Women golfers need to be sure to understand how to grip your golf club. Here we uncover the best information on the fundamentals of the golf grip and give you a step by step of the basics.
Grip Fundamentals
How you hold your club is all-important to your golf game. Your grip controls the height, distance, and direction of your shots. Your grip should be the same with all of your clubs except your putter. Beginning women golfers should learn their grip with a seven iron.
Although there are several different types of grips, the same fundamental principles apply to them all – your hands must fit together in order to work together in the swing. Whether you are a right-handed or a left-handed golfer – you should work towards applying equal pressure from both hands. Otherwise, your hands tend to fight one another taking the stability out of your swing.
The pressure you apply should not create tension in the forearms. You need the flexibility in your arms so that they can swing the club with control and speed. Too much tension in the hands and arms restricts them from getting in position to hit the ball with power. A lighter grip enhances your wrist hinge – a vital power source in the swing. This light pressure - and here we women golfers have an advantage - also increases the amount of clubface rotation, improving your chance of squaring the club at impact.
A good guideline is to think of pressure on a scale of 1 to 10. The pressure of your grip should be around 4 to a 5 – comparable to holding a baby bird in your hand.
The basics of getting to grip with your clubs
Getting to grips with your clubs as explained above are the fundamentals of your swing affecting a great deal of your game. Follow these eight steps to perfect the basic grip. Now these are not automatic on the first one, two or even third try – you will be thinking them through. However, if you try them repeatedly – you will start to feel when your grip is correct. This will then become part of your automatic game – one part you eventually do not have to think about.
Step 1
Sit the club squarely on the ground. The leading edge (the front of the bottom of the clubhead) should point directly away from you and the club should be facing the target. Any line or mark on the grip is directly down the front. Just steady the top of the club with your right thumb and index finger.
Step 2
Hang your left hand loosely down to the side of the club, fingertips pointing directly downward.
Step 3
Fold the left hand so the thumb and fingers take hold of the club. Now take the right hand away. The club should sit diagonally on the fingers of your left hand with your thumb resting slightly down the right side – it should not feel stretched. The inset picture shows how your left hand should look on the club as you hold it up in front of you – with the thumb slight down the right-hand side.
Step 4
Lift the club out in front of you and look for the following guidelines:
The line (or V) between the thumb and index finger should point up toward your right ear or shoulder, not your chin.
If you wear a glove, you should see part of the logo on the glove.
If you don’t wear a glove, expect to see two or three knuckles – not one and not all four.
With the hand folded over correctly, the fingertips shouldn’t be visible.
Step 5
With the club still in front of you, place your right hand so the club sites on the middle joints or tips of all four fingers. Fold the right hand over to complete your grip.
Step 6
Follow these hand and finger positioning checks:
Your left thumb should fit snugly into the palm of your right hand.
The right index finger is “triggered” away from the second finger with a definite gap between the two.
The thumb is not straight down the front of the club.
The thumb and index finger are split apart with the thumb down the left side of the club.
The V between the thumb and index finger should point between the right ear and right shoulder.
Step 7
The tip of the powerful “trigger position” right index finger hardly touches the club. You want the power in the finger facing the target and not pulling away from it.
Step 8: Final Checks:
Hold the club up in front of you – a good grip makes the hands look elegant (for women golfers, this is a plus!).
The right index finger should be beneath and beyond the thumb.
Ensure the clubface is square.
As golf grips are not perfectly round, but slightly egg-shaped (or other depending on personalized grips), you should feel a slight ridge in your fingers.
Now close your eyes, turn the club, and feel how you can keep the club square even without looking at the clubface.
My suggestion is to take yourself off to a driving range and practice over and over getting to grips with your club. As advised, for beginning women golfers, start off with a seven iron and once you feel your grip is consistently correct, then move on to practicing with your other irons. Remember the grip for your putter is different and we shall explain those basics in another part of this section.
The correct pressure, combined with the proper placement of your hands on the handle, gives you the greatest chance to produce longer straighter shots.
Here we have explained the basics of your grip, there are different grips, and one may be more suitable to you than another. For more information on the different types of grips for women golfers, we suggest the following further reading:
