Strong Golf Grip

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Jamie23

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Does anyone here play with a strong grip and if so do you have any tips for stopping a hook?

Was shanking the ball for weeks and gave a stronger grip a go and all of a sudden I am hitting the ball solid again apart from a few huge hooks with the driver! Doesn't seem to affect my irons as bad but certainly the driver can tend to go way left

I am going to stick with the strong grip as I can still get round the course hitting the odd hook where as the shanks pretty much made the game unplayable at times!

Any tips for stopping the ball going left when using a stronger grip would be great
 
Yes and hold it off like mad! Either that or don't rescue anything you can get started right. Basically they are the same thing. Keep that right hand out of it.
 
I'm no expert but I'd guess you have to take the hands out of it and hit the ball with body turn, a la DJ.

I'd say a better idea would be to stick with a neutral grip and find the reason for the shanks.
 
My advice, never, ever even think about playing with a strong grip. My grip slowly became stronger and stronger almost without me noticing when I ( wrongly) decided I needed to draw the ball. The result was endless low hooks and a nightmare journey to get my grip back to neutral when strong felt comfortable. It cost me 4 years of my golfing life and almost caused me to give up the game.
Don't try to fix a problem (like the shanks) by introducing a compensation you know is wrong. Fix it properly or you will pay a high price and prolong the agony. All I can say is the golf club is designed the way it is for a reason. Use it the way it was designed and don't try to manipulate it. In this case this means adopt a neutral grip and fix your other problems in the right way.
 
I started out with a strong grip which was causing the club face to close and then a hook. The correction to this is of course to have a more neutral right hand, but I struggled for ages to achieve this. By just twisting the right wrist over I felt I had no control over the club on the back swing or downswing and would hit the ball fat, then fail to follow through. Then I would unconsciously readjust the right hand to a strong grip during the setup so I was back to square one.

Many grip tutorials tell you how many knuckles to see on each hand but don’t explain how to achieve this so the two hands fit together and work together.

It’s a finger and thumb right hand grip, with the palm facing square to the target at impact - not a palm grip.

1. Apply a standard left hand grip (with 2 knuckles visible and fold between thumb and index finger pointing at left shoulder)
2. Apply right hand so the shaft is held loosely in the bottom knuckles, so there is a space between shaft and top of right palm.
3. I use a baseball grip with the right hand fingers jammed up as close as possible to the left index finger and a light touch with second (middle) finger. This works for me but you may prefer to overlap or interlock. Each of them make hands even more closely aligned. Interlock means spread LH and right little finger on shaft. Overlap – use 3 fingers of RH. Try both.
4. Then fold the right palm over base of left thumb not top of thumb, so the left thumb is buried deep in the right palm. Folding the right hand ‘up’ not across so hands and wrists are aligned closer (RH now does not feel as much below LH on the shaft). Previously I had the feeling the of the RH turning over LH during impact. I had the right wrist twisted across too much so wrists weren’t facing each other. Mark outline of the RH on left glove when its correct so get a consistent alignment
5. Right thumb just on top left of shaft.
6. Right index finger curled around so feeling of control on the hinged 'wrist cock' with the under side (palm facing side) of right index finger

This worked for me, so give it a try. I now feel much better control of the club angle with the right hand at top of swing/transition, and both hands tight together through to the follow through. A tiny little adjustment can make a huge difference to the feel of the swing - the key thing is to experiment till you get a grip that feels comfortable for you.
 
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Strong grip here. Don't suffer from hooks one bit. As mentioned, when you play with a strong grip you either hold off or make sure you turn with the body. What you can have either is an out to in swing plane. (hook city).

I'll never change from a strong grip, tried for a year after lessons. Failed, went straight back to strong and dropped to single figures that year.
 
Jamie23 said:
Does anyone here play with a strong grip and if so do you have any tips for stopping a hook?

Was shanking the ball for weeks and gave a stronger grip a go and all of a sudden I am hitting the ball solid again apart from a few huge hooks with the driver! Doesn't seem to affect my irons as bad but certainly the driver can tend to go way left

I am going to stick with the strong grip as I can still get round the course hitting the odd hook where as the shanks pretty much made the game unplayable at times!

Any tips for stopping the ball going left when using a stronger grip would be great
Click to expand...

How strong is strong?
 
Sweep said:
My advice, never, ever even think about playing with a strong grip. My grip slowly became stronger and stronger almost without me noticing when I ( wrongly) decided I needed to draw the ball. The result was endless low hooks and a nightmare journey to get my grip back to neutral when strong felt comfortable. It cost me 4 years of my golfing life and almost caused me to give up the game.
Don't try to fix a problem (like the shanks) by introducing a compensation you know is wrong. Fix it properly or you will pay a high price and prolong the agony. All I can say is the golf club is designed the way it is for a reason. Use it the way it was designed and don't try to manipulate it. In this case this means adopt a neutral grip and fix your other problems in the right way.
Click to expand...

^This. get a lesson and correct the issue.
 
I think it would be pretty difficult to diagnose on here as it might not just your grip thats causing the hook. I have a strong grip, always have, often try to weaken it and do occasionally suffer the hooks.

My advice would be, try experimenting with ball position. Maybe move it back by a fraction to see if you can find a position in which you deliver the face slighlty more neutral if it is indeed closed usually.
 
Buy a DST compressor*

I have a very strong grip and it has helped massively with my hooky tendency. The DST by its nature sets me up quite strong and it has really helped with my body rotation and impact position.

I can still hook it big, but not as often or as frequently as i used to.

*i am in no way affiliated nor do i have scooby doo if this will help / hinder you in the slightest:D
 
Liverbirdie said:
Gary in Derry, Gary in Derry.........your services are required in aisle 3. :D
Click to expand...

I'm here, I'm here. :rofl:


Been struggling with hooks and fats quite a lot of late but pretty sure I have got to the bottom of it once again.

Hooks are caused by two things. Path and a shut clubface. a closed face alone won't cause massive hooks but a big inside path will tip you over the edge.

My problem was a big lateral slide to the left with my left hip to start the downswing. This drops the club way inside.
 
tugglesf239 said:
Buy a DST compressor*

I have a very strong grip and it has helped massively with my hooky tendency. The DST by its nature sets me up quite strong and it has really helped with my body rotation and impact position.

I can still hook it big, but not as often or as frequently as i used to.

*i am in no way affiliated nor do i have scooby doo if this will help / hinder you in the slightest:D
Click to expand...

I have to concur that the DST is great for improving strike and getting hand and body turn to work better and in synch.
 
Lump said:
Sorry but it's a load of twaddle.

There is no one set way to play this game. Grip the club however you want, but here is the kicker, learn what that grip does to your swing and master it.
Click to expand...
I agree that there is no set way to play the game but grip the club anyway you want??? Practically every golf book, magazine article and teacher will tell you the grip is one of, if not the most important fundamentals.

I have a DST compressor and I am a big fan. It does make you rotate which is a very good thing but other than that I am not sure the DST will help with anything other than irons. If the OP is gripping strong with his driver (and I assume he is) then he will hook with that club too and if so his scores are only going one way.

I get what Gary is saying. However dropping the club from the inside is a good thing, so if the path is way inside, don't over fix it so this advantage is lost. My tendency to drop on the inside was, according to my teachers, the one thing that saved my swing and probably kept me playing when I lost my game due to a strong grip.

It seems to me the OP could go down a destructive path of using all kinds of compensations to fix what was probably a temporary problem. Again my advice would be to use the club as it is designed, adopt a neutral grip, make sure the grip is correct and work from there. Fixing the shanks and everything else is a whole lot easier when you are holding the club correctly.
 
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