Perfecting your grip video

Golf Monthly Top 25 coach Paul Foston explains how perfecting your grip will help you to deliver the club square to the ball at impact.

You’ll grip a club anywhere between 70 and 100 times per round, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get it right every time.

Perfecting your grip will enable you to deliver the club square to the intended target at impact.

Grip the club in the palm and fingers of your hands. For the ideal neutral grip, your left thumb should be positioned just to the right of centre.

From there, attach your right hand by gripping with the middle two fingers and forefinger. Your right thumb should sit just to the left of centre.

If your grip is truly neutral you should be able to see two knuckles on each hand at address. If you can’t, your grip will either be too strong (centre picture) or too weak (far right), causing you to make contact with the ball with either a closed or open clubface.

Positioning 

One common error I often see among amateur golfers is holding the club too far up the grip. This results in a loss of control and also causes shots to come out of the heel of the club.

You should look to leave an inch between the top of your grip and the end of the club. On many grips, there’s a mark where your bottom thumb should go.

This is a good marker for where your grip should be. By gripping slightly further down the shaft you will improve your consistency.

Pressure 

If you can feel tension in your forearms at address, then you’re gripping the club too tightly. This grip pressure will prevent you from completing a full shoulder turn.

It’s something that happens to all standards of golfer, particularly when playing under pressure. Focus on soft hands and not gripping the club too tight. Don’t forget to waggle the club at address, as this action helps to alleviate tension.

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Size

Having the wrong size grip immediately puts you on the back foot. An easy way of checking your grip size is to grip the club with just your glove hand.

Take a look at where the ends of your fingers are relative to your palm. They should be lightly touching each other.

If your fingers are digging into your palm, your grips are too thin. If they aren’t touching at all, your grips are too thick. The incorrect grip size will hold you back when trying to deliver the club squarely at impact.