Strong Vs Weak Vs Neutral Golf Grip; (Left & Right Hands)

Strong Vs Weak Golf Grip

A strong golf grip is used for players with an inside-out swing style. A strong grip can help a golfer draw in the ball easier. A weak golf grip is better for players with an out-to-inside swing style. A weak golf grip aids in creating a natural fade shot.

Hand Rotation and Hips

Strong Grip: Hands rotate away from the target towards a golfer’s trailside. The golfer promotes quiet hands through an impact, for consistency. The grip is ideal for players who have fast hips.

Weak Grip: Hands rotate towards from the target towards a golfer’s lead side. The golfer has active hands through an impact to be consistent. The grip is ideal for players who have slow hips.

Forefinger and Thumb Position

Strong grip: The V created by the gap between the forefinger and thumb are to the right of the middle of the shaft for a right-handed player. This position makes the knuckles of the left hand visible. (This is the reverse in the case of a left-handed player.)

Weak grip: The V created by the gap between the forefinger and thumb are to the left of the middle of the shaft. This position makes the knuckles of the right hand visible.

Swing Style

Strong grip: This grip is ideal for players with an inside-out swing style and helps them in drawing the ball.

Weak grip: This grip is ideal for players with out-to-inside swing style and helps them in causing a natural fade.

Pull and Push

Strong grip: This grip lessens the chance of pushing or slicing the ball.

Weak grip: This grip lessens the chance of pulling or hooking the ball.

Difference between Strong and Weak Golf Grip

The difference between a strong and weak golf grip is that a strong grip will reduce the change of slicing the golf ball. A weaker grip will instead reduce the chance of hooking the golf ball.

A strong grip results in the clubface being mostly closed while a weak grip causes the clubface to be open.
With a strong grip, an extended lead wrist works best during a matchup whereas a flexed lead wrist is ideal for a weak grip.
A strong grip helps the wrists generate more speed and allow the ball to travel a long distance while a weak grip has reduced wrist action resulting in the ball flight distance being lesser.
With a strong grip, a right-handed golfer can get the ball going from the right to left while a weak grip can help in getting the ball from the left to right.

What is a Strong Golf Grip?

When a V is formed by the player’s thumb and forefinger, the thumb is positioned away from the target when you rotate your hand. For an average right-handed player using this grip, the V created will face his right shoulder.

A strong grip is best recommended for golfers who tend to do a lot of body movement or rotary motion during a swing.

These players generally have flat swing planes. When a strong grip is established, the players generally experience a feeling of the club being lighter, making it easier to tackle a backswing.

Squaring the clubface during an impact is also very easy with this grip. However, it may not be suitable for short games. The following tips can help you get the best out of your strong grip as a right-handed player.

Hold the grip of the club using your left hand. Move the grip diagonally along the fingers’ base. Surround the grip with your fingers and keep the thumb on top. The left hand should be to the right side of the grip and the thumb to the middle of the grip’s center.

You must be able to move your wrist freely and move the club past or parallel to the ground.

Form a V with your lead hand as described above. You should be able to see three knuckles of the hand when you look downwards. If you see four knuckles, the grip may be stronger than required.
The lines or creases between your thumb and forefinger must be parallel to each other and point towards the right shoulder.
Lean the shaft of the golf club slightly towards the target in such a way that your hands are positioned before your belt buckle.
Apply more pressure on the thumb and forefinger of the right hand to rotate the clubhead a little more than usual and draw the ball.
Hold the grip by applying extra pressure on the pinky and right fingers of the left hand so that the clubhead doesn’t rotate during impact and you can fade the ball.

Pros and Cons of a Strong Golf Grip

Pros

This is a natural way of holding a golf club and allows you to swing or rotate your arms freely.
The grip helps in releasing the club easily and lessening the possibility of slices.
A strong grip allows in hitting a draw and achieving a controlled and low shot trajectory without difficulty.

Cons

A possible draw tends to become a hook with a strong grip if your hands become overactive during the game.
Playing with a closed clubface can be challenging if you opt for a strong grip.
A strong grip can make it difficult to do a backspin or hit the ball at a reasonable height.

