Strange glove wear pattern

[MiniBlueDragon]

Hi folks,

I normally don't wear a glove to pay, however when I bought my irons a little while back the grips were too harsh so I resorted to temporarily wearing one. I've noticed two areas of the glove starting to rub a little with my swing; the thumb pad at the knuckle join and the edge of my hand, however today one of the "rubs" turned into a hole and it's got me confused.

This is my glove:

My normal grip is a three-knuckle overlap grip (three knuckles showing on the left hand stops me from opening the face too much at impact as my swing is one-plane) and the club is placed in the fingers and the hand wrapped around afterward. This is visible by looking at the blacker areas of the glove, e.g. across the fingers.

Here are some pics of my hand being un-wrapped from the club in case there are any clues there:

And an arbitrary address grip position photo:

I really feel my grip is ok so I'm thoroughly confused! Does anyone have any bright ideas on how I'm gripping incorrectly, assuming it's a grip issue of course?

[saevel25]

when you swing, is your arms hanging straight down, or are you extending your arms straight out inline with the club shaft? The only way i can visualize the club hitting that area of the glove is if hold the club out infront of you 90 degrees upright, and then extend the club head away from you. so your pinky gets closer to your wrist.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by MiniBlueDragon

Hi folks,

I normally don't wear a glove to pay, however when I bought my irons a little while back the grips were too harsh so I resorted to temporarily wearing one. I've noticed two areas of the glove starting to rub a little with my swing; the thumb pad at the knuckle join and the edge of my hand, however today one of the "rubs" turned into a hole and it's got me confused.

This is my glove:

My normal grip is a three-knuckle overlap grip (three knuckles showing on the left hand stops me from opening the face too much at impact as my swing is one-plane) and the club is placed in the fingers and the hand wrapped around afterward. This is visible by looking at the blacker areas of the glove, e.g. across the fingers.

Here are some pics of my hand being un-wrapped from the club in case there are any clues there:

And an arbitrary address grip position photo:

I really feel my grip is ok so I'm thoroughly confused! Does anyone have any bright ideas on how I'm gripping incorrectly, assuming it's a grip issue of course?

Try gripping down a bit (aka "choking up"). The natural twisting of the butt end of your grip is tearing up your glove (and your hand probably). I used to wear out the thumbs like you are, but had much less wear in the heel. The heel wear went away once I went gloveless and gripped down. I also have a stronger right hand grip than left, so take that for what its worth.

If you want to go gloveless again, just throw some athletic tape (or flexible first aid tape)  on that part of your thumb.

[MiniBlueDragon]

Originally Posted by saevel25

when you swing, is your arms hanging straight down, or are you extending your arms straight out inline with the club shaft? The only way i can visualize the club hitting that area of the glove is if hold the club out infront of you 90 degrees upright, and then extend the club head away from you. so your pinky gets closer to your wrist.

Ah now this is interesting; I've recently started to bring my arms closer to my torso at address. When I started out playing my arms at address were mid way between a Moe and regular address. Since then I've slowly gravitated toward a "normal" address position. Could be that I've relapsed and am not hanging the arms as down as needed (or over-extending the 3w/driver address position).

I shall investigate!

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Try gripping down a bit (aka "choking up"). The natural twisting of the butt end of your grip is tearing up your glove (and your hand probably). I used to wear out the thumbs like you are, but had much less wear in the heel. The heel wear went away once I went gloveless and gripped down. I also have a stronger right hand grip than left, so take that for what its worth.

If you want to go gloveless again, just throw some athletic tape (or flexible first aid tape)  on that part of your thumb.

Not sure I can grip down much more than I do already. Currently I grip about 1" down the grip (see pics) as I'm 5'7" so much more choking down and I'd need to start getting the clubs shortened/flattened etc. Really like the tape idea though. Zinc oxide tape seems to be pretty cheap too so well worth trying it out.

