Golf Myths

If we could slow our own golf swings down enough, and then have a crusty look at what is going on we would not be happy.

It’s never what you think it is. I hate that, but it is what it is.

So, since we can’t slow us down to see what we are doing, we tend to rely on others to have a look and then prescribe a fix…….. I hate that too. There are no instant fixes in a golf swing. Golf instruction has evolved to accept this as well. Online golf instruction has attempted to solve some of these issues but not as well as golf instruction on the range. Doing it and having someone show you live is the best of the best.

But ..listen to this. There is one thing you can do that will help make your golf experience much much better.

If you could just stay with me here for a bit, don’t start with the “oh I’ve heard that before” stuff.

You may have heard that there has never been a good player with a bad grip.. but here I want to dissect this portion of your golf instruction so thoroughly that you would never get it wrong again.

Here I will show you why a bad grip can affect your set up, your alignment, your first move to the ball.

All in a very very bad way. And a simple fix will change all of that. Some people actually hit from the top just because the grip they use will not allow their body to make the right first move.

Can you believe it?

Golf instruction and golf instructors always makes noise about the grip when giving golf lessons. But the student usually forgets all about it after the lesson. It’s because it’s not comfortable or the net effects were not explained in strong enough terms.

I have watched many golf lessons given by PGA instructors that do talk about the grip. And then watched the student go right back to that stinky grip they had before the golf lesson.

First … forget about your left hand. I really don’t care what you do with it. It would be nice if you could put on the club correctly, but if you don’t it is your bad.

If you want the left hand on the grip the right way, do this. make sure the thumb is not on top of the club, locate it just off the top to your right.

And the “V” that is formed between the thumb and fore finger points toward your right shoulder, or between your right shoulder and your chin.

DO NOT GIVE UP YET…. THE GOOD STUFF IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU’LL LOVE IT!

The driver of your downswing is your right hand. Get this right and get the motion right, and you will be well on your way to putting money in your pocket after the round instead of taking money out of your pocket.

That’s right folks ………… it’s the right hand. Ben Hogan said that he wished he had two right hands.

Why did he say that when the golf community at the time knew that he was a hooker of the ball early in his career?

He said it because he understood the workings of the golf swing and how important the right hand is.

Use it correctly and some really great things happen.

Ok, let’s put the right hand on the club exactly correctly and with exactly the correct pressure points.

This is what all great players do and some don’t even know it. They just do it, and that is all that matters.

Here we go……… !

With the left hand already on the grip, using whatever tip of grip you like, overlap or innerlock, but please no baseball grips here. This is golf! If you insist on a baseball grip…….. stop right here.

Please!!!

Now take the ring finger and your middle finger of your right hand and wrap them under the club and grip the club with the first inside knuckles of these two fingers. At the same time, settle into your overlap or innerlock position with the right hand.

Put some pressure on the grip with these two fingers before you get the rest of your right hand on the club. That is so they don’t move. We want them in the first inside knuckle.

Now roll your right hand into the left hand thumb, so that the inside line of the big pad of the right hand fits on top of the thumb of the left hand.

The index finger of the right hand will look like a trigger finger, pushing against the grip in a downward direction.

The right hand will now appear as if it is more on top of the club than it is on the side. That is because it is.

Yet, if we have done this correctly, the “V” of the right hand between the thumb and fore finger will point, roughly parallel to the left one.

I will give up a little argument that it appears to be more on top. Yes it is. There is a very good reason.

So now we have the hands together on the club. The left hand for all intents and purposes here will not play an active roll in this instance. At least not that you will notice or will control.

However the right hand will seem to be controlling the whole thing. This is ok.

I assure you that what you will feel is not exactly what actually will happen. It won’t matter if you do it right, it will work and you will be happy about it.

Let’s take a second and review what the pressure points are on the the right hand grip.

The middle and ring finger have an up pressure against the shaft. You need to be able to feel this.

The thumb pad of the right hand is definitely pushing down on the thumb of the left hand. You need to feel this too. The two combined pressure points, the two fingers and the thumb pad pushing down, will give tremendous stabilization to this grip.

And lastly, the most important pressure point, is the index finger of the right hand pushing against the shaft like a trigger finger and it is pushing more down than anything else.

Now that this is done, relax.

This is a grip that you will see on any Sunday in the summer months on national TV.

This is a professional grip.

This is the grip that a 5 year old kid can do all day long.

This grip will allow you to get into a great set-up position and here is why.

The right hand is connected to the right arm which is connected to the right shoulder. Because the right hand fits below the left hand on the club, it brings the right shoulder down so that it is lower than the left shoulder at set-up.

If you put the right hand on the side of the club, you will see that it forces your right shoulder to be too low in the setup. That does not allow for a proper turn on plane.

If you put the right hand on top of the club too much it does the opposite, it forces the right shoulder to be too high at set-up.

And with either of those two grips, you will not be able to exact the pressure points that required.

So you see one thing affects another, and not in a good way usually.

With this proper grip, as you move away into a backswing your right wrist will be prone to bend back toward the forearm in it’s proper way.

You are already pushing the right wrist bent, creating an angle. A power source that you must have to be able to knock the snot out your drives and hit accurate laser like irons.

Create this angle and then push you right hand into the back of the golf ball as your first move down.

All the while keeping you left shoulder from spinning out of the swing, hit against it with your right hand hitting down at the ball.

Try a few minnie swings using this grip and feel the power of a created angle.

Keep your shoulders in the square to target line position at impact while pushing the right hand hard into the ball.

Hogan did it, why shouldn’t we?

By: Paul Macleod

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