Grip
Knuckle test with a correction to neutral
Grip too weak
Count your knuckles and roll your lead hand back to neutral, so that the clubface no longer stays open.
Recognise this?
- The ball starts to the right, or sets off straight and then sails away in a curve to the right.
- Balls come off high and without power; you lose length even though the swing feels hard.
- At address you see almost no knuckles on your top hand, and plenty of knuckles on your bottom hand.
- You feel that you have to throw the club over with your hands to get it closed at all.
Why it happens
With a weak grip both hands are turned too far to the left around the grip: at address you see only one knuckle or fewer on the lead hand and three to four on the trailing hand. From that position it is very difficult to release the club properly, which leaves the clubface open at impact -- producing pushes, fades and slices. Jack Nicklaus says the same thing in other words: a grip with too little strength leaves the clubface open at impact and produces slices, and here too the wrong grip prevents a full release and an extended position at the ball. So both sources point the same way: it is a grip fault that holds the clubface open, not a matter of swinging harder or softer.
What the drill fixes
The knuckles are something you can see for yourself the moment you take your grip, so you do not have to wait for ball flight to know whether your hands are placed well.
What you need
- A mid iron
- A mirror
easy
How to do it
Step 1: Count what you see now
Take your normal grip and look down at your lead hand. Count the knuckles you see. Checkpoint: at neutral you see about two knuckles on each hand. If you see none or one, your grip is weak.
Step 2: Roll back to two knuckles
Roll your lead hand to the right over the grip until you see those two knuckles, and only then bring your bottom hand on, so that you see about two knuckles there as well, not three or four. Checkpoint: the palms face each other, not both turned to the left.
Step 3: Five balls, watch the curve
Hit five balls with a half swing without moving your hands in between and watch where the ball goes. Checkpoint: the curve to the right should get smaller. If it does not, there is a second cause underneath and the grip is not the whole story.
How often
5 × 5 balls, rebuilding the grip before every set
The corrected grip needs time to become second nature; short sets with a fresh build-up each time rehearse that placing more often than long sets with the same grip. The exact numbers are a practical translation, not a protocol from the sources.
Sources
- Weak Golf Grip: What Is It And How To Fix It (Golf Monthly, PGA-pro Ben Emerson)
- Jack Nicklaus explains how the wrong grip is hurting your game, and how to fix it: Flashback Jack (Golf.com)
Is this your fault to fix?
Caddium measures it in your own swing video — your first analysis is free.
Start free