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The post The perfect interlocking grip technique, according to Jack Nicklaus appeared first on Golf.

Jack Nicklaus made the interlock grip famous, and as a result, it became one of the most trusted grips in golf.

But not all golfers use the grip as Nicklaus intended, says GOLF Top 100 Teacher Andrew Park.

Park explains that most amateurs who incorrectly use an interlock grip make the mistake of linking their fingers too tightly when placing their hands.

 “We asked Jack Nicklaus how did he hold it,” Park says. “He said, ‘It’s not where the fingers are strangling each other. They’re barely touching.’”

Using lighter pressure, Park says, can change everything.

How to grip it like Jack

While studying Nicklaus’ grip, Park made an interesting discovery.

“He gripped the club where the index finger of the left hand and the pinky of the right hand actually don’t even touch the club,” Park says. 

To copy Jack’s grip (for right-handed players), keep your fingers relaxed as you interlock your right pinky and left index finger. As they come together, your fingers should link together lightly — no squeezing.

This allows the interlocked fingers to keep the hands connected while the other fingers and thumbs control the club. This also means that any pressure in your hands should be in the remaining fingers. If you’ve nailed it, your hands should feel secure, not tight.

“That frees up the grip. It makes the club a lot looser,” Park says. “That’s what we need to get the club releasing.”

In other words, Jack’s grip isn’t about locking the hands together — it’s about connecting them. Ease the tension instead of squeezing, and you’ll give the club the freedom to move the way Nicklaus intended.

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The post Why tour pros like Scottie Scheffler love this simple grip check appeared first on Golf.

The next time you’re parked outside the ropes (or on the couch) watching your favorite tour pros on the range — analyzing their routines in hopes of stealing something for your own game — look past the obvious. Instead of getting swept up in flashy training aids or complex drills, shift your focus to one of the most important aspects of the game: the grip. 

More specifically, how they put their hands on the club.

John Scott Rattan, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, recently revealed the fast and easy trick tour pros use to set their hands. It’s known as a stand-up grip, and it’s a simple way to check your clubface position at address.

“You watch Scottie Scheffler every day on the range doing something like this to check his grip, so the face is square,” Rattan says.

When done correctly, this quick grip check can improve the quality of your strikes in a major way. Here’s how Rattan teaches it — and how you can use it in your practice sessions.

The stand-up grip, explained

To do a stand-up grip check, begin by taking your normal setup. From there, stand up without adjusting your hands on the club. Fully extend your arms as you raise the club until it’s straight out in front of you, almost parallel to the ground.

Now, unhinge your wrists while maintaining your grip. It should feel like your hands tilt forward as the weight of the club settles into them. If you’re doing it right, the butt of the club will point at your face and the clubhead will drop slightly — falling directly down your eyeline. This will give you a clear look at your clubface position and allow you to identify any manipulations you’re unknowingly making at address.

“Read” your clubface like a clock

Before you can diagnose a problem or apply a fix, you need to know what to look for when checking your clubface in the stand-up grip. To make it easier, Rattan suggests a simple visual: think of the clubface like a clock. 

Square – 12 o’clock

Closed – 11 o’clock

Open – 1 o’clock

Avoid this common fault

The stand-up grip can also reveal a player’s habits and tendencies. One of the most common faults Rattan sees from amateurs during this drill is starting from a poor position.

“The face is king in the game,” he says, “So if the face is bad at the start, you gotta make a compensation somewhere.”

For example, many amateurs unknowingly set up to the ball with a closed clubface. According to Rattan, when you twist the clubface closed — or left, for right-handed players — it signals to your brain that you’ve taken loft off the club and, unless you’re intentionally trying to hit a low shot, will need to add it later in your swing. 

This can lead to compensations like swinging to the right excessively or throwing the hands late to regain loft. And if you aren’t able to add loft back in, that’s when the dreaded low-and-left miss can sneak up on you.

“If we start with it [the clubface] square, then, in the downswing, we have incentive to take loft off of the club, rather than add loft to it,” he continues, “So, you want to have incentive built in.” 

