Golf Basics for Beginners 1: Grip & Alignment

Golf is a much easier game to try to tame when you start off with good swing basics, and the most basic of any golf swing is the way you grip the club! There are a few different ways of gripping the golf club. The three most effective gripping styles are:

1. Overlap (Vardon) Grip: With the little finger of the right hand (for right-handed golfers) placed on top of the groove between the index and middle finger of the left hand. This is sometimes called the 'Vardon' grip after Harry Vardon, the English golf professional who invented it. This is the most widely used grip since it encourages the using of the two hands as one unit while also allowing the right hand leverage for extra power.
2. Ten Finger (Baseball) Grip: Is the most athletic gripping style that allows for a lot of power, but usually at the expense of being able to consistently use both hands as one unit. It can be the best grip for golfers with small or weak hands, however.
3. Interlock Grip: Is the opposite of the Ten Finger Grip in that it promotes consistent use of both hands as one unit (good for control of ball path and flight) even though it doesn't allow much use of hand for extra power.

From left to right: the overlap (Vardon) grip, ten finger (baseball) grip, and the interlock grip.

Whichever grip you use, be sure to rest the club at the base of your fingers rather than in the palm of your hands!

Alignment:

One hard thing about golf is that we do not have direct line of sight of our club-path and the target. We are hitting the ball while standing to its side! So when you line up your shot, it is best to first stand behind your golf ball and picture in your mind's eyes a straight line that runs from your ball all the way to your target (this is your 'target line'). Try to pick out something on the ground that lies on that line a foot or two in front of your ball (we call that our 'intermediate target'). Walk up to the ball and take your stance aiming the club-face at the intermediate target. Imagine the line between your ball and the intermediate target as your 'target line' and lining your feet up parallel to it.

Body alignment parallel to the target line

In this photo, Coach Mary has lined herself up toward the red flag on the driving range (the wind was blowing from right to left, so she is aiming a bit to the right of the flag to compensate for that). The blue line is her target line, with the intermediate target being a white tee (in the yellow circle) that happened to be on that line. She then lined up her body line (orange lines) parallel to the target line. Now she is set to hit the ball!

Lining up the club-face.

How do you aim your club-head as you stand over the ball? Look down at the leading edge of your club-face (highlighted in red in the illustration). The club-head is 'squared' to the target line when its leading edge is perpendicular to it (the middle photo).