moves back toward the target, your shoulders and arms will follow.
That positive momentum, not the hands and arms moving by themselves, is what propels the ball. Try to “hit with your chest” on pitch shots. I promise you’ll make better contact with the ball and hit it closer to the hole, giving yourself more par-save opportunities.

Tiger Tips: How to spin it from the sand

Lay the face open and swing it fast with the right hand

SHORT ‘N’ SOFT: TO PLAY A SPINNER THAT STOPS WHERE IT LANDS, GRIP IT MORE IN THE FINGERS AND FIRE YOUR RIGHT HAND.
By Tiger Woods
Edited By Pete McDaniel and Mark Soltau
Photos By Dom Furore
August 2007
Because of the way I learned to release the club during my recent swing change, two of my favorite shots–the spinner from the sand and the flop shot–suffered for a while. I?ve always played both shots with a lot of hand action, and the hands are restricted in my new swing. Over the past six months, though, I?ve regained the touch, especially on the bunker shot to a close pin, where you have to get it up quickly and stop it fast.
Here?s how I play it. I grip the club a little more in my fingers to get more flip in my release. This is one time when I think the flip is good. Then, I open my stance, play the ball well forward and lay the clubface wide open but square to the target line. I make a vertical backswing, which sets up a steeper angle of descent into the sand. The key is increased clubhead speed through impact, so I really fire the club through with my right hand. The ball comes out high and soft and settles fast after landing.

TOUR PLAYERS’ PRACTICE SECRETS

By Hank Haney
Photo By J.D. Cuban

Players on tour spend a tremendous amount of time practicing, both at a tournament and during off-weeks at home. For example, a normal practice-round day for Tiger at the Buick Invitational back in January was a 5 a.m. wake-up call, 30 minutes of warm-up at the range, a practice round with anybody ambitious enough to get up that early, and then an hour or two back at the range. That doesn’t count the time he spends working out and running every day. None of that practice time is just mindless ball-beating. The best players give full focus to every practice shot — as if it were a shot during a real round — picking a specific target and distance. Most amateurs look for the ball to go straight, but they don’t pick a target or pay attention to whether the shot goes the correct distance.
There’s nothing wrong with getting out after work and hitting a bucket of balls to enjoy the fresh air. But if you’re not at least tracking your target and the distance each shot flies, any game improvement that comes from your range session will come by accident.

Fix your pre-shot routine

Approach from behind, not the side
By Hank Haney
Photo By J.D. Cuban
April 2008

One of the biggest differences between a tour player and an average golfer doesn’t involve the actual swing.
Watch a tour player go through his pre-shot routine, and you’ll almost never see him walk in from the side and make a practice swing right next to the ball. He faces the target from behind the ball, to visualize his shot, and makes a couple of gentle practice swings with his eyes on the target before stepping in.
When you approach from the side, it distorts your view of the target and screws up your aim. Some players also tend to keep their feet in place after a practice swing and then reach for the ball to hit it. That’s another good reason to start your routine from behind.

Bump your chips

Get the ball on the ground quickly and let it roll out
By Tiger Woods
With Pete McDaniel and Mark Soltau
Photo By J.D. Cuban

Each year I set goals to improve my overall game. In 2007 I really concentrated on shoring up my chipping. It took a few months, but things started to come together after a tip from my coach, Hank Haney, during the British Open.
Hank suggested I stand closer to the ball and set the club more upright. This positioned the toe of the club more on the ground and allowed the club to swing on less of an arc and more of a straight line. This made solid contact easier, especially on dicey lies. It also helped me improve my bump-and-run.
The idea behind the bump-and-run is to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. I use a variety of clubs, from a 6-iron to a pitching wedge. Using my putting grip, I play the ball back in an open stance and control the strike with my right hand. I also read the shot just as I would a putt.
I aim for a spot on the green where I want the ball to land depending on pace and distance. I want to let it roll out close enough for a kick-in.

Phil’s favorite lag drill

FIVE IN A ROW: YOU CAN’T MOVE ON UNTIL YOU DO IT. YOU’LL FEEL THE HEAT.

By Butch Harmon
Photo By J.D. Cuban
May 2008

Here’s a drill I learned from Phil Mickelson to improve the pace of your putts. Take five balls to the practice green, and stick tees in the ground 30, 40 and 50 feet from a hole. Your goal is to putt five balls in a row from each tee to within three feet of the hole. (Use your putter — it’s about 36 inches long — to measure a six-foot circle around the cup.)
Start at 40 feet, then go to 30, and then 50. Mixing it up like this prevents you from just grooving a slightly longer stroke as you go. The trick is, you can’t move to the next station until you get five straight within the circle. It’s a real gut check: When you’ve got four in the circle and you’re going for five, trust me, you’ll be feeling it.
BUTCH’S BASICS
Most golfers putt a bunch of five- and six-footers on the practice green before heading to the first tee. Inevitably they have a 40-footer on the first green — and not a clue how hard to hit it. Take five minutes before you tee off to putt a few balls from one side of the green to the other. Then turn around and putt them back. You won’t be guessing so much on that first green.

The Grip!

By Jim Flick
Photos By Dom Furore
March 2008
LEFT HAND FIRST. . .
1. I ACTUALLY DRAW LINES ON THE GLOVE, WHICH IS LEGAL, BY THE WAY.
2. SIDE IS A REMINDER TO PUT THE SIDE OF THE GRIP AGAINST YOUR FINGERS, WITH THE TOE UP.
3. THE HANDLE RESTS JUST UNDER YOUR HEEL PAD AND RUNS TO YOUR INDEX FINGER.

Many amateurs — higher-handicappers and even really good players — are not precise enough when they put their hands on the club. In a sound grip, your palms should face each other, and your wrists should be able to hinge up and down. You want your hands to work compatibly, so one doesn’t override the other.
Place the club in your fingers to enhance your sensitivity for the weight and position of the club. For more feel, let your right index finger separate slightly from your other fingers.

. . . AND THEN ADD THE RIGHT HAND
4. THE GRIP TOUCHES THE MIDDLE JOINTS OF YOUR MIDDLE TWO FINGERS.
5. YOUR RIGHT-HAND LIFELINE FITS OVER YOUR LEFT THUMB.
6. HOLD CLUB AT A 45-DEGREE ANGLE TO FEEL WRIST HINGING AND PROPER GRIP PRESSURE.

Very few good players place the right hand on the club first. Always put your left hand on first, because it’s your guide to sensing the alignment of the clubface, then add your right hand. As you look down at your grip, make sure your left thumb rests slightly to the right of the top-center of the shaft.
Follow my six steps to create your own grip. Placing your hands on the club the same way every time will make your shots longer and more reliable.

Practicing out of the sand and a putting drill I do…