We’ve all heard the adage swing your swing, right? Matthew Wolff swings his swing. Jim Furyk swings his swing. So does Adam Scott. You have to do what’s comfortable for you, given your body’s makeup and limitations.
Well, how about grip your grip?
That’s the motto of Steven Fisk, recent winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, and likely future competitor on the PGA Tour. His grip is as unconventional as we’ve seen on the professional level.
Fisk’s grip isn’t just weak, it’s really weak. His left hand sits on the far left side of the grip, which is where he finds comfort.
“My coach and I strengthening my left hand, I’ve tried it.” Fisk recently told Adam Stanley for PGATour.com. “I just can’t get comfortable. I stay on the range and figure it out but when you get out here under the gun, it’s just different. It’s not for me.”
By strengthening his grip, Fisk means getting his left hand a bit more on top of the club. It’s a move many players will make to try and hit draws rather than fades. But Fisk doesn’t need it. “I just pick it up and hold it and try to hit fades,” he told Stanley. Fair enough!
Plenty of pros prefer a single shot shape off the tee. Dustin Johnson, for example, is almost always hitting fades. Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, is most often shaping a draw off the tee. Fisk is a fader, in part because of that weak left hand, but also because of a dominant right hand.
This grip just won a recent golf tournament 👀
— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) April 16, 2024
Steven Fisk claimed his first #KornFerryTour title by staying true to the unique grip he's used his whole life. pic.twitter.com/Y8UwIWwKco
Fisk’s grip features the bizarre move of his right thumb reaching over and locking into place on top of his left thumb. Rarely have we seen a grip like that. Perhaps never at the top level of the game. Just ask Fisk.
“If someone was starting in the game, I would recommend a different grip,” he said with a smile.
Fisk’s progression — he’s now ranked in the top 250 in the world — could come as a surprise to some, but he’s been a top-level player most of his career. He was a first-team All-American at Georgia Southern and was a high-level junior player before that. Even if he hasn’t cracked the PGA Tour ranks yet, he’s setting himself up to be a rookie on Tour in 2025.
Fisk won the Club Car Championship two weeks ago on the Korn Ferry Tour, launching himself into the top 10 on the KFT points list. The top 30 on that list automatically earn full status on the PGA Tour for the following season, so Fisk is more than halfway to that goal. And it doesn’t sound like he’s going to change anything about his action.
“I figured if I’m going to have success in this game,” he said, “I’m going to do it my way and be stubborn and do everything I can to make myself the best player I can be and rely on some of my natural instincts.”
That’s right. Be an athlete. Swing your swing. Grip your grip. They’re all (mostly) the same.