What are the Problems of Using a Strong Golf Grip

The clubface will have to be manipulated to get the shot right. If not, the ball will move towards the left (in case of a right-handed golfer).
The loft of the golf club gets reduced because of which the ball will go lower and cover a larger distance than usual. Longer clubs like drivers can become difficult due to the lower angle of loft.
The grip can make it difficult for a player to deliver airborne shots and achieve a soft landing in short games.
A strong grip can create challenges for a player when he tries to render specialized shots such as soaring pitches or high fades.
The chances of encountering a hook during a game are relatively high with this type of grip.

How to Fix a Strong Golf Grip

Rotate the golf club slightly towards the right if you’re a right-handed player. Grip the club in this position and ideally, your left thumb should not be visible. You can also keep the index finger of your right hand under the handle in a trigger position.
When you do this, you tend to establish the same grip that you would do for a sand wedge to hit a bunker shot. As a result, your clubface opens a little, weakening your strong grip. This helps in changing your hooks to draws.
Keep the relationship of your golf club, upper body and arms the same. Follow through all the way through to impact. This will help in swinging your club freely and fast, which in turn helps to prevent it from getting stuck and encountering a block.

Once you have tried the above tips, practice them as often and as much as possible. This can help you fix a strong grip and overcome the drawbacks associated with them.

How to Hit a Fade with Strong Golf Grip

Open your stance to the left (right-handed golfer) of your ball by about 20 to 30 yards and keep the clubface in line with the ball. Use the same swing style that you would adopt for a draw.
Play your shots to the back of the stance. Position the ball so that it starts the flight from the line the clubface is pointed to. Your feet should be to the left of the line.
If you’re playing with a driver, ensure that you do not rotate your hands a lot. Strengthening the grip so that the clubface doesn’t release helps to get a good fade.
Weaken your right hand as much as possible above the shaft to hit a fade.
Hold the clubface like you always do and rotate it around the ball. This is a technique adopted by many high-level players.
Align your body to the left of the target and the clubface between the starting and ending points of the ball. Keep the ball slightly ahead in the stance and move closer to it. Adopt your standard swing style without allowing the toe to catch the heel.

What is a Weak Golf Grip

A weak golf grip is a kind of grip that many golfers find difficult to overcome in a game. Golfers using this grip tend to open the clubface throughout an impact and a swing.

The club opens up and rotates the face too much to the side. Because of this, the shot is directed to either the right or the left of the target depending on the kind of player.

The open clubface additionally produces extra loft on the golf club. As a result, you will often deliver very high shots.

The shots will also be short and cover the minimum distance. This can be a problem for players. On the other hand, a key advantage that players with weak golf grips have is that they can render accurate shots.

Benefits of a Weak Golf Grip

The benefits of a weak golf grip include better ball control, increased spin on the ball and will allow you to hit the ball higher in the air.

Greater height

When you hit the ball with your golf club, the ball tends to go up higher than it would with a strong or neutral grip. This high flight-path helps to keep the ball out of obstacles because the ball is in the air most of the time.

Ball control

The ball experiences more backspin than usual. As a result, it doesn’t traverse a long distance after landing and it stops quickly. This is very important when you play around the green.

Correcting shots

A weak golf grip can help in rectifying wrong ball flight-patterns by moving your left hand so that your left thumb points downwards towards the center of the shaft instead of above.

As a result, you can correct hooks and pull shots because of the spin produced on the ball and making it bend away from the player.

This grip can also be a great option if you want to indulge in fine shots such as pitches, chips, and sand play.

How to Fix a Weak Golf Grip

If you’re a right-handed player, you have a weak grip, if your left hand is too below and the right hand too above the grip of the golf club. This will often make squaring the clubface at impact tough for you and can result in a slice.

Keep your hands away from the target so that you find your palms parallel to one another. The base of your thumbs should point towards the collar of your shirt on the right side. Set the clubhead before the ball and using a circular motion move the club towards the target and above the ball.

Alternatively, you can hold the golf club so that the bottom of your lead thumb is aligned with the shaft at its trail edge. Keep the first joint of your forefinger exactly below the center of the shaft so that it is not visible.

Right Hand is Too Weak Golf Grip

If your right hand has a very weak golf grip then you may do one or more of the following during a game.

Open your clubface and hit fades without worrying about them turning into slices or hooks.
Hit squarely on the ball using very little movement with a neutral stance.
Get off the plane in a backswing because there is very little rotation of the right arm.
Compress the ball better when there is an impact, especially if you’re playing with irons because of the push motion that results in the downswing.
Turn the club over through an impact because you tend to grip the club using the fingers making your right hand very active.
Deliver better bounce on shots like pitches and chips over a distance of about 100 yards.

