Many golfers have swing tendencies that, no matter how hard they try, they can’t get rid of. That’s why in this Golf Digest+ series, Matchmakers, Golf Digest No. 1 Teacher in America Mark Blackburn is teaching you how to play with what you’ve got. No matter your tendency, you can play well with it as long as you match it up with the right moves.
If you’ve got a weak grip and aren’t looking to change it, it’s crucial that your swing matches your grip in order to produce a reliable ball flight. How do you know if you have a weak grip? When you look down at your hands at address, you’ll see less than two knuckles on your lead hand. The logo on your glove is facing more towards the target than up in the air.
If you look at your right hand, you might notice the “V” formed by your index finger and thumb is pointed at your lead shoulder. This excessively weak grip looks a little something like this below.
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The hit great shots with this weak grip, keep these three keys in mind.
1. Move the ball back
When players have a weak grip, I often try to get them to play draws. I’ll explain why in a second, but in order to help you draw the ball, move the ball a little back in your stance from where you normally would have it. For the weak grippers, I like somewhere directly in the middle of your stance for most irons.
MORE: Many great ball-strikers have used a strong grip. Here’s how you can make it work, too
Since the ball is further back in your stance, the path of the club will be traveling more in-to-out when it hits the ball, and the clubface will be slightly open to the target—both are key ingredients to hitting draws.
2. Hinge going back Your browser does not support the video tag.
With a weak grip, the clubface wants to roll open in the backswing and close in the downswing. Don’t fight that. In the takeaway, allow your wrists to hinge a little earlier. Feel like the clubhead is the first thing to move in the swing. Hinge, then turn is a good thought. You might notice when you this that the logo on your glove points more toward the sky than the ground in the takeaway.
3. Shut it down
OK, you’ve made a nice backswing turn with a full wrist hinge, now comes the critical part. Since you have a weak grip, at the top of the swing, your clubface will be slightly open, with the toe of the club pointing more toward the ground. We need you to get it square by impact.
You can do that by using what I call a more traditional release of the club, where the trail forearm rolls over the lead forearm through impact. This is an old-school style of releasing the club which requires a good amount of timing, but if you get the hang of it, it’s a great way to hit high draws.
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Use your hands and arms to freely release the club coming down. There should be no feeling of “holding on” through impact. A great checkpoint: just after impact, your forearms should be nearly touching since your trail arm is releasing really hard.
This isn’t right for everyone, but if you’ve got a weaker grip, this rolling release will help you get the most out of your swing.
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Blackburn’s new book, The Coaching Code, is now out. In it, he explains the concepts he has used in coaching dozens of tour players, including Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa. Blackburn is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.
MORE FROM MARK BLACKBURN
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
