The T&GRIP IT® Method For Learning The Golf Grip

Article by Herb Rubenstein, PGA

Introduction

There is a basic golf grip. This article gives beginners through advanced golfers a simple way to create the proper, basic golf grip. I call this the T&GRIPIT ® method. There are variations in the golf grip for certain situations that will be the subject of future articles.

For Right-Handed Golfers – Let’s start with The Left-Hand Grip

For right-handed golfers, the grip starts by putting the left hand on the club. This is easy. Put your left hand down by left your side. Set the club head on the ground in front of your left foot and the club handle (called the “grip”) against your left pocket or area to the left of your mid-section. Thus, the club is standing up pointing towards your waist..

With your left hand, with a “handshake motion” grab the club handle with the palm of your left hand on the left side of the handle and thumb on the top of the handle, but just a little to the right of the center of the handle. (This is for right handers. Please reverse if you are left-handed).

The round club handle will fit naturally into your left hand. To get a little technical, the handle (grip) fits snugly next to the middle knuckle of your index (first) finger on the left side of the handle. The handle flows through the base of your fingers and where the handle is near your pinkie, the handle of the club fits just between the base of your little finger and the pad of your left hand. Basically, the club runs along the base of your middle fingers.

Once you grip the club with your left hand, then take your right hand and “try” to pull the club out of your left hand. Grip it just tight enough so that the club stays in the left-hand grip.

Now you have the basic left-hand grip. To fine tune your left-hand grip, put the club head down in front of your feet equal distance between each foot with the shaft of the club pointing towards your belly button. The top of the club (the end of the grip) should be waist high. Then, look at the “V” shape or “line” formed by your left thumb and the fleshy part of your left hand just above the left index finger.

Check out this picture courtesy of the book, Ben Hogan Power Golf, Page 9, in the chapter titled, Evolution of the Hogan Grip. The “V” line is pointed perfectly to 11 o’clock or toward the left ear!

The “V” shape should naturally point between your chin and your right shoulder, toward “11 o’clock) because when you put the club on your left thigh, in order to give a handshake to your club and grip it, your left hand turned a little to the right (toward your right shoulder) to make the handshake and give you a “neutral grip,” as golf jargon calls it.

The Right-Hand Grip

So far, I have not taught you anything new. Now, let’s go to the right-hand grip. First, with your left hand already on the club, with the club head on the ground pointing straight up where the handle is directly front of your belly button, make sure the “face” of the club is pointed to your target. Then take your thumb of your left hand, and point it as straight up as you can. This is the “T” in T&GRIP IT ®.. This is a key part of the radical new teaching this article and this method has for teaching the golf grip.

Then space out your fingers a little on your right hand and put the exact center of the palm of your right hand directly on the tip of the left thumb which is still pointing as straight up in the air as possible. The middle finger of the right hand is pointed straight “down the shaft,” or “directly above the grip/handle.

This must be EXACT – you have put your right hand on top of on your left thumb so that you are sticking your left thumb into the exact center of your palm of your right hand.

As far as I know, this relationship between the tip of the left thumb and the geometric center of the right palm has never been taught before in golf. That is why I trademarked T&GRIP IT ®.

Next Step: As you put your right hand on top of the thumb, press down gently so your right hand pushes your left thumb onto the top-right side of the handle exactly where it came from before you pointed it to the sky. As you gently push down your right hand onto the handle, turn your right hand to the right towards the right side of the club handle just enough to get your right-hand fingers around the bottom of the grip of the club. Then, wrap your right hand around the grip of the club, again, like you are giving the club handle a handshake.

The picture below is what Mr. Hogan saw and what you should see for the “basic grip.” Note my circle on the picture. This is a fine point. The middle knuckle of the index finger of the right-hand fits snugly against the side of the grip (just as it does with the left hand!). This middle knuckle of the right hand’s index finger (for right-handed players) fitting snuggly against the side of the grip or handle of the club is a key power and control source in the grip.

Be sure to keep the tip of your left thumb touching the exact center of your right palm with your completed grip and throughout your swing.

Please note, your left thumb sits on the “right side” of the handle (at about one o’clock if straight down the handle is high noon) and your right thumb sits on the “left side” of the shaft (at eleven o’clock). Also note, how Hogan “wedges” in the club with his lower hand between the thumb which is firmly connected to the club and the circled right forefinger or index finger. That part of the index finger between the knuckle at the end of the finger and the knuckle in the middle of the finger is the key, when pressed properly against the grip, to giving the right hand the ability to help control the clubface. Practice swinging right had only to see what control you have over the clubface with the right hand. Certainly, the left hand (for right hand golfers) or the “upper hand closer to the end of the club” is by far the dominant hand in controlling the clubface. But two hands on the job are better than one and remember what Hogan said, “I wish I had two right hands.”

Grip Pressure

Usually when we speak of “grip pressure” we mean how “tightly” on grips the club with each hand. 99% of golfers think that the grip pressure of the right hand and the grip pressure of the left hand should be the same. 99% of golfers are wrong. For the “right-handed golfer”, on a scale of 1 to 10 where level “1” is barely holding onto the club and where the club would fly out of your hands during a swing and level “10” where you are squeezing the club as hard as you can, on most shots the left hand should be a level “5-6” and the right hand should be a level” 3-4.” Of course, for short shots like putting, chipping or pitching, the grip pressure should even be less and for shots out of heavy or medium rough, the grip pressure should be more. (Note, other changes in the basic grip are recommended for short game shots and many other shots in golf).

But grip pressure means something other than the pressure of the individual hands on the club. It also means the level of pressure the right or “top” hand, puts on the left or “bottom” hand to “connect” the two hands. This “grip pressure” is the pressure the center of the palm of the right hand puts on the thumb, and just above the thumb, of the left hand and you feel it all the way through the center of the palm of your right hand.

The great golf instructor, Jeff Leishman, in a recent article in the December 2019/January2020 issue of Golf magazine, suggests after you put your left hand on the grip, and just before you put the right hand over the left thumb, putt a penny just above the knuckle of the left thumb and make sure that your right palm presses down on that penny during the swing so the penny never moves. This is an excellent suggestion regarding the pressure between the hands on the golf grip. This idea is quite complementary to the thesis of this article suggesting a key relationship between the left thumb and the center of the right palm.

Conclusion

Learning this basic grip should take two minutes. Practice it with a golf club or golf grip regularly until it feels comfortable to you. Keep practicing sticking the left thumb up in the air and finding that exact center point of the right palm to stick the tip of your left thumb into until it becomes second nature.

If you are a golf instructor teaching the grip, T&GRIP IT ® works really well in group or clinic settings, especially with junior golfers. After teaching this method to your students, at the next lesson ask your students, “Show me how you grip the club.” As soon as you see the left hand on the club and the left thumb point to the sky, you know they will have the basic grip down pat. Students love to show the instructor (and other kids, their parents, and anyone who will watch!) how they learned to grip the golf club with the T&GRIP IT ® method. To teach the grip in group settings, just ask a grip company to send you a bunch of “display grips with the plastic “shaft” just extending a few inches below the grip, like the ones you see on display at golf shops. Companies will be happy to send you 20 or even 50, and you can give them away to your students who can practice their new “golf grip” anywhere, anytime!