Another tour-trusted trick for a square clubface

In addition to the stand-up grip, Rattan says there’s another clever trick you can use to set your clubface square like the pros.

“Put it [your clubface] up to a right angle and grip it,” he says, “Xander Schauffele does the same thing.”

By using either the stand-up grip or the 90-degree method, you’ll set your clubface square every time and train your eyes to recognize what a square face looks like—helping you spot any manipulations before they wreak havoc on your swing.

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There is only one connection between you and the golf club: your hands. With that lone touch point, it’s absolutely critical that you maintain your grip effectively.

For most recreational golfers, however, the grip is an afterthought. They simply put their hands on the handle in any old fashion and make a whack at it. And when problems inevitably arise, they try every swing change they can think of to remedy the problem. Truth is, though, their problems often can be traced back to the grip.

So, how do you make sure you’re not making this mistake that plagues a majority of golfers? Check out the advice below from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Mark Durland.

What golfers get wrong about the grip

If you’ve been playing golf for years but still struggle with a slice, hook, or just plain inconsistency, there’s a good chance the problem starts where every swing begins: with your grip.

And here’s the kicker — this isn’t just a beginner issue. Plenty of skilled players, even low handicappers, are unknowingly sabotaging their games with a fundamental grip flaw. Worse yet, it’s a flaw that should’ve been fixed long ago.

Why do so many golfers get it wrong?

The answer? A mix of misunderstanding, poor instruction, and rarely revisiting the basics.

Too many coaches gloss over the grip or give vague advice like, “just move your top hand to the right.” That’s not helpful. Your grip directly controls the clubface, shot direction, and contact — yet it’s often treated as an afterthought.

What’s actually going on?

Most golfers don’t fully understand how to adjust their grip strength — and that confusion often leads to the opposite result of what they want.

Here’s a simple rule of thumb that works for both left- and right-handed players:

It’s that simple — and that critical. Get it wrong, and your ball flight issues can worsen. Get it right, and your grip starts working with your swing, not against it.

Why this matters

A strong grip often leads to hooks. A weak grip tends to cause slices. But here’s the real problem: most golfers misidentify what a strong or weak grip actually is.

It’s shockingly common to see someone try to fix a slice by moving their hands toward the target — unintentionally weakening the grip and making the slice worse. Or they’ll try to correct a hook by moving their hands away from the target — strengthening the grip and deepening the hook. This misunderstanding leads to frustration, wasted practice and stagnant progress. Golfers try to fix a problem, only to exaggerate it — all because their grip fundamentals are flipped.

Don’t let basics hold you back

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been playing — if your grip isn’t right, everything else suffers. Revisit the basics. and check on your grip. It might just fix your game.

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The post A clever (& legal!) trick to check your grip during the round appeared first on Golf.

The post A clever (& legal!) trick to check your grip during the round appeared first on Golf.

How you grip the club might seem like a trivial element of golf, but it’s essential if you want to become a consistent player. Your hands are the only part of your body that touches the club, so it’s crucial that you maintain a consistent grip.

World No. 1 and newly minted PGA champion Scottie Scheffler is a great example of this. Despite being the best player in the world, he’s always working on maintaining a proper grip. If you watch him on the range practicing, you’ll notice he uses a molded grip training aid to make sure he’s keeping that part of his setup consistent.

“The reason I monitor my grip so closely is because, as my body starts to feel different over the ball, my grip is usually the first thing to change to adjust to what my body’s doing that day,” Scheffler says. “That’s why I use the reminder club as often as I do.”

Monitoring your grip in practice is a habit that all golfers should adopt, but sometimes our grip can even change during the round. When this happens, it’s important that you correct the mistake as quickly as possible. GOLF Top 100 Teacher Debbie Doniger has a great trick for doing this, which she explains in the video below.

How to check your grip during your round

When you start hitting wayward shots during the round, it can be tempting to try different swing feels or thoughts to get back on track. But sometimes your ball-striking struggles can be attributed to something being a little bit “off” in your setup, such as the grip. So, before you go and make any swing changes, be sure to check your grip checkpoints to make sure everything is in order.

First, hold the club upright with your arms extended away from you and check the alignment of the clubface. If it’s square, you’re on the right track.

The next thing you can do to check on your grip is go over to the tire of your golf cart and put your club flush against the tire. Then, get your body into your normal “impact” position and check how the clubface looks. Is it still flush against the tire? Has it closed or opened a bit?

If the face is open or closed a bit once your body and arms reach that impact position, you can strengthen or weaken your lead-hand grip to get in a more neutral position at impact.

“Those are two things you can do on the golf course to check your clubface at impact and your hands on the club,” Doniger says.

So, next time you start to hit some wayward shots on the course, take a moment to check your grip. Chances are, you can hit the ball straighter with a couple minor adjustments.

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The post Scottie Scheffler swears by this training aid. Here’s where to buy it appeared first on Golf.

If there’s one fundamental that PGA champion Scottie Scheffler holds in the highest esteem, it’s the grip. And he cares so much about perfecting his grip that he frequently uses a molded grip trainer during his practice sessions.

Ahead of this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, the World No. 1 — and now three-time major winner — explained why maintaining a perfect grip is so important to him.

Scottie Scheffler explains the importance of having a proper grip

“The reason I monitor my grip so closely is because, as my body starts to feel different over the ball, my grip is usually the first thing to change to adjust to what my body’s doing that day,” Scheffler said. “That’s why I use the reminder club as often as I do.”

As GOLF instruction editor Zephyr Melton noted earlier this year, Scheffler makes grip check-ins a part of not only every practice session, but also a part of his pre-shot routine.

Instruction

“If you ever find yourself watching Scheffler practicing on the range, take note of how much he focuses on his grip,” Melton wrote. “Before just about every shot, he takes hold of the club and looks at the clubface. And he only pulls the trigger once he’s made sure his grip feels right and the clubface is square.”

A simple grip trainer is all you need to practice this fundamental just like Scheffler.

How does it work? The molded rubber on the grip reinforces the correct hand and finger placement for the proper golf grip. The best part? It’s a training aid that is both inexpensive and effective. Check out one of our favorites below, and click the links to buy yours now!

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The Lamkin Training Grips are an excellent tool designed to teach golfers the proper hand and finger positioning for the ideal golf grip.

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The post How to perfectly grip the golf club before every swing appeared first on Golf.

The post How to perfectly grip the golf club before every swing appeared first on Golf.

Fundamentals might be boring to practice, but they are the foundation of every good golf swing. Watch any great golfer and you’ll notice that they have an incredible grasp of the fundamentals. This is no coincidence.

One of the most important fundamentals comes in the form of your grip. Your hands are your only connection to the club, so it’s crucial that you hold the club in a way that promotes consistency.

Next time you see World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler on the range, take note of how much he works on his grip. Before each and every shot, he’s making sure that his hand placement on the club is correct. With that attention to detail, it’s no wonder he’s been the best player in the game for the last several years.

The correct grip won’t be the same for everyone’s swing, but there are a few fundamentals you should keep in mind when holding the club. In the video below, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Debbie Doniger shows us a few tips and tricks that can help make sure we are gripping the club perfectly on every swing.

How to perfectly grip the golf club

When readying to grip the club, allow your arms to dangle naturally by your side. Notice where your lead hand (the left hand for righties) sits and then let the club rest in your hands. When you do this, the grip should settle right into your fingers.

“You’ll notice you want to hold the club in your fingers,” Doniger says. “You have this nice little alignment aid that’s ribbed [on the backside of the grip], and you can almost feel it in your fingers.”

The biggest mistakes Doniger says she sees in her students is that they will either grip the club too much in the palm of their hand or they will overdo holding it with their fingers and not allow the club to rest naturally in their hands.

“If we hold [the club] at a 45-degree angle, you can really feel the ridge in your fingers,” she says.

Golf Pride MCC Grip

The MCC™ (New Decade® MultiCompound) is an innovative hybrid grip that fuses the positive performance of rubber and cord. The MCC boasts the Golf Pride® exclusive Brushed Cotton Cord in the upper hand area for firm all-weather control, and a performance rubber material in the lower hand for ultimate feel and responsiveness.

$11.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

A good checkpoint for checking this is to take your grip with just the lead hand and then take every finger off the club except your pointer finger. You should be able to still hold onto the club with just your pointer finger as the butt end of the grip is resting on the heel pad of your hand. You can also do the opposite and take off just the pointer finger and thumb as you grip the club with the other three fingers and your heel pad.

For the trail hand, once again, hold the club up at a 45-degree angle. Grab the club a bit up the shaft with your fingers wrapped around it and then simply slide it down until both hands are touching. The key checkpoint here is getting the heel pad of your trail hand just on top of the thumb of your lead hand.

“The biggest connection point is this lifeline,” Doniger says. “It forms a pocket for your left thumb.”

Now that you have both hands on the grip, you can check to make sure they are aligned correctly. Make sure your right thumb is across the grip and just on the left side of the Golf Pride logo. Your left thumb should be just on the right side of the logo as well — and make sure it isn’t stretched too far down the grip. Sometimes when it gets too extended, it will cause you to grip the club too much in the palms of your hands instead of the fingers.

“You’re trying to have a nice connection with both hands onto the club,” Doniger says. “That is a basic grip.”

If you can follow these checkpoints, you’ll be well on your way to creating a consistent grip for your golf game.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

An iron with a molded grip is a training aid used to teach beginners the proper way to hold the club. It’s also a tool used by the best player in the world.

Yes, you read that correctly. Scottie Scheffler — a two-time Masters champ and world No. 1 — carries around a club fitted with a molded grip.

While it may be surprising that the best ball striker in the world trains with such a novice-friendly device, it really shouldn’t be. Boring as they may be to practice, the pros are always working on the fundamentals.

In advance of his Arnold Palmer Invitational title defense, Scheffler was asked about his commitment to perfecting his golf grip. His answer shed some light on why it’s crucial that you strive to perfect your golf grip, too.

Scheffler’s grip obsession, explained

If you ever find yourself watching Scheffler practicing on the range, take note of how much he focuses on his grip. Before just about every shot, he takes hold of the club and looks at the clubface. And he only pulls the trigger once he’s made sure his grip feels right and the clubface is sqaure.

“The reason I monitor my grip so closely is because, as my body starts to feel different over the ball, my grip is usually the first thing to change to adjust to what my body’s doing that day,” Scheffler said. “That’s why I use the reminder club as often as I do.”

Scheffler’s rationale is a great reminder for all of us. Our swings are constantly changing — even from day to day — and those changes will cause us to make compensations. These changes are often made subconsciously, but even if we don’t notice them, they do occur.

To guard against poor habits creeping in, Scheffler obsesses over his fundamentals. And there’s no fundamental more top of mind than how he grips the cub.

“I feel like when my swing gets off, it’s usually something that’s very basic about what I’m doing,” Scheffler said last year. “I’m just working on my form and hitting shots.”

It can be easy to brush off the simple things in the golf swing, but the fundamentals are the foundation for a consistent golf swing. So, next time you feel your swing getting a little off, check your fundamentals before making a wholesale swing change. More than likely, the flaws in your move can be fixed simply by fixing your fundamentals.

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The post Why this handy grip guide was one of our most-read pieces of the year appeared first on Golf.

Fundamentals are crucially important for a solid golf swing, but they aren’t always the most riveting topics. Alas, in 2024, our readers seemed interested in improving them.

Over the past year, one of our most-read pieces in the instruction space covered perhaps the most important fundamental: the grip. And while something mundane like how to hold the club might seem trivial, it’s hugely important for making a solid swing.

Padraig Harrington might’ve said it best when he appeared in a video for the Champions Tour earlier this year.

“There is no point in playing this game unless you have a good grip,” he said.

You may be able to get away with a poor grip for a while but if you want to become truly elite, you’ve got to learn how to grip the club with solid fundamentals.

If you want to read the full article, you can click here. Otherwise, we’ve summarized its key points below.

How to perfectly grip the golf club

So you want to learn how to properly grip the golf club? Great! However, making a grip change can feel awkward. Worry not — this is normal. Stick with the changes and you’ll position yourself for long-term success.

