Your hands are the only contact with the club, so the grip controls where the clubface points at impact. A small change in grip can turn a slice into a straight shot, which is why coaches often start here.
Three ways to join the hands
Overlapping (Vardon) grip. The little finger of the trailing hand rests on top of the gap between the index and middle fingers of the lead hand. It is the most common grip among professionals and suits players with medium to large hands.
Interlocking grip. The little finger of the trailing hand links with the index finger of the lead hand. It connects the hands firmly and suits players with smaller hands; Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have used it.
Ten-finger (baseball) grip. All ten fingers on the club, hands touching but not linked. It can help beginners, juniors and players with weak hands or arthritis generate more speed.
No version is “correct”; choose the one that feels secure and lets the hands work together.
Strong, neutral or weak
This describes how far the hands are rotated on the handle:
- Strong: hands turned away from the target (for a right-hander, three or more knuckles of the left hand visible). Tends to close the face, giving a draw or a hook.
- Neutral: about two knuckles visible; the V shapes between thumb and index finger point roughly at the trailing shoulder.
- Weak: hands turned toward the target. Tends to open the face, giving a fade or a slice.
If you slice, a slightly stronger grip is often part of the fix; see fixing a slice.
Pressure
Hold the club firmly enough to control it but without tension. Many coaches use a scale of 1 to 10 and suggest about 4 to 5. Squeezing tightens the forearms and slows the swing.
Checking and changing your grip
Check it in a mirror or with a photo. A grip change feels strange for a few weeks; practice it with slow swings before taking it to the course. Grip is the first piece of a sound swing foundation.
