The secrets behind the correct grip pressure on your clubs

Your grip is the only connection that you have with the club and we hear a lot about how to grip it. But a lot less about grip pressure which is also key.

Top 50 coach Ged Walters explains how hard (or soft) you should be gripping the club.

‘We hear a lot of advice about gripping the club like a tube of toothpaste but, for me, this makes no sense at all.

“If there was a device to measure grip pressure, it would probably explode in the transition from the backswing to the downswing on a tour player. It wouldn’t on an amateur, but it would on a tour player.

Grip pressure fluctuates. So it might start at a 7 or an 8 and, when the transition happens, that grip pressure increases massively because a tour player’s hand speed is optimal from the top of the backswing to lead arm parallel in the downswing.

That little window, that’s where they accelerate. Once it gets lead arm parallel in the downswing, the hands are actually starting to slow down so the clubhead can speed up so the grip pressure then changes.

So that initial pulling down of the club, and the pressure is phenomenal. So grip pressure is one of those where it fluctuates.

What to work on

You just need to remove tension. So it’s make sure that the pressure is more fingers-related and less palm-related. Because you can squeeze the fingers and have really relaxed forearms, but you can’t squeeze the palm of the hand around the handle and have relaxed forearms.

So it’s just making sure the pressure comes in the right areas. So when you’re actually gripping the club, think of it being an 8/10.

Look at tour players, you could not pull that club out of their hands. Their arms will be soft but you could not remove that golf club.

So you can start off at 8/10 on a full swing, and it might drop to a 7 and then it’ll go to a 12.

Bear in mind that you’re trying to control the clubface and make contact with a stationary object in excess of 100mph. If you’ve not got control of that, the clubface is just going to twist.

What about the short game?

Amateurs do panic around the green and they tense up but I would still advocate holding it at 6/10 as a minimum. We hear about having soft hands but it’s more about the right tempo and releasing it. If a tour player is playing out of juicy long grass, then they need to keep hold of that club.

Even for the putter it shouldn’t be too soft as you’ve still got to control the putter head. You’re controlling the putter more with the shoulders and the bigger muscles rather than the hands.

The hands will come into it a little bit on longer putts because you do need to release a little bit of energy. But the majority of putting can be done from the big muscles and the shoulders.’

About Ged Walters

Ged is a Golf Monthly Top 50 coach and one of the leading teachers in the North West. For more tips follow Ged on Instagram – gedwaltersgolf