The Vardon Grip

Harry Vardon was the Tiger Woods of his day. He entered the professional golf scene after his brother, Tom, had won a professional event. Harry figured, since he knew he could beat his brother, he should follow suit and go out on tour--such as it was in those days.

Vardon was almost unbeatable at the height of his powers, but had two bouts of tuberculosis that saw him unable to play for extended periods. In later life he also developed a "flinch" on his short putts; likely what we now call the yips. He remained a wonderful ballstriker all his days.

Vardon is most famous now adays for having given us his over-lapping grip. It remains the standard for most good players to this day. One thing that Vardon said about his grip that I think is vital for all golfers is that the knuckles of his left hand should face the target line and the knuckles of his right hand should face exactly the other way. In other words, the palms of his hands faced eachother and the back of his left hand and the palm of his right hand faced the target line.

When wanting to figure out how to best grip the club, Harvey Penick suggested we grip a ruler, or a yardstick, as though we were going to use it to strike a ball. Most if us would naturally grip the yardstick with our palms flat against the flat surface of the ruler. If we then were to prepare to hit a ball, our right palm would face the target line, and the knuckles of our left hand would as well.

If you have an uncomfortable grip, try the yardstick idea. Then place your hands on the club the same way. If you don't have better results gripping the club this way; whether you overlap or interlock your fingers, or just use all ten; I'll eat my hat.

Clean Balls

Harry Vardon, who was the best player of his day, often offered sage advice.  He once said, "Always use a clean ball."  

It may sound like nothing, but it is actually helpful.  You would never see a pro play a ball with dirt on it. I am often too lazy to worry about cleaning my ball before my tee shot if there isn't any obvious mud on it.  But I think I'm going to start following that advice.  There's nothing like looking down at a perfectly clean golf ball.  

There's a story about Harvey Penick having a guy come to him for a lesson just before he was to play in a big match.  The guy's swing was awful.  There were lots of things Harvey might suggest to help him; such as changing his grip and aligning himself better.  But Harvey couldn't think of anything that would improve his swing in time for his big match.  Instead he told him to make certain he always uses a clean ball.  He knew that advice wouldn't hurt him and it was something positive to think about.

If you are going to offer advice to anyone, using a clean ball is one that definitely won't hurt.  It's amazing how often I've seen people putt with a ball that had sand or mud on it.  The second it takes to clean that ball could save a stroke.  It beats plumb-bobbing, or taking three practice strokes.