A stronger grip and a steeper swing go together. When we place our lead hand on our club in a strong position, our brain makes some athletic adjustments to inhibit clubface-closing movement like releasing the club.  Unfortunately, strong grippers are blockers of necessity. In spite of our double or triple-jointed brothers and sisters leading us to believe a falsehoood, we cannot escape the grim reality of Physics.

Golfers’ strong grips may influence their set-up orientation, or their set-up orientation, if intentional, may influence their grip. Without dissecting the psychological aspect of the dynamic, we at least know the connection between grip and set-up IS causal. An open stance and square shoulders needs a neutral grip. Just as a closed stance and open shoulders needs a stronger grip.

Golfers with strong grips are inevitably low-ball hitters who can strike it pretty solidly with a blocking motion, though generally not long off the tee. Club head path tends to be outside-in, reflecting their open shoulder position, which helps them collect their ball before the club naturally releases. Its no coincidence blockers have shorter swings and an earlier post on their front leg to create offsetting positions and movement. Also, divots are DEEP with the extremes in this camp.

However, sometimes other physical characteristics contributing to power dominate their swing – like raw size, strength, or rotational speed.  I see these characteristics as anomalies. My position is that if all other things are equal, strong grippers are too steep to be long off the tee. Lee Trevino, Paul Azinger, Orville Moody, Jerry Kelly, Ed Fiori, and Bubba are all examples of strong grippers. I think we can agree that Bubba is the anomaly among this group.

Conversely, therefore, we know that a weaker grip is offset by a shallower approach at impact. In fact, we can basically reverse everything just said about strong-grippers to describe weaker-grippers. But, for completeness sake, let’s go through it again….

Golfers with weak grips produce shallower impact. A shallower impact allows time, along the horizontal plane, for our clubface to close with a natural release point. The more horizontal our swing (Flatter) the more efficiently the club closes without sacrificing trajectory, contact, and distance. The club head path for average, weak-grip golfers is inside-out to cooperate with our face-squaring needs.

Finally, for my counter-argument, weaker grips produce longer golf swings, which are flatter by virtue of their length. Flatter swings produce shallow impact. Shallow impact produces higher trajectories. Nicklaus, Ballesteros, Watson, Stewart, Hogan, Weiskopf, Miller, Fowler, Dechambeau, and Pavin all have their leading hand on their club in a neutral to weak position. However, I think we can all agree, that Pavin is the anomaly among this group.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

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