Cack-Handed Golfers!

Hey

I have being playing golf now for as long as I can remember and I have always used the cack handed ( left hand below right) grip.

I play off of 4 right now and I am finding it really hard to get down to scratch which is ultimately where I want to be.

I have looked around the internet and found that being cack handed loses you distance and at the course I play at there are 3 par 3s all over 220 yards. So my question is should I change to try and get my handicap down to scratch or do I just stick with cack handed?

I have being trying out the more convention grip and honestly I feels super weird but I have notice the my irons go further and have a nice draw shape to them.

And also if anyone else has ever played cack handed and switched to a more standard "proper" grip please let me know how you got on :D

I remember your post back in April about your drop in distance.  At the time, you mentioned that you had golfed cack-handed all your life and didn't feel that the grip was an issue because you previously had plenty of distance.

Has something changed?  The distances you posted back then, before your unexplained drop in distance, strike me as plenty long enough to play down to scratch......

Yeah well remember haha

I have moved to a new town and its a whole different golf course I play now.

This new course is alot longer and with my driver and woods my distance is fine but its with my irons that I struggle to get the proper distances.

The course I play is also links so its naturally alot firmer so the more loft in my hands the better for the approach shots.

Plus I just feel that with the club play in seasons now finished I feel like this would be the ideal time to try and work on changing grips.

I found out the reason for lost of distance was because I was flaring the club face way open on the way back. When I attempt the use the more conventional grip the club face stays squaring for me so I am naturally going to be gaining distance just by changing.

I had to go look up videos of cack handed swings, I've never heard of this.  Talk about strange.

It may look strange but its alot more common than you think

About 5% off all golfers use it. I think the main pro at the moment is called John Callagher and he plays on the amateur tour right now.

It does look weird but the people how use the grip, it feels natural to them.

Cack-handed is the traditional scottish nomenclature.

I've played with good cack-handed players. I couldn't say whether the reason you don't see more is the pressure to conform - the same reason that left-handedness in general used to be seen less than it is nowadays.

If I were you, before I changed my grip in search of more distance, I think I'd try to get a measure of my current clubhead speed. If you're hitting your drives far enough, but not your irons, I'd suspect something other than your grip is the issue.

I'd like to see where you got that from.....one in 20 golfers?!   Please show me 5 total on the PGA and European tours combined.....heck, show me 2!

In 45 years of playing this silly game, I've never played with a single cack-handed player.  Not picking on your choice of grip, but don't pretend that it's commonplace, because it isn't.

The thing is but today when I was hitting the ball using the "correct" grip I was hitting my irons 20 yards further and the shots all had a much better shape and trajectory to them. The only problem was consistency. I don't know if its worth my trying to work at it or just stay with my tried and trusted grip and risk not improving or do I switch it and chance maybe not being at the same level for a few months.

The driver I was hitting roughly the same as what I was cack-handed as well and maybe a touch higher.

So the question is:

If it was you do you stick with trying the conventional grip or do you just forget about it and concentrate on being cross handed?

Sorry I must of misread the stats on it. I was sure I read somewhere that 5% of golfers use it which I thought myself was too high.

5% seems high in my experience - though I don't know that I'd make an issue of it.

Isn't cack-handedness much more common in places where games with two-sided bats, such as ice-hockey and shinty, are played? Those guys effectively learn to swing at a ball both ways - and a cack-handed golfswing won't feel strange at all. If that's the case, there's no reason to think that cack-handed (whether its 5% or 0.05%) is going to be reflected uniformly throughout the golfing world.

If you have your hands backwards in ice hockey then it just means the puck is across your body and you're back handing it. As far as golf is concerned ... I know of two, ever. One PGA guy that is probably the same one previously mentioned, and one of the current contestants on big break (will). It does not look even remotely ideal ... But if two guys can get to pro level doing it, seems reasonable that a third could get to scratch. Based on my experience though, I'd venture a guess that it's something more like 0.005% that swing like that.

I might be able to try putting or chipping cack handed.

Hitting cack handed would be physically impossible for me. I think I would dislocate my lead shoulder.

Well, if I knew the cack handed-ness was causing me problems and preventing me from getting better I guess I'd consider changing it.

Is it possible to get a hold of some left handed clubs and try hitting that way?  Or is that a whole other animal?

Hello buddy. I been playing golf all my life with the cack handed grip /cross handed grip /wrong grip, what ever you want to call it. The best I achieved was exactly 0.0 but now I am currently back out to 0.9 as I don't play as much. I never struggle for distance off the tee or irons. There was a patch when I lost distance but found I got lazy in my bottom half and stopped transferring my weight onto my front foot hence lacking the squashing of the ball and penetrating flight. So maybe get a slow motion video done and check to ensure you are over the ball or even slightly ahead at impact and releasing your hands. Once I got that back in my game my distance came back. Its amazing how lazy we can get over a period of time, hence its always good to have a coach you see periodically. Same coach as well not different, as a coach will get to know your game/swing and work with you. then when you drop back after a period can see your bad habits asap and work on the fix. now when I see my coach once every month 2 months its only for like 15 mins and I am fixed again. its a must. hope this helps buddy.

I refuse to shake with anyone that is cack handed 

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