A secret grip technique that can add serious power to your game

The biggest improvement you can make to your game this offseason is to tighten up your grip. Step one: Make sure the handle lays across the fingers of your trail hand, not the palm. To get it right, try my split-grip check.

First, hold the club with your glove hand in front of you as shown. Cradle the grip with your trail-hand fingers, then slide them down the shaft to where the shaft begins to narrow. Cradle the weight of the club in your middle and ring fingers, then grip it as tightly as you can with these two digits.

Here comes the checkpoint: Bend the club down toward the ground with your glove hand while resisting with your trailhand fingers. If you can hold the club steady against the pressure, the club is properly secured in your fingers. (Try doing it with the shaft in your palm — your glove hand will win.)

Slide your trail hand back to its normal position on the grip. Check that your trail palm is “floating” above your glove hand and clench the handle with the same pressure you used during the check. Now, you’re solid.

Joe Plecker is the director of instruction at The Landings Club in Savannah, Ga.