To improve iron play fast - and chop strokes off your golf handicap - look to your hands. It's hard to hit quality shots if you don't use your hands correctly. As a serious golfer looking to improve, you must learn what role your hands play in hitting iron shots. If you do, you'll boost your game to a new level and you'll whittle strokes from your golf handicap as well.

Many weekend golfers learn to hold a club either by taking golf lessons or reading golf tips in magazines or books. What they may not learn from this golf instruction is that the way you hold the club impacts on how you cock your wrists at the top of the swing. That in turn determines clubface position at impact. If your clubface isn't square at impact, you'll slice or pull your irons.

Weak Grip/Flat Wrist

If you're right-handed, a weak grip encourages a cocking mechanism that produces a flat left wrist at the top of the swing. A weak grip for a right-handed golfer features the back of the left-hand pointing to the target and the "V" formed by your thumb and forefinger pointing toward your left ear. With a weak grip, you must keep your left wrist from cupping to maintain the clubface on line during the swing.

If your left wrist cups, you're asking for trouble. You'll rotate the clubface too far open on the backswing and throw the clubface off the correct delivery path. Only players blessed with ultra-fast hand speed, like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson can square up the clubface at impact from this position. Making adjustments like this for usually spells trouble for players of all golf handicaps.

Strong Grip/Cupped Wrist

If you're a right-handed player, a stronger grip accommodates more of a left wrist cup at the top. A stronger grip for a right handed golfer is one in which the back of the left hand for a right handed player points more toward the sky, and the target and the "V" formed by the thumb and forefinger points toward your shoulder. With this grip you must avoid flattening the left wrist too much as you hinge the iron to the top.

A stronger grip plus a flat left wrist at the top usually results in a laying off of the club or swinging too far inside. Either way, you must make adjustments to get the club back on plane and on the correct delivery path. If you don't, your clubface won't be square at impact. Again, making adjustments during your swing spells trouble for players of all golf handicaps, unless you have super fast hands.

Golf Instructors Favor Stronger Grip

Many golf instructors favor a stronger grip for weekend golfers. It's a little harder to learn to control, but when paired with a slight left wrist cup, it provides for better overall club control and allows for more hinge. That in turn creates more lag in the backswing to downswing transition, generating more clubhead speed and increasing power.

For even more power, grip the club with a slightly stronger grip. To do that, make the "V" created by the left thumb and foreigner point toward the right shoulder, with the palm of the right hand facing the target. Be careful though. Too strong a grip results in a hook.

Your grip is personal. You should adopt one that feels comfortable to you. There have been as many great players with weak grips as there have been with strong grips. The key is to match the right grip with the correct type of wrist cocking mechanism, making it easier to return the clubface to the ball square. Do that and you'll not only hit more solid irons, you'll do it more consistently and you'll chop strokes off your golf handicap.

Bobby Eldridge is the author of the best-selling book Golf Swing Book . He is golf pro, that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. Free weekly newsletter available with the latest golf tips, lessons and instructions.

A student at a recent golf instruction session asked about swingweight. He had read one of my golf tips in which I mentioned it and it sparked his interest. Never having heard the term he wanted to know what it was and how it affected his game. Those are good questions because swingweight is among the most misunderstood concepts in golf. It can have an impact on your game and your golf handicap without you even knowing.

Swingweight is a non-technical term. Clubmakers use it a lot. The easiest way to think of it is as a measurement of club feel. The higher the percentage of clubhead weight to the club's total weight, the higher the swingweight. As Ralph Maltby, the famed clubmaker, defined it: "Swingweight is a balance measurement and is the degree to which the club balances toward the clubhead." Swingweight is not the total weight of the club but only a percentage of it.

Expressing Swingweight.

Swingweight is expressed by a letter (A, B, C, D) and a number (0 to 10). Measurements range from A0, the lightest, to G10, the heaviest. A club with a swingweight that measures D5, for example, will feel heavier when swung than a club with a swingweight that measures C7, even though their actual weights may be identical. Each club manufactured is weighed and labeled.

