Tiny grip adjustment has dramatic effect (and cured my hooks?)

[jasongst]

If you are drawing and hooking the ball but would like to hit a natural fade, you might want to read this. Your mileage may definitely vary here, because A) I haven't read this tip from any reputable source, and B) I've only been trying it for two days now. It also might not apply if you don't use a glove, or if you use a weird grip size.

So I've had the tendency to draw or hook my shots for quite a while now. Earlier this week it was really getting out of hand though, and I was sick of magically "figuring it out" without really understanding how. In order to prove to myself that I was still in control, I wanted to learn to hit a fade without thinking about it. (I could hit fades on command, but I had to swing abnormally.) On a whim, I tried a small adjustment to my grip. I didn't weaken it or strengthen it; instead, I adjusted where the fingers of the left hand were putting pressure on the shaft.

Take a look at your fingers. The knuckle that is nearest to the tip of your finger I will refer to as the 1st knuckle, followed by the 2nd knuckle, and so on.

Prior to yesterday, my natural tendency with my left hand grip was to apply pressure using the crease formed by the 2nd knuckles on my fingers. Basically I was wrapping my fingers around the grip as snugly as possible. I was not overly tense, by I tried to really fit the grip into my hand.

The adjustment I made was to move the club grip more towards the finger tips of my left hand. I now apply pressure using the pad between the creases of the 1st and 2nd knuckle. (There is the sensation that you are leaving a slight gap in your palm, big enough for a pencil, but this is not necessarily the case.) Immediately upon trying this I hit an enormous slice. Then, with a better release (and a slightly stronger grip) I was able to tame it into a shot that either went dead straight or had a very slight fade. (Yes!)

So for the time being my hooks are gone. I'm also finding it easier to aim my pitch shots around the green. It took a little getting used to (plenty of misses to the right), but I'm now back to playing well (shot +3 over 9 holes this morning, which is good for me). So until someone comes out and tells me how incredibly wrong it is, I'm going to go for it. (I consulted Hogan's 5 Lessons and there just wasn't enough detail on the left hand to determine this.) If you can't seem to cure your hooks, you might as well give this a try!


P.S. I think the reason this works is because having the grip more in your fingers influences the natural tendency of your wrists rolling over. Either that, or it prevents you from regripping on the back swing. I'm not sure which it is, but as long as it keeps working I don't really care.

[dave s]

Interesting read and a well-written explanation. I'll give it a try. Nothing like hooking an 8-iron 10 yards left on a short par-3! Also, no good ever comes from duck-hooking a driver into the trees 140 off the tee-box, either.

Thanks for the idea.

dave

[MeltDownZ]

As always, if it works for you, great.

But for me, I have a little issue with this approach. First off, it took me a long time to establish a grip and setup that leave my hands feeling like they are warmly molded to the club completely. That's one aspect of my swing I would never want to mess with. I may grip the club ever so slightly open or closed to work a shot but I would never mess with my grip tension. I consider a relaxed, conscience free grip to be a core fundamental of the golf swing.

If I were hooking/drawing undesirably, I'd look at adjusting my swing with a slightly weaker grip and possibly ball position - possibly moving it a bit toward 1 o'clock. My overall objective would be to make these changes upfront and then swing normally.

[jasongst]

As always, if it works for you, great.

You may be right. And up till this point, I have often made the changes you suggested as my swing has evolved. But make no mistake; this is not an alteration of tension, and it is relaxed. You are only conscious of it if it is different than your current grip, but like any learned activity it does not remain conscious for long. If a good grip is as essential as people make it out to be, then this attention to detail is warranted.

One thing I forgot to mention is that many people probably hold the club this way naturally. I, for one, did not. It's very possible that I was flawed in the past and have only now made myself un-flawed.