Published: Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009 / Updated: Wednesday, Jul. 29, 2009 08:11 PM
It's In The Palm of Your Hand
By Ed Sehl, PGA
Whenever you start explaining the golf grip, eyes glaze over, and folks who previously had excuses for not doing their chores, immediately crank up lawn mowers, pull out paint cans, or begin washing cars.
In bowling they realize that participants need help. They drill holes in the ball so that you know where to put your fingers. Maybe golfers are not as honest as bowlers. Why else would the United States Golf Association make it illegal to have too much tinkering with the grip other than it has to be round?
There is one real reason why the golf grip is important. The palm of your hands and the face of the club are intimately related. If you don't know how they are related you are doomed to “golfers' hell” paved with good intentions but lots of topped, bladed, skulled, and shanked shots. All the practice and pleading for a cool solid shot won't alleviate the pain. So before you run out to do those chores keep reading.
Set the face of your 7 iron, just the face, in the palm of your right hand so you can see the grooves. Place it flat in your right palm so that the toe of the club points to your thumb and the leading edge of your 7 iron is parallel to where the fingers connect to your hand. The critical motions that your hands make for hitting a golf ball are: Dorsey flexion, palmer flexion, pronation and supination. In Dorsey flexion, your hand bends at the wrist toward the back of your forearm. In palmer flexion, your hand bends at the wrist toward the inside of the forearm. With pronation, your wrist and forearm rotate from palm up to palm down. With supination, your wrist and forearm rotate from palm down to palm up.
What does this have to do with the face of the club? The cover of the Five Fundamentals of Golf shows the all-time most imitated impact position of Ben Hogan. All great players have the club de-lofted at impact while at the same time they rotate the club face through the impact area. Since the face of your 7 iron and the palm of your right hand are identical, to do what the great players do, your right wrist must be Dorsey flexed (bent backwards) at impact while pronating. Dorsey flexion ensures that you have de-lofted the clubface and pronation ensures that you have the toe of the club traveling faster than the heel. This only applies to the right hand. The left hand does the opposite. The left hand is palmer flexed (bowed) at impact and supinates causing the same effects on the club face as does the right hand.
Start with chips and pitches and half shots before working your way up to full swings with a driver. For extra feel play without a glove just like our new US Open Champion Lucas Glover does. It's all in the palm of your hand.
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