huge grip improvement - right ring finger

[jasongst]

This is just a little tip for those of you who are uncertain about your grip.

After struggling to feel confident in my grip I discovered a little tactile clue that really gets me locked in. It's all in the tip of the right ring finger. I've started doing this when I grip the club, and the results are fantastic:

1. Take a proper grip with the left hand (I won't detail it here but be sure the thumb is on top of the shaft, not to the side).
2. Wrap over your right hand (again look elsewhere if you want all the details).
3. Feel the tip of your right ring finger gently touch the side of your left thumb.

Step 3 is the key that I was missing. I have found that when I get this correct and then check my Vs (point the club skyward and have a look) that I am consistently where I want to be. This feeling alone is enough to give me enormous confidence in my grip before I hit the ball, and it is translating into much more consistent strikes.

There's a possible step 4 as well: Feel the right ring finger gently touch the pad of your right hand. What I end up with most of the time is a tactile triangle: Left thumb, right hand pad, right ring finger.

Lately I've been able to take dead aim at my target, and I don't even need a practice swing most of the time. This has resulted in a personal best round of 76 and I fully expect it won't stop there (I was one under par through 12 holes when I started getting nervous, hah!). The grip is not the source of all this improvement of course, but it is a big contributor. By being confident in the grip I am freed to focus on other inconsistencies.

Naturally, it may not work if you have overly large or small club grips, but I'm a pretty typical hand/grip size so I bet it will work for a lot of you.

[JackieTreehorn]

I think these tips have a lot to do with the size of your fingers...in step 4 my R ring finger is not long enough to touch my thumb pad.
One thing that has helped me with my R hand grip recently is slapping my R lifeline onto my left thumb (already gripped on club properly). This is the main component of my R hand pressure, and then I loosely curl the rest of my R fingers on the club.

[jambalaya]

Sound OK accept for the part about putting the left thumb on top of the shaft. That's not going to work for most people I think.

[jasongst]

Sound OK accept for the part about putting the left thumb on top of the shaft. That's not going to work for most people I think.

That's not something I made up; it's pretty much standard. I'm not saying to line it up with the club face or anything like that, I just mean don't let it hang off to the left or right. Better yet, just make it look like this:

http://golf.about.com/od/golftips/ss...rip_lead_4.htm

[jambalaya]

That's not something I made up; it's pretty much standard. I'm not saying to line it up with the club face or anything like that, I just mean don't let it hang off to the left or right. Better yet, just make it look like this:

I have that same article bookmarked and that thumb is definitely not on top. It is towards the back of the shaft just right of center. It even says that in the instructions. Great article by the way. I recommend it for anyone who wants to know proper grip technique.

[jasongst]

I have that same article bookmarked and that thumb is definitely not on top. It is towards the back of the shaft just right of center. It even says that in the instructions.

Sigh. You're missing the point. If you haven't noticed, the English language isn't nearly as effective as pictures at describing something as subtle as thumb placement on a cylinder. Just ignore my words and look at the picture.

[jambalaya]

Sigh. You're missing the point. If you haven't noticed, the English language isn't nearly as effective as pictures at describing something as subtle as thumb placement on a cylinder. Just ignore my words and look at the picture.

Sorry, but I don't think I missed any point. It is a very important distinction to make and even the picture without the accompanying description wouldn't have been clear. I'm glad you understand but for everyone's sake it is a good idea to make sure things are clear as possible. Don't take it personally.

[jasongst]

Sorry, but I don't think I missed any point. It is a very important distinction to make and even the picture without the accompanying description wouldn't have been clear. I'm glad you understand but for everyone's sake it is a good idea to make sure things are clear as possible. Don't take it personally.

No hurt feelings. But to be fair, you haven't really clarified anything yourself. It's not easy. I even said to look elsewhere for the details. Unfortunately, what makes perfect sense to one person makes no sense to another. There are plenty of confusing statements that are in common use: "flipping the club", "reverse pivot".

If I wanted to go back in time and re-word the thumb statement (which isn't the real subject of the post anyway), I would probably say, "Be sure your thumb is sitting on the middle of the shaft, regardless of whether it is in a strong or weak position; just be sure the pad of the thumb, not the side of the thumb, is making contact with the shaft." A bit of a mouthful, but to me that statement sounds extremely clear. We'll see :)