Is your driver grip "stronger" than your iron grip??

[zanemoseley]

So I'm on year two of playing, not counting the bit I played when I was younger. I've been battling the problems as I find them and my game is improving.

Most recently I've been trying to work on my slice (to the left, I'm LH), it was VERY bad with the driver to the point where I started using a 3 wood to tee off. After watching some videos I found that my grip was flawed, it was very weak, the "V" on my top hand (right hand) faced my front shoulder. Once I got both "V's" going to my rear (left) shoulder my drives are starting to straighten out nicely and long too, I think a good one goes about 280.  I've also switched from an interlocking grip to an overlapping grip which I've heard is less likely to slice.

Now the problem, I used to be able to hit my mid irons fairly well and straight. Now since fixing my grip I am hooking them which is a problem I NEVER had before. Before I couldn't hook it if my life depended on it.

Is my grip too strong for the irons but just right for the driver? Should I adjust the grip depending on the club I'm swinging? Perhaps I need more of a neutral grip (top "V" toward the chin area) for my irons.

Just curious what you guys do. If I can straighten out all my clubs I think I'll be under 100 by the end of the season.

[TexasDuffer]

I believe what is happening for you is that since the clubs vary in shaft length, you strengthen, you get to get the club face to close up at impact, producing straight shots. With the irons having shorter shafts, everything is happening a lot more quickly. So with that strong grip the club face is hooded at impact producing a draw, or strong hook.

Personally I have to use a stronger grip on driver than I irons. Another thing to watch out for when using a strong grip is to make sure you are setting up with the club face square to the target, I have tendency to hood the club when using a strong grip.

Hope that helps! and hit em straight

[rw21217]

I had a similar problem.  I play my irons back in my stance and my driver off the left heel.  I found that as my ball position got farther forward my grip would get weaker.  Since noticing it I've learned to fix it and all is good.  I don't use a different grip, it's just that the ball position was making me grip the club weaker with the longer clubs.

[Makana81]

As mentioned by "TexasDuffer", proper alignment and square club face at address is key.  The next thing is to realize that golf is a game of managing, so with that said try to limit the differences of grip...after properly warming up, keep a single grip style (weak, neutral, or strong), align the club face to square to the target line at address, now you'll need to take between 3 to 5 swings making slight adjustments to ensure straight ball flight.  Once this is accomplished...straight ball flight, mark the "V groove" from your top hand onto the club, now draw a two inch long line with permanent marker along the grip (thumb line), this will be your new focus for grip alignment...continue this with all your clubs.

I've found that insignificant changes to us in grip to shaft to club face to target line alignment can induce unwanted results like hooks/slices/etc..  I equate this to bowling...everyone wants to bowl a strike by focusing on the pins down the lane but to use the approach dot's for foot alignment and/or the guide arrows 15' down the lane from the foul line is a lot easier to focus on than trying to hit a spot 60' away.

Hope this helps and that my metaphorically use of bowling didn't confuse you any, good luck.

[bunkerputt]

You know, I'm starting to think I grip the driver a little shut and the irons a little open.  I always thought you should keep them the same, but I notice that if I do that, I hit my driver straight and pull my irons, or hit my irons straight and slice my driver.  The hands don't really change position or orientation, so I wouldn't say the grip changes, but if I pick up the club and just relax my hand, the driver shuts to about 30 degrees.  The irons shut to about 10 degrees, so it must be more open in my hand.  I've heard it's harder to "square" the longer clubs, but I never really understood that.  I don't try to "square" anything.  Just keep the arms and torso in sync and don't roll the forearms at all and the club will remain in whatever orientation you gripped it in at address.  When I chip, my left thumb runs down the shaft in line with the leading edge of the club.  When I drive the left thumb runs down the shaft more to the right side of the face.  Not sure if this is good or a compensation for a swing fault.

[bunkerputt]

I think I thought of a reason why this seems to work.  With the irons, you are really trying to get a lot of forward shaft lean at impact.  No so much with the driver.  To get nice impact lean with the irons, it takes a lot of maintaining right hand lag pressure.  This pressure also tends to close the club face which means you can grip the club a little more open than with the driver.  With the driver, you really want to throw the club a little instead of drive the club with hand pressure so that you get a little higher launch and maximum speed at the cost of a little loss in accuracy due to the timing the throwing action requires.  Since the right hand pressure is lost a little earlier with the driver, no force is really working to square the face.  Maybe I'm blowing smoke here...  It seems reasonable that the forward ball position and a consistent release point with the same grip and forward pressure would just cause the club to release more with the driver without having to think of a "driving" iron swing and a "throwing" driver swing.

[bunkerputt]

Just thought of something else too...  My driver ball position is forward with shoulders more open because I'm addressing it with the club on the ground directly behind the ball.  When I bring the club back to the middle, does it look open?  I don't know because I don't have a club in front of me, but my guess it it looks like it opens some. This also makes me wonder if it's wise to keep the club behind the ball instead of putting it a foot behind with the driver a la Moe Norman so the address alignment is consistent between the set.  So put the club on the same spot on the ground regardless of ball position.