Читать книгу The Fundamentals of Hogan - David Leadbetter - Страница 8

Ben Hogan said, “good golf begins with a good grip.” He believed and taught that a fundamentally correct grip allows the hands to work as a unit on the club—so important for consistent shotmaking. Hogan felt that golfers downplayed the value of a sound grip in terms of its contribution to speed, consistency and control of the clubhead through impact.

Left Hand Hogan favored a palm grip for the left hand, feeling that this offered the player a better chance for maintaining control of the club than if it were placed in the fingers. He said that the club should lie across the left hand so that it runs diagonally from the heel pad to the first joint of the index finger. Hogan also felt that pressure points in the grip were important for maintaining control. The main pressure I points in the left hand were up from the last three fingers and down from the fleshy palm-pad under the thumb. These pressure points helped prevent the club from coming loose during the swing, and helped keep the club solid at impact. When Hogan looked down at this completed left-hand grip, he saw that the V between his thumb and forefinger pointed toward his right eye.

Hogan placed the club well into the palm of the left hand.

Hogan felt that the club should not be placed down in the fingers of the left hand.

Grip pressure comes up from the last three fingers and down from the palm pad.

The V between thumb and forefinger of his left hand pointed to the right eye.

To maintain grip pressure is to maintain control.

When grip pressure is lost, hands become loose and control is lost.

Hogan placed the club in the fingers of the right hand across the top joints.

Right Hand As opposed to the left hand, palm-oriented grip, Hogan believed that the club should be placed in the fingers of the right hand; specifically, the club should be placed across the top joints of the fingers—just below the palm. His thoughts about the right hand grip in general were that it should work equally with the left hand, but that it should not play an overpowering role in the swing.

Right hand folds on top of the left thumb.

To ensure that his hands worked as a unit, Hogan placed the little finger of his right hand in the groove between the index and second finger of his left hand. He then positioned the cavity in his formed right hand on top of his left thumb. Pressure in the right hand came from the middle two fingers and from the knuckle above the right index finger. When Hogan looked down at his completed right-hand grip, he saw that the V between his thumb and forefinger pointed to his chin (as opposed to the V in his left-hand grip pointing to his right eye). As a practice aid to neutralize the stronger right hand and also to feel how the hands should work together, Hogan practiced swinging the club (but not hitting a ball) with his right thumb and forefinger off the shaft.

Hogan wanted his grip to be secure, comfortable and alive, and tension free. A good grip allows the player to maintain control of the club and to hit the variety of shots—high and low shots, draws and fades—that are necessary if one is to become a complete player. Hogan advised golfers to work constantly on their grip to ensure it was perfect in every detail.

Left thumb fits in cavity of right hand.

The little finger of the right hand fits in the groove between the first and second fingers of the left hand.

The middle fingers supply the pressure.

Hogan suggests a drill in which you swing the club with the thumb and finger off the shaft.

Hogan had unusually flexible wrists and thumbs.

Hogan liked the V between thumb and forefinger of the right hand to point to the chin. The knuckle above the index finger helped provide pressure.

Checking grip pressure in the last three fingers of the left hand and middle two of the right.

My View Hogan’s grip looked immaculate. It was as if his hands were molded to the golf club. He wanted, as he indicated, a secure, alive, and comfortable grip—a grip that would offer the most effective means for him to control the ball. He never wanted his hands to come apart or separate from the club, so he worked long and hard at perfecting his grip, making a few changes to it over the years. The grip changes were an integral part of the much-discussed Hogan “secret.” In his early years he had a severe problem with a wild hook, so naturally he built his swing around incorporating an anti-hook move. He was quoted as saying, “I hate a hook. It nauseates me. I could vomit when I see one.” It’s not surprising, then, that Hogan’s “secret” was based on his finally being able to eliminate the hook from his game. I will discuss his “secret” in due course.

In my opinion most golfers run into big problems when they employ an ultra-palmy left-hand grip in the Hogan mode. You can see in the photograph of him taken down the line that the club sits extremely high in his palm. The problems are magnified when the palmy left-hand grip is combined with placing the club purely in the fingers of the right hand. Such a grip will, for most golfers, accentuate or even produce a slice; they will be unable to generate any real clubhead speed or to square the clubface in the impact area. Hogan, however, was able to master this method of gripping the club; in my opinion, not many players are able to handle it.

Club sits high in palm of Hogan’s left hand.

