How should you hold your golf club? What is the best golfing grip?
How do you hold a golf club? Why is it so important to hold a golf club well?
Your hands are the only thing holding your golf club, so their position on the golf club directly affects your shots, your carry distance, your accuracy, and everything else in the game of golf, so it is primordial you get a good grip on your club.
Wearing a glove on your top hand is recommended to increase the grip on your golf club. Most people avoid wearing two gloves because it can make you lose the feel of your golf club. However, if it is raining, people will wear two gloves sometimes. At the end of the day, glove use comes down to personal preference, and you will have to experiment with different glove configurations to find your best fit. If you do not know how to choose a golf glove, read our article : How to Choose a Golf Glove.
You will also have to decide which of your hands will be on the top of your golf grip, and which one will be on the bottom. Usually, your least dominant hand will be on the top of your golf grip, and your dominant hand will be on the bottom of the grip. Most people use their left hand on top of the golf grip.
1. Make sure your club face is straight in front of you
The first time you figure out how to grip your golf club, you want to make sure you get a neutral grip. You want to see the golf club sitting on the ground in front of you, fully perpendicular to you.
To further help you figure out your neutral grip position, there is often text along the golf club shaft that can guide you. Your top hand’s thumb will usually more or less line up with the text along the golf club shaft.
2. Place the golf club in your top hand
Align the club grip with the imaginary line along your palm from the base of your pinky to the middle of your index. This will feel slightly uncomfortable and awkward, but you will get used to this hand position that gives you the most control over your golf club.
This is where the top of your golf club grip should lie on your top hand. Make sure the very end of your golf grip extends past your head, sticking out an inch or two; you want to choke down on the grip just slightly.
3. Close your top hand around the grip
Close your fingers around the golf club grip, letting your thumb rest on the shaft, more or less following the branding text of your golf club; let your hand wrap naturally around the grip.
Remember, do not cover the end of the grip; choke down on the grip slightly and let the end of the grip stick out one or two inches.
To make sure you are holding the golf club correctly with your top hand, look at your hand while your golf club’s face is straight ahead, like in step 1 of this article. When you are looking at your top hand from this position, you want all or almost all of your knuckles to be visible.
One extra trick you can use to make sure you are holding the club well is to look at the “V-shaped” crease formed in your glove between your thumb and your index finger. You want this “V-shaped” crease to be pointing towards your opposite shoulder. For example, if your left hand is the top one on your golf club grip, you would want the crease formed on the left hand to be pointing towards your right shoulder.
4. Place your bottom hand on the golf club grip
While keeping your top hand firmly wrapped around your golf club grip, your bottom hand onto the golf club, below the top hand. You want the to align the golf club grip and shaft with the imaginary line connecting the bottom of your palm to the base of your index, as shown in the image above.
5. Close your bottom hand onto the golf club grip
Close your bottom hand around the golf club how it naturally wants to sit, right below the top hand.
Wrap your bottom hand around the thumb of the top hand.
The crease formed between the thumb and index of your bottom hand should also point to the same shoulder the crease in the top hand is pointing to. This is a neutral grip.
You now have both your hands in the right positions, but there you still need to choose how to position your fingers at the back of your grip.
Below are the 3 most common golf grip variations:
6. Viewed from below, arrange your fingers in 1 of the 3 grip variations
10 Fingers Grip
This is the most simple grip to explain. Simply leave the bottom hand touching the top hand, without interlocking any fingers, as you would hold a baseball grip.
If you have smaller hands, joint issues or are a beginner, you might find this grip variation to be easier to use than the overlap/Vardon and interlocked grips.
Relative to the other grip variations, the 10 fingers grip may allow you to get more carry distance (shoot the golf ball further), but you will potentially lose some accuracy as a trade-off.
Overlap/Vardon Grip
With the overlap grip, also known as the Vardon grip, you will bring your two hands slightly closer, letting your bottom hand slide up the shaft by one finger’s distance, and placing your pinky finger between the index and major fingers of your top hand.
Visually, you are overlapping your bottom hand’s pinky finger onto your top hand.
If you have large hands, you may find this grip more comfortable than the other two golf grip variations.
The overlap grip is probably the most common grip among golfers, making it a solid choice.
Interlocked Grip
The interlocked grip is the final golf grip on our list.
The interlocked grip is very similar to the Vardon grip, except that the index on the top finger will lock into the pinky of the bottom hand that is overlapped onto the top hand. This is why this grip is called the interlocked grip.
The interlocked grip makes your hands tighter together and allows them to work more in unison, which can be good for weaker players who aren’t strong enough yet.
The interlocked grip should reduce tension in your hands by removing wrist movement, since both hands are interlocked together, but not everyone finds this grip comfortable.
This golf grip is also known to be more comfortable for people with average sized hands.
Conclusion
You should now feel like you have good control over the golf club face, which is essential for performing well in golf.
You should experiment with how firmly you hold your club, but not so hard that your fingers are hurting.
Go dominate the greens!
Which out of the 3 grip variations is your favorite?
