Strong Vs. Weak Golf Grip – What’s Better And For Who?

Strong Vs. Weak Golf Grip – What’s Better And For Who?

 

A golf grip is our only connection with the club, and it needs to be perfect in order to get your golf shots to fly the way that they are intended.

Golf grips can either be strong, neutral, or weak. Depending on the grip you choose, your golf shots will be impacted by it. Understanding how the golf grip can affect your game is very important.

If your golf grip doesn’t feel right or you are struggling with issues in your game, it’s time to start looking into what could be causing the issues.

 

How Is Grip Strength Going To Affect Your Game?

The strength of your grip will have a direct impact on how you can manipulate the club. If you have a very strong grip, you will be able to turn a club over much easier.

On the flip side, the weaker grip makes it difficult to maneuver your hands and release the golf clubs. There is no saying that one of these grips is better than another; however there are benefits and disadvantages to both.

Understanding these differences can help you choose a proper grip for your game.

 

Strong Vs Weak Vs Neutral Golf Grips Overview

With a neutral golf grip, your hands are going to be centered in the center of the club with your thumbs pointing down the shaft.

When your grip gets stronger, your left and right hand will shaft towards the right.

For the weaker grip, your hand will have to turn more towards the left. This makes it so that your right hand is much more on top of the club than underneath it.

The three grip strengths are considerably different, and sometimes you will want to adjust your grip depending on the type of shot you are trying to hit. 

 

Characteristics A Strong Golf Grip

A strong grip will have the left hand turned so that it is slightly right of center. The right hand, therefore, ends up slightly right of the center as well.

The right hand will look like it is a bit below the golf shaft. When you have a strong grip, you will look down and see some of the fingers on your right hand.

With a neutral grip, this will be straight down the center of the club, and you won’t see the fingers.

 

Benefits Of A Strong Golf Grip

The most important benefit of the strong grip is that it is going to be much easier to turn the club over. The golfer that tends to slice the ball will notice that it is much easier to hit the ball straight while their hands are in a good position beneath the golf club.

A strong grip will help promote a bit of a drawer and help those golfers that want to turn the ball a little right to left. Overall the strong grip tends to be the more popular choice for a majority of players. The control that it gives golfers over their shots is undoubtedly helpful.

 

Disadvantages Of A Strong Golf Grip

The disadvantage of the strong golf grip is that you can get your hand too far under the club and end up turning the club over and hooking your shot.

The strong grip can also sometimes get a player’s hands and wrists a bit too involved in their golf shots.

If this happens, it can end up leading a player to lose some of the power that they create with their larger muscles.

 

Who Should Use It?

Golfers that slice the ball is going to be the most likely to benefit from the strong grip.

With a strong grip on the club, it is quite a bit easier to fix a slice.

 

Characteristics A Weak Golf Grip

A weak grip is essentially the opposite of a strong grip.

Your left hand will be turned a bit more to the left, and this, in turn, will allow your bottom hand to fit more over the top of the club.

When you look down from the address position, you will see more of your wrist and forearm than you will see fingers as you do in the stronger grip.

 

Benefits Of A Weak Golf Grip

The benefit of the weak grip is that you will be able to take your hands out of play a bit.

This results in using more of your larger muscles to control your shots as opposed to trying to get a bit too wristy. Of course, this is a great thing as long as you know how to turn the club over and release the ball.

Without this ability, you will end up having a hard time controlling the ball with a week grip.

 

Disadvantages Of A Weak Golf Grip

For golfers that slice their shots, the weak grip is a bad idea. It is much harder to turn the club over and hit it straight when your hands are in a weak position.

 

Who Should Use It?

The weak grip is best for golfers that hook the ball.

Sometimes players tend to overdue their hand action and impact, and the weak grip can help to combat this issue and make it a bit easier to control.

 

Characteristics A Neutral Golf Grip

A neutral grip is one where a golfer holds both of their hands square on the club. You will consider this a standard golf grip, and you will notice that the thumbs of the golfers extend pretty much down the center of the golf shaft.

The neutral golf grip is easy to learn, and golf grip teaching aides will help to make sure you have it exact. The problem with the neutral golf grip is that it does not feel natural for everyone.

Benefits Of A Neutral Golf Grip

The biggest benefit of the neutral golf grip is that it is considered to be the most natural. This is what you are supposed to be doing if you want to hit the ball straight and directly at your target.