You see, Hogan was an exceptional athlete who had superb dynamics in his swing, meaning that he transferred collected energy to his clubhead in an astonishing, powerful fashion. He had strong, fast hands and his action was very much like cracking a bullwhip. His swing tempo was upbeat and he had tremendous overall flexibility, especially in the wrist/thumb area; the result was that he could swing the club back beyond parallel—far beyond parallel—at the top. Look at the curvature in his thumbs (see page 16); the way they bowed backward was extraordinary, and along with the flexibility in his wrists was a major part of the reason that he had so much wrist cock and clubhead lag in his swing. I first became aware of the flexibility in his thumb and wrist area after looking at still pictures of Hogan on his downswing when I was a kid, and I then tried to recreate the angles and the lag that he had coming down into the ball. That was considered a power position and I wanted to get into it. But I, along with just about every golfer I have encountered, had no chance of doing that. We don’t have that flexibility in our wrist/thumb area.

So much flexibility and lag can also cause problems. A clubface even slightly closed when combined with tremendous lag and hand speed can lead to problems at impact, as it did at times for Hogan. With the longer clubs, especially the driver and fairway woods, and under the pressure of tournament play early in his career, a severe hook would show up. Hogan had to find a way to stop this shot and to pacify his hands so that he could gain more control. Distance was never a problem, but control and timing were. Hogan thought that by changing his grip he would solve his directional problems—his strategy certainly went some way toward doing so.

Hogan made a couple of changes to his grip to cure his hook, and although he regarded these changes as minor, I feel they were major. He made the first change in 1945, when he shifted his left thumb up the shaft into what is considered a “short thumb” position. The “long thumb” (that is, where the thumb is stretched down the shaft as much as possible) encourages wrist cock, and so when Hogan shortened it he was able to firm up and restrict his wrist cock. This, in turn, had the effect of making his swing considerably shorter and keeping his club more under control at the top. By firming up his wrist cock he was also able to reduce the excessive amount of lag coming down. This greater control helped him improve his timing.

Having shortened the thumb up, Hogan’s next step in his grip change was to move his left hand around in a counterclockwise direction (more to the left on the shaft), showing just one knuckle when he looked down on it; this placed his “short” left thumb over to the center as opposed to the right of the shaft. In conjunction with moving his left hand to the left he placed his right-hand grip more in his fingers and on top of the shaft, so that, I assume, each hand would match the other.

Long thumb

Short thumb–short swing.

Short thumb

Long thumb–long swing.

David Duval’s strong left–hand grip.

Consequently, his grip was now “weakened,” to use a popular golfing term (though this does not mean it was weakened in strength). He felt the changes helped get the clubface more open; he could now hit hard with his right hand, without as much fear of the face closing and producing a hook. At the point of impact he could keep his left hand or lead hand firm and under control, and in turn have more control over the face. He had nearly achieved his goal of eliminating his hook. One more little key would solve the puzzle and eliminate the disastrous hooks that plagued him. That was his secret, which, as I have said, I will examine later.

Hogan felt that the changes he made were simply modifications to a sound grip and were particularly beneficial for him. It was no surprise, however, that many players copied Hogan’s grip exactly, whether or not they had problems with hooking the ball. Many were unsuccessful in adopting his grip. Most golfers today, even tour players, can profitably adopt a slightly stronger grip with the hands (especially the left hand—showing two to three knuckles when you look down at it) turned in a more clockwise fashion to the right on the club; and they can do this without having to fear severe hooks. This is a more natural and advisable route to follow; it is more natural because your hands are in this position when they hang down by your side. Two players who employ ultra-strong grips—Paul Azinger and David Duval—are most assuredly controlled faders of the ball. There is more to curing a hook or promoting a fade than just weakening the grip.

Those of you who are thinking of shortening your left thumb to gain more control should bear in mind an important factor: namely, that Hogan’s flexibility in his wrists and the curvature in his left thumb made it possible for him to shorten it on the club while still keeping the entire thumb flat on the grip. Most players by shortening the thumb would create a noticeable gap under the thumb, as it bunches up. This would lead to reduced rather than increased control of the clubhead because less of the thumb would be on the club. Generally, I prefer golfers to have a “longish” left thumb to aid cocking and leverage.

Hogan’s grip looked great, no question. And it worked beautifully for him. The grip helped cure Hogan’s hook. But most players don’t hook the ball and in fact tend to slice the ball. Not only would the Hogan-like grip not cure their slice, it would make them hit some awfully big banana balls. A weak grip wouldn’t be a cure. It would be a curse.

