Surge Gets Grip Adjustment

I was getting new set of irons checked by my upstate club fitter/builder, PGA Professional, Billy Delk at The Golf Club at Star Fort in Ninety Six, South Carolina. I was hitting the ball dead solid perfect but pulling most of the shots. My distance control was inconsistent and mostly too short. I felt like the swing was good, but the pulls were too often and too much left to overlook anymore. I also told Billy that I could not even sniff hitting my bread and butter cut shot or a knockdown shot very well, except low left. So the first thing was to check out the clubs. My concern was that the flex was too weak/flexible and maybe the kick point too high. That would cause the shaft to kick the club head too much. Well, Billy checked out the frequencies. They were all spot on as that set of irons were built to the specs he gave me that he uses when he builds a set of irons for me and have worked well.

With the clubs spot on to my specs, Billy suggested we head to the range and hit them to see how they look when I hit them. True to form, even knowing the flex and kick point were correct, the pull was still there. I mentioned to Billy that for a long time, a year or more, I have been struggling with getting smoothly and completely to the T-Finish and staying there. I have been tending to get there, but my torso tends to recoil back and I have to step out of the shot to stay balanced and not fall backwards. I mentioned that I have been bothered with some Vertigo issues the past few months, but since I was driving and hitting all my woods OK, I was sure that was not the problem with the pulled iron shots. Then I brought up one other point that had been bothering me. Almost every time when I griped the club and squeezed my fingers upward to set my fairly firm grip pressure, it caused the clubface to turn a little left and closed. I told him that Jack and my brother Ken also noticed it happened even with gripping my putter. I gave Billy only one guess as to what side of the hole I miss most of my putts.

After hitting a few wedges, 7 irons and 4 irons, then a few drivers, Billy agreed the swing looked pretty good and he was certain that the balance problem in the finish was caused by something else in my setup. What he told me and recommended I change was like me getting a blindsided punched in the head. He said my right hand grip was too strong and was causing my right arm and hand to over rotate, shutting the face and pulling my arm into my chest too soon, slowing down my standing up on my left leg and pulling me left and out of the T '€“ Finish. The right arm hitting my chest and pulling me out of my finish was reasonable and I could accept that. But my grip being strong was a tough one to swallow as it looked and felt good to me.

So, after looking Billy straight in the eyes and asking him if he wasn'€™t kidding me and that he was serious, he said he was dead serious and I needed to turn my right hand a little left (weaker) to more to on top of the left thumb. I decided to take a close look at my grip. Facing Billy straight on with the club gripped, I opened up my fingers on the right hand to see where the club was seated in my fingers. The fingers are bendable because we have 3 joints. The 1st one is right below the fingernail. The next or 2nd is the middle joint and the 3rd is the one where the finger attaches to the palm.

I teach that with the right hand we should crimp the fingers and the club should lay in the crimp, which is the bottom of the grip at 6:00 0'€™clock looking down on the grip. It would lie directly in the 2nd/middle joint of the fingers. That would put the joint where the fingers attach to the palm on the right side of the grip at 3:00 o'€™clock and thus the grip in the right hand is truly in the fingers.

Well, when I looked down my eyes bugged out. It took all I had to not throw up on my grip. The grip at 6:00 o'€™clock was lying in the 3rd attachment joint and thus was strong. It didn'€™t look strong looking down from my view at the v of the thumb and index finger when addressing the ball, but it certainly was strong seeing the position of the grip in my open fingers in the 3rd joint. Seeing that, I was more than happy to get the grip seated in the 2nd joint and get my right hand more left and on top of the left thumb as Billy instructed me. When I did my first new weaker grip, just tweaking it a little left, Billy said not enough, more. I did more and got another '€œmore'€ from Billy. With that change Billy said good. To which I said '€œYou'€™re serious? That not only looks too weak, but feels weak.'€ His reply was he was serious and for me to swing. Before swinging I gave the new grip the pressure test of squeezing the fingers. No matter how tight I squeezed, the club head did not turn. You can'€™t believe how good that made me feel as I told Billy what I was doing and he watched to confirm the club head did not turn and stayed square.

I hit a ball. The swing felt good and the grip was good and firm and I hit that first ball solid and dead straight. It actually had the look and feel of my old power cut shot which is what I have been looking to find for a few years now. I hit a few more, then some long irons and then some drivers and all the shots were higher, straighter and the distance was good and looked longer. Best of all, I was not only feeling the grip was firmer and more stable in my fingers, but that my right hand seemed stronger and faster to and through impact as I believe in and hit using a lot of the right hand. The last and the greatest result of this grip change was that I also have been searching for the feeling and position at the top of my backswing that produced my straight to power cut shots that I could not find but was now miraculously happening with this slight right hand grip change.

The grip adjustment automatically changed my takeaway to the top just enough and slid me right into my perfect top of ‚¾ backswing position to hit the power straight/cut shot I like to see and play. What a bonus. I played nine holes with Howard and the grip and swing worked well. I was hitting the ball solid, straight, higher, the cut shot was back and also my distance back to normal and consistent with every club I hit.

Is there a moral to this grip adjustment lesson for me and for all golfers? Absolutely! Look at and think about this in the realm that I TEACH, Preach and '€œPRACTICE'€ what I teach in my setup and swing every day in my lessons, writings, conversations and my own golf game. And with all that attention to detail in the setup, I got just a little strong with my grip, letting the club rest somewhat palmish and not in the fingers and it caused problems. Just think about what happens when a grip gets real strong and how about both hands getting real strong. If it happened to me, with all the awareness and attention to setup that I teach and live by (but evidently not enough directed to checking out myself) it can certainly happen to you. '€œThe setup determines the motion,'€ is the answer to developing, maintaining and keeping a good swing. The grip is a primary part of the setup scenario. We all need to pay attention to setup details!

The Surge!