There can be no doubt whatever that the first mis­takes a golfer can make are to hold the club with a defective golf grip and to stand up to the ball the wrong way. Either puts a heavy impost on a player before he makes a move to swing the club. Together they make a good shot almost im­possible.

Any shot, of course, is measured by two standards. One is direction, the other is distance. Direction is governed partly by the position of the club face at impact and partly by the path the club head is following. Distance, on the other hand, is the product of club-head speed and the accuracy with which the head makes contact with the ball. These, in turn, are produced by body, arm, and hand action during the swing.

But the position of the club face is largely determined by the golf grip, and the path of the club head is influenced con­siderably by the stance. The golf grip, to a very large degree, determines whether the face will be square to the direction line, open, closed, or even hooded, therefore whether the ball flies straight, is sliced, hooked, smothered, or even skied. Any one of these shots brings trouble, and with trouble the strokes begin to mount up.

That is why the pros will tell you that the golf grip is the most important single factor in the game. Gene Sarazen has said the golf grip is 75 per cent of golf. To him and the other pros it is, because they have all the distance they need. They make the moves that bring distance—make them automati­cally, and have made them since they were kids. A change of a couple of millimeters in the placing of one hand on the golf grip, however, producing better direction, could make, for them, the difference between a 69 and a 65.

People do all kinds of peculiar things with both the golf grip and the stance, even to the extent of changing both after they have been taken. You've often seen a player stand up to the ball with both a stance and golf grip that were good, and then start to fiddle around. He changes his hands a little, then moves his feet a little. Then moves his hands another little bit, then shifts his feet again. By this time the golf grip no longer is a good one and neither is the stance. We once had a pupil who was a pretty good player and who learned easily; he had a peculiarly good faculty of doing just what he was told to do, without arguing about it. It was no trick for him to take a good golf grip and stand up to the ball per­fectly. The trick was to make him hit the ball before he changed either of them.

Common Faults

The most common faults in the golf grip are holding the club entirely in the fingers of the left hand, placing the left hand too much on top of the shaft, and getting the right hand under the shaft.

An all-finger golf grip and getting the left hand on top, so that four knuckles show, go together. It's almost impossible to hold the club entirely in the fingers of the left, without get­ting the left on top of the shaft. Try it yourself and see.

The reason most people keep dropping the right hand lower and lower until it gets practically under the shaft, is that they feel they will get more power that way.

Well, they are all wrong and they go a long way toward ruining what might be a good shot. When the club is held entirely in the fingers of the left hand and that hand is on top of the shaft with three or four knuckles showing, there is an overpowering tendency to roll that hand over to the left as the club comes into the ball at impact. When this happens, of course, the face of the club is turned over and closed, or even hooded. The result is a bad smother or hook. That is what happens with some players.

The all-finger, left-hand-on-top position leads to another fault. It has a strong tendency to make the player bend the left hand back at the top of the swing and get the left wrist under the shaft. This opens the face at the top, and it must then be closed on the downswing. With the body and shoul­der action most players have, plus their fear of getting the face closed too much, this is seldom accomplished. Hence we have what is by far the most common and exasperating bad shot of them all—the slice.

Another move is for the player to try to hold the face of the club from turning as it goes through the ball. Then you see the lifting, lofting action which is so common, with the player trying to hold the face square long after it has hit the ball. This is a good way to bring on a slice.

When the right hand is dropped low, the faults of the left are compounded, for a low right hand tends to roll over at impact. The poor player may switch from slicing to smother­ing and go for several holes without getting the ball more than a few feet off the ground. This, we need hardly remind you, is a horrible experience.

Things go from bad to worse until the only thing certain is that the player will not hit two shots in a row in the same direction. He is all over the course, hacking out of trouble first on one side and then on the other.

Onany course and in almost any foursome you will see many peculiar stances. Most of them are not fundamentally bad, except for one thing: standing with an "open" body. This means, simply, that although the feet are in a perfectly square position (an equal distance from the direction line), the hips and the shoulders are facing a little to the left.