To Become an 80-Breaker - or Better I have tried to explain why Hogan gripped the club as he did. He obviously gave a lot of thought to the question of how to best come up with an anti-hook grip; so critical an element was this grip in his discussion of the fundamentals of golf that he devoted an entire chapter to it in Five Lessons. Gardner Dickinson, in fact, wrote that he thought the book “was, more than anything, a system of defense against a low, ducking hook, a problem that afflicts very few golfers.” Hogan achieved the grip he wanted through trial and error, and his final version went a long way toward helping him develop tremendous control over his swing and the golf ball. At the same time there are alternatives to the manner in which he gripped the club. It is important to realize that Hogan’s grip was a personal creation that helped him neutralize his tendencies. Art Wall, Jr., the 1959 Masters winner who played frequently with Hogan, confirmed to me that Hogan, being such a fast swinger, used extremely heavy and stiff-shafted clubs—yet another obvious component of his anti-hook plan. (Hogan also used clubs with flat lies, another anti-hook measure.) His ability to control these clubs demonstrated how strong he was physically, and also how much clubhead speed he was able to create. Many players who tried to hit his clubs found that doing so was an exercise in futility. They simply could not handle such heavy, stiff clubs.

Hogan advocated a grip that positions the club in the palm of the left hand and purely in the fingers of the right hand. I share these ideas to a point, but I would advise some subtle changes especially for people who (1) do not have real suppleness in the wrists and thumbs, and (2) would like to hit a consistent draw—probably a large percentage of the world’s golfers!

If the club sits too high in the palm, it’s easy to wear a hole in the glove.

Let’s first consider the left hand. In my experience, one of the most serious problems that golfers have is that they hold the club so much in the palm of the left hand that they tighten and freeze the wrist action. This makes it difficult for a golfer to cock the wrists correctly and to create any significant leverage. The club sits too high in the hand, to the extent that many golfers wear a hole in their gloves at the top of the palm. This is all brought about because the golfer feels a lack of power and tries to force some motion into the swing. The forced movement occurs mainly at the start of the swing, at the top of the backswing, and in the impact area. All this effort causes movement and friction between the hand and the grip of the club—the hole in the glove results. But a solution is available, a simple modification that for most people feels very good very quickly. It is quite amazing to see how easily the club works and the leverage that one creates when positioning the left hand properly; after all, the left hand acts as a hinge between the arm and the club, and promotes a fluid motion. The golfer feels that the club is in balance and that little, if any, effort is required to produce power and “snap” in the swing. (I’ll explain the solution in a moment.)

Positioning the club correctly in the left hand.

Hogan, because of his flexibility, had considerable natural leverage. His wrist action—the way he set the club going back and created so much snap with it through impact—helped him generate tremendous power. In an effort to create leverage and power, golfers need to correctly cock and uncock the wrists. If the golfer grips the club too much in the palm of his left hand then it is all too easy to lose leverage. A variety of common faults also arise, such as picking the club up from the start, rolling or fanning the clubface, the left arm breaking down, and the right elbow moving into a faulty position. The golfer compensates for, and reacts to, a bad grip by trying to force the club through, usually with the upper body, to try to generate some power. The wrist action of hitting a golf ball is rather like cracking a whip; try to crack it with stiff, wooden wrists and see how the rest of the body incorrectly gets into the act to try to help. The problem of gripping the club too much in the palm of the left hand is so widespread that placing it correctly has frequently changed golfers overnight from being sheers into players who draw the ball, while turning short hitters into solid ball-strikers who now get some distance. That distance comes because the golfer is now able to cock his wrists correctly, create more snap and leverage, and really accelerate the club through the ball.

Closing the left hand around the club.

Neutral left hand grip: curve at base of wrist; two knuckles showing; V between thumb and finger points up toward your right ear.

Left Hand Here’s the way I’d like you to place your left hand on the club. Hold the club up in front of you in your right hand, angled at forty-five degrees to your body. Now bring your left hand from the target at ninety degrees to the shaft and place it on the club so that it fits diagonally across the palm (A) just under the base of the little finger running up through the crook of the forefinger (the midsection hinge where the forefinger bends). Now simply close your hand around the club (B). Let the thumb sit naturally as flush as possible straight down the shaft, neither overextending it nor shortening it, and place it close to the index finger. You should be able to see about two knuckles on your left hand (C) as you hold the club up in front of you; this is a “neutral” grip. (I’m sure Hogan, given his weak grip, would have seen only one knuckle if he held his hand up.) If you are a severe sheer try to see three knuckles—a “strong” grip. At the base of the wrist (the top of the glove) you should see a slight cup or curve. The V between the thumb and forefinger should point toward your right ear. This image will help you achieve a stronger grip. The left-hand grip is basically a palm grip, but the club is low down in the palm toward the fingers, which encourages movement and cocking in the wrist.

The right-hand grip is primarily a finger grip.

The right index finger and thumb form a “trigger” position

It is essential that you get this left-hand placement correct. Be precise with how you place your left hand on the club. Placing the club in your left hand in this manner should make you far more aware of the weight of the club without any tension in the hand. The wrist will now be in a favorable position to cock naturally and supply that all-important leverage. The final point regarding the left-hand grip is more of a preference than a fundamental, in that Hogan preferred to hold the club at the very end of the grip. I advise most players to hold the club so that about one-half to one inch is showing at the end beyond the little finger. Hogan felt that holding the club at the end allowed him to reduce some tension, and swing a touch slower. As I say, this is a matter of preference. Experiment to find what works best for you.

Right Hand Now let’s examine the right hand. Hogan liked the club to fit directly in the fingers, along the top joint line underneath the pad of the palm. My contention is that if you held the club up with your right hand only, you would see that it would fit diagonally across your hand and in fact come into contact with the palm just below the little finger. I agree with Hogan’s belief that the right-hand grip is basically a finger grip. But I feel that gripping the club diagonally across the right hand matches the diagonal look of the left hand. Most players, I believe, look more secure with this grip. Once again, hold the club up in front of you, this time with your left hand, at an angle of forty-five degrees. Place the club diagonally across the fingers of the right hand (D). Slide your hand down the club and link the baby finger between the first two knuckles of the left hand (E), a la Hogan. Now fold the right hand over the left thumb, so that the left thumb slots into the hollow underneath the thumb pad that the right hand provides in this position (F). It’s important to neutralize the potentially destructive pincer action of the right index finger and thumb. Position the right index finger and thumb on the club in a trigger-like fashion while allowing a slight gap to form between the first two fingers (G). Without a trigger position, the tendency is for the right hand to grab the club like a hammer, which, apart from the extra tension, places the right arm and shoulder in too dominant a position at address.

Hogan’s preference was to hold the club at the top of the grip-I prefer players to have one-half to an inch showing.

The key to getting a good grip every time (certainly while learning it) is to position the hands on the club while pointing it up in the air at forty-five degrees and looking at it at eye level. Most golfers have a poor grip because they attach their hands to the club while it is angled down to the ball, often grabbing it initially too high in the palm of the left hand and sloppily with the right hand. Trying to adjust your grip from this position is a losing battle. Why not get the grip right from the start? Be disciplined with the grip routine I’ve suggested and your grip will soon feel comfortable and natural.

The end result of a disciplined approach-a correct and comfortable grip.

Because modern-day shafts taper to a large degree and many grips are very skinny at the lower end, I advise my students to add a couple of extra layers of tape under where the right hand fits. This thicker grip encourages a more diagonal look and facilitates a trigger feeling rather than the hammer feeling. The V formed between the thumb and the forefinger on the right hand should point somewhere toward the right shoulder rather than toward the chin as Hogan suggested. However, if you are a good player who has problems hooking, I certainly would explore the idea of getting your right-hand grip a little more in the fingers and on top of the shaft, as Hogan did in order to promote a situation where you get the face more open at impact. It’s one of those trial-and-error situations, and the weaker right hand might help. The general idea, then, is to encourage a grip where the hands are parallel to and match one another so that they sit uniformly on the club.

When looking down at your grip, your hands should generally be parallel to one another–with the V of the right hand pointed approximately toward the right shoulder.

Hogan’s modification to the Vardon grip.

It is vital, as Hogan believed, that the hands work as a unit and not come apart. I’ve always liked Hogan’s slight modification to the Vardon grip—the idea of the baby finger of the right hand fitting between the index and second fingers rather than just riding piggyback as Vardon’s did. Hogan’s grip in my opinion joins the hands more solidly together and is the linking process I recommend. Although some great players with smaller hands do use an interlocking grip—Jack Nicklaus, Tom Kite, and Tiger Woods, to cite three—the overlapping or Vardon-type grip in my opinion puts less stress on the joints of the fingers and works better for players with medium-to-large size hands.

A few closing thoughts on the hands: in assuming your grip, do maintain pressure in the last three fingers of the left hand. Also place and maintain some pressure from the lifeline of the right hand onto the left thumb. This pressure will help keep the hands together and working in synch during the motion of the swing. The golfer who adopts the correct grip, where he feels the balance and weight of the swinging club without undue tension and is able to cock the wrists fully and freely, will usually feel comfortable with it immediately. Many people are wary of changing their grips because they are concerned that it will take them months to feel better with it. But I have found that the player willing to make the change will soon feel as if he has always held the club this way—in my view, the natural way. This grip works very well for all levels and ages of players—men and women, juniors and seniors, even tour players.

The original Vardon grip.

Interlocking grip.

The grip I encourage my students to develop is still primarily a palm grip in the left hand and a finger grip in the right hand, but with some minor alterations that could make a world of difference to your game.

Finally, remember that a grip is not always as it appears. From the outside it may look quite good, but you can only assess a grip once you open it up and see how the club lies in the hands. Check your grip regularly because it’s easy to revert to old habits. If you are going to transfer power through your hands into the clubhead, then you need to position your hands on the club perfectly every time. A good grip sends a strong message that you mean to play your best golf.