Tom Watson, winner of 8 majors, knows the golf swing. Here Tom talks about the basics of a good golf swing. Beginning with the grip.
Tom spends a great deal of time on the golf grip including the vardon grip, interlocking grip and the ten finger baseball grip. As Watson explains the grip is the most important part of the golf setup as it is the only thing holding on to the golf club.
Priceless golf tips from a golfing legend.
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Tom Watson still has a beautiful swing Watson was one of the best golfers of all time winning eight majors in this classic instructional video Tom will walk you through the basic fundamental building blocks of a great golf swing and he knows enjoy my good friend Jack Nicholas once said if you have the proper grip and the proper setup you can be taught and I agree with that well let’s start with the proper grip the first thing that goes on the golf club is the left hand my dad at age six put my hands on the golf club and the first thing he said said Son turn that hand over so you see two knuckles in your left hand point the V that’s formed between your thumb and forefinger right here toward your right shoulder just like this the left thumb goes down the right center of the shaft my great friend and teacher St th does this with his new pupils he takes the glove he puts these two lines on the glove right here and also the OB which stands for out of bounds which means that you want to place the club in your left hand right between those two lines right there and not where the OB is the problem with people who have a grip where the club lays like this in the hands is that they can’t grip onto the club tightly enough so they over grip the golf club like this causing too much tension in their arms and hands hands when they swing the golf club with the club in this position right here the left thumb goes down the top right of the shaft the center right of the shaft the right hand fits right over the top of the thumb right here the pad of the thumb fits right over the thumb like this and it goes into the two fingers right here of the right hand and then you hold the club this way look at the right thumb the right thumb doesn’t go down the top or over here it goes over to the left side the v as my dad said should also be pointing to the right shoulder but I do a little bit different I put it just toward my chin or just in just to the right of my chin this way so basically your left thumb is on the right side of the shaft and your right thumb is on the left side of the shaft now the last thing I do with the grip I want teach people is to split the forefinger from the middle finger a little bit on the right hand that allows you to cradle the golf club a little bit easier without gripping on too tightly now let’s talk about the the three types of grips that you normally see the one grip that I started with was the was the overlapping grip this is the grip that is called the Varden grip with the little finger overlapping the forefinger and the middle finger of of the left hand the grip that Tiger Woods uses and as well as Jack Nicholas is the interlocking grip where you interlock those two fingers and the last grip that you see a lot it’s taught for mainly women because their hands are smaller and allows for more power is the full finger grip this way put all four fingers on the golf club now some of the common mistakes people make with their grips are these is that many people put the left thumb down the top of the shaft straight down the top and the right thumb down the top of the shaft like this the problem with this is that it decreases the amount of hand speed you have in the go in the golf swing watch what happens when I take this club back with an improper grip I go back halfway like this and the club just sticks up in the air like this you can’t break the wrist now if I have on there properly with the left hand over two Knuckles the right hand over like this watch how much more wrist break you have in the back swing the Cal easy it goes up there and sets like this the proper grip allows you to do that now if you have the two thumbs down the the top of the shaft like this it also causes a slice when you push the club out like this look what happens to the club face the club face opens up conversely if you have the left hand on the golf club too strong in this position where you see see too many Knuckles this is the power position a lot of people come in there and they’ll get the nice power position like that what happens at impact is the club face closes so the proper grip goes on like this left hand on the club see two Knuckles left thumb down the right center of the shaft and the V pointed to your right shoulder the right hand goes on with the pad of the right thumb over the left thumb the right thumb to the the left of the shaft the V just to the right of my chin one last thing I like to put just a little bit of a gap between the forefinger and the middle finger right here to cradle the golf club now that is the proper grip like that and let’s see how it works and that my friends is a lesson on the grip [Music] now that we’ve learned the proper grip the question becomes how firmly do we hold on to the golf club in Hogan’s Five fundamentals of golf he talks about the last three fingers of the left hand and the middle two fingers of the right hand those are the pressure points in your grip I stress the same thing the way I like to teach grip pressure is this simply take the club put the club straight up in the air where it’s the it’s lightest and then let the club drop through your hands like this then put the club back in your hands proper grip then reduce your grip pressure until just before drops and then take the club and just take it to horizontal like this you will feel an increase of grip pressure in your last three fingers of your left hand and the middle two fingers of the right hand just by doing that that’s as much grip pressure as you need holding on to the golf club Jack Nicholas talked about the two fundamentals the grip and the setup let’s talk about the setup the setup I like to say is you’re in the guarding position in basketball if you’re in this position right here like this you can move I can move this way way I can move this way I can move back I can move forward if you have your your feate too wide what happens you can’t move quickly enough if they’re too narrow you move and you fall over if your legs are too straight then you can’t move at all and we see all those types of stances in golf too wide too narrow legs too straight this is how I like to teach the setup I start from the ground up the feet or shoulder width apart your toes should be slightly open I think the left toe should be a little bit more open the the right toe like this the knees are slightly flexed and the right knee is kicked in like this not out or even straight up like this it’s kicked in just a little bit like that to help you brace on the inside of your right foot then you have to stick your rear end out to counterbalance your top end being over now let’s talk about the back I see too many people do this their rear end is is tucked in and your shoulders are slumped like this need to stick the rear end out and the upper back has to be straight and not slumped over this way make sure your upper back is straight your rear end stuck out your knees are flexed and you’re on the balls of your feet not the heels and not the front of the front of your foot the toes but on the balls of your feet right there and you also want to continue with your neck you you don’t want your neck to be bent over this way like this too much because that restricts your back swing what you want is your neck to be an extension of your spine and keep keep your chin up like this chin not can’t be down like this it must be up like this now how far do we stand away from the ball that’s the question that most people ask I mean I don’t know how far to stand away from the ball we see people out there Swinging with their arms out here like this you don’t do that how you do it is very simply you take the balance position that I just taught you and you allow your arms to swing freely and come together where they come together like this is where you grip the golf club you grip the golf club right there then you move into the ball like that and that is your setup position just like that now let’s review this let’s start from Square One your stance shoulder width apart your toes slightly open Kick the right knee in just a little bit like this knees are flexed rear end is stuck out like this your back is straight from the rear end up your top of the back remains straight and your chin is up not down then how far we stand away from the ball very simple let your arms hang put the club in your hands move into into the ball and we’re ready to hit the shot
