How to Grip a Golf Club

Your connection to the golf club is your only link to the club face, making the grip one of the most important fundamentals in your entire swing. A proper hold gives you control over the face at impact, which directly influences the ball's direction, and it allows you to generate speed freely and consistently. This guide will walk you through the three main grip styles and provide a step-by-step process for building a solid, neutral grip that will work for you.

Good Golf Starts With the Grip

Before we build your grip, it helps to understand why it’s so important. Think of your hands as the steering wheel of a car. If the steering wheel is crooked, you'll have to make constant, awkward adjustments to drive straight. It's the same in golf. An incorrect grip forces you to make complex compensations during your swing to try and get the club face square at impact. This is a primary source of inconsistency for so many players. A sound grip allows your body to rotate and your arms to swing naturally, returning the club to a square position with much less effort. It's the foundation upon which a reliable, repeatable golf swing is built.

The Three Dominant Golf Grips

There isn’t one "best" grip for every single golfer. Most players will use one of three popular styles. Your choice often comes down to hand size, strength, and pure comfort. Let’s look at each one so you can figure out your best starting point. For all examples, we'll describe them for a right-handed golfer.

1. The Ten-Finger (or Baseball) Grip

Just like it sounds, the ten-finger grip is where all ten of your fingers are in contact with the club. There is no overlapping or interlocking of the hands, the right hand simply sits snugly below the left hand.

• Who is it for? This grip is often fantastic for junior golfers, seniors, players with smaller or weaker hands, or those who suffer from arthritis. Keeping all ten fingers on the club can help you feel like you have more leverage and power.
• The Benefit: It’s the easiest grip to learn and can help golfers who struggle to generate clubhead speed feel more powerful.
• The Drawback: The main challenge with the ten-finger grip is getting the hands to work together as a single unit. Sometimes, the dominant right hand can become too active, leading to hooks or inconsistent strikes.

2. The Overlapping (Vardon) Grip

This is probably the most popular grip in all of golf, used by legends from Harry Vardon to Tiger Woods (in his early career) and Arnold Palmer. In the overlapping grip, the pinky finger of the right hand rests gently in the space between the index and middle fingers of the left hand.

• Who is it for? It's a great all-around grip that works for a huge majority of golfers, especially those with average to large-sized hands.
• The Benefit: The overlap does an excellent job of unifying the hands, helping them act as one cohesive unit throughout the swing. This promotes great control and consistency.
• The Drawback: Golfers with smaller hands might feel that they lose a secure connection to the club because the pinky finger is not fully wrapped around the grip.

3. The Interlocking Grip

The interlocking grip, famously used by Jack Nicklaus and a modern-day Tiger Woods, is another fantastic option for unifying the hands. As the name implies, the pinky finger of the right hand hooks together, or interlocks, with the index finger of the left hand.

• Who is it for? This grip is a wonderful choice for players with average or smaller hands, as it creates a very secure and locked-in feeling.
• The Benefit: By physically linking the hands, this grip virtually guarantees they will work in unison. Many players feel it gives them an extra sense of security and prevents the club from moving around in their hands during the swing.
• The Drawback: The most common complaint is a potential loss of "feel" for some players. More importantly, if practiced with excessive grip pressure, it can create a lot of tension in the hands and forearms.

A Step-by-Step Guide to a Neutral Golf Grip

Regardless of whether you choose the overlap, interlock, or ten-finger style, the placement of your hands on the club follows the same fundamental principles. Our goal is to achieve a neutral grip. A neutral grip is one that feels natural and puts your hands in a position to easily return the club face to square at impact. Follow these steps carefully.

Step 1: Get the Club Face Square

First things first. Before your hands even touch the club, place the clubhead on the ground behind the ball. Make sure the leading edge - the bottom line on the club face - is pointing directly at your target. If your grip has a logo, it should be facing straight up. Starting with a square club face is half the battle.

Step 2: Placing Your Left Hand (Lead Hand)

Now, let's place your top hand, which is your left hand for a right-handed golfer.

1. Bring your left hand to the side of the grip. The most common mistake here is placing the grip in the palm of your hand. Instead, you want to hold the club primarily in your fingers.
2. Position the handle so that it runs diagonally from the middle joint of your index finger down to the base of your pinky finger.
3. Once the grip is seated in your fingers, simply fold your hand over the top.

Quick Checkpoints for Your Left Hand:

• Knuckles: When you look down, you should be able to see the knuckles of your index and middle fingers. Seeing two knuckles is the tell-tale sign of a neutral grip. If you see three or four, your grip is too "strong." If you see one or none, it's too "weak."
• The "V": The 'V' shape formed by your thumb and index finger should point roughly toward your right shoulder.

Step 3: Placing Your Right Hand (Trail Hand)

With your left hand in a great position, it's time to add your right hand.

1. Approach the club from the side, just as you did with your left hand. Again, the goal is to hold it in your fingers.
2. The grip should snuggle into your right hand’s fingers. The lifeline on your right palm should fit perfectly on top of your left thumb. This is a defining sensation of a proper grip - it feels like your hands are fitting together.
3. Now you can connect your hands using your chosen style:
   • For the overlap, rest your right pinky in the channel between your left index and middle finger.
   • For the interlock, link your right pinky with your left index finger.
   • For the ten-finger, simply place your right pinky snugly against your left index finger.

Quick Checkpoints for Your Right Hand:

• The "V": Just like with the left hand, the 'V' formed by your right thumb and index finger should also point up towards your right shoulder or perhaps just off-center toward your chin. This ensures the hands are parallel and working together.

This process might feel strange at first. The golf grip is not like holding a baseball bat or a tennis racket. Stick with it. Practice holding the club at home while watching TV. The more you do it, the more natural and comfortable it will become.

Grip Pressure: Let's Talk Squeeze

One of the silent swing-killers is grip pressure. So many amateurs strangle the club, creating enormous tension in their hands, wrists, and forearms. This tension restricts your ability to swing freely and release the club properly. A tense grip robs you of power and feel.

Imagine your grip pressure on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is barely holding on and 10 is a white-knuckle death grip. You want to feel a pressure of about a 3 or 4. A classic analogy is to feel like you're holding a small bird - firm enough so it can't fly away, but light enough that you don't harm it. Your goal is security, not rigidity. You should be able to hold the club with light pressure and still waggle it easily with your wrists.

At address, your pressure should be light. It will naturally increase slightly at the top of an athletic backswing and at impact, but it should never feel tense or restrictive.

Final Thoughts

Building a fundamentally sound golf grip is one of the most productive changes you can make to your game, laying a trusted foundation for consistency and control. Walk through these steps, find the style that feels right, and focus on maintaining light a grip pressure.

As you work on your game, it helps to have a guide in your corner. Our goal with Caddie AI is to give you that expert-level feedback whenever you need it. You can even ask something as simple as, "Is my grip strong or weak based on this photo?" and get instant analysis, or ask for drills to help with grip pressure. It’s like having a 24/7 personal coach there to answer your questions and help you with the small details that make a big difference on the course.