Check how you’re holding the driver in your trail hand.
A lot of amateurs forget that it takes two hands to grip the club properly. Many golfers put their lead hand (left hand for righties) on first and are more likely to place that hand on the club carefully. The trail hand is often an afterthought, and that can lead to a loss of control of the clubface. Many times, a poor grip position leads to drives that never really get up in the air. Here’s why:
What I typically see in a poor trail-hand grip is that the handle rests too much across the base of the fingers or even into the palm, and the hand is turned upward. The palm is facing the sky before it closes on the club. This is often caused by bringing the hand in from underneath the handle of the club. When you do that, the trail hand ends up too much on the underside of the shaft. This is an ultra-strong grip position, which causes the clubface to shut through impact, leading to a lot of low pulls off the tee.
To fix this, bring your trail hand onto the club more from the side instead of underneath. Make sure the handle rests diagonally across the middle joints of the middle three fingers [featured image]. This will neutralise your grip, with the ‘V’ shape created by the thumb and forefinger pointing between your chin and trail shoulder. Your trail hand should cover your lead hand’s thumb [above]. Do that, and you’ll have a much easier time keeping the clubface square, delivering good loft and hitting those high bombs.
Travis Fulton operates Travis Fulton Golf in Jacksonville, Florida.
