Grip Breakthrough....at least for now

**MMouse** · July 19, 2009

Hi, I'm new to the forums. I've been golfing for 2.5 years now ( still new ) and we won't discuss handicap right now

I'm a short guy at 5'4" but have very long arms ( 28 1/4 " from ground to wrist bend) and very wide shoulders.

I have a tendancy to slice which I know is being caused by bringing the clubface back to the ball in an open manner.

On Friday I put in a round, and as I was working my way through the 18 holes I had a thought ....." What if I turned my left hand more clockwise around the club, so that it might be more prone to pull it back to a square/less open contact position?"

I tried it out with some better shots. Then on hole 18 into the wind, I had the best drive out of our group, the only one to hit the fairway.

Anyway, is this a sound method for improving this problem or am I just opening the door to future problems? My train of thought was that due to my excessively wide shoulders, further turning over of the hands might be needed.

Furthermore, anyone out there with any other tips for shorter/wider shoulder golfers?

***iacas*** · July 19, 2009

It depends. If your grip was already weak, sure. If it was already neutral, eh, maybe. If it was already a little strong, no, you're just masking another sort of problem.

It could be your grip. Or it could be something else.

**alf174** · July 19, 2009

Assuming you are a righty, what you have done is rotated your hand to create a strong grip. It will certainly get your desired result but it will hamper shotmaking later as you get better or worse, develop into a left hook. The desired position is nuetral.

A slice can result from a number of different swing "faults". examples: a outside-to-inside swing path; a cupped left wrist; a swing that starts with arms instead of the torso.

Keep at it; a slice is one of the biggest problems to overcome, but once you understand how your swing creates a slice there are ways to eliminate or minimize it.

**Zeph** · July 19, 2009

Impossible to tell really. You could mask other swing flaws by altering your grip, which could lead to other problems later on.
For a high handicapper, slicing is very common and many have tried a stronger grip to keep the clubface square. It may work as a temporary bandaid fix, but can cause trouble. Now, we don't even know if your grip was strong, neutral or weak from the beginning, so it's hard to give any advice.

Your body build doesn't matter much, could mean you need adjusted clubs, but it really depends on the arm length in reference to your height. Taking a lesson or two, working on the fundamentals will probably do you good. Get some work done on the grip. You can search for the golf grip on google and try to see where your grip is and work on it from there. Still, the slice can be caused by other things, which you at some point want to fix.

**MMouse** · July 20, 2009

I feel I've always had a pretty neutral grip, but things have never felt comfortable to me. Sad part is I was out with my sons tonight chipping in the yard and I took one of their wedges which was LH.......2 out of 4 balls went right in the bucket from about 10 yards out.........and I play RH.

**ControlJunkie** · July 20, 2009

Take your normal stance, and address the ball like you're going to take a shot. Then, with your eyes and head level, look down at your hands. How many knuckles on your left hand do you see?

**Zeph** · July 20, 2009

What I like to do with the grip is looking for the word "neutral". To ge there, all I really have to do is put the club down in front of me between my legs. Let the arms hang naturally by my side and simply reach out to grap the club without twisting or turning anything. That is neutral for me. If the club at this point is square to the target line, I know I'm in a good position.

I can still mess it up in the swing by f.i. cupping the left wrist, which is causing a slice, but it's not because of the grip. I'd recommend you start with a neutral grip, making sure your clubface is square and take it from there. If you are still slicing you can experiment by turning the club in the hands a degree or two counter-clockwise and see if that does anything. If your shots start going straighter, you are doing something in the swing to cause the slice. Could be a cupped left wrist, holding off the release or coming over-the-top.

**hkphooey00** · July 20, 2009

I normally shoot upper 90's. Just changed to a strong grip and shot a 91, 71% fairways hit, 50% GIR. Now if only I can putt.

**mtsalmela80** · July 20, 2009

Is there something wrong with a strong grip? I just learned about strong/weak grips and taking a stronger grip really made dramatic improvements with my driving. With a slightly stronger grip, its easier and almost more natural to release. Just timing the release at the perfect moment is the issue now.

My teacher said that by adjusting his grip, he can draw or slice it easier depenging on how he wants to work the ball. Sounds great to me in theory.

**ControlJunkie** · July 20, 2009

Is there something wrong with a strong grip? I just learned about strong/weak grips and taking a stronger grip really made dramatic improvements with my driving. With a slightly stronger grip, its easier and almost more natural to release. Just timing the release at the perfect moment is the issue now.

You'll get a lot of different opinions on this. Just see this thread to see what I mean:

http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25783 . Normally an overly strong grip is a band-aid for some other flaw in the swing. Some people do have success with it, while in the long run, it causes problems for others. You become more likely to hook the ball as your swing improves. With a neutral grip, the dispersion of your misses will be a lot smaller, once your swing gets better. As for what your teacher said, yeah, it may be easier to draw or fade the ball by adjusting your grip, but I know I'd personally rather do it by slightly opening or closing my stance, which will modify the swing plane, producing the desired shot shape. To me, it's much easier to move my feet vs. changing my grip. I think there's a few people on here that would agree with me that changing your grip to produce a draw or a fade might not be the best way to do it. Of course, like I said, for some people, it works.

**MMouse** · July 21, 2009

After doing some experimenting with my grip I've found that my previous grip was possibly a little weak.
When I grip my club I place it in my left hand, with the club laying across the base of my pinky and the middle pad of my forefinger. From there I use an interlocking grip. I have found that with my hand size, using this grip the club is being pulled more into my palm. I have small hands to start with so I may go back to playing with a ten finger grip as i used to before an instructor got me on the interlock grip ( he uses it with ALL of his clients)

boilermaker711 · July 21, 2009

I normally shoot upper 90's. Just changed to a strong grip and shot a 91, 71% fairways hit, 50% GIR. Now if only I can putt.

I just did the same HK...and I am also a big time 3 putter. Good luck!

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