The Art of the Tweak

I'm not sure how to spell tweak, but I'm also not sure if it's the right term for what I am now planning: another grip change.

With my putting, I've realised that it actually doesn't matter how I hold the club, there is a way to yip any putt with any grip - pencil, lead hand low, claw - there are no guarantees. The key for me with my recent putting improvement has been to simply putt with the shoulders and consciously keep the hands passive. This simply involves me concentrating hard on moving the big muscles in my shoulders. It helps, but there are still no guarantees. You can't make 'em all.

Otherwise, for full shots I have been struggling with my old hooking habits. While I like the feeling of more potential power and therefore distance with a stronger (rotated right) grip, the results are mixed. When I get a bit tired or pressured, I have a tendency to fail to turn hard enough so that the arms take over and the dreaded snap hook comes into play.

I like to play a draw and I loathe big fades, but when it comes to playing consistent golf, I think I have to face the reality that a slight fade and slight loss of distance as a result is the way to go. I have no doubt that big, strong and young hitters can play a power fade and lose next to no distance. I can't do that and I need distance off the tee to reach the long holes in regulation, so it's a dilemma.

Anyway, I am going to experiment again with a neutral grip, not weak, not strong but Goldilocks neutral. I figure that since I have a reasonable swing plane and reasonable sequencing in my swing that I can come close to hitting straight balls which, after all, is not a bad thing.

One of the things I've learnt over the past twenty years or so is that making good contact with the ball (i.e. centre clubface contact) is the only really good recipe for reasonable consistency and maximisation of distance. Swinging at a manageable speed is an important factor in this. A three-quarter-speed swing and centre clubface contact is likely to go as far or further than any full out swing. Less sidespin means more distance, but also greater accuracy. Hitting fairways and avoiding greenside bunkers goes a long way to better scoring.

I'm not a big driving range advocate. I think about my game a fair bit and monitor my progress on the course, and that's more fun as far as I'm concerned. I've probably explored more theories and tweaked my swing more times than most people have had hot dinners, but I can live with the ups and downs. From my observation of social golfers who play with the same grip, swing, etc. every round, they have just as many ups and downs. Meanwhile, I'm having fun with the art of the tweak.