Some players have found that they were able to overcome the problems they faced with a weak right-hand golf grip by using grips bigger than the ones they normally use.

Left Hand Golf Grip – Fingers or Palm

The position of the grip inside your left hand depends on how your left thumb is positioned on it.

Palm and Finger Grip

As the name indicates, when you opt for this grip, the grip of your golf club will get pressed against both the palm and fingers of your hand. To use this grip, keep your left thumb on the grip in a short thumb style.

The lower part of the grip rests inside the middle knuckle of your forefinger while the top portion gets pressed in place by the broader portion of your hand.

In other words, the grip will rest diagonally in your hand. Golfers with this grip style must ensure that the grip doesn’t move too much into the palm of their hands.

This grip results in restricted movement of the golf club at the top, short swing amplitude and upright club lie.

All-Fingers Grip

In this position, you will make use of a long left thumb style. The left hand establishes a grip on the golf club towards the meeting point of your hands and fingers inside your first knuckles.

Ideally, the lower part of your grip will rest just the same as palm and finger grip. However, the top part will rest against the first knuckle of the little finger. The grip will rest horizontally on the first knuckle of your fingers.

This grip results in unrestricted movement of the golf club at the top, full swing amplitude and shallow club lie.

Strong Left-Hand, Weak Right-Hand Golf Grip

How you position your hand and hold the golf grip go a long way in determining ball-flight and shot direction that will, in turn, influence your shot’s accuracy.

If you have a strong left-hand grip, you’re likely to have a weak grip with your right hand. With such a grip, when you hold the handle of your club, your left-hand gets rotated around it a lot in a clockwise direction beyond the natural position.

When your hand moves through an impact and swing your club, the clubface will rotate to the left as the hand comes to the starting position and will eventually miss the target to your left.

With a strong left hand and a weaker right hand that is positioned on top of the club, you may tend to experience pulls or fades. When the right hand is moved under, you can overcome pulls and compress balls well.

If the forearms and hands are relaxed with a strong left hand and weak right hand, some players experience very good results and can square the clubface.

Golf Grip Right Thumb and Forefinger

The positions of your right thumb and forefinger on the golf grip play a major role in how you deliver your shots. A few players have found that removing the pressure of the right thumb from the shaft has a direct and positive impact on their swing. They experience an impact on their inside takeaway.

Some golfers have found that removing their forefinger and right thumb from the club throughout the swing loosens the grip on the club and releases the clubhead. This helps them deliver perfect shots.

Some players position their forefinger so that the first joint pushes against the shaft from under the club. The thumb rests across the centerline of their grip with no pressure on the top tip.

What is a Neutral Grip?

In a neutral grip, the hands rotate neither too far away nor too close to the target. The ‘Vs’ created by your thumb and forefinger point down the middle line of your shaft.

You will be able to see three knuckles of each hand while the wrists and hands are positioned squarely with respect to the clubface. There is a very little constraint on your swing and the clubface will be neither closed nor open. You will need no extra compensation to control it.

A neutral grip will give you many options to work with on the ball and might serve you better than a strong grip or a weak grip.

You will be able to draw or fade a ball easily when it is needed. However, you may find it difficult to hit straight shots with this grip if you swing the club over the top, have an open clubface, or cup your wrist.

Neutral Golf Grip Benefits

Although a neutral grip has no shortcomings, some golfers find this grip unnatural and uncomfortable. However, this grip has a few plus points that are definitely worth taking into consideration.

You don’t have to manipulate the golf club so that the clubface gets squared to your target line throughout a swing.
Neutral grips do not produce hooks and slices and put your fears of causing them, at ease.
You can work the ball in the direction of your choice by hitting a draw or a fade.

Strong Vs Neutral Golf Grip

A neutral grip can be more favorable than a strong grip when playing on a steep path.
A strong grip often helps players who swing their clubs to release the clubhead through an impact whereas a neutral grip is beneficial for those who do the same by turning their body instead of their hands.
A strong grip will allow reducing hand and forearm rotation through an impact. On the other hand, with a neutral grip, you can release or rotate your hands and forearms aggressively upon impact.