4 Grip
The ten-finger grip
All ten fingers on the handle. No pinky hooked, no pinky laid on top. Use this when the other holds feel like a knot.
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The situation
The overlap grip tangles your fingers, or you are new and you want every finger on the club. The ten-finger hold, sometimes called a baseball grip, is a real grip. It is not a temporary embarrassment.
It can let the hands separate if you leave a gap, and it can open the face if the lead hand is turned toward the target. Those are the two things to watch. The rest is simple.
A check you can do
Place both hands on the handle with no finger crossing another. The palms should more or less face each other, and the hands should touch. If the trail pinky has nowhere calm to sit except by climbing onto a knuckle, this is the hold to use for now. If that pinky rests easily in the channel of the lead index, you can also read overlap or interlock.
The fix
- 01Lead hand first The handle runs from the middle of the lead palm out toward the fingers. Not only in the palm, and not pinched in the fingertips.
- 02Set the lead thumb Close the lead hand so the thumb sits slightly to the trail side of the shaft, not straight down the top. You should see about two knuckles. If you see one or none, the hold is weak, and the ball will tend to leak right. That is the weak grip note.
- 03Trail hand below, all four fingers on The trail thumb can rest beside the lead thumb. Nothing overlaps and nothing interlocks. The two hands touch. A gap lets the club wobble.
- 04Point the Vs up the trail side The V between each thumb and palm points somewhere between your chin and your trail shoulder. Not at the target, and not outside the lead shoulder.
- 05Hit half swings and see if the handle spins The club should still be in the fingers at the finish. If it spun, go to grip pressure. Do not squeeze harder out of habit. If the ball still curves right after the knuckles look right, open the slice.