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A famous test
for the left hand...and how to fit the right
Those of you familiar with Ben Hogan’s seminal textbook, The Modern
Fundamentals of Golf, will recognise this test of the left-hand grip:
with your left arm out-stretched, you should be able to remove the last
three fingers & thumb to support the club between the forefinger
and the fleshy pad at the heel of the hand (the idea being that if the
club is too high in the palm it will flip out).
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Once you have your left hand fitted comfortably,
the key is to introduce the right hand in such a way that the two hands
complement one another on the grip, the palms parallel. And you need
to be careful here. A lot of golfers put the club too much in the fingers
of the right hand, which can cause the right wrist to arch at the set-up,
making it impossible to get any back-cock in the swing. So it’s
important that you place the grip diagonally through the fingers of
the right hand in such a way that it is exiting across the right forefinger
to the fleshy pad at the heel of the right hand. With the fingers on
the right hand extended down towards the ground (below left), make sure
the palm is square with the clubface as you bring the hand in to join
the left.
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Make sure that when you close your hand
your left thumb disappears under the fleshy pad at the base of the right
thumb. That way it will feel nice and ‘snug’. Ideally, the
left thumb sits on top of the shaft, angled slightly to the right. To
take the V on the left hand to the right shoulder, the right thumb is
slightly off centre, down the left side of the shaft. What’s the
perfect grip pressure? Tough to give a definitive answer to that particular
question, but there is a way in which you can go out and establish just
what a good pressure feels like.
All you have to do is find a patch of rough, take half-a dozen swings
with a mid-iron, gradually picking up speed as you swish the grass.
Pretty soon you’ll figure out a grip pressure works.
Hold it too lightly and the club will turn in your hands. Hold it too
tightly and you won’t be able to generate significant speed. |
