How to Hold a Golf Club

Your hands are your only connection to the golf club, making your grip the single most important fundamental in your swing. It’s the steering wheel for your golf shots, directly influencing power, accuracy, and consistency. This guide will walk you through exactly how to hold the club, breaking down the process into simple, actionable steps so you can build a more reliable swing from the ground up.

Your Grip is the Steering Wheel of Your Golf Shots

Before we place our hands on the club, it's vital to understand why the grip is so important. Think of it like this: your hands control the clubface. Where the clubface is pointing at impact determines, more than anything else, where the ball is going to go. If your grip is a little off, the clubface will naturally be a little open or closed. What happens next? You start building subconscious compensations into your swing to try and hit the ball straight. A slice might cause you to swing way over the top, a hook might cause you to hang back and block the shot to the right. It becomes a chain reaction of fixes for a problem that started in your hands. A neutral, correct grip allows the clubface to return to square at impact without any extra manipulation. This frees up your body to make a powerful, athletic turn, knowing the steering wheel is already pointed straight down the a fairway.

Setting the Stage: Squaring the Clubface

A perfect grip on a crooked clubface is still a recipe for a bad shot. The first step always happens before your hands have even touched the club. Place the clubhead on the ground behind the ball so it's sitting flat and flush.

Now, let's make sure it's aimed correctly. The goal is to get the leading edge - the very bottom line on the clubface - to be perfectly perpendicular to your target line. It should form a straight line pointing directly where you want the ball to go. Many club grips have a logo or a small marking on the top. You can often use this as a guide to ensure the face is square. If it doesn’t, just trust your eyes on that leading edge. If it’s tilted to the left (closed) or right (open), you’re setting yourself up for a challenge before you even swing. Get it straight, and you’re starting from a neutral position.

Step 1: The Lead Hand (Left Hand for Righties)

The lead hand is the foundation of your grip. It provides the primary structure and control. Let your left arm hang naturally from your shoulder. As you bring your hand to the club, notice how your palm is slightly turned inwards. We want to maintain that natural position.

Positioning the Club in Your Fingers

A common mistake is placing the grip in the palm of the hand. This restricts wrist movement and costs you power. Instead, you want to hold the club in your fingers. Lay the grip diagonally across the base of your fingers, starting from the middle of your index finger and running down to just below your pinky finger. There should be a small amount of the grip (about a quarter-inch) sticking out above your hand. Once the club is resting in your fingers, you can simply close them around the grip and then place the pad of your palm on top.

The Two-Knuckle Checkpoint

Here is a classic checkpoint for a neutral lead-hand grip. After you've set your left hand on the club, look down. You should be able to clearly see the knuckles of your index and middle fingers. This is the "two-knuckle grip" and it puts your hand in a powerful, neutral position.

• Too Weak (Too few knuckles visible): If you can only see one knuckle or even none, your hand is too far underneath the club. This is a "weak" grip, and it often leads to the clubface opening during the swing, causing a slice.
• Too Strong (Too many knuckles visible): If you can see three or even four knuckles, your hand is too far on top of the club. This is a "strong" grip, and it tends to make the clubface close during the swing, causing a hook.

The "V" Checkpoint

When you close your hand, your thumb and index finger will form a "V". This "V" is another excellent guide. For a neutral grip, this V should point roughly towards your right shoulder (for a right-handed player). If it's pointing at your chin, your grip is likely too weak. If it's pointing outside your right shoulder, it's likely too strong.

Step 2: The Trail Hand (Right Hand for Righties)

With your lead hand set, it's time to add your trail hand. The trail hand supports the club and adds a significant amount of feel and power, but it needs to work in partnership with the lead hand, not against it. As you did with your left hand, let your right arm hang naturally and notice the way its palm faces slightly inward.

Positioning your Palm and Fingers

Bring your right hand to the club. The lifeline on your right palm should fit snugly over your left thumb. This creates a beautifully unified connection between your hands, helping them work as a single unit. Once the palm is in place, simply wrap your right-hand fingers around the grip. Much like the lead hand, the majority of the hold should be in the fingers, not the palm, to allow for a free release of the club. The "V" formed by your right thumb and index finger should be parallel to the V on your left hand, also pointing generally toward your right shoulder.

Step 3: Connecting Your Hands (Three Grip Styles)

You have your left hand positioned and your right hand on the club. The final step is to decide how you want to connect them. There are three primary methods, and there is no single "best" one. It comes down to comfort and what allows your hands to feel most unified. Try all three and see what feels most natural and secure to you.

1. The Ten-Finger (Baseball) Grip

As the name suggests, this is simply the grip where all ten of your fingers are on the golf club. Your right pinky finger rests right up against your left index finger, but they don't overlap or link. This grip is great for beginners, junior golfers, or players who may have weaker hands or arthritis, as it allows you to get maximum leverage with all your fingers.

2. The Interlocking Grip

This is a very popular grip used by many top professionals, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. To form it, you interlace the pinky finger of your right hand with the index finger of your left hand. Many players find that this "locks" the hands together into a very solid, single unit, preventing any unwanted wiggling during the swing. It’s particularly effective for players with average or smaller-sized hands.

3. The Overlapping (Vardon) Grip

This is the most common grip in golf, named after the legendary Harry Vardon. To create it, you rest the pinky finger of your right hand into the space or groove between your left index and middle fingers. This grip promotes great hand unity while allowing for terrific feel, and it's favored by players with average to larger-sized hands.

Seriously, don't overthink this part. The key is that your hands are comfortable and feel connected. Whether you interlock, overlap, or use ten fingers, the fundamentals of the hand positions (the knuckles and the "V"s) remain the same.

How Hard Should You Grip?

Imagine you are holding an open tube of toothpaste. You want to hold it firmly enough that you won't drop it, but not so firm that you squeeze the toothpaste out. That's the perfect grip pressure - it’s holding on without holding on too tight. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is squeezing as hard as you can, your grip pressure should be around a 3 or 4.

Excessive tension is a power killer. When you strangle the club, your forearms, shoulders, and back all get tight. This prevents you from making a full, fluid turn and inhibits your ability to generate clubhead speed. A light, relaxed grip allows your wrists to hinge properly and release the club with speed through impact.

A Quick Warning: It’s Going to Feel Weird

If you're changing from an old, ingrained grip, or if you're a complete beginner, let me be clear: a correct grip is going to feel bizarre at first. It will probably feel weak, unnatural, and uncomfortable. This is the biggest hurdle players face, and it's where most people give up and go back to what "feels" comfortable (but is actually incorrect).

You must trust the process. A neutral golf grip is unlike how we hold almost anything else. Stick with it. Hold a club in your living room while watching TV to build the muscle memory. The more you do it, the more "weird" will start to feel right. It may take hundreds, if not thousands, of repetitions to overwrite your old habit, but it will be worth it.

Final Thoughts

Mastering a sound golf grip is the gateway to real improvement. It’s the single change that can have the biggest downstream effect on your entire swing, giving you control over the clubface and freeing you to swing with confidence. Take the time to build your grip correctly, one step at a time, and you’ll be laying the foundation for a more powerful and consistent golf game.

Of course, building the right feel in your hands is a personal process, and translating that feel to actual results on the course can be a challenge. That's why Caddie AI is so helpful. I can analyze photos of your toughest shots, like a ball buried in the rough or on an awkward upslope where your standard grip pressure or setup might need an adjustment. I provide immediate, expert-level strategy so you'll know not just how to hold the club, but how to adapt that hold for any situation the course throws at you.