aim, fundamentals that are surprisingly misunderstood. First let’s examine the grip.
Not everyone grips the club in the same way. These guidelines will help you find your correct neutral grip. Bend from your hip sockets as if you were bowing toward someone, allowing your lead arm to hang straight down. Make a fist but do not squeeze tight. Looking down at your hands as if you were addressing the ball, count how many knuckles you see. Place the club into your fingers — not the palm of your lead hand — and make sure you have the same number of knuckles showing. Your bottom heel pad should be on top of the club, not to the side. If you see more knuckles than you originally saw, you have a strong grip; if you see less knuckles you have a weak grip.
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Most of the people I see have a weak grip, causing the clubface to open up through the strike of the ball, resulting in a slice.
Next, place your bottom hand onto the club, also into the fingers. When you look down at your grip you will see “v’s” on both hands, formed by the index finger and thumb. These v’s should be in line with each other. You have three choices when securing the bottom hand to the club — overlap,
interlock or eight-finger grip. Any one is fine, but it must
be comfortable and in all three of these the club must be in the fingers.
I know this grip will feel uncomfortable at first, but it
is correct and the more you practice the better it will feel.
How do you aim? Most people try to aim a part of their body at the target. Have you ever seen someone place a club along their shoulder line, hip line or foot line during their set-up position? They are trying to get one of these to aim
at the target. If you do this, the ball will be aimed way to the right for a right-handed golfer. You must make a bad swing to get the ball back to the target. If you have been told that you have an over-the-top swing, fixing your aim might
cure the problem.
Your clubface is the only thing that aims at the target. The bodylines will be parallel to the target line. At first you will feel as if you are aiming way left of your target, but trust this aim to get a consistent shot.
Once you are on the golf course, find an intermediate target approximately 3-5 feet in front of your ball. Aim the clubface over this target and position your body parallel.
It is much easier to aim at a target 3-5 feet away instead
of 100 –250 yards away.
Mike Richards is an ESPN Top 25 Instructor and director
of instruction at TPC at Heron Bay.
E-mail him at richards@theparklander.com
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