If your hands are the only thing holding your golf club, do it right. Get golf grips tips and the proper golf grip with Sande Jacobson’s guide.

It is a fact that most of the golfing world slices the ball to the right (for right handed golfers).

As long as you are taught how to grip and hold the golf club correctly, you can make it work FOR you and hit the ball straighter and longer.

If you’re not swinging with smooth acceleration and don’t have consistent ball striking, you’re probably doing things wrong in your golf grip, setup or swing, that shouldn’t even be done in the first place.

I don’t think anybody ever taught a person how to incorrectly hold or strangle a golf club, but that is what it looks like. So many of you are simply holding the club wrong.

Golf is a game of opposites. If you’re slicing the ball to the right, you must first learn to hit the ball to the left. Then, and only then, you will hit straighter golf shots. When you learn to accept this, shot making and ball striking will improve for you quickly.

Why do I slice the golf ball?

To make the ball slice, or go to the right, you thrust your hands out towards the ball and chop downward to your left. This is the true over-the-top, “bad habit,” most of you and almost the entire golfing world are suffering with. And if you want to play better golf, you have to change that action.

When you swing out towards your right, along with having the proper grip on the club, you can get the ball to go straight, with power. When you learn, rather re-learn, how to swing the golf club on your correct path, you finally realize and appreciate what you’ve been missing.

RELATED: How to Hit a Draw in Golf

What is the proper golf grip?

Most amateur golfers hold the golf club much differently than a PGA Tour professional does. This is due to the fact that your arms are part of your grip. And you’ve never been taught how your arms should align during your set-up phase in your swing. You need to control and support the club.

A fundamental requirement for maximum upper body rotation is having good posture at set-up.

Since your grip is part of your set-up, I thought you would benefit from learning how to connect your golf club to your body, which is through your grip, arms position, and set-up.

What is a weak golf grip?

Most golfers grip and hold the golf club too “weak”. This means that for a right handed golfer your hands and arms are not turned enough to your right.

This is important because when the club head makes contact with the ball at impact, we want to transfer as much potential energy from our backswing and downward swing, into the golf ball with a square club face.

Of course, that is what sends the ball flying straight and far. So, you need to include your arms as part of your golf grip.

If your grip is “weak,” you will strike the ball with a glancing blow, as the club face will be “open” and not direct the majority of your stored energy into the ball.

The result is a shot that comes up short of your intended target and usually falls to the right as well.

When your grip is too weak, you are essentially pushing the golf club with your right hand, rather than pulling it with your left.

Right now you might be thinking “of course, I’m right handed, that should dominate my swing.”

Unfortunately, that is just one of the Grand Illusions of Golf. Golf is a game of opposites. To hit the ball to the left, you must swing out to the right. To hit the ball up, you must swing down. To play golf as a righty, your left arm needs to dominate your swing.

I’ll prove it this way. Every inch of length you allow from your hands to the club head equates to a few miles per hour of swing speed. So you’d agree that you’d have greater speed if the club was controlled from your top hand as compared to your lower hand.

RELATED: Most Important Part of the Golf Swing

What is a strong golf grip?

For a “strong” grip, used by most PGA Tour members, you want the Vs of your hands to aim somewhere between your right ear and your right shoulder (for a right handed golfer).

If they aim at the center of your chest or left of your chest, your grip is too weak and you’ll have very little power and control over your golf shots.

In order to place the Vs, formed by your thumb and pointer finger, on the shaft properly, try this:

1. Take your 7 iron, stand with your left arm relaxed and straight down by your left side, place your club in your left hand only with its sole on the ground and let gravity take the toe so it falls to the left

2. Now place your left hand so the area where your last 3 fingers meet the palm of your hand are under the club. Then roll your hand to the right so the V sits on top of the shaft and points straight down the shaft.

3. Next, pick up the club and now perform the same procedure with your right hand. Your middle, ring, and pinky finger meet the club underneath and you wrap your hand around the shaft so you can place the lifeline of your palm on top of your left thumb. This should feel like you are wringing the water out of a wet towel as your hands should be twisting in exact opposite directions of each other.

*Be sure that your left thumb is past the center of the shaft toward the right side of the shaft and your right thumb is past center toward the left side.

You should connect your hands so they meld together as a unit.  You should overlap your lower hand pinky to lay over your upper hand forefinger, or you can interlock your pinky between your upper fore and middle fingers. That part you get to choose, the rest is mandatory, sorry.  But, you’ll thank me later.

(For a right handed golfer, place your right pinky over or between your left fore and middle fingers. Or interlock them).

4. Now extend your elbows so they are fully straight with no bend, rotate your upper body a few degrees to the right like you’re about to swing a small axe into a tree.

Both forearms should gently roll to the right a few degrees and as you return the club to your center, the leading edge should be quite square to your target. If it’s too closed, begin again so the toe doesn’t fall to the left so severely.

You have two bones in your forearms and they should be side by side as you approach impact. This anatomically provides stability in your wrist and will give you power for your shot. As you continue through your shot, your hands will turn over with the natural “release” of the club.

Of course very few people are ever taught the release of the hands properly. Most golfers release the club with their body, which is taxing and does lead to injury. We’ll talk about this later in upcoming articles, as you’re not ready for that yet.

The V’s should be pointing toward your right shoulder area and the insides of your elbows should be facing upward toward the sky, not facing each other.

RELATED: Determine The Right Length Clubs For You

What does a stronger golf grip help with?

By strengthening your grip and rotating your arms as described above, you will have no choice but to begin to learn how to hit the ball on the correct path. This will allow you to begin to eliminate the dreaded “over-the-top” move on the downswing which is despised by all golfers.

Learning to swing a golf club properly is a process. It shouldn’t be a difficult one. But, the model of teaching in this country in the last 125 years has made it difficult for the average player to excel in this sport.

Teacher tells the student what to remember. Jam more information down their throat. Test them and hope they can regurgitate most of it. Sure there are people who can recall information, but can they truly use it to their advantage when the opportunity arises?

When you face a 45 yard pitch shot, to a slick green over water on the back 9 on Sunday, when the pressure is palpable and your heart is racing, can you execute that shot routinely? When you truly learn it properly, you will.

Our brains learn better in a different format that you may not be used to, but has absolutely been proven to work with fantastic results. Learn things slowly and repeat them many times is the first part.

This is reflective of our teaching process across the board in schools, at work, not only golf. Our brain learns best when we are exposed to performing small tasks, repeat the process often, vary the task a little bit, then return to the original task. That’s how skill is created. It’s grown. Many smart people have revealed this to be a better way of learning.

Golf Grip Tips: Begin with a good, sound grip

Congratulations! You’ve just taken your first step to a powerful, reliable golf swing with these golf grip tips.

Please stop by again as I will help reveal more of the Grand Illusions of Golf and how to improve your swing.

I know that was a lot of information, but, if I simply explained how to place your hands on a golf club, like a thousand people before me already have, you may not have made it through the entire article.

Thank you for staying with me. Now practice your new grip, with or without a club, and soon it will feel like it’s always been there.

Sande Jacobson

Teaching the professional swing for the amateur player. “My students don’t tell people how good they are, people tell them.”