Golf Grip Tips
It all starts with the grip. If you don’t believe me, just read the first page of Ben Hogan’s book titled Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. He states that “golf begins with a good grip.” This should make sense, especially considering that you cannot swing a club without gripping it first. If you are new to golf or have never given proper golf technique much consideration, hopefully you will learn to appreciate this.
A bad grip can lead to inconsistent shots, slicing, hooking and mis-hits. When using irons to approach the green, an improper grip will most likely prevent you from controlling your shot. Such problems can be attributed to closing or opening the club face. Other swing-related issues can cause such problems, but grip is often to blame. The correct grip can also help generate clubhead speed whereas the wrong grip can reduce such speed during the swing. Having said that, let us find your correct grip.
 Steps to Finding the Correct Grip
The following steps to finding the correct grip apply to golfers with a dominant right-hand. If you are left-handed, use the opposite hand than the one instructed:
1. In order to grip the club, just try to relax both arms at your side. Naturally, both palms will face towards the body. This is how the club needs to be gripped. With the clubhead resting on the ground and the shaft pointed towards you (typically 45 degrees off ground), grip with your left hand. In doing so, the shaft should be going diagonally from your index finger across the palm of your hand. After closing the left hand, the thumb should be pointing down toward the clubhead and is typically on the top-center of the grip or slightly to the right. This thumb position is a neutral position. See the picture to the right for the proper neutral grip. If it is pointed down the right side of the grip, this refers to a strong grip. That will be covered later. At neutral position, you should only be able to see two knuckles (index and middle finger).
2. Your right hand should then be placed below the left hand onto the grip. Your right palm should fit snug over your left thumb. All of your fingers should wrap around the grip. The right thumb should be slightly on the left of the grip, pointing down. If you did this correctly, your left palm should be pointing away from your target while your right palm is facing towards the target.
3. Another way to check for the proper grip is to look at what is commonly known as the "V". Your thumb and index finger (for both hands) should form a "V" that points between your right shoulder and nose. If you look at the picture to the left, you will see that the "V" is aimed somewhere in that region. If the "V" is pointing way to the right of the right shoulder, then you do not have a neutral grip. This would also be the case if the "V" is pointing more towards the left side of your face. The two V's of both hands should be parallel to each other. If they are not parallel to each other, then your grip will need re-adjusting.
Strong, Neutral and Weak Grips
The above guidelines form the basis to a proper neutral grip. The picture below shows a neutral grip, strong grip and weak grip. When the left hand is rotated clockwise around the grip so that the thumb is on the right side of the grip, this refers to a strong grip (left pic). You will typically be able to see 3 or 4 knuckles in this case. This naturally will cause you to close the clubface and hook the ball to the left. This hook is usually the result of your right hand turning over too soon when making contact with the ball.
A weak grip is one caused by rotating the left hand counter-clockwise around the grip so the thump is on the left side of the grip (right pic). You will only be able to see one thumb at best with this configuration. The weak grip will open the clubface and slice the ball to the right.
Overlapping, Interlocking and Baseball Grip
 After you determine your neutral grip, you need to consider the placement of the right pinky finger. The three options for doing this have been named the overlapping grip, interlocking grip and baseball grip.
The overlapping grip (also known as Vardon grip) involves overlapping the right pinky finger over the left index finger. This is used by most professional golfers. It is shown in the picture to the right. You will notice here that the pinky finger is resting between the index and middle finger. This is perfectly fine and actually recommended by some people. This grip keeps both hands together on the grip while allowing for good feel.
 The interlocking grip (seen in left picture) is preferred by many golfers as well and involves interlocking the right pinky finger around the left index finger. This grip is generally recommended to be used by people with smaller hands or shorter fingers. In case you are wondering, this is the grip used by Tiger Woods. Both the overlapping and interlocking grip promote the hands to be used in unison.
The third and least common grip used today is the baseball grip (also known as ten finger grip). As you can probably imagine, this grip involves placing all ten fingers on the grip. The right pinky finger rests against the left index finger. This grip can help generate power to those who need it. With the baseball grip, many golfers find it easier to rotate the wrists when needed to generate speed. Most instructors will steer you away from this grip though because they don’t feel that it can give you the control of the other two grips.
Finding your Comfort Zone
Like other aspects of golf, you are just going to have to experiment to find the most comfortable grip to you. Once you find a consistent grip that feels good to you, stick with it. If you notice other problems with your game developing (such as slicing) and your grip has not changed, understand that the problem lies somewhere else. Don’t start experimenting with your grip thinking that it is a long-term solution. Find the problem elsewhere. If you don’t, the problem will more than likely come back. On the other hand, check your golf grip periodically to make sure that it has not changed. You might start making a stronger or weaker grip and not even realize it. Go back to the basics if this is the case.
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