What Is the Proper Golf Grip?

The single connection you have to the golf club is your hands, making your grip the ultimate steering wheel for every shot you hit. If your grip is off, your swing will develop compensations to try and get the clubface square at impact, leading to inconsistency. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to build a solid, reliable grip that promotes power, accuracy, and consistency shot after shot.

Why Your Grip Is The Foundation of a Good Golf Swing

Think about it this way: the position of your hands on the handle directly dictates the position of the clubface throughout the swing. If the clubface returns to the ball pointing to the right (open), you’ll likely hit a slice. If it returns pointing to the left (closed), you’ll probably hit a hook. While your swing path and body rotation play their part, the grip is headquarters for clubface control.

Many golfers spend years trying to fix swing flaws with their body when the actual source of the problem is a poor hold on the club. A bad grip forces you to make complex, last-second manipulations with your hands and arms just to get the ball to fly somewhat straight. This is an exhausting and inconsistent way to play golf.

Mastering a’ neutral,’ or fundamentally sound, grip is your first and most important step toward building a repeatable swing. It allows your body to rotate freely and your wrists to hinge properly, which are the building blocks of power. The best part? It’s something you can practice anywhere, even while watching TV on the couch. Getting this right makes everything else in the golf swing so much easier.

The Three Main Golf Grips: Which One Is for You?

While there is a "proper" way to position your hands, there are three common styles for how your hands connect with each other. There isn’t a single “best” one, the right choice for you comes down to hand size, strength, and comfort. Let's look at the three main options.

1. The Ten-Finger (Baseball) Grip

Just like its name suggests, this grip involves placing all ten of your fingers on the golf club, similar to how you would hold a baseball bat. The pinky finger of your trail hand rests snugly against the index finger of your lead hand.

• Who it’s for: This is an excellent grip for juniors, seniors, golfers with small or weaker hands, and those suffering from arthritis.
• Pros: It provides maximum leverage from both hands and arms working together, which can help generate a bit more clubhead speed for those who need it. It feels very natural and powerful.
• Cons: With the hands separated, they can sometimes work against each other rather than as a single unit, which can reduce consistency for some players.

2. The Overlap (Vardon) Grip

This is easily the most popular grip among professional golfers. To create the Overlap grip, you place the pinky finger of your trailing hand into the space between the index and middle fingers of your lead hand, resting it on top.

• Who it’s for: It's a fantastic all-around grip, but it works especially well for players with average-to-larger hands who have a fair amount of hand and forearm strength.
• Pros: It promotes excellent hand unity, allowing them to work together as a single, stable unit. This leads to great control and consistency.
• Cons: Players with smaller hands might feel that their trailing hand doesn't have a secure enough connection to the club.

3. The Interlocking Grip

Right behind the Overlap in terms of popularity is the Interlocking grip, famously used by legends like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Here, you "lock" your hands together by hooking the pinky finger of your trailing hand underneath the index finger of your lead hand.

• Who it’s for: This grip is a great choice for players with average or smaller hands, as it provides an extremely secure connection.
• Pros: The interlocking nature locks the hands together beautifully, preventing any unwanted movement and promoting an incredible sense of unity.
• Cons: For some, it can introduce too much grip pressure or feel uncomfortable. It can sometimes inhibit the wrists from moving as freely as they should if held too tightly.

Experiment with all three. One will almost certainly feel more secure and comfortable than the others. Go with that one.

Building Your Perfect Grip: A Step-by-Step Guide

Once you’ve chosen how you’ll connect your hands, it’s time to learn how to place them on the club properly. A word of warning: if you’ve been playing with an incorrect grip for a while, making this change will feel incredibly weird at first. Stick with it. The discomfort is a sign of change, and in a few short sessions, it will start to feel normal.

For this guide, we’ll assume you’re a right-handed golfer. If you’re a lefty, simply reverse the references to “left” and “right.”

Step 1: Get the Lead Hand Right (Left Hand)

Your left hand is your control hand. Getting it into a neutral position is the most critical part of the entire process.

1. Hold the club out in front of you at a 45-degree angle, with the clubface perfectly square to your imaginary target.
2. Start by placing the grip in the fingers of your left hand. The handle should run diagonally from the middle joint of your index finger down to just below your pinky finger. Avoid placing the club in your palm, as this severely restricts wrist action and kills power.
3. Once the club is set in your fingers, simply close your hand over the top of the handle.
4. Checkpoint #1: Count Your Knuckles. When you look down at your grip, you should be able to see the knuckles of your index and middle fingers. Seeing two knuckles is the hallmark of a neutral left-hand grip.
5. Checkpoint #2: Check the "V". The "V" formed between your thumb and index finger should be pointing roughly toward your right shoulder or right ear.

Step 2: Add the Trail Hand (Right Hand)

Your right hand is the power and feel hand. Its job is to support the left hand and apply speed.

1. With your left hand correctly in place, bring your open right hand toward the grip with the palm facing your target.
2. The grip should fit into the fingers of your right hand, just as it did with your left. The lifeline in your right palm should fit neatly over your left thumb, essentially covering it up.
3. Close your right hand, letting the fingers wrap underneath the grip. The right index finger should form a slight "trigger" shape, separated slightly from the other fingers.
4. Checkpoint #3: A Mirrored "V". The "V" formed by your right thumb and index finger should mirror the one from your left hand, also pointing somewhere between your chin and your right shoulder. Both hands should look like they are in a handshake position on the club.

Now, simply apply your chosen connection style - Overlap, Interlock, or Ten-Finger - by correctly placing your right pinky finger. You’ve now built a fundamentally sound, neutral grip.

How Hard Should You Hold It? The Secret of Grip Pressure

One of the most common faults among amateurs is gripping the club like they’re trying to choke it. A tense grip freezes your wrists and arms, killing your ability to generate clubhead speed. To create a smooth, powerful swing, you need to feel relaxed.

Imagine you're holding a tube of toothpaste with the cap off. You want to hold it firmly enough that you don't drop it, but not so tight that toothpaste squishes out everywhere. That’s the feeling you want.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is barely holding on and 10 is a death-grip, your grip pressure should hover around a 4 or 5. This light but secure pressure allows your wrists to hinge properly on the backswing and release powerfully through impact. You should feel the most pressure in the last three fingers of your left hand and the middle two fingers of your right hand. Your thumbs and index fingers should be much lighter, acting more as stabilizers.

Final Thoughts

Building a fundamentally correct grip is the single most effective change you can make to improve your ball-striking and consistency. While it can feel odd at first, committing to a neutral grip will unlock your ability to swing freely and powerfully, removing the need for a multitude of in-swing compensations to produce a good shot.

Getting your grip is step one, but knowing how to apply it in trickier, real-world situations on the course is the next level. Sometimes you’re facing a tough lie, unsure if a shot requires you to adjust your setup or your grip, and you just want a confident answer. We designed our app, Caddie AI, to give you that expert second opinion right in your pocket. You can snap a photo of any lie and our AI caddie provides instant, simple advice on the best way to play the shot, removing doubt so you can swing with conviction.