Why are your golf grips important? Your grip is the only connection to the club you are swinging. If it is too big or too small it will influence the club face at impact. If your grips are too large they will not allow you to naturally swing the club to the finish position. The tendency will be to have an open face at impact, producing a slice or a push.

If your grips are to small you have to grip the club to tightly reducing the natural arm swing back to the ball. Most people that have grips that are to small tend to be wristy and involve the hands to much delivering the club to impact. This often leads to inconsistent ball flight with a tendency to close the club face through impact.

The last two examples are just rule of thumb but the fact is that playing with the wrong grip size is not good for your game. When I worked on the PGA Tour in 1983 I found that most of the players were quite concerned with having the correct size. A note of caution: Be aware that changing grips and altering size can effect the overall balance of the club. Care should be made to ensure that the overall weight of each replacement grip is similar.

Many of my students have arthritis or other afflictions that effect their ability to grip the club as they have been taught. It has never made sense to me that the golf grip tapers from large to small while the human hand does almost the opposite. In the early 1980’s I brought a grip idea to Lamkin Leather in Chicago with a grip design that tapers to fit the hand. They called it the Silhouette Grip and my guess they sold zillions of them. The USGA made a change in the rules of golf that made the grip illegal and Lamkin no longer offers the grip. If you have arthritis or other hand problems you may want to see if you can find some. They are still out there. If you are playing for the enjoyment of the game don’t worry about if your grips do not conform. Just have fun. Below is a picture of the Silhouette Grip.

I apologize for not keeping up with this blog but for the last 90 days I have had my hands full at my new course, The Hawk at Rebecca Creek in Spring Branch, Texas. When I got here the course was in poor shape. The greens were terrible and had little grass on them. I am happy to say that the greens are now perfect. I will put them up against any greens in the San Antonio golf course market. We have made other improvements, including 66 new EzGo golf carts and have updated the kitchen menu to include Chicago style hot dogs ( for those of you that have had a Chicago hot dog, these are as good as Portillo’s) and Deep dish Chicago style pizza much like Lou Malnatti’s. We have live entertainment every Saturday from 4 to 8. If you are in the area come out and enjoy the music, food and beer in a beautiful Texas Hill Countery setting.

Until next time, Good Golfing !!!