Time to strengthen my right hand grip??!

Shawshanks · May 5

So for around a year or so I’ve been really struggling to prevent an open club face in the downswing, leading to flipping/casting and a bout of the shanks every so often. My irons have been pretty unplayable because of this.

Two pros have said that I don’t have enough right wrist angle at the top of my swing(right wrist extended, holding a tray etc) but whenever I try to it feels horrible and I literally feel my hands turn the clubface wide open at the start of my downswing and end up shanking it.

I strengthened my right hand grip a little whilst just swinging a club in the house and noticed that I don’t get the same sensation.

My question is, is it time for me to strengthen my right hand grip or is this a no go?

Photo of my current grip below

iacas · May 5

I'd look at your left hand while I was at it, too, if I were you.

Edited May 5 by iacas

Valtiel · May 5

I’d say that right hand is definitely on the weaker side of neutral so you aren’t going anywhere out of bounds by strengthening that a bit. Can you post a photo of your “strengthened” grip as well? That right thumb hanging off the grip that much likely isn’t helping the feelings of instability at the top unless that shifts in your backswing.

There are a litany of other things that could be causing the issues you’re describing, but we need swing video for that.

Edited May 5 by Valtiel

Shawshanks · May 5

30 minutes ago, iacas said:

I'd look at your left hand while I was at it, too, if I were you.

Would you say my grip looks weak then? I did have a case of the hooks recently and I may have crept to the weaker side without realising

Shawshanks · May 5

12 minutes ago, Valtiel said:

I’d say that right hand is definitely on the weaker side of neutral so you aren’t going anywhere out of bounds by strengthening that a bit. Can you post a photo of your “strengthened” grip as well? That right thumb hanging off the grip that much likely isn’t helping the feelings of instability at the top unless that shifts in your backswing.

There are a litany of other things that could be causing the issues you’re describing, but we need swing video for that.

I don’t have a photo unfortunately but looking in the mirror my ‘V’ pointed more towards my right shoulder. It wasn’t super strong and under the club as I’m aware that will only cause more issues down the road.

as for my swing, I’ve had lessons with pros who are happy with my swing, the pointers have been the right wrist angle and open face.

Shawshanks · May 5

Here is a clearer picture

iacas · May 5

18 minutes ago, Shawshanks said:

Would you say my grip looks weak then? I did have a case of the hooks recently and I may have crept to the weaker side without realising

I think the grip is running up your left palm.

GSPeltSlinger · May 5

Grip looks pretty good. It looks like your left forearm is much lower than your right arm. To me it looks like you are setting up open, I’ve seen that setup position cause shanks.

If you had an alignment stick touching both of your forearms it would be pointing to left field…

My fix for you: raise your left arm and or bring your right arm lower.

Edited May 5 by GSPeltSlinger

blarkin97 · May 6

I'm actually working on the grip myself because it has not felt right in years. The past few years I have been listening to everybody telling me to get the grip in the fingers / get the grip in the fingers. I was probably getting my left hand into the fingers a bit too much which does not allow me to release the club properly

Something I have been thinking about recently as I made the changes and my golf game has struggled since