Stop Chili Dips with a Happy Gilmore hockey grip..

[RoverRick]

We have had a couple of higher handicappers join our group recently, we use a quota system so that it levels the field for all to play. I have been spending time with these guys helping them improve and came across a little jewel I thought I would pass on. Several times a round these guys blade a chip or short pitch across the green usually starting a cascade of blades and chili dips and other horrible things that happen in the short game. Once they do one, they are afraid it will happen again so they start making other mistakes.

 

Last Sunday, before the round started we were playing some "warm up" holes waiting for the rest of the group to show up, I told them to practice chipping and pitching with left hand at the top of the grip and the right hand at the bottom almost to the steel. Like a hockey stick. (Being from Texas I just assume that is like a hockey stick. ) This is how Happy Gilmore played golf and he never "chili dipped" or bladed the ball. They did this a few times to get the feel of hitting the ball with no wrist hinge. It took them a while to figure out how hard to hit the ball but this helped both of them.

 

Several times through out the round I took the grip like that to get the feel of no wrist action but did not hit balls. I thought that it would be a great way to hit down on the ball with a full swing and tried it once after the round, and nearly broke my right hand when I hit it fat, but it is a great way to get the feel of no wrist break.

 

Hope this helps, and I look forward to reading what you think.

[Matt Saternus]

Very interesting. Obviously, if it worked, it was a good idea for them. My initial thought is that the right hand would want to power through, essentially a super-charged "flip," but I could see how it could work, too. I'm gonna have to give this a try, hopefully one day this week.

[RoverRick]

This is to fix the problem of trying to "flip" or lift the chip or pitch. This usually leads to blading the ball. If your right hand tries to power through then you can always go left hand low. Just like putting by chipping left hand low you will not be as handsy. As I type this there is a comercial for Jumbo Max Grips. I have never tried them but that would also help people who are too handsey. I am one of those but trying to reform. Spent an hour everyday last week chipping and pitching and could really see the benefits this weekend.

[RoverRick]

Also, you can't really flip your hands through because your left arm is in the way. Hold a club like that and try to flip you hands. It is impossible for me to do it.

[Matt Saternus]

Maybe I just don't know how to hold a hockey stick!

[RoverRick]

I am certainly no hockey expert. The only sports I participate in now are those you can smoke and drink during them, like golf, bowling, and curling. Even though I have never been curling, I think I could like that. I am pretty sure that the brooms they use was to get the cigarette ashes out of the way of the stone. I have only been on skates once in my life and never plan on getting on them again, it is at least the one promise I made that I plan to keep it. "Dear God, if you allow me to get off this ice without breaking anything, I promise never to try this again." 35 year olds should get on ice skates for the first time in your life. Other than Happy Gilmore, I know next to nothing about hockey.

 

But I have used the 10 finger grip, no overlap or interlock, but no space between the hands on chips for several days, and I have not chunked it by flipping the hands. I find the "baseball grip" is as good but for the high cappers it was easier for them to split the hands. I have also toyed with overlapping 2 fingers on those rare occasions where I needed to flip the club, flop shots and the occasional bunker shot.

[RoverRick]

I revised this thread today because I have been remiss in working on my short game. Well, the 10 to 25 yard short sided pitch. You know the kind where you need to stop the ball on a dime. This was my go to shot for a number of years, and was very easy for me because I had an early release and flipped the club. Now that I am trapping the ball and hitting the ball with my hands in front of the ball I have had trouble with the high spin ball inside of the 50 yards. So that was a huge void in my game.

 

So that was the goal of today. how to hit the short high spin pitch. Flipping the wrists used to work fine for me but for the last few months it has not. I had a tendency to blade the ball or hit it fat. My solution was to avoid that situation as much as possible or if all else fails, be prepared to make a longer putt. I found I was much better off making sure it was on the green and not worry about the flag. Well, yesterday, i was a bit off with my irons and short sided myself on 7 consecutive holes and left myself 7 consecutive long par putts, which I missed.

