In part 1 of PGA Tour Grip Styles, I touched upon the amazing finding that most of the tour players were using grips much stronger than I had ever imagined. This month, let’s take a look at the relationship between PGA tour player’s grip styles and their release styles.

The results should not be surprising. PGA tour players with what I am calling standard strong grips rarely flip it. With extremely strong grips, they never flip it. But those with weak/neutral grips were flippers 64% of the time. There were 25 players with mixed grips (one strong/one weak) and 9 of 25 or 36% of them were flipping it. So there’s a real trend here and I’ll start by showing the grips then try to explain anatomically what’s going on so that amateur golfers can increase their chances to avoid flipping it.

So let me start by showing the players with Standard Strong Grips. Then we’ll look at the mixed grip players, then the players using the extremely strong grips and end with the neutral/weak grip players.

Strong Grip Players

Trevor Immelman

Graeme McDowell

 

Ian Poulter

 

Davis Love III  

 

Rory McIlroy

 

Jim Furyk

 

Geoff Ogilvy

 

Luke Donald

 

Paul Casey

 

Alvaro Quiros

 

Charl Schwartzel

 

Jonathan Byrd

 

KJ Choi

Paddraig Harrington

Phil Mickelson

JB Holmes

 

JB close up

 

Stewart Cink

 

Mark Wilson

DJ Trahan

 

Ryo Ishikawa

 

Vaughn Taylor  

 

Andrew McClardy

 

Lucas Glover

 

Hunter Mahan

 

Andres Romero

 

Jason Day

 

David Toms

 

Kris Blanks

 

Chris Tidland

 

Bo Van Pelt

 

Scott Stallings

 

Dustin Johnson

 

Gary Woodland

 

Steve Stricker

 

Robert Karlsson

 

Charley Hoffman

 

Henrik Stenson

 

Ryan Moore

 

Bill Haas

 

Anders Hansen

 

   

 

Colt Knost

 

Stephen Ames

Charlie Wi

 

Sergio Garcia

 

Sean O’hair after Foley

 

Steve Flesch

 

   

Matthew Goggin

 

   

 

David Lutterus  

 

James Driscoll  

 

 

 

  

 

Chris Wood

 

Dean Wilson

 

Nicholas Thompson

 

Alex Cejka

 

Brett Wetterich

 

Richard Green

 

Pat Perez  

 

Brandt Snedeker  

 

Marc Turnesa  

 

 

 

Troy Merritt

 

Jimmie Walker

 

Steve Marino  

 

Rory Sabbatini  

 

Rich Beem  

 

   

 

Troy Matteson  

 

Steve Wheatcroft

 

  

 

Vijay Singh

 

Soren Kjeldsen  

 

Toru Taniguchi

 

Hiroyuki Fujita

 

  

 

Hideto Tanihara

 

Arjun Atwal

 

Brendan De Jonge

 

Harrison Frazar

 

  

 

  

 

John Senden

 

Justin Leonard

 

Paul Goydos

 

Ernie Els

 

Scott Verplank

 

Camilo Villegas

 

Thongchai Jaidee

 

  

Charles Howell III

 

Young Tiger

 

Michael Campbell

 

Aaron Baddeley

 

Joe Durant

 

Shigeki Maruyama

 

Nathan Green

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

KT Kim

 

  

 

Heath Slocum

 

YE Yang

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

Rarely do we see this. A strong grip and an underflip but here it is.

 

Francesco Molinari

 

Thomas Bjorn

 

 

 

  

 

James Nitties

 

Ross Fisher

 

In this survey there were 108 standard strong grip players that do not flip. Only six standard strong grip players had a bit of a flip.

Extreme Strong Grips

Players with the extremely strong grips (left and right) do not need to have as much LF supination/RF pronation but they do use it.

 

 Nick Watney

 

Take a look at a close up of Nick Watney’s hands at address then at impact. Though not as exaggerated as the players seen before, there is some LF supination/RF pronation. Also, the left wrist is slightly bowed and the right wrist slightly cupped at impact. There is also some Ulnar Deviation (UD).

 

Nick Watney

 

 David Duval

 

Matt Kuchar

 

Bubba Watson

 

Ryan Palmer

 

Zach Johnson

 

Martin Laird

 

Laird close

 

Tommy Gainey

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W_AfK9W98Y

 

Josh Teater  

 

Boo Weekley

 

<<g711.jpg>>John Daly

 

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Seung-yul Noh

 

Brent Delahoussye

 

Jeff Maggert

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

Just one out of 19 of these extreme strong grip guys are underflipping it. Those are pretty good odds.

 

  

     

Mixed Grips

Weak left/Strong Right hand grip players

 

 

 

Adam Scott

 

Peter Hanson

 

Stuart Appleby

 

Robert Allenby

 

 Jay Williamson

 

Jeff Overton

 

Simon Dyson

 

Rod Pampling

 

 Jason Gore

 

  

 

Eleven of 17 weak left/strong right hand grip players did not flip. The odds are still in your favor even with a mixed grip.

 

Louie Oosthuizen

 

Lee Westwood

 

Johnson Wagner

 

Tim Petrovic

 

Bill Lunde

 

Chad Campbell

 

Strong Left/Weak Right Hand Grip Players

There are just a few players using this grip. Five of 6 do not flip it.

 

Anthony Kim

 

Michael Sim

 

Mike Weir

Retief Goosen

 

Angel Cabrera

 

   

WEAK/NEUTRAL GRIPS

In order to be in this category, the player must have both hands in the weak/neutral position. First, let’s see the flippers.

 

Rickie Fowler

 

Matteo Manassero

 

  

 

   

 

   

 

 
Miguel Angel Jimenez  

Charles Warren  

 

Jerry Kelly  

 

Brian Gay

 

Casey Wittenberg  

 

 Eddie Olson

 

  

 

Non-Flipper Weak/Neutral Grip

 

Woody Austin  

 

Kevin Stadler  

 

Ricky Barnes

 

  

 

Zack Miller

 

Tim Herron

 

Pablo Martin

 

  

 

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Hopefully this shows everyone how difficult it is to hit with the weak/neutral grip and avoid the flip. If the 57% of the weak/neutral tour players flip it, chances are, so will you. It is also interesting to note that there are no major championship winners using this weak grip.

Go to the second part of "PGA Tour Grip Styles Part 2" by following this link. (Click Here)