Help. (Grip change headaches.)

by turnover on May 11, 2009 12:58 PM EDT Comment 7 comments

Alright, Wagglers: Here's your chance to help a brother out in his time of need.

I am in the middle of altering my grip. When I began playing several years ago, I was first taught an interlocking grip. Please bear in mind that it was no professional who taught me this - it was my dad, who (bless his heart) is not the most technically skilled golfer around.

Anyway, the grip worked alright for awhile, and I attibuted my all-to-frequent shanks to the fact that I'd just not very good. Recently, though, I've had a little more time to think about my swing, and I realized that my grip on the club was very loose at the top of my backswing. This was of course requiring me to essentially re-grip the club as I began my downswing. Timing, I figured out, was everything.

That will not do.

So I picked up Hogan's book and discovered that I had the club improperly positioned in my left hand, with the shaft running pretty much straight across my palm as opposed to diagonally. I'm working on making this correction, and it has indeed provided for a more secure union of hands and club on the backswing.[I haven't gone full-Vardon; I've kept the interlock (it just feels better), but I'm not altogether opposed to going to a full overlap.]

However.

Since making these changes, I've developed a slice of epic proportions. Seriously - this ball is so far out to the right that it would require a meeting of the John Birch Society to locate it.

Any idea as to what might be causing this new-found slice? I assume it has to be grip related, as that's the only change I've instituted.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

FanPosts are written by Waggle Room members. Viewpoints expressed do not necessarily reflect those of WaggleRoom.com and its editor, Ryan Ballengee. The Waggle Room member whose byline appears with the FanPost is solely responsible for its content.

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it ain't the grip...

…A couple of guys you might have heard of used the interlockingrip – Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

The club still needs to be more in ther fingers, not the palm, so that’s good work there.

If the club is coming lose at the top of your swing – you’re probably overswinging – trying too hard to get to parallel without getting your shoulders fully turned. (I’m guessing that your left arm is touching your chest) Work on keeping the club in front of your chest – not behind the right shoulder. You’ll see the pros with the compact swings have a lot of extension and the club doesn’t get behind them.

watch guys like Woods, Anthony Kim, Villegas, Bubba Watson… They never overswing and rarely get to parallel – but they extend extend extend.

slow dow and smooth it out until you can consistently hit a hook. Stand a 30" piece of 2×4 on 2" side and tee up a ball to hit with a 5 or 6 iron where you have some clearance between the toe of the club and the 2×4. Set up to the ball and when you’re comfortable, pick the club up and set it on top of the 2×4 then start your backswing sliding on the wood. At the top, you will naturally re-route the club just a bit to come inside so you don’t hit the wood. You’ll hit the wood a few times – so don’t worry about it – just tee another one up and start again.

hit a little bucket of balls like this 3 or 4 times a week and you will groove a nice draw in just a few weeks. I’d suggest practicing and not playing for a few weeks to give yourself a chance to get used to the swing.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on May 11, 2009 1:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Bad Slice

One of the cause probabilities is having an open club face at impact.

Sometimes this is caused by loose grip- ontact by the weakest fingers on the left hand—-the fourth and fifth fingers (next to pinky, and pinky).

Using left hand only, grip the club and slowly rehearse your swing paying very close attention to what is happening to the aforementioned fingers.

As you become confident in keeping those fingers tightly closed, accelerate a bit for a day or so, and then accelerate again, to gain a reasonably slow backswing and a killer downswing.

Look at photos of the pros finishing position taking note of the hands – you’ll see those fingers tightly closed on the grip.

Happy straight- 285- down- the- prodigal- middle.

Don't worry, nothing will be allright.

by rcrusoe on May 11, 2009 1:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Something to remember about the Hogan book – even though it is a classic, most people never have the problems that he faced. Hogan was a notorious hooker and he nearly quit the game because of it.

The 5 lessons teach things like a neutral to weak grip (Hogan had incredibly powerful hands and forearms), and holding off the release to eliminate the left side of the fairway by hitting a fade. So, if you’re fighting a slice, I would suggest putting the Hogan book away and picking up Harvey Penick’s “Little Red Book”.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on May 11, 2009 1:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

ok – gotta stay away from that enter key before finishing….

In one of the other Penick books, he tells the story of having lunch with some Japanese gentlemen who talked about fighting a slice. Mr Penick figured that they had been reading Hogan’s book – which they said that they had, it was a very popular book in Japan – apparently slices were also pretty common.

Mr Penick adjusted the gentleman’s hands so that the V’s of his hands pointed to his right shoulder and he started hitting a nice little draw.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on May 11, 2009 2:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I play an interlock grip, almost always have except when I first started. I came from playing baseball, so I used a baseball grip. Here are my keys to remembering my grip. I had to think hard about this since I don’t mess with it much.

If you look at your finger, there are really 3 sections to it. I make sure that the section closest to my hand is the one that holds the underside of the grip. I always make sure that my left thumb is just slightly to the right of center of the grip. Depending on how I am swinging, I go from neutral to slightly weak with my right thumb.

And I swing to parallel or slightly past, so it can be done. Just make sure to keep a pretty firm grip on it all the way through.

Email me any comments or questions at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com.

by Ryan Ballengee on May 11, 2009 3:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

More than likely, your previous grip was simply compensating for some other problem. One thing is for certain: you are impacting the ball with an open club face and/or coming over the top and your club is approaching the ball from the wrong side of the target line.

It’s hard to suggest a cause without seeing what’s going on. Do you have any swing video?

A lesson is probably going to be your least frustrating path to success.

by Double Eagle on May 11, 2009 5:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for all the advice....

…especially the drills. I have a day off Thursday – looks like I’ll be heading to the range.

Independent of the slice, this grip alteration has been frustrating as hell. I’ve been trying to keep a club with me as much as possible so as to get myself comfortable with the new hand positioning. It’s a bear of a task.

"Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose." - Winston Churchill

by turnover on May 12, 2009 1:47 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs