Golf swing fundamentals, grip, posture and the first good contact
Most swing faults begin before the club moves. Here are the basics every good coach starts with, from the grip and posture to a balanced finish.
Most golf swing faults begin before the club has moved at all. A grip that fights the clubface, a slumped posture or a body aimed at the wrong target forces you to make corrections in the middle of a fast movement, and that rarely ends well. The good news is that the set-up is static, which makes it the easiest part of golf to get right. Build it carefully and the first clean strike comes much sooner.
The grip, your only connection to the club
Your hands are the only part of you that touches the club, so the grip has a direct say in where the clubface points at impact. Most coaches start players with a . For a right-handed golfer, the left hand sits on the club so that you can see two or three knuckles when you look down, and the right hand fits over it with the palm facing the target. Left-handed golfers simply mirror this.
There are three common ways to join the hands, and none is more correct than the others. Pick the one that feels secure and lets the hands work as a unit.
- : the little finger of the trail hand rests on the gap between the index and middle fingers of the lead hand. It has long been the traditional choice.
- : the little finger of the trail hand links with the index finger of the lead hand. It suits many players with smaller hands.
- Ten finger grip: all ten fingers sit on the grip, a little like holding a baseball bat. It is a sensible start for juniors and players with less hand strength.
Grip pressure matters as much as hand position. Hold the club firmly enough to control it, but lightly enough that your forearms stay soft. A stranglehold tightens the wrists and shoulders and kills speed, while a grip that is too loose lets the club twist at impact.
Posture, alignment and ball position
Good posture lets you turn freely and keep your balance. Stand tall, then hinge forward from the hips rather than bending at the waist, keeping your back fairly straight. Let your knees flex softly and your arms hang naturally below your shoulders. Your weight should feel balanced over the middle of your feet, neither on the toes nor on the heels.
Alignment is where many beginners lose shots without knowing it. Picture a railway track: the ball and the clubface sit on the outer rail pointing at the target, while your feet, hips and shoulders sit on the inner rail, parallel to it. If your body aims right of the target, your swing will try to pull the ball back, and the results are rarely pretty.
Ball position changes with the club. For short irons the ball sits roughly in the centre of your stance. As the clubs get longer it moves gradually forward, and with the driver it sits opposite the inside of your lead heel. That forward position lets you strike the driver slightly on the way up, while irons meet the ball as the club is still travelling down.
Takeaway, turn and the move to impact
The is the first part of the backswing, and it sets the tone for everything after it. Move the club, hands, arms and shoulders away together, low and unhurried, so that nothing races ahead. A rushed takeaway with the hands alone is one of the most common causes of a wild swing.
From there, the backswing is a turn rather than a lift. Your shoulders rotate around your spine, your hips turn less, and your weight moves into the inside of your trail foot. Think of winding up, not swaying sideways. At the top, your back should face the target or come close to it, depending on your flexibility.
The downswing starts from the ground up: a small shift of weight towards the lead side, then the hips, the body and finally the arms and club. With an iron, your hands should be slightly ahead of the ball at impact, so the club strikes the ball first and the turf just after it. That is how good players compress the ball and take a shallow divot in front of where it lay.
Finish the swing in balance. Your weight should be almost entirely on your lead foot, your chest facing the target and your trail heel lifted. If you can hold that position for a few seconds, your swing was probably in balance too.
A simple practice routine
Random balls fired at the far end of the range feel productive, but they teach very little. A short routine with a clear purpose does far more. Lay down two , one along your target line and one along your feet, so you can check your set-up on every shot.
- Lay one alignment stick on the target line and another parallel to it along your toes.
- Hit ten half swings with a mid iron, from hip height to hip height, focusing on clean contact.
- Tuck a small towel under both armpits and make slow swings without letting it drop, to keep the arms connected to the turn.
- Move to three-quarter swings and check your balanced finish after every ball.
- Finish with five full swings to a target, going through your whole set-up each time.
Half swings deserve special attention. They are shorter and slower, so you can feel the sequence of the body and the club meeting the ball first. Many experienced players return to them whenever their timing goes astray.
Why lessons save years
You can learn a great deal on your own, but the golf swing is hard to feel from the inside. What feels square often is not, and a habit grooved over a season takes much longer to remove than it did to build. A few lessons with a qualified PGA professional at the start can save you years of patching over the same faults.
A good teacher will usually begin exactly where this article did, with grip, posture and alignment, before touching the swing itself. Go in with an open mind, practise what you are given between lessons, and judge progress by the quality of your contact rather than by the distance of your longest shot.
Terms in this article
- Neutral grip
- A grip in which neither hand is turned too far, so the clubface returns square without extra hand action.
- Overlapping grip
- A grip in which the little finger of the trail hand rests between the index and middle fingers of the lead hand.
- Interlocking grip
- A grip in which the little finger of the trail hand links with the index finger of the lead hand.
- Takeaway
- The first movement of the backswing, as the club starts to move away from the ball.
- Alignment sticks
- Thin rods laid on the ground to check the aim of your feet, body and clubface during practice.
Questions readers ask
Which grip should I use, overlapping, interlocking or ten finger?
Whichever feels secure and lets your hands work together. The overlapping grip is the traditional choice, the interlocking grip suits many players with smaller hands, and the ten finger grip is a good choice for juniors or golfers with less hand strength. More important than the style is a neutral hand position and a relaxed grip pressure.
How often should a beginner practise?
Short, regular sessions beat occasional long ones. Two or three focused sessions of half an hour a week, built around a clear routine, will usually do more than a single marathon on the range. Include some short game and putting practice too, because a large share of the strokes in any round are played on and around the green.
