It’s an underrated part of the game, but gripping the club might be the single most important thing you learn how to do as a golfer.
If you don’t have the fundamentals of the grip down, it’s going to be incredibly difficult for you to develop a consistent, repeatable swing. Scottie Scheffler talks about this at length, and puts a lot of time into making sure his grip is on point.
If you are looking to develop as an amateur golfer, there are few people who are better to listen to for advice than Padraig Harrington. The three-time major winner is incredible at giving out golf tips in ways that anyone can understand.
And he explained that while there are many different ways you can grip the club, there is something that every professional has in common with their grip that amateurs must learn from.
Padraig Harrington tells amateur golfers how they must grip their clubs
Harrington said that unless you learn how to grip the club correctly, you will never be able to develop your swing properly. He broke down the fundamentals of the grip on the Golf Channel Academy:
“In golf, your left hand, it can vary. You’ll see a lot of different pros with strong or weak grips, but all pros, the one consistent factor you will see in the tour, they put their right hand on top of the club like so. Like you’re shaking hands with the club.
“Now, there’s a reason for that. As you come into impact, your right arm is stretching, and there’s a lot of force on it to keep the club face square because it’s further away from you than your left hand.
What is the one golf rule you would change if you had the opportunity?
“If this is here (puts right hand thumb on top of the club), which you see a lot of amateurs do, they’ll put their hand on here. This will help you hit the first, second, and third shot well, but for the rest of your life, it’s going to cause a world of pain because it’s going to want to flip, and then you’re going to have to protect it.
“But if you put it on top like so, like you’re shaking hands. Yes, the first couple of shots aren’t going to be as good, but eventually you’re going to have to square that club up with your upper body.
“The right-hand grip must stay on there, and it is the biggest common denominator between good golfers, professional golfers. Put your right hand on top. Short-term pain for long-term gain.
“Whereas this, every bit of instruction you’ll ever see written in magazines, in books, every bit of TV coverage you see is all for the orthodox grip. If you’ve got a grip over here like this (with right-hand thumb on top of the club), you need your own personal PGA Pro because you can’t work with this.
“It may help the first shot go left, but after that, it’s going to be terrible problems.”
If you follow Harrington’s advice, you may well see your game decline in the short term. But he says that will give you immense long-term benefits.
Colin Montgomerie says how tightly you should grip the club
Colin Montgomerie also stressed the importance of the grip, but he went into detail about how important it is to hold the club loosely.
He explained: “I guarantee every one of you would grip the club tighter than I do at address. Every one of you would strangle the club at address, not allowing you to do the most important part of the swing, which is finishing the backswing.
Which four players do you choose?
“The tighter you grip, the less you can get back, because the forearms are tense, everything is tense. So what we do is reduce the grip, allowing us to finish the backswing. Light hands at address, enabling us to finish the backswing.”
According to Montgomerie and Harrington, holding the club properly at address is such a key part of the golf swing, and that’s something we can all easily improve.