These players are, in effect, aiming to the left of their target without realizing it.

You need hardly be reminded of the damage this can do. The player develops a pull to his shots, the ball starting out a shade to the left and, if it doesn't slice, staying to the left. There are usually just as much rough and as many traps to the left of a fairway or green as there are to the right, and the chronic puller is sure to find most of them.

There are other bad positions, such as bending over too much, standing too far from the ball, having the weight too far forward, and so on, but the "open" body is by all odds the most common fault the average player has in the stance department.

Let us turn now to the positive side and take the positions that will help so much to give us a square face at impact, a straight ball that goes where we aim it, and fewer shots.

Actually there is nothing mysterious about the golf grip. We merely want the club held in a certain way, a way that will help bring it to the top in the position we want and which will help bring it back to the ball at the correct angle to the line of flight.

Placing the Hands

Such a golf grip calls for the hands to be in practically direct opposition as they grasp the club—that is, with the palms facing each other squarely. The (left) hand is placed against the shaft in such a manner that the shaft makes a diagonal contact from the crook of the index finger across the palm. It is, with this left hand, a combination palm and finger golf grip. When this hand is closed the club should be held in the first two fingers and the palm. There should be a fold of flesh between the club and the little finger. This, as a matter of fact, is a check point by which you can tell whether you have the palm-and-finger golf grip.

Now we also want—nay, demand—that only two knuckles of this left hand be visible when the hand is closed tightly  on the club. As you address the ball and look down at your hands, you must see no more than two knuckles, those at the base of the index finger and the big finger. Not four knuckles, not three knuckles, not one knuckle. Two knuckles! This is your second and last check point for the position of this hand (Figs. 1 and 2).

So much emphasis has been put on the left hand over the years that many people believe the right doesn't amount to much in the golf grip. They couldn't be more wrong. The right hand is very important, both in the way it grasps the club and in the way it fits against the left. Let's take the club first.

Fig. 1. How the left hand should look on the club. The Back of the hand is facing left, not up, two knuckles are visible, the thumb lies a little to the player's right on the shaft, and the V, between thumb and forefinger, points slightly to the player's right.

Fig. 2. Inside the left hand. The important point here is that the club lies diagonally across the palm, from the crook of the index finger, and comes out halfway between the root of the little finger and the base of the palm. There must always be a fold of flesh between the club and the root of the little finger.

It has been said that the golf grip with the right hand is a finger golf grip. This is true. But where in the fingers? There is only one place that is correct, and that .is at the very base or root of the second and third fingers, where they meet the palm. This is the best place because there the club can be held most securely. There is not only less chance but less inclination, with such a golf grip, to loosen the hand at the top of the swing or anywhere else. Such a golf grip, because it is at the very edge of the palm, makes for a tighter connecting joint between arm and club, with less give than any other. It transmits more power when the ball is struck (Fig. 3).

Any golf grip higher in the fingers of the right hand, say along the inside of the middle knuckles of the second and third fingers, is untrustworthy. It is a loose golf grip to begin with, and the tendency is to loosen it further at the top of the swing. Finally, there is more give in it when the ball is hit.

We have identified the right-hand golf grip as being taken with the second and third fingers because, of course, the index finger is separated slightly from the middle finger and is hooked low around the club. The little finger, in the overlapping or interlocking golf grips, does not touch the club at all. In the so-called ten-finger golf grip, though, the little finger would grasp the club exactly as the second and third do.

Fig. 3. How the right hand goes on. Here the club lies definitely in the fingers, but at the very roots of the second and third digits, with the forefinger getting ready to hook low around the shaft.

In taking our golf grip we recommend placing the left hand on the club first in its proper position, then sliding the right under the shaft, fingers extended and palm up.. As the club slips into the little groove where the fingers meet the palm, slide no farther. Close the hand then, moving it up the shaft slightly so that the third finger fits against the index finger of the left hand and the little finger overlaps or Hes on top of the left index finger.