The benefits of the neutral grip should be that you hit the ball straight and far; however, there are other swing flaws that some players have that will negate the benefits of the neutral grip.

 

Disadvantages Of A Neutral Golf Grip

There are no real disadvantages to the neutral grip aside from the fact that it is not a few for everyone.

Golfers need to learn this grip and attempt to use it, but they may end up changing their hands around a bit as a way to get better at golf.

 

Who Should Use It?

All golfers need to learn to start with a neutral grip. They must make sure that their hands feel comfortable on the club and that they understand the benefits of the neutral grip and how it relates to their swing.

If players find they have a natural ability to fade the ball and they need to strengthen the grip, than that certainly makes sense to implement the change.

 

 

Strong, Weak Or Neutral Golf Grip For Seniors?

Senior golfers tend to enjoy using the slightly stronger grip.

The strong grip can help to give players a more firm feel on the club and help them get the ball speed that they need to succeed.

 

Best Grip For Women And Juniors?

Juniors will often find that the stronger grip helps them have more control of the club.

When juniors are first learning the game, they must make sure they establish control in order to hit good golf shots.

A stronger grip can be a good idea, but most juniors should learn the game with a neutral golf grip.

 

Can Grip Strength Fix A Slice Or Hook?

Grip strength can have a huge impact on the direction that you hit your golf shot.

Sometimes the only reason that you will slice or hook your golf ball is simply because of your grip strength.

In fact, great players will tell you that when they start to experience an issue with their golf swing, one of the first places they will look to fix it is the grip and the stance.

If your grip and your stance are incorrect, it can lead to other golf swing issues that will then cause the slice or hook. Simply correcting these simpler setup and stance issues can lead to a much more effective golf swing.

 

Is A Strong, Weak Or Neutral Grip Better Overall?

The best grip in golf is going to be the neutral grip. The neutral grip gives players the perfect involvement of hands and body muscles in the swing.

The neutral grip makes it easy to hit high lofted and straight golf shots. If a player is struggling with a neutral grip, then the next best option would likely be the strong grip.

The weak grip is not necessarily recommended as much because it tends to cause players to lose a bit of control over the golf club.

 

Does Swing Speed Affect How Strong Your Grip Should Be?

When you have a strong golf grip, you tend to have a better hold on the club.

This typically allows players to be able to hit the ball quite a bit further.

If you are looking to increase your clubhead speed, a strong grip would be the better choice.

 

Different Grip Strength For Different Clubs

Does it make sense to change your grip strength from one club to the next?

Many players feel as though it makes sense, and others think it is better to stick with just one.

If you are going to change grips between clubs, here are the general guidelines that you should think of following.

 

Drivers

• Stronger grip typically helps to eliminate the slice

Woods

• Strong to neutral should be a good option

Hybrids

• Neutral Grip

Irons

• Neutral Grip

Wedges

• The slightly weaker grip on approach shots with wedges ensure the hands don’t get too involved in the shot

Putter

• Whatever feels as though it is better, putter grips do not impact the game in the same way

 

Is It Easy To Switch From Strong To Weak Grip And Vice Versa?

Once you understand the difference between the strong and weak grip, you can easily switch back and forth between them.

Many golfers will say that it is challenging to switch grips as you will feel quite uncomfortable.

If you want to avoid this, simply work on a grip that you find that you can successfully repeat. If you can do this, you will have no trouble.

 

Does Tiger Woods use a strong golf grip?

Tiger Woods has always played with a strong grip. Some people say it is how he was able to produce so much power through the years.

The strong grip created by Woods made it even more popular on tour.

 

Do Weak Grips Cause Shanks?

If a golf grip is too weak, it could cause a shank. There are, unfortunately, quite a few things that can cause a shank in golf, and you cannot assume that it is the grip.

The best thing to do is to try to change your grip style up and see if it helps the shanks go away.

Another thing to do when the dreaded shanks come up is to leave the golf course and come back another day!

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, our explanations of the weak and strong golf grip have helped you understand what will be the best choice for your game.

People like to throw the terminology regarding grip strength around, but very few truly understand the strength of the grip and how it impacts the game. If you want to become more informed and hit better shots on the course.

Start trying to practice with three different grip strengths and see how it impacts your game. Chances are you will end up somewhere around neutral; however, in the process, you will learn a lot about golf.