Does Your Driver Grip Matter? SHOCKING TEST RESULTS

How you are holding the golf club is really effecting where your club face is pointing at impact in relation to your club path a WEAK grip can promote a SLICE!

Transcript summary:

Does grip matter? Does it really? How much attention do you put on your grip? Boom—scale it for me. 10? 20? 90? How much attention do you currently put on your grip in your game right now? Because it is affecting your ball flight so much. Grip matters. On my scale, it's like 80+. Think about it—it’s our only point of contact with the club. In today’s video, we're going to test a few things. Treat this like a range session and follow along with me. We'll hit some shots with a really strong grip, then some with a really weak grip. At the end, I’ll show you exactly how I get a student to hold the club when they come for a lesson, because it’s so important in controlling the clubface through the release. The club we’ll be using is the driver—the beast we all need to tame. How do we get this thing to behave when we're out on the course under pressure? A lot of it comes down to grip. If your hands feel uncomfortable, you're starting off on the back foot. Let's begin by making the grip far too weak. You probably know what kind of ball flight is coming, but it's important to actually feel it. Make it weak, make it strong, and then make it right—because your brain needs to understand what works and what doesn’t. You might want to hook one more or fade one more; these things are key to controlling your game. Personally, a weak grip (not in the palm—that’s not what we want) means it's in the fingers but shows no real knuckles on the left hand, with the thumb sitting on top of the club. The right hand sits so the creases point toward the buttons on your shirt, not your right shoulder. Hit a shot like this and you’ll likely get a fade or slice. It’s a nice shot, but there's left-to-right curvature. Why? With a weak grip, you only get about a quarter turn in the wrist. That makes it harder to square the face and more likely to point it right at impact. Sure, Jon Rahm has a weak grip, but he's a freak athlete with a powerful wrist and a very active body release. Most of us aren’t pro athletes—this isn’t our job. So, a weak grip for us likely means more fades and slices. Now let's try the opposite—a grip that's too strong. If you're someone struggling to get the ball airborne (those “wounded pigeons”), this might help. A strong grip means seeing 2.5 to 3 knuckles, with both creases pointing outside your right shoulder. Compare wrist mobility: with a strong grip, you can rotate the wrist much further, closing the clubface and creating a right-to-left ball flight (draw or hook). That might work well if the ball starts right and curves left onto the target—but many amateurs see it start straight and hook left. I’ll hit a shot now with a really strong grip—you'll see a big right-to-left curve. I’m making the same swing each time, not trying to manipulate the club. I’m acting like a mechanical arm to show how the grip alone changes the shot. So where do you see yourself now? Do your shots curve left to right with no knuckles showing? Or do they curve right to left with too many knuckles visible? Grip matters. It’s your only contact with the club and controls the clubface at impact. It also influences wrist movement. Before I get into how to position your wrists properly—as I would in a lesson down here at Mottram Hall—I’d appreciate it if you subscribed to the channel. Turn on notifications so you never miss a tip. We have course vlogs on Mondays and Tuesdays (which include tips), fitness on Wednesdays, and daily, simple, effective golf tips. Now, if you came to me for a lesson, here’s what I’d tell you. Rest the club on your shoulder. Place it in your fingers—this avoids putting it in the palm, which kills wrist mobility. Bring the club down to the ground. Pad of the hand on top, two and a half knuckles showing, crease pointing to the right shoulder, and the thumb shortened—not stretched down the shaft. For the right hand, again place it in the fingers. Both creases should point to the right shoulder. This grip won’t stop all hooks or slices, but it puts you in a good position to control the clubface. Some checkpoints I like: top of the backswing with a flat lead wrist, downswing to last parallel with the lead wrist still flat and hips a little open, then feel the release. Of course, you can still manipulate the club in the downswing and see different results—but that’s true regardless of grip. Think of this process as a way to neutralize your grip. If you’re too weak, bring it more neutral. If you’re too strong, do the same. Smooth out your ball flight and test it on the course. With your grip dialed in, the ball should fly straighter, longer, and you’ll enjoy your game more. Simple steps—follow that process. Grip really does matter.