A 6-step Plan To Grip The Golf Club Better Than Ever

The age-old advice of gripping your clubs so that the Vs created by your thumbs and forefingers point toward your rear shoulder doesn’t cut it anymore. Not even close. Research on human anatomy and efficient movement proves that there’s no universal “best way” to set your hands on the handle. Every player’s body and range of motion varies, often wildly. If you don’t consider these differences when taking your grip, you’ll be fighting yourself and risking injury the whole way — and hitting slices and hooks without ever knowing why.

Here’s the smart way to set your hands to max out your natural potential and almost guarantee a more consistent ballflight. Keep reading below to get started.

1. Start with your lead hand

Pointing both Vs at your trail shoulder assumes that we all move in the same way. We don’t. Every player has his or her “natural motion.” A good grip accentuates it while a poor one limits it, and a good grip starts with placing your lead hand on the handle in its most natural setting. To find it, stand erect with your arms dangling freely at your sides. No ball, no golf posture. Now, grip a club. That’s it. You’re now in position to start and finish your swing with zero need for manipulation.

2. Do some fine-tuning

The exercise at above gets you close to your ideal lead-hand hold, but it may not be perfect (which is what you want). The next step is to double-check that your lead-hand grip matches up with your lead-hip mobility. When these sync, it’s magic. When they don’t, you can expect more of the same inconsistency. Place your trail hand on the handle, hold the club in your address posture, then get into a “dynamic impact” position, with your weight on your front side, hands forward and your hips as open as possible. Now, check your results (see below).

3. Slip on your trail hand

I asked you to add your trail hand to your grip to fine-tune your lead-hand hold on the previous page. Now, let’s take the trailhand addition seriously. Using your new leadhand position, hold the club out in front of you at a 45-degree angle. Slip on your trail hand, being careful to place the grip through the base of your fingers (so they can wrap around the handle easily), not through your palm. Fellow Top 100 Teacher Michael Jacobs uses a great analogy: Hold the handle in your trail hand like you’d hold a suitcase. Perfect.