Fig. 4. The right hand fitting against the left, with the center of the base of the right palm moving onto the big knuckle at the base of the left thumb.

You will find that the palm of the right comes up and faces directly to the left, and that the center of the base of the right hand fits snugly over the big knuckle at the base of the left thumb. Both thumbs will be on the shaft, the, left lying a little to the right of the top (at about 2 o'clock in aviation parlance) and the right lying to the left of the top, at about 10 or 10:30 o'clock. The well-known V's, formed by the folds of flesh between the thumb and fore-finger of each hand, should both point a shade to the right of the chin, to about the inside joint of the color bone (Fig. 5).

Incidentally, one of the club manufacturers has a small ridge-line running down the underside of all its golf grips. This fits perfectly into the groove at the base of the fingers of the right hand, and practically locks the player into the correct right-hand position.

Ridge-line or not, however, this is the overlapping golf grip we must have. Its principal points are that the hands are op­posed, the left has a palm-and-finger contact, the right a finger golf grip alone—and that only two knuckles of the left are visible at address.

Fig. 5. The completed golf grip. Here we see the two knuckles of the left hand and the strong right hand, with, the forefinger hooked low around the shaft and the V’s pointing somewhat to the player’s right hand. The right hand V always point more to the right than that of the left because of the position of the club at the roots of the fingers.

Two slight refinements should be mentioned. The crook of the right index finger, when the golf grip is completed, must always be farther down the shaft than the end of the right thumb. The crook of this index finger may be regarded, al­most, as a hook, and it must never be higher than the tip of the thumb.

Fig. 6. The completed golf grip with the club held up, showing how the little finger of the right hand overlaps the index finger of the left.

It is also permissible to place the overlapping little finger down against the seam between the left hand's index and big fingers. This is not too important. It may feel more comfortable that way to some and it may give a feeling of greater security to others. If you like the little finger down in the seam instead of riding on top of the index finger, by all means put it there.

We believe this golf grip is better than the interlocking or the ten finger golf grips. The pure baseball golf grip is not even to be considered; it has nothing whatever to recommend it.

The overlapping golf grip gives us a better chance to main­tain full and tight contact with both hands at all stages of the swing. And this we must have.

Hold It Tight

The next question is how tight to take this golf grip. Let it be known here and now that we do not go along with the knife-and-fork school of golf gripping—unless it should be a very dull knife operating on a tough piece of meat. In other words, we do not want a loose golf grip. Not even a firm golf grip. We want a tight golf grip.

We do not mean so tight that the muscles of the upper arms and shoulders are tied up with tension. By no means. But we do want those hands tight on the club. What, you will ask, about the wrists? If they are tight, won't the swing be stiff and wooden? And how will I get my wrist break?

Never mind about the wrists. We have rarely seen any­body too stiff or too tight in swinging a golf club (except perhaps for frightened beginners), but we have seen thou­sands too loose. The whole tendency in pupils is to take too light a golf grip. The loose golf grip leads into faults—opening the hands at the top, collapsing the left wrist, over swinging, and so on. The tight golf grip, though it may feel awkward for a while, acts as a brace against these various faults and makes the whole swinging action easier to perform correctly.

By a tight golf grip we also mean with practically all the fingers that are on the club. These would be the last three, principally, of the left hand and the first three of the right. Many players have a tendency to place the forefinger of the right hand, the one that hooks around the shaft just below the right thumb, very lightly on the club. Don't do it. Hook this finger around the shaft firmly, so that the tip of it makes a definite contact with the tip of the thumb. If you don't, the club will be liable to drop, at the top of the swing, into the big V between the forefinger and thumb. This means a loss of control at the top, which must be re­gained as the club comes down.

So much for the golf grip—a tight two-knuckle overlap, to reduce it to capsule form.

Now, how do we stand up the ball? [Chapter Incomplete]

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