Taking your grip on your club

Practice
#1

I know there are a lot of different grip styles and we have talked about them. I was watching Rory McIlroy the other day and a few of the other pros and I noticed that they take their grip about an inch lower than I do on a regular basis. I kind of wonder what that does for them or everyone else and I have never really noticed? I have the butt of the club basically right where my wrist starts on a normal grip. @CoryO just brought up moving his hands down for taking off distance and it made me think of this. I have always gripped the club really high I guess.

I did a quick google and I was reading that you should leave about an inch of grip coming out for consistency. I also read that it is personal preference. I haven’t messed with it much besides choking down a couple of inches to take off some yardage but that seems to either get in my head and/or give me problems so I don’t really do it much. Thoughts on where to hold the club on a normal shot? I see the pros grab it a little bit lower than me and it makes me feel like I should too lol.

#2

I also grip pretty much the very end of the club on normal swings. Just like the golf grip in general, there is no “right” way to do it, IMO, just extremes to avoid.

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#3

That’s right. There’s a range of acceptable places to grip the club. Many players can adjust their yardage by moving their hands down the grip.

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#4

Funnily enough, holding it right at the top of the club is exactly what my pro recommended I do in my recent lessons - that’s coming from a lifetime of choking down an inch or so on the grip. I guess it depends on what you’re trying to achieve - I have a pretty slow swing speed and wasn’t really getting as much energy into the ball as I wanted, and the combined effect of loosening my grip and adding an extra inch of leverage has transformed the ball flight (on my good shots at least!).

There’s basically a trade-off in accuracy and control happening I suppose - Rory has plenty of power to spare so choking down a little is probably worth it for the extra accuracy…

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#5

I appreciate the insight. I am going to try and hit some with an inch of the butt hanging out and see how it feels. In the past when choking down it feels like my hands turn over a lot quicker. Makes sense when thinking about it.

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#6

I can reduce my distance by about 8yds by gripping down on a club. It’s a nice hack I do to get the right yardage without having to change any other part of my swing.

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#7

If you prefer choking down then you can always get clubs made a bit longer if that fits you better. Mine are around + 1/2" because choking down a bit feels more natural to me. I have no idea why as I like grips with almost no taper, but it just doesn’t feel right holding the club right near the end.

#8

My left pinky doesn’t work very well, so I grip fairly high on the grip for a stock shot just to take advantage of the taper. I don’t think it matters so long as you hit your numbers. I’ve noticed a lot of ‘off the rack’ (eg Warrior) clubs’ shafts are significantly longer to sell distance. Please consider whatever shaft length feels comfy to you, have the shaft trimmed, grip it at the end and rip it!
I’m with @willwagner on non-stock shots; choke up on punches, stingers, ‘tweeners, etc.

#9

Yeah I understand the concept of choking down on the club. I hit a stock 9 iron 145 so I don’t really struggle with distance much. I don’t personally like the feel of it more than an inch or so down. My hands get flippy from the taper. The further you go down though you should have more control and the club will feel lighter. Basic leverage principles. Think of sweeping your floor with a broom holding it down by the base vs the very top. Anyway, that’s what has been running through my head, gonna try some stuff next time I get to practice. Gotta start rearranging the garage for winter and golf net setup! :upside_down_face: