Tuning Up the Natural Golf Swing for Accuracy and Distance

During the past year, in addition to writing articles for Golf Talk Club, one of my goals has been to improve on hitting the golf ball where I want it to go…and a little farther out. In order to do that I decided to examine the basic fundamentals of my golf swing – the Natural Golf swing.

With the Natural Golf swing created by Moe Norman, one of the all-time great ball strikers and historical Canadian pro, the club swings on a single plane, and the lower body stays still. Moe developed the swing in his life-long quest to simplify the golf swing, and make it extremely repeatable by any player. Being human, however, means that we do things imperfectly; and over time my brain made little changes that were mucking up my swing. It was time for a tune-up.

The first step was to analyze my performance of the four characteristics of Moe’s golf swing: natural palm grip, wide stance, single plane swing and facing the ball at impact. Today, we will take a look at the natural palm grip.

The golf club is gripped by the lead hand in a very natural way - with the shaft nestled in the crook of the first knuckle of the index or first finger and extending across the calluses at base of the fingers, pushing up on that little pad of muscle on the heel of the hand when the fingers close around it.

This probably sounds a bit strange, but it is very similar to reaching out and picking up a long twig by one end. I wouldn’t grip the twig across the “lifeline” in my palm, I would grasp it with my thumb compressing it across the middle of my index finger, trailing back across the heel pad. That’s Moe’s natural palm grip.

It was obvious, upon paying a little attention, that I was allowing the butt of the club to drift up too much into the center of my palm, which would affect the angle of the club extending from my hand.

Remember, Moe’s idea here was simplicity. The golf club shaft is supposed to be the natural extension of the lead arm, with the arm and club making a straight line from the shoulder down to the golf ball. If I maintain that line, I can swing the lead arm back across my body and, then, back with the face of the club in the same position to the ball every time.

My sloppy grip was putting a slight angle in that arm-club line…just enough to create a small slice. The slight correction of gripping the club across the callus line on my lead hand would immediately bring the ball back on target.

A little drill that helps to get the arm and club lined up correctly is to grip the club with my lead hand as described earlier, grip the club with my trail hand (I use a baseball style, 10 finger grip) with the palm pointing to the target. Holding the club straight out horizontally in front of me, I make sure the club face is aimed directly at the target, and then lower it down behind the ball.

Next time, we will dissect Moe’s wide stance set up. Until then, thanks for visiting Golf Talk.

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Hit ‘em long, straight and often!

Contact: darabbitt@gmail.com

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