Here are three keys Harrington suggests for learning how to grip the club.

1. Fingers, not palms

The first key for a proper grip is holding the club in your fingers, not in the palms. Harrington suggests thinking about how you might pick up a suitcase and apply that technique to your grip.

2. Don’t grip on the ground

Harrington says that when gripping the club, you shouldn’t have any part of the club touching the ground. Hold the clubhead off the ground and then put your hands on the club on the grip.

3. Look at the thumbs

Once you’ve got your fingers under club, it’s time to place your thumbs on top. Harrington suggests placing the lead-hand thumb slightly across the grip, and then placing the trail-hand thumb on top.

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The post Is your grip pressure too tight? A top teacher shares how to tell appeared first on Golf.

The post Is your grip pressure too tight? A top teacher shares how to tell appeared first on Golf.

When it comes to grip pressure, Sam Snead has perhaps the game’s most famous guidance on the topic, suggesting that players should hold the club like they would a baby bird.

But GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jason Baile disagrees.

In a video posted to Titleist’s YouTube page, Baile argues that grip pressure itself isn’t the enemy of the golf swing — instead, it’s all about how and where it’s exerted on the club.

“If I were a baseball player hitting a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, the last thing I’d be doing is holding this bat like a baby bird,” Baile says. “We know that power is a big part of our game. So I’d say [to Snead], it’s more about where you grip it and where you apply that pressure.”

The problem, Baile says, is that many players grip the club tightly with downward pressure.

“That’s gonna send a lot of tension to my forearms, my shoulder and probably my lower jaw,” he says. “I want to make sure that I have all that grip pressure pulling up.”

When grip pressure is directed this way, Baile says, it enables you to retain your power as well as your control.

Instruction

“If I pull up into the grip, I can still have supple wrists, elbows and soft shoulders, but yet have really good control of the face,” he says. “So when I step in there, I want to feel that grip pressure pulling up with my fingers, relaxing my forearms, my shoulders and my jaw. I can make a very intentional swing and still have control of the club face.”

To summarize: make sure that grip pressure feels like it’s pulling up, not pushing down as you swing, and you’ll know you’re doing it right.

To watch a video of Baile’s tip in its entirety, click here.

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The post Use 2 tees to fix your golf grip and finally cure that frustrating slice appeared first on Golf.

The post Use 2 tees to fix your golf grip and finally cure that frustrating slice appeared first on Golf.

If you’re a player who tends to slice or push everything to the right, you’re not alone. Ask 100 amateur golfers what their miss is, and I’d bet 90 percent of them would describe this exact result.

While there are a number of different reasons for slicing the golf ball, one common issue is that players just don’t have the right golf grip.

Think about it: When you don’t grip the club properly, you’re not going to square up the face as it comes through impact, meaning it stays open to cause the slice. It’s frustrating, but it’s actually an easily fixable problem.

So how can you learn the right golf grip in order to hit straighter shots? GOLF Top 100 Teacher Cameron McCormick offers up a simple hack — and it only requires two golf tees. Check out his tips below.

How 2 tees can ensure the proper golf grip

When you’re trying to fix your golf grip, you don’t need to overthink things. Instead of using a bunch of different training aids or watching some confusing instructional videos, McCormick says using two tees with provide you with instant feedback to help solve the problem.

“Your grip could be the reason why you’re missing it to the right,” McCormick says in the video above.

He then dives into how two tees will validate your hand position.

“Take two tees, place them between the thumb and the index finger, and then place your hands on the club,” he said. “If your tees are pointed parallel to the leading edge of the club, or even further towards the target side in the leading edge of the club, that’s going to highly correlate to you missing it to the right.”

Instruction

Instead of having the tees pointed towards the leading edge, McCormick says they should be aimed a little more forward — which helps close the clubface.

“Rather, we want the tees aimed some amount to the trail side or the right of the clubface,” McCormick said. “So get those tees pointed to the right of the clubface and it’s going to solve your slice forever.”

This is a great hack to use during your next driving-range session, just to make sure everything’s lined up properly and you ensure solid contact. So give it a try and start seeing straighter shots almost immediately.

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