#3 LINKING THE HANDS (POORLY)
‘JACK’S ASSERTION THAT THE INTERLOCKING GRIP WAS BEST FOR GOLFERS WITH SMALL HANDS HAS BEEN UNHELPFUL’
I’m not alright, Jack
Jack Nicklaus famously asserted the interlocking grip was best for golfers with small hands; if he’d spent the last 30 years prising golfers’ hands apart, he might have seen things differently! If you have smaller hands, ‘overlocking’ puts the handle even higher into the palms, making your hold even more powerless and ineffective. If you have smaller hands, you can still interlock; just go more towards the tips of the fingers… and make sure the handle remains in the fingers, not the palms.
Overlock
The interlocking grip allows us to link the hands by sliding the index finger of the lead hand between the ring and little fingers of the trail hand. Most club players understand this, but they overdo it; the index finger slides right in as far as it can go, against the webbing of those two fingers. The interlock becomes an ‘overlock’.
Missing link
When the interlock becomes an ‘overlock’, both hands move too far under the handle. The grip ends up more in the palms than the fingers, limiting our ability to create leverage through a correct cocking of the wrists. The grip’s job is to provide a secure and powerful link between us and the club, channelling power and controlling the face; but when we overlock, the link is compromised.
Middle joint lock
This grip clanger may have profound implications, but it remains an easy fix. Simply interlock only down to the middle joint of the fingers. From here your hands can find their rightful place on the handle… which now sits more in the fingers and less in the palms. This hold frees your wrists to hinge and cock. Write your name in the air with the clubhead to feel how much more wieldy the club becomes when it is held in the correct part of the hands.