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The fix for Grip too strong

Fixing a grip that is too strong

What is actually happening

The hands sit rotated away from the target on the handle, so the face tends to arrive closed unless something else compensates. A strong grip is not a fault by itself and many good players use one, but paired with a path already moving right it is what turns a draw into a hook.

Two knuckles showing on the top hand, seen from aboveTwo hands on a golf club handle, seen from above as the golfer sees them looking down at address. The chin, collar and both shoulders are laid in pale across the top of the picture. The top hand wears a white glove with a strap at the wrist, its fingers wrapping round the far side of the handle and its thumb lying down the handle. The lower hand is bare, its four fingers wrapping the handle from the trail side and its thumb lying down the near side. The handle is a dark rubber grip. Two knuckles, the forefinger's and the middle finger's, stand out as raised domes on the back of the glove. The V between thumb and forefinger is drawn on the top hand, and a dashed line from its point runs up to the chin. The handle stands close to upright, so the hands sit level with the clubhead. The figure moves. The top hand turns slowly on the handle through all three grips and comes back to the one described, and the knuckles appear and disappear as the hand turns rather than being counted onto it, so the count is seen as the consequence of the turn that it is. The V swings with the hand: one knuckle showing carries it toward the front shoulder, three carries it out to the back one.
  • Chin and shoulders
  • Knuckles showing: 2
  • V points at the chin
Two knuckles, V at the chin

The fix

Your hands are turned away from the target on the handle. For a right-handed golfer the lead hand sits on top of the grip, so three or more of its knuckles show at address, and the trail hand has slid round underneath. Left-handers mirror all of this. Through impact the hands tend to return toward the way they hang naturally, and the face turns with them. A face that was square at address arrives closed unless something else in the swing holds it off.

Where the face points at impact decides, for the most part, where the ball starts. The difference between face and path decides how much it curves. A closed face starts the ball left of where the club is travelling and bends it further left, and because closing the face also removes loft, the flight comes out lower than the club should launch it. Paired with a path already moving right, a strong grip is what turns a playable draw into a hook that starts right, crosses the target and keeps going. The curve is usually worst with the driver, where less loft lets the gap between face and path show up more in the flight.

A strong grip is not wrong on its own. Plenty of good players use one, and if your ball starts near the target and curves a little left, leave it alone. It becomes the fault when the miss is a hook you cannot aim away from.

Check it with the grip you actually play with, before adjusting anything. Take your address in front of a mirror or a phone camera. Looking down, count the knuckles on your lead hand: three or more is strong, two is the reference. The V between lead thumb and forefinger should point somewhere between your chin and trail shoulder, not outside the trail shoulder, and the trail palm should face the target rather than the sky. Then read the flight. A strong grip gives a repeating miss to the left, often low and diving. That repetition separates it from tight grip pressure, where the face varies and misses go both ways, and from a body aimed left, where the path moves left and the ball either pulls straight or starts near the target and fades away to the right.

The change happens in the hands, before the club moves. Turn both hands a small step toward the target together, until two knuckles show and the V points inside the trail shoulder. Build the grip with the club held up in front of you and the face vertical, then lower it to the ground. Finishing a grip after the club is already soled is how the face gets twisted without you noticing.

The instinctive answer to a hook is to aim further right to leave room for it. The path follows the body right, the face is now even more closed to that path, and the curve grows. The other instinct is to hold the face open through impact with stiff wrists and a harder squeeze. When that works the ball blocks right, and when it does not the hook returns, so a one-way miss becomes two. Change the grip and keep the aim square.

Expect the first shots with the new grip to finish right of your usual miss and to feel as though the face is open. That is the face arriving less closed than your swing has learned to expect. Judge the change on start line and curve over a few sessions of half swings, not on how strange it feels in your hands.

Drills

Work through them in order. Each one says what it needs before you start.

  1. Knuckle count in the mirror

    Stand facing a mirror, or prop a phone at chest height facing you, and take your normal address with a mid-iron. Looking down, count the knuckles on your lead hand and note where the V between thumb and forefinger points. Take both hands off, turn them a small step toward the target, and grip again until two knuckles show and the V points between your chin and trail shoulder. Check in the mirror that the trail hand sits on the side of the handle rather than underneath it. Rebuild the grip from scratch ten times, hands fully off the club each time. Success is ten grips that look the same without a second adjustment. Start hitting balls once you can build it without looking down to check.

    Needs A mirror or a phone camera

  2. Build the grip in the air

    Hold the club out in front of you at waist height, shaft horizontal, with the leading edge pointing straight up and down. Place the lead hand so the handle runs diagonally across the fingers and two knuckles show, then fit the trail hand on with its palm facing the target. Lower the club to the ground without letting the hands or the face turn. Do this before every ball in a 30-ball session. Success is a leading edge that sits square to your target line when soled, every time, with no twisting of the hands after the clubhead touches the ground. Once it happens without thought, make it part of your routine on the course.

    Needs nothing but a club

  3. Start-line gate

    Push two tees into the ground about 30 centimetres apart, two paces in front of the ball, either side of your target line. With the adjusted grip and a mid-iron, hit half swings, hip height to hip height, and send the ball through the gate. The gate reads where the face points at impact, because that is what sets the start line. Hit ten. Success is eight through the gate with no more than a gentle curve left once past it. Move to three-quarter swings after two passing sets in a row, and to full shots when three-quarter swings pass as well.

    Needs Two tees

  4. Hold the aim while the grip settles

    Lay one alignment stick just outside the ball pointing at the target and a second along your toes, parallel to it. Hit ten balls with the new grip and set up square to the sticks every time, even if the old hook shows up. Write down where each ball starts and which way it curves. Success is a set where the aim never moves and the curve left is smaller on the last five balls than the first five. Take the sticks away for full shots once the miss has stopped being one-way left.

    Needs Two alignment sticks

Browse every drill on the site

Practice plan and log

Practise this fix, day by day

Keep a dated log of every session against this fix, so in a few weeks you can read back whether the change has taken instead of trying to remember.

Checkpoints

What to look for to know whether the change has taken.

  • Looking down at address, you see two knuckles on the lead hand, perhaps the edge of a third, not three full knuckles or more.
  • The V between lead thumb and forefinger points between your chin and trail shoulder, not outside the trail shoulder.
  • In a mirror, the trail hand sits on the side of the handle with its palm facing the target, not underneath it facing the sky.
  • With the grip complete and the club soled, the leading edge sits square to the target line rather than turned left.
  • Well-struck shots start near the target and curve gently, if at all, instead of diving low and further left.

Feels

A feel is not a description of what the club does. It is whatever gets your body to do it, and a correct change usually feels exaggerated long before it looks correct.

  • Your palms face each other across the handle, as if you were about to clap.
  • The face feels wide open at address, even when the mirror says it is square.
  • The lead hand feels as though it sits on the side of the handle rather than on top of it.

Symptoms that lead here

Each of these can resolve to this cause. If the page above does not match what you are seeing, start from the symptom instead and let the questions narrow it.

If this is not it: causes that produce the same shots

What this rests on

Did this help?

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If something here is wrong, or contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.

The weekly fix

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Discussion

Golfers who have worked on this fault, on what helped and what did not. Read it as experience rather than evidence.

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