Sometimes, the simplest swing fix involves achieving the proper grip of the club. In this video, Scott Tanguay of the Coastal Golf Academy at Whispering Pines Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, S.C. walks us through the paces of getting your grip right!
Scott Tanguay:
Hey, guys, Scott Tanguay here, the instructor at the Coastal Golf Academy, right across the street from Myrtle Beach International Airport.
Today, we want to talk about the grip, probably the most important fundamental of your game. If the grip's wrong, then you kind of have to swing bad around that. So, we're going to want to make sure that that's solid first. If you're a beginner, definitely start with that. Even if you're a seasoned player and you're holding it wrong, you're probably compensating your swing elsewhere, so we don't want to have to do that.
So, when we're holding the golf club, first and foremost, it's very important that it runs a little more through your fingers. If it's laying in your palm like this, that's not going to work too well. The tendency would be that the face stays a little open, and you're going to deal a lot with slicing it out to the right. And it's not always the swing's fault. The club face has to be aimed properly.
So, usually, especially for a righty, start with that bottom hand, the glove hand. You want to feel like it's coming through the fingers, typically, you'll see kind of the base of the pinky to the middle of the index finger, a little something like that. Now, what I like to show people is really important to get that heel pad on top of the grip, right here under the pinky. You see if it slides in the palm and you miss that, you're going to deal with that weak slice again. So, let's make sure we’ve got that heel pad on top. You can see how easily I can hold it, just one finger. That means we've got the face nice and square, we can give it a go.
So, you're going to see something like this. It's in my fingers, got the heel pad on top. You'll hear people say put that V to your back shoulder. We're just trying to be somewhere around there. Too much this way, too much this way, no good. And then, we simply just kind of place the right hand on there, almost like you're shaking the hand. You see, just comes in and lays right there. Also, trying to be more in the fingers.
I see a lot of this. This is hurting your game more than anything, probably. We crank that right hand behind, you're going to have a lot of closed club face and a lot of bad shots. So, we’ve got to shake the hand. And you can see, you don't see much palm on either hand. This means we’ve got a nice neutral grip, not too much this way and not too much this way. That's going to give us the best chance of having a square face coming through to impact. All right, because if I have the weak grip in the palm, you'll see this one kind of curves out to the side. Face is open, slice.
So, simply if we just fix the grip, a lot of the times that can change your swing. So, you get that hand a little more on top. Make sure my heel pad's on it. Now, I know the face isn't going to be open, and I can actually give it a nice solid hit. And then, it has a nice little draw to it. So, give that a try next time!