Back to Basics : The golf grip

My neck felt alot better on Saturday morning (there's some niggling discomfort, but nothing that would get in the way of golf - LOL) so the boys and I scheduled an afternoon tee-off. 

There was some rain on the first two holes though but it stopped eventually and the weather after was nice and cool. Fairways were still wet and soggy at the Samarahan Country Club, which resulted in plugged balls, but it should dry up soon after the rainy season (decides to) moves along. 

So why this golf grip business?

We teed off at 12.30pm so I figured I would get some practice / warm up at the range. It's becoming somewhat of a broken record, but I wasn't doing anything right (slicing, shanking, fat shots) except for my driver, which I hit well oddly enough. (am gaming a new shaft with my Callaway driver but more on this another day)

I have been meaning to check in with a golf pro for a while now and as fate would have it, V.Nellan, the visiting golf pro. to the Samarahan Country Club happened to be in town. 

(V. Nellan has been involved in golf instruction for over 40 years and is a well known professional in the industry. Check out this great video of him here. - Credit to the Sandakan Eagle for the video)

Thanks to my mate Lee, I was able to have an unscheduled 'consultation' session with the pro and in 5 minutes he solved my iron striking problems (I kid you not). First, he told me to take a practice swing. In that one back swing, he stopped me and told me what my problem was. My grip.

As we all know, there are essentially 3 different ways to grip a club. The 10 finger grip, the over lap and the inter lock.

I picked up golf a long time ago and when I first started, I was taught to grip the club the inter-lock way and I have been using that grip since. More on grips, here.

So imagine my surprise  when the pro asked me to try a 10 finger grip. It felt really strange at first and it was more a mental block then anything, but what did I have to lose?

He then asked me to take an easy 3/4 swing which I did and my word, was it an EYE- Opener. The impact was flush and even more surprisingly, I produced a slight draw. No slice.

I looked at him in disbelief and he reciprocated with a smile and a simple "How did that feel?" All I could muster was an amazed "Wow!"

Maybe that was just beginner's luck or just an easy 3/4 swing, so I set up again and this time he says encouragingly "Now take a full swing. Don't think about it and just swing through the ball." 

Making sure I had the new grip in place, I took a swing and again the ball flew off the face of my 7 iron effortlessly. Incredible. Flush and no slice. 

Under the pro's watchful eye, I hit about a dozen more shots and although they varied from draws to hooks (better then slicing in my books) I was replicating that sweet, flush impact. Had trouble coming to grips (pardon the pun) that it only took one tweak. 

The session was brief so there wasn't enough time to find out just why this tweak made such a big difference. I mean, it wasn't as if I played crap all the time. After the golf outings in Kuala Lumpur last year, I was striking my irons like a king! So it does puzzle me somewhat, but whatever works man!

More importantly, it was a nice boost to my ailing confidence. Let's see if it will improve / continue this weekend. 

The new grip will take some getting used to, but it's great feeling confident with the irons again.