Golf Fundamentals: How to Hold the Golf Club

Your Only Connection with the Golf Club

Before we continue with the Chipping Series, I want to take a brief detour and discuss one of the most fundamental parts of the golf swing: how to hold the golf club.

We have already talked about reading the shot, choosing a landing spot, selecting a club, and beginning to build our chipping setup. But before we go much further, there is an important question we need to answer:

How should we actually hold the golf club?

The grip is our connection to the club. It influences our ability to control the clubface, manage the club throughout the swing, create speed, and ultimately produce consistent contact. While there are several ways to grip a golf club, the goal is not necessarily to make every golfer's hands look exactly the same. The goal is to create a grip that allows the hands to work together and gives the golfer control of the club.

Start With the Lead Hand

For a right-handed golfer, the lead hand is the left hand. For a left-handed golfer, it is the right hand.

Rather than placing the grip entirely across the palm, I generally want the club positioned more diagonally through the hand, running from near the base of the little finger toward the area beneath the index finger. When the fingers close around the club, the golfer should be able to hold it securely without having to squeeze excessively.

The heel pad of the lead hand should sit on top of the grip rather than underneath it. This helps support the club and allows the wrist to function naturally.

When you look down at your lead hand, you may see approximately two or three knuckles. This is often described as a relatively neutral starting position, but remember that golfers are built differently. Hand size, wrist structure, forearm orientation, mobility, and the golfer's natural movement can all influence what a functional grip looks like.

That is why I prefer to think of this as a starting point rather than an absolute position that every golfer must copy.

Add the Trail Hand

Once the lead hand is positioned, place the trail hand on the club.

The fingers of the trail hand should wrap around the grip, while the palm fits over and around the lead thumb. I like the feeling that the two hands are working together rather than operating independently.

For a right-handed golfer, the palm of the right hand will generally feel as though it is facing the left hand. For a left-handed golfer, the opposite is true.

The thumb and index finger of the trail hand will naturally create a small "V." As with the lead hand, I would not become overly concerned with forcing that V toward one exact location. We are trying to create a comfortable, functional relationship between the hands, wrists, forearms, and clubface.

How Should the Hands Connect?

There are three common ways golfers connect their hands on the club:

Overlap Grip: The little finger of the trail hand rests over the lead hand, generally between the index and middle fingers.

Interlocking Grip: The little finger of the trail hand and index finger of the lead hand interlock.

Ten-Finger Grip: All ten fingers remain on the club without overlapping or interlocking.

You may hear one method described as being better than another, but I do not believe every golfer needs to use the same style. Hand size, strength, comfort, coordination, and personal preference can all play a role. If you use the ten-finger golf grip, please make sure that both hands are touching. If there is any separation between the top and bottom hand on the grip, it can cause other problems with the golf swing.

Try them. See what feels comfortable. Most importantly, determine which one allows you to control the club consistently.

How Hard Should You Hold the Golf Club?

Now we get to one of my favorite topics: grip pressure. Golfers are often told to hold the club very lightly. You may have even heard the old instruction to hold the club as though you were holding a baby bird.

I understand the intention behind that advice, but I think it can sometimes create another problem.

You still have to hold onto the golf club.

If the grip is too loose, the club can move in your hands, particularly during the transition and through impact. If the grip is excessively tight, however, unnecessary tension can move into the hands, wrists, forearms, shoulders, and eventually the entire motion.

Instead of thinking simply light or tight, I prefer the word: Secure.

Hold the club securely enough that you maintain control of it throughout the motion without feeling unnecessary tension in your hands and forearms. If we created a grip-pressure scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means the club is barely being held and 10 means you are squeezing as hard as possible, somewhere around 4 or 5 may be a reasonable starting point for many golfers.

But again, that number is not a rule.

The better question is: Can I maintain control of the golf club without creating unnecessary tension?

That is what we are looking for.

Try This

Before hitting a golf ball, take your normal grip and squeeze the club as tightly as you possibly can. Feel what happens to your hands. Then your forearms. Then your shoulders. You may even notice tension moving into your neck.

Now gradually reduce the pressure until you still feel that you have complete control of the club, but the unnecessary tension begins to disappear. Make a few small swings. Then experiment.

Try a few swings with slightly more pressure and a few with slightly less. Pay attention to your ability to control the clubface, make solid contact, and maintain the club in your hands. The purpose of the exercise is not for me to tell you exactly how hard you should hold the club.

The purpose is for you to discover it.

Why This Matters for Chipping

This brings us back to our Chipping Series. Chipping requires precision. We are making a relatively small motion and trying to control the clubface, the bottom of the swing, the landing spot, and ultimately how far the ball rolls. If our grip is inconsistent, excessively tight, or so loose that the club moves in our hands, controlling those variables becomes more difficult.

So before we continue building our chipping motion, spend a little time with your grip.

Position the lead hand.

Add the trail hand.

Choose how the hands connect.

Hold the club securely without unnecessary tension.

Then hit some golf balls and pay attention to what happens. There is much more we can discuss about the golf grip, including strong, neutral, and weak positions, grip size, wrist conditions, clubface control, ball flight, and how individual golfers may benefit from different hand positions.

We will get to all of that in The Golf Grip Series.

For now, however, we have accomplished what we need for the Chipping Series:

We know how to hold the golf club.

Now, let's get back to chipping.

Stuart Lambert, PGA Lambert Golf Academy