Bunker Shots

Rounding up the golf skill necessitates an intimacy with the sand as it is usual to meet them in the course of a golf game.

So what really is the "Alive" Grip?

I have used this term "alive" all throughout this blog. It is so important to me (although I only rate it as a G-8) that I cannot play well without it. With the short irons, if I forget to employ it, a resultant shank painfully reminds me immediately. To me, it is a feeling that the club is taut and ready to pounce like a cobra. So what is it?

When I use my right two middle fingers as a fulcrum to perfectly balance the club between the force excerted by the pad of the left hand and the weight of the club head, that is the description of the state of being "alive". The grip is alive when the right hand is employed this way and that state of perfect balance is achieved.

Imagine a see-saw when thinking about the alive grip. If only one person is on the see-saw, it is not alive. But if two persons are on it, the see-saw, becomes alive. Put this analogy on you hold the golf club. If you leave it dangling from your grip, it is hard to impart the force of the body to the club head. However, if you balance the club, by pushing down on the left pad of the hand with the right two fingers supporting the club, any force excerted by the body is easily transferred to the hands and the club head. And the other way is true too. Hitting the ball will not tend to twist the club head since it is dynamically attached to the body. This is what I mean by an "alive" grip.