I know that I have a tendency to swing outside-in, or over the top, as some people like to describe it. When I try to start my swing from the inside, it feels somewhat unnatural, and I'm more likely to either top the ball, smother it badly, or hit a very fat shot. As a result, I've long been resigned to the fact that I have to make my outside-in path work somehow. Lately, I've challenged this line of thinking. In an attempt to figure out what causes my outside-in path, I took a closer look at my grip.
You see, I have what some people call a strong grip. In golf terms, this means that my hands are rotated a little farther clockwise than most instructors recommend. When I say clockwise, I am referring to the golfer's perspective, when looking along the shaft of the club. Imagine looking at the butt end of the club, while your hands are wrapped around it. If you were to rotate your hands clockwise a few degrees from the ideal position, this would be a strong grip. If the club face is square to the target with this setup, one must return to the exact same position on the downswing, just before impact. If the hands rotate counter-clockwise during the downswing to a more neutral position at impact, then the club face will be closed to the target. The result will be a pull or hook shot. This is what I've been noticing with my driver and irons.
I resolved to try a weaker grip at my latest round on the Cobalt course at Granite Ridge Golf Club. If you looked only at my final score, you would say that this strategy failed miserably. That wouldn't be entirely true. The fact is, this strategy worked like a charm half the time and only failed miserably the other half of the time. A few examples illustrate best.
Hole #3, a par-3 with out of bounds on the left, was playing slightly up at 142 yards. I opted for 9-iron and hit the ball as pure as one possibly can. The swing was fluid, and contact was crisp. The ball launched high in the air and was headed straight at the flag. I came close to jarring it in, but landed about two feet long and left. The ball spun back, leaving an uphill 8-footer for birdie. I didn't make the putt, settling for par. It was a great iron shot, and one I would replicate elsewhere on the course. I hit a pure 8-iron off the tee on the par-3 fifth hole, along with a sweet 4-iron from the tee on both the par-4 sixth and the par-4 eleventh. On the par-5 fourth and seventh holes, I hit a picture perfect 6-irons to advance the ball with my second shot.
For every great shot however, there was a stinker. My approach from 100 yards on hole #4 flared right, finding a bunker. I also flared one well right from 140 yards approaching hole #7. On hole #15, my approach from 120 yards was caught thin and sailed behind the bunker. The flared shots were clearly a result of not being used to the weaker grip. On those swings, I reverted to the strong position on the downswing, which of course left the club face well open at impact. Worse than the misses with the irons were those with the driver. Apart from a beauty that used every bit of available fairway on hole #7, my driver let me down. I was trying to apply the same grip adjustment to the driver, but it didn't work at all. The awkwardness I feel with the weaker grip is multiplied with the longer driver. I push-sliced quite a few drives later in the round, a result of reverting to the strong grip position during my downswing.
Besides the grip woes, I had a heck of a time pitching and chipping. On some blowup holes, the chipping is what really let me down. It seems every chip shot has such a unique lie. Sometimes, the rough is long and the ball propped up. It's easy to slide the club right under the ball in that situation. Other times, the rough is long, but the ball is settled right down. On other occasions, the rough is sparse. The ground may be dry and hard, or moist and soft. All of these shots are different, because the club reacts differently to the ground. I could use a lot more work on this aspect of the game.
Score: 111
Putts: 35
Fairways: 3
Greens: 1
Penalties: 5
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