Earlier this week, I shared a video on my Instagram of the best ball striker in golf, not hitting the golf ball.
Well, technically he hit a ball, but only at the very end of the video. For almost 20 seconds leading up to it, Scottie Scheffler just stood there. He gripped the club, then he looked at his grip, then checked his clubface, then looked again and re-checked again.
The funny thing about this moment, too, was that Scottie Scheffler was using a molded grip trainer as he was doing this. It was quite literally impossible for him to grip the club incorrectly using this thing. But that wasn’t the point. He was focusing with all his energy on remembering exactly how the correct grip felt.
The rest of us would’ve hit two, or maybe three range balls in this same amount of time. The World No. 1 hit one, and spent the rest of the time dialing in the details.
1 thing to know
Perhaps the most important thing you need to know is that there’s no one best grip for everyone. Some golfers like their hands more under the grip; others more on top of the grip. As Golf Digest Top 50 coach Terry Rowles explains, it really just depends on your natural instincts as a golfer.
Ultimately, a good grip is one that gives you a sense of where the clubface is. If you have that, you have a good grip. Even if it looks a little weird, like U.S. Amateur contender Garrett Engle’s hold.
After that, your goal is to make sure you grip the club in that same way, every time. It’s easy for grips to move around—even for pros. It can fix that mistake. It’s better to prevent it in the first place, like you see Scottie doing above.
Some stuff to try
- Experiment with closing your eyes and gripping the club. Try to get the clubface to square, then open your eyes and see how close you got.
- Six-time major champ Nick Faldo recommends a “hammer” test. Grip the club with your left hand and hammer the club against the ground. Soon you’ll find your hand in its natural position, he says.
- Lots of golfers make the mistake of resting the club on the ground, then taking their grip. Golf Digest Best in State Teacher Erik Barzeski recommends holding the club up as you grip it, which helps ensure you’re gripping the club in your fingers.
- Often you’ll see pros practice their grip with a kind of samurai sword method. Golf Digest Best in State Teacher Michael Finney recommends his students do this, because it “orients the back of the left hand and forearm to the leading edge of the clubhead,” he says. Pointing them both in the same direction was a big clubface control key for Lee Trevino and Moe Norman, among others.
