FROM TEE TO GREEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20690, 9 October 1930, Page 16

FROM TEE TO GREEN.

HOLDING OF GOLF CLUB. OVERLAPPING GRIP ADVISED. VOGUE DUE TO HARRY VARDON. BY E. n. WIDTCOM BE. (Copyright.) The ideal method of holding a golf club is the result of a combination between the palms of the hands and the fingers. Most people have no difficulty in seeing that a purely palm grip, with the shaft of the club well home in both hands, is only suited to a flat swing and does not make for sufficient control of tho shot. But I do not think it is quito so generally understood that a purely finger grip can only be obtained by an arching of tho wrists, which gives neither control nor power.

Consequently, all the methods of gripping the club that are in general use in modern golf, such as the two-V, the overlapping and my own interlocking grip, involve some sort of compromise between the two. And on tho whole 1 am inclined to believe that the tendency is to overdo tho part that is played by the fingers, a tendency which is to some extent duo to tho fashion of using too thin grips on tho handles of tho clubs themselves. I am all for the idea that if you want to put power into the shot you need to have something substantial to tako hold of

I would strongly advise every player (o adopt some form of overlapping or interlocking grip. When the hands barely touch one anolhor, as in the simple two \ grip, it is very easy to vary the grip by shifting either of tho hands round the shaft in one direction or tho other, without being conscious of tho change. And a comparatively small variation in the extent to which either hand is placed more on top of, or more round underneath, tho shaft, may make an enormous difference in the character of the shot.

The overlapping and interlocking grips make it certain that the player cannot fall into such change of style without being awaro of it. 'ihe mere feci of the fingers pressing on one another is enough lo keep him right. Interlocking Forefinger.

My own grip is one which I evolved for myself, after having played for some time with the orthodox overlapping grip which I had learned to use bv copying J. 11. Taylor at Westward Ho. Ihe feature of it which catches most people s eves is that I interlock the forefinger of the left hand with the little finger of the right, instead of merely allowing the right little finger to overlap the other, as in the Vardon grip. This interlocking grip has been adopted by my brother Charlie and by Bert Jolly, of Foxgrove. In the United States it is used by two former winners of the American open championship, Mr. Francis Ouimet and Gene. Sarazen. Although Mr. Ouimet is a much younger golfer than I am, I fancy ho must have worked out the idea 101 himself. .. The case of Paraxon is a very peculiar one, because after winning the American open and twice carrying off tho American professional championship with the interlocking grip, he tried to change over to the overlapping grip that he saw evcrvbody else using. I am told that the. "change did not work very successfully and that Sarazen's return to his best form a few years later followed very closelv on his changing back to his old style " At any rate, I think I have said enough to show that although the happy band° of those who use tho interlocking grip is not very numerous, yet it has had considerably more than an average amount of success in proportion to its numbers. I notice tho majority of writers on golf, when they make any reference to tho interlocking grip, are inclined to dismiss it as merely a fantastic variation of tho overlap. This is because they have allowed their attention to bo entirely taken up with the. way the fingers are interlocked. Rut T would like to make it clear that I do not look upon the interlocking as tho most important point, or even as the essential point, of the difference between the two grips. I am quite well pleased to see aiiy of my pupils sticking 10 the old overlapping grip, provided he will adopt 0110 important modification as ><> gards the position of tho left hand. Kind of Compromise. In the Vardon crip the left thumb is on top of tho shaft; in the grip of which 1 like to consider myself the first, inventor the left thumb is placed round the shaft so as to get the club more into tho palm of the left hand. In fact, my grip is a kind of compromise between the overlapping grip and tho old-iashioned palm grip," and if I explain my reasons for making the change 1 shall pretty well cover the whole theory of the grip, as I understand it.

UUUfIJMeUH.I Jl'. Tho vogue of (lip overlapping S'''P due entirely tn (ho example of Harry Yardon, not merely because he won six British open championships with it. but because he is acknowledged to he the greatest stylist English golf has produced. But, Harry Yardon learned his golf and achieved his greatest triumphs with the gutta ball. And the plain fact is that it is the gut la ball that (ho Yardon grip was invented to suit. The difficulty with the gutta was to get (ho ball up. Consequently, the. best players of those days favoured a style which (ended to make the ball swing from left to right and so helped (hem to cut (he ball up into the air. '.I ho \ anion grip, which throws the little or gripping finger of the right hand out of action and entrusts the guiding of the club chiefly to the thumb and forefinger of the left, made it easy to keep the face, of t he club "open" so that the ball would rise. Problem Completely Changed. But with the coming of the modern lively ball the problem has been completely changed. '1 lie difficulty is 'io longer to get the ball up but (o keep it from soaring too high. And the result is that the leading players, especially in America, have adopted a stylo of play whicli tends to swing the ball from right to left. That is, they are inclined to shut the face of the club in order to keep the ball low, a tnctliod which not. only produces greater distance but which with the modern ball is much easier to control, especially against tho wind. With this style there is no need to take the right little linger off the club in order to guard against the possibility of "too much right hand." Instead, 1 would be inclined to say that (he left thumb down the shaft is apt to exert, too much pressure as the club comes on to the ball, with tho danger of "too much left" and a tendency to slice. And it is precisely for that reason 1 modified my own grip (o one which L regard as the ideal for the rubber-coied ball.