Cross-handed Grip

Hi there - new to this forum

I'm also relatively new to the game of golf (dabbled a little over the years and only been playing regularly for the last 4 or 5 months) and I'm managing to slowly chip away at my handicap.

I have always played with a cross-handed grip (left hand low) and have tried swinging with an orthodox grip at the range on numerous occasions but I can't get the timing right to hit the ball any distance and it feels alien to me.  I hear some weird comments on the course from people watching and it can be really off-putting.

Does anyone have any hints as to how to change?  Or should I continue as I am as it's comfortable and seems to work for me.  There are a couple of tour pros in the States that use a cross-handed grip for shots other than putting (Chris Couch and Josh Broadaway), so I'm not alone!

Cheers,
Scott

Not many of you about with that grip but I did once know a scratch golfer from the Wanstead club in Essex who played with that grip, so it is obviously not a bar to good golf.

It is your choice Scott.

John

Have you tried playing left handed.?

I think,scott,if you want to change grip to a more conventional type it would,indeed, feel very odd,but even a small change takes ages to feel comfortable.

You would have to be prepared to play poorly,for a little while,at least....is it worth it?  

If you are regularly beating low handicappers then you are not playing off the correct handicap, also, I might add, you do not beat anybody in this game until you can do it without any shots.

John

If you wish this thread to remain on the initial topic then you should not brin g other things into it. I only replied to a post you made, not forgetting that I had already made a post on the thread topic earlier.

IMO handicaps should not be higher than 24, so that onoly a shot a hole is given. The handicap system does not work - period.

John

The idea of any handicap system, is that it is designed for everyone to cross the line together. As we all know and see, on a regular basis, this does not work. The reason it does not work anymore, in this country is because we have gone to the decimal system, which is not stringent enough to facilitate accurate handicaps.

I see this every Monday and Thursday in our Seniors roll-up with the lowest stableford points being below twenty and the winners usually around 42. The winners only get cut a small amount which does not reflect their true abilities and the ones who cannot play to their handicaps only go up 0.1 every time they play.

In the old days a handicap was supposed to reflect the best possible score under summer conditions that the player could produce. Handicaps never exceeded 24 and three quarters in matchplay and seven eigths in stableford was the rule.

IMO the system does not work, is widley abused, and offers no encouragement for anyone to improve. We would not have this problem if all golf courses were golf clubs. We now have too many pay and play courses and societies and the fabric of the game has changed because of it.

This is a forum for the exchange of views on this wonderful game, and I would ask you to respect that.

John

Paul, we are obviously on opposing sides in respect of handicaps. I stand by my comment regarding handicaps not working and my experience of over fifty years playing this game only confirms it all the more. That alone makes a fact.

If, as you say, peoples performances are erratic, this is usually only amongst the higher handicaps as once people have attained their optimum handicap, they usually play to it.

The R&A may be the arbiters in golf but IMO they do not always get it correct. Giving anyone two shots a hole is disgraceful. I am not belittling your view at all, you are perfectly entitled to it as I am to mine.

Under the present system, if I were to create a scenario of a new course with 18 par fives, the obvious total length under the present system would probably merit a SSS of 75 or more. I know that playing that course I would expect to make 18 pars and would officially be scratch.

The object of a handicap is to handicap the best players so that lesser players have an equal chance, whereas at the moment it is the lesser players who are, in the majority of cases, winning the most times.

I realise that I am an old man and don't hit the ball that far but when I have to give shots to a young man who blasts it three hundred yards, it becomes rather difficult as all I am banking on is him three putting.

I think an average system would be a lot better.

John

If you have something to contribute to the debate, Wayne, then do so, snidey remarks are not needed or welcomed.

John

Scott, my obvious dislike for the current handicap system has nothing at all to do with how many times I have lost in this game. I was fortunate enough to have played the bulk of my golf on a level basis as I only entered scratch competitions.

There was always a place for a municipal course and always will be but what I was referring to are the number of new courses especially built for the corporate sector with exhorbitant green fees and a visit to any of these will show how the interest is only taking money.

Yes, I am a club member and I expect you pay more per year in Green Fees than I do with my annual subscriptions.

Hope your game progresses as you wish it to.

John

Just to clarify the R&A do not set the systems for handicaps only some rules around use/misue inline with the R&A rules of golf.

Not to cover old ground I do agree with John in terms of the out dated UK system.

Thank you Darren.

John