Today, I picked up my golf clubs, after dropping them off on Saturday to get them regripped. I joined a very modest country club this year in an effort to play my golf faster. This little club has 9 holes and, when I've played there, I've generally been able to play 18 holes in 3 hours or less. Much better than the 4+ hours it takes to play a municipal course in the area.
Anyway, the guy who runs the club put new grips on my clubs, which experts say you should do about every 40 rounds or so. When I picked them up, he didn't make me pay...apparently being a member of a club gets you credit for a month. So, I'll be getting a bill next month...which led me to the realization that I will never have to have cash on me when I go to play golf. This could be good or dangerous depending on how carefully I monitor this.
Still not getting to the topic at hand. My new grips on my clubs reminded me of a discussion I had with Nuke a while back. For those who don't know, in addition to being an all around good guy and snazzy dresser, Nuke is also a golf guru. Though he doesn't play any more due to his physical difficulties, Nuke is always a good friend and listens to my golf stories. One time, he even took time out of his schedule to videotape my golf swing, which lead to way too much analysis on my part and a really bad month of golf before I decided to just hit it...but I digress again.
I really appreciate this aspect of our friendship. One day, probably last summer, we were discussing the golf grip. I use an interlocking grip, while Nuke preferred an overlapping grip. I wanted to include a picture, but couldn't be sure of copyright. If you really care to see what these different grips look like, you can find them at this link. Once upon a time, I tried the overlapping grip and promptly shanked the ball, which is the worst shot in golf. So, I went back to my interlocking grip and have moved along happily ever since. Nuke's argument to me was that I'd have much more control and be a better player if I took the time to learn the overlapping method.
Rather than accept this advice from someone who was a better golfer than I'll ever be, I chose to find evidence to support me. I learned that Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods both use interlocking grips, which tells me that I'm doing ok if the best two golfers who ever lived use the same grip style that I'm using. However, I also learned that Arnold Palmer and Vijay Singh use overlapping...two pretty good players in their own right. Finally, I did some research and found that most "experts" agree that it is all about feeling comfortable, so I decided it was ok to stick with my interlocking method.
Ok, so there is really no point to this. I just thought of all this because of the new grips on my clubs. Oh, as I was watching golf on TV this weekend (yes, I do that), I noticed that the winner of this week's event, Nick Watney, uses an interlocking grip. That's all. Sorry if you wasted 2 minutes of your life reading this, only to discover I had no point and there is no deeper moral meaning here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I like interlocking when I hit my clubs as well, it makes me feel like my two hands have become one unit. Although I realize now I use the overlapping grip when I putt. For some reason I feel like this makes my hands softer.
Holy cow. I'm a slow reader so I wasted more than 2 minutes of my life reading this. Good thing I'm a super fast typer.
Well, this other "Nuke" will tell ya that you don't want to bring your $ to the course to donate to my retirement fund... so better keep it at home :-)
Post a Comment