Is this a terrible grip habit?

[john]

I do the following with my grip and for the life of me I cannot change it. Someone told me that I need longer than standard clubs because I am 6.1 but I feel that even with longer clubs I will do the same thing. Is this bad? Should I work hard on changing it? My game has never been better than it is right now and I fear change ;) When I grip the club with the end of it sticking out it feels completely alien to me and I have trouble hitting my normal shots.

[Scott_K]

I don't see anything wrong with it. I do roughly the same thing, but have the grip more at the base of the fingers. I'm 6' and all my gear is off the rack. Changes to your grip are hard to do, if you've been doing it for a while. I grew up using a baseball grip and it's very hard for me to try an interlocking grip.

[alomar123]

I think you can get more distance with that grip, but it is harder to control. If you are satisfied with your accuracy then keep it.

[john]

Thanks for the replies. For some reason I always thought that it was a bad thing to not have it stick out of the back a little. I would prefer not to change it :)

thanks again!

[iacas]

I think the grip could be better. It's too much in the palm of your hand and not enough in the fingers. The pad near the wrist on the pinkie side of your hand should be more on top of the grip - you have the thumb pad more on top, you want the pad near the pinkie more on top.

[CG031]

Changing your grip is the hardest thing. If you've been playing for a real long time and are an 8 handicap don't bother changing it...

[jamo]

I used to do that and somewhere along the line I stopped, I just don't remember why or when. I guess I started choking up on my driver to keep it in the fairway, and I eventually found the middle ground which was a more normal grip.

[Keep It Simple]

Personally, I would change it. Grips are not designed to be held this way. They are contoured a certain way to provide the best grip. I was told this by both a club fitter and teaching professional. Also, you will be hard pressed to find a tour player who grips the club this way. It probably is not a make it or break it swing fault but still, you want to give yourself every advantage to improve your game.

[kafka01]

I think the grip could be better. It's too much in the palm of your hand and not enough in the fingers. The pad near the wrist on the pinkie side of your hand should be more on top of the grip - you have the thumb pad more on top, you want the pad near the pinkie more on top.

That might be pretty much an issue with gripping the club that way - it will slip more into the hand (instead of being pressed "under the palm", and when i tried it out, it felt very uncontrollable to me.

Changing your grip is the hardest thing. If you've been playing for a real long time and are an 8 handicap don't bother changing it...

I always found changing a grip not an issue at all and i pretty much use interlocking/overlapping and even baseball grip from time to time when hitting long and short shots.

[Keep It Simple]

Changes to your grip are hard to do, if you've been doing it for a while. I grew up using a baseball grip and it's very hard for me to try an interlocking grip.

Why are you switching to the interlocking grip? This is a grip used mostly by children, women and men with small hands and/or weak forearms. The overlapping grip is preferred as it helps keep the club in the fingers. Sure Jack Nicklaus used the interlock but he had small hands and Tiger just grew up with it. Most teaching professionals teach the overlap.

[john]

Personally, I would change it. Grips are not designed to be held this way. They are contoured a certain way to provide the best grip. I was told this by both a club fitter and teaching professional. Also, you will be hard pressed to find a tour player who grips the club this way. It probably is not a make it or break it swing fault but still, you want to give yourself every advantage to improve your game.

This is the one thing that worried me about having the end of the club recessed like that and why I was thinking that maybe it was a bad habit that I should try to change. I have not seen any tour players that do it like this.

[ERdiesel]

Personally, I would change it. Grips are not designed to be held this way. They are contoured a certain way to provide the best grip. I was told this by both a club fitter and teaching professional. Also, you will be hard pressed to find a tour player who grips the club this way. It probably is not a make it or break it swing fault but still, you want to give yourself every advantage to improve your game.

I was told the same thing by a few instructors, that the end of a grip is a bit "thicker" and contoured such so that the end of it pokes out of the hand a little allowing the pads on the palm to rest up against the contour thick part, allowing for a better grip. Hope that makes sense. You are a single digit handicapper so I would like to believe that even if you had the top of the grip poking out a bit, you would still be able to strike the ball pretty well. That the fact that you hold it the way you do, shouldn't make/break your game.

[john]

I think the grip could be better. It's too much in the palm of your hand and not enough in the fingers. The pad near the wrist on the pinkie side of your hand should be more on top of the grip - you have the thumb pad more on top, you want the pad near the pinkie more on top.

Thanks for the tip! I have always known that I was a little "palmy".

[iacas]

Why are you switching to the interlocking grip? This is a grip used mostly by children, women and men with small hands and/or weak forearms. The overlapping grip is preferred as it helps keep the club in the fingers. Sure Jack Nicklaus used the interlock but he had small hands and Tiger just grew up with it. Most teaching professionals teach the overlap.

I disagree.

I interlock and have larger hands than most people, and my forearms are fine. I grew up interlocking. They're a horse apiece - and I've never once had a problem getting the club too far into the palm and keeping it out in the fingers enough. Jack and Tiger interlock. Neither had small hands. Except for a minor tweak to the position, I've never seen an instructor change a student's grip from interlock to overlap (or vice versa), and almost all of the golf pros I know use an interlocking grip themselves. I don't think "most teach an overlap" at all, and if they are in the majority it's by a few percent at most, I would bet. And regardless of whether you interlock or overlap, the grip shown above: a) is too far off the end of the club b) is too far into the palm, with the wrong pad "on top" of the butt end of the grip.

[jamo]

I disagree.

I'm the same way, I have large hands (my hands were fit for XL golf gloves, but I use XXL because I like a little more room) and use the interlocking grip. I don't see any truth in the statement that the interlocking grip is for children or women.

[Scott_K]

Why are you switching to the interlocking grip? This is a grip used mostly by children, women and men with small hands and/or weak forearms. The overlapping grip is preferred as it helps keep the club in the fingers. Sure Jack Nicklaus used the interlock but he had small hands and Tiger just grew up with it. Most teaching professionals teach the overlap.

I'm not looking to change my grip. Was just using it as an example of something that is tough to change and get use to if you've been doing something for so long. My first set of clubs had leather grips which were very slick, so I use to have to hang on to them for dear life, thus the baseball grip.