Grip it correctly every time

Jack Nicklaus won 18 major golf tournaments. In many people’s minds, that makes him the greatest golfer of all time.

When Nicklaus began to dominate professional golf in the early 1960s, the legendary Bobby Jones said of the young Nicklaus: “He plays a game with which I am not familiar,” in recognition of the prodigious distances Jack hit the ball with a persimmon driver.

(Just as a side note, Nicklaus borrowed the Bobby Jones quote to describe his feelings after playing with Tiger Woods in the first round of the 2000 PGA championship. The 60-year-old Nicklaus finished his comment with a laugh by saying: “Of course, I’m playing a game with which I’m not familiar either,” as he compared Tiger’s 66 with his 77.)

Jack Nicklaus only ever had one golf coach. His name was Jack Grout. Grout was the head professional at Scioto Country Club in Columbus. Nicklaus’s father joined the club in 1950 and sent his son to Jack Grout for lessons that very year.

Grout’s approach to the game was based on mastering what he considered the six fundamentals of the game: good grip, correct setup, steady head, proper footwork, full extension and quiet hands.

There’s a reason that good grip is first on the list. Your only connection with the golf club is through your grip and a faulty grip corrupts your swing.

I’ve chosen one of the best YouTube golfers to present the grip to you. Grant Horvat has a golf game that all of us should copy. And in his first instruction video, he concentrates solely on the grip.

Grant demonstrates a weak grip and a strong grip but wants us to adopt a neutral grip.

He also shows the three styles of grips: baseball, interlocking and overlapping.

Changing your grip will feel strange at first. But concentrate on gripping it correctly every time. Before long it will feel natural, and your golf game will improve.

Bonus lesson - Driver

Danny Malcolm Golf has only been providing videos for two years, but he is one of my favourite YouTube golf creators.

In this video, he gives three tips to help you launch it further, with emphasis on the backswing. Danny touches on ball position with the driver, how to make a powerful turn from address in the backswing and then how to properly shift pressure to the back of your trail heel.

Give these tips a try and you’ll find yourself further down the fairway.