 

After that round and while sitting in the bar waiting for lunch, I thought back to this thread, where I basically worked with a high capper who had a flipping issue. I realized that separating my hands, I could eliminate the flip, which leads to thin hits. So the way to play this shot is to open the stance a bit, and open the club face with the ball up in the stance off the left toe. Left hand on the butt of the club like normal. Right hand down at the other end of the grip. Like I preceive that you hold a hockey stick.

 

Now, for the swing, I still hit down on the ball but unlike the full swing or even the half or three quarter swings, I have no wrist action. I control the club with my body turn not my arms or hands. You absolutely have to push through with the right hip in order not to turn the clubface over. If you turn the face over it will not have the same spin. The key to me is to keep the face traveling down the target line. By that I mean that in the back swing it closes a liitle bit but it does not turn over after you hit the ball but continues to point skyward. You are not hitting the ball that far so it is not fast movement. The ball hits the ground and lands like hackey sack.

 

The advantage of using this method to me, is because you have to push trough with the right hip, this reenforces what you have to so in the full swing. Today, I went out and was working on this part of my game. The way I do that is that I go out and play one ball. But, I carry three or four more and work on what ever aspect of my game is the focus of the day. For example, if it is iron shots from a certain yardage, I will play that one ball until I come to the area that I want to work and then drop three or four balls in that area and hit them.

 

Today, when I got to the 15 to 25 yards off the green short sided, I would hit four balls from there. I also played the first ball out. The interesting thing about this is how it affected the full swing. I have not hit the irons or any full shots that great for the last week. Back issues initially but just not getting back in the groove. By practicing this today, by the third hole, my irons got really good. I had a four hole stretch where I had three birdies and an eagle. I did not play a full 18 holes but only had one bogey.

 

Try this method, I am not sure that I will continue with the split hands thing but just like it keeps the high capper from flipping during the chip, it helps the low cappers also.

[RoverRick]

You do not really use the hands at all. That is where I run into trouble. I flip the hands and get too quick and bounce off the ground. The grip really has nothing to do with the stroke. It simply makes it impossible to flip you hands. (change impossible to unlikely) Steve Stricker uses his body turn to regulate his pitches and I am simply doing the same. I am just "making an underhanded toss of the ball to the hole".

I can do the same thing with a regular grip But this reenforces what I am trying to do.

[JMiller]

RR I played ice hockey, look at Happy Gilmore and his putter to get an idea what it would look like to literally hold a golf club like a hockey stick. The low hand would be about 1/2 way down the shaft. and the chest / body points at the target. Here is a pretty good example of what a shot looks like at impact in ice hockey.

 

but splitting the hands apart could increase a right low hand dominant strike or it could go the other way. Technically in hockey you are supposed to put you dominant hand on the top of the stick, why you see so many NHL players that play "left handed".

 

So really the idea of stopping chilli dips and blades is to stop being low hand dominant and start getting into a lead hand (high hand) pull rather then trailing hand (low hand) push into impact (same goes for full swings). I think I might have mentioned it before some people might benefit more from learning the game by putting their dominant hand on top of the club as their leading hand / arm it will make them want to pull through impact rather then push.

[Tyk]

I chip with a baseball grip most of the time, I used to play everything this way, but I switched to an overlap on most full shots and interlock with the putter. For some reason the baseball grip works best for chipping. I've never really had a problem with chili dipping shots or hitting them thin. The baseball grip is more accurate for me.

[RoverRick]

A little clarifacation on my part. when I a grip with my left hand near the but of the grip, normally a bit of club sticks out past the left hand (1/2 or 3/4 inch) and I slide the right hand down the grip so that 1/4 or half inch of grip below my right hand, I have an inch maybe an inch and a half between my hands.

 

Also yes you can really power though with the right hand but I am advocating using very little arm and no wrist movement. As Tyk says the baseball grip gives a lot of control and accuracy and this grip (a baseball grip with a gap in it would be more accurate of a description) gives a lot of control of the club.

 

Keep in mind that we are talking about 30 yards with the Lob wedge (maybe 40 with the sand wedge) so the club head is not getting much above knee high anyway.

