Maverick coach Don Ross explains how not to 'grip' the grip but hold it!

Don't 'GRIP' the grip!

In all the years that I have taught golf I have never seen a bad grip. I don't think that Golf Pride or any other grip manufacturer would sell bad grips. If they did they'd be out of business!

I will now show you how to 'hold' the grip and not 'grip' the 'grip'. The size of an object determines how you hold it. A football is large taking your whole hand to hold it. A cricket ball being smaller is positioned more in the fingers than the hand. A tennis ball being smaller is more in the fingers and less in the palm. A golf ball being smaller still will sit only in your fingers. The same is applied to holding the grip of any sporting equipment. A golf grip is the thinnest of any sporting equipment that you will ever use, unless you call darts a sport and not a drinking hobby!

How often when you buy a new glove from the pro shop and go to the range to practice do you find a hole appearing in the area of the black dot of the glove shown? This is because you are holding the grip of the glove in the wrong place. You probably think that you are letting go, so you hold tighter and after another 20 balls get a pain in your left elbow. This used to be called tennis elbow, today it's called golf elbow!

The majority of golfers place the grip of the club along this red line and I'm sorry to say it is the wrong place. Because the end of the grip is now covering the black dot, hence the hole. (Same black dot, red line added from the first knuckle joint of the index finger, through to the heel of the hand.)

Same black dot, same red line only green line added. The grip of the club sits on the finger side of the green line. When you close your left hand down you will now see that the black dot is not in contact with the grip, hence no hole. Then adding the right hand to the grip is simple. Hold a golf ball with your thumb and index finger, (in the position you would throw the ball) alongside the grip and then drop the ball and place your fingers around the grip in a similar position as shown by the image here. You will now notice that the green thumb line has disappeared. It is under the lifeline below your thumb. You now have a good hand position on a good Grip!