Two clubs weighing the same can feel distinctly different depending on how the weight is apportioned in each club. If you played golf with only one club, swingweight would not matter much. However, you don't. Swingweight is important because you want every club in your bag to have a similar feel. Otherwise, you would have to get used to the feel of each club. Plus, you might play better with one swingweight than another.

Altering your clubs has an impact on swingweight. Let's say, for example, you decide to lengthen all your clubs by one-half inch. You would change the weight of the club without changing the weight of the clubhead by raising the swingweight three points, say from D0 to D3. This holds true whether your club possess standard weight or lightweight shafts. Conversely, take the same club and shorten it by one-half inch and the swingweight drops from D10 to D7.

Adjusting Swingweight

Swingweight is adjustable post-production by adding lead tape or changing out the components, like using a larger clubhead, a different shaft or grip, or trimming the shaft. Clubmakers also adjust swingweight in some cases by adding different types of fill material inside shafts at different points or inside the clubhead,

Take a 3-iron. Imagine adding lead tape to the 3-iron. No matter where you put the tape, the actual weight of the club will be identical. That is, if the lead tape is on the club head, at the middle of the shaft, or on the grip, the actual weight will be the same-the original weight of the club plus the weight of the lead tape.

Now imagine swinging the 3-iron with the lead tape first on the clubhead, then on the middle of the shaft, and then on the grip. The weight you feel when swinging the club will be different depending on where the lead tape has been added-even though the total weight of the club is identical in all three instances. That's swingweight.

Importance of Swingweight

Everyone has a swingweight at which they play their best. For example, research indicates that lighter swingweights are better for the average golfer. Less weight produces longer, more accurate shots for golfers with high and middle golf handicaps. Players with low golf handicaps and professionals have high swingweight speed, more control over the movements of the club, and a more acute sense of feel for the clubhead. The clubs best suited for them feature heavier swingweights.

Swingweight is used to match clubs in a set. A misunderstood concept, it's better for clubs to all match in swingweight. If you're happy with the performance of your clubs and aren't anxious to make any changes, then swingweight is incidental. But if you're looking to buy a new set of clubs or are thinking about altering your present equipment, be aware that each adjustment you make will impact the balance, feel, and swingweight of your clubs. The change may also affect your scores and your golf handicap.

Bobby Eldridge is the author of the best-selling book Golf Swing Book. He is golf pro, that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. Free weekly newsletter available with the latest golf tips, lessons and instructions.

Want to know how to prevent a golf slice and improve on your next round? Of course you do because slicing the ball is about the most frustrating part of your golf game. It certainly was mine. I got to the point where I was all but done with golf because I could not fix my slice.


I thought I could just play through it but the more I played the more frustrated I became. Are you guys tired of constantly getting beat by your friends and co-workers well guess what soon you won't be getting beat any longer. Here are six steps that can help you fix that slice right now.

1. During the take away on the swing, it is important that you have a straight back motion and avoid pulling inside too fast or reaching out too far. A proper swing will be inside the swing plane.

2. As you coil your body maintain proper distance between the hands and the chest. Furthermore, a coiling action will produce far greater results than a steep swing plane.

3. On the back swing it is important to keep the lead elbow as straight as possible. This is something that I struggled with and when I got tired this would be the first bad habit that would surface.

4. The down swing will always start with the transferring of weight beginning with the hips and not the arms. Remember this point, when you focus on leading with the hips and not the hands, shoulders and arms you will get the best swing results.

5. Relaxation is key to improving your game. Throughout the setup, grip and the swing you should be relaxed. Your grip should be loose and you should not be tense when swinging the club.

6. Pay attention to your hands and arms after you release the club through impact. You should release straight down your target line and not have a twisting motion.

There are many reasons why golfers slice the ball, I had several problems with my swing and only when I stopped being stubborn and got help with my swing did I finally improve. Proper swing mechanics is the true key to eliminating your slice and scoring lower on your rounds.

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