86. For many players, to grip the club correctly would be an instant disaster and the reason why is because the new hand position would not be compatible with their current body action

Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and a host of many other world class players and coaching "Gurus" over the years have all stressed the importance of a correct grip and I, like many others, would agree but there is an additional point that is all too often left out. For many players, to grip the club correctly would be an instant disaster and the reason why is because the new hand position would not be compatible with their current body action.

"A great grip requires a great swing for it to work". Thankfully, sometimes at golf, two wrongs make a right as an "incorrect" grip can suit an "incorrect" body action. A classical example of this was, and still is, Lee Trevino.

Trevino’s distinctive action is one of huge upper body movement leading the down swing and through impact with the club head following. At impact, Trevino’s hands are well ahead of the ball. To get in this position with a conventional textbook grip would produce a shot well right of the target but he avoided this because of his "strong grip" position on the club. Remember that the term "strong grip" does not relate to how hard one is gripping but to the position of the hands on the club. In this case, the player shows more than two knuckles on the back of the left hand with the right hand fairly well underneath the grip, (moving clockwise round the grip). Its counterpart, the weak grip is where one or possibly no knuckles are visible on the back of the left hand but some are visible on the back of the right hand now. (Anti-clockwise round the grip)

Because Trevino never corrected his grip in the early years, his unique swing developed out of necessity in order to make things work. (Years of excessive body movement has unfortunately left him with a weak lower back problem)

Paul Azinger is another "strong gripper" and the next time you see him on T.V., notice the distinctive body action bearing in mind it was created, instinctively, from his hand position on the club.

A strong grip requires less hand action through impact in order to avoid hook shots where as a weak grip requires a lot more hand action to avoid slices. If you use a strong grip and keep your hand action passive, then the body has to become the dominant means by how you get the club head to the ball if you are to keep the ball in play.

The message is do not make a grip change unless you are aware of the effect it will have on the rest of the swing.