[mdl]

Those are the spots I tend to get wear on my glove.  Why is that a problem?  With what I've always felt was a "correct" grip, those seem like two logical places for there to be above average friction between one's club and one's hand, no?

[saevel25]

Well i am not sure if its a problem or not really. I don't wear a glove, but i never had an issue with the club rubbing that part of my hand

[newtogolf]

I wear my gloves out in the same place.  I think it's due to the end of the club rubbing the heel on follow through.  I have similar grip and follow through is the only time I can isolate the club touching that spot.  The excess wear I assumed was due to the outer edge of the club grip rubbing against the leather as I don't see that level of wear in any other area I grip the club.

[sean_miller]

I'm pretty sure you could. You're not choking down as much as you think you are.

Originally Posted by MiniBlueDragon

Not sure I can grip down much more than I do already.

[motteler621]

just buy a new glove. They arent meant to last too long.

[RC]

Classic regripping wear spot.  Means your grip comes a little open at the top then regrips.  Your heel pad is too much on the side of the club grip.  Solution is to get the heel pad of the left hand on top of the grip.  You can check easily.  Take your left hand grip holding the club out in front of you pretty level, open up the fingers of the left hand except for the index finger (which stays in a trigger finger position,) and have someone pull on the club.  It should stay securely in your hand if the butt end is under your heel pad.  This means more into the fingers of the left hand and to arch the wrist a bit when taking your grip.  You can get the heel pad on top of the grip and still maintain a neutral grip, where the back of the left hand faces the target and the V points in the neighborhood of your left ear to mid-shoulder.  That's my opinion.

[MiniBlueDragon]

The glove itself doesn't bother me in the slightest; I know gloves are meant to only last a few rounds; the main reason for the question was to figure out how/why I seem to have worn such a small patch on the outside of my palm.

Reading the excellent points above and through process of elimination I've come up with:

• The club never feels tightly gripped at the top for me so it's definitely a possibility I'm re-gripping at the top, knowing that I need to grip more for the downswing/impact.
  It's also a possibility that I've gone a little too far with loosening my grip and it's rubbing during transition.
• As mentioned I've been gravititating toward a more traditional 'hang' of the arms at address so it may be that I'm over-extending a little which puts that area closer to the club during the backswing.
• Over-extending could tie in with the suggestion to choke-down a little more as I'd be more likely to extend rather than hang my arms at address if I felt the club wasn't sitting flush with the turf at address (and I have short arms).
• I don't think the follow-through is the problem as I have very little "roll" after impact; not enough to rub that area away so accutely.

Another possibility I thought about was that I did a driver fitting yesterday morning and although I walked away with a great club I also hit a few of the other clubs out of the toe a few times and felt the club twist at impact. At the time I did what I think most people do and shrugged but thought, "that went surprisingly straight for such a bad contact" but never thought about the glove. It may be that bad shots and toe-contacts have helped the glove deteriorate as the club would twist in the glove.

To summarise, I've ordered a cheap roll of zinc oxide tape to try that out, I'm going to work a little more on keeping my arms closer to my body and I'll also try choking down a little more than usual and see how I go with those.

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

[MiniBlueDragon]

Just had a range session and it's hot and sweaty here in the UK. I started developing a blister on my right hand ring finger directly between that finger and my pinky.

I'm 99% sure it's caused by my right hand ring finger sliding against my left hand index finger on the grip. That to me is a clue that my two hands aren't as "knitted" as they should be in the golf swing if they're able to move against each other like that.

Temporary solution will be to stick tape over that area on my right hand or wear two gloves to play over the weekend.

Long-term there's something amiss with my grip that's causing all these issues.

[RC]

The regripping and heel pad discussion is exactly what causes the wear pattern of your glove.  I can play 50 rounds and not wear a hole in my glove.  Mine die when the sweat simply makes them feel a bit stiff.  Years ago, I used to wear a hole where you do, and a very good teacher fixed my grip and no more holes.