 

All I am really advocating is the use of the body (a slow powerful turn) to control distance rather than a faster handys swing.

[revkev]

You need to read Stan Utley's the art of scoring. Great book, simple to follow, makes perfect sense.

 

When it comes to the short game the simpler the better I think. Even though I don't use it I like the idea of the 10 finger grip but would be nervous about the hockey stick approach. My sense is that it is one of those moves that might net some initial benefit but that it ultimately limits a players potential in the short game. There are short game shots where you need some wrist action.

 

In the end I think those high handicappers would benefit as much by practicing and learning to select the safest shot in any short game situation as they would be trying to employ the Happy Gilmore chipping method.

[RoverRick]

I really have no intention of using this for long. But I intend to really incorperate it into my preshot routine for those difficult pitch shots. I perhaps jumped the gun a little bit in writing about it because I had great success Sunday and yesterday but that was it.

[JMiller]

In the end I think those high handicappers would benefit as much by practicing and learning to select the safest shot in any short game situation as they would be trying to employ the Happy Gilmore chipping method.

 

+1, good post rev.

 

There is not a 'quick fix' in golf, learn the proper techniques and practice it... That is the only thing that will help long term...

[RoverRick]

Yesterday, I met two of my regulars for a practice round, we were not playing for money and we could drop a ball and practice a shot if we wished but for score we would play the first ball. On the first hole, I was short sided in the grass bunker. I hit a beautiful shot that checked up and stopped about a foot from the hole. So I dropped another and did it again. They were both so impressed with stopping the ball they asked how I did it.

 

They did not like the hockey stick deal and they did not like the controlling the distance with body turn. but they fell in love with the open face and finishing with the face to the sky. They were doing this every hole, and because they were flipping their hands they had a lot of trouble controlling the distance.

 

On the 6th hole, there was a sucker pin position and with the wind, while I was in the fairway and not blocked from going at the green, I would have had to start the ball over the lake and draw the ball into a 3 club left to right wind. I decided to hit a bump and run under a tree and go to an opening between two bunkers. I came up short but in great position. These two had to lay up because of errant drives but we were all in about the same spot. Both of them hit the high-quick stop pitch. I said that it was great they could now hit that shot but in this case a less lofted running shot was much better. One guy hit another shot, he was 10 feet short on his first shot, but his second was only 2 feet short. He popped off and said how much better can you get than that. I was 20 yards from the hole, I grabbed a PW and did a little bump and run that hit the flag stick and fell in the hole. I just looked at him and said, "A Stroke." I can not post what he said, but I will say it is not true.

[RoverRick]

Looking back on this I do not think that I explained this well enough. This is meant as a drill, to do before you actually take your stance. Yes, you can hit balls like this but it feels so different you probably will not have good results. But before I actually take my stance while I am behind the ball looking at the distance. I have already assested my lie, I separate my hands and while looking at the flag I take some practice swings with the club held with the hockey grip. This primarily is to get the body rotation to what I need along with reenforcing the fact that I do not want my hands to turn over. I then get my regular grip, or maybe a 10 finger grip, and beside the ball, or in similar grass a similar distance away take a couple of more swings to feel the grass, Then move over, get lined up. and duplicate all of it.

[stansfieldgolf]

@RoverRick As a Proud Canadian and coming from a hockey background, let me introduce you into what we've become to know the "Sauce Pass" a play on the hockey saucer pass. Check out the two videos by Canadian Tour members James Lepp and Todd Halpen; James Lepp is the CEO of Kikkor Golf and is a contestent on the upcoming Big Break Greenbrier on the Golf Channel and Todd Halpen is one of the co-founders of Swinkey Golf.

 

James Lepp

 

Todd Halpen

 

If you want more information on the Swinkey, Check out the feature on my site http://stansfieldgolf.com/on-the-range/swinkey/ and follow the link to purchase or customize your own.

 

There's endless videos that both James and Todd have done but these are two of the better ones and yes, it may not be something that you'll try on the golf course but it'll at least provide some entertainment. As you'll see on YouTube, there have been plenty of variations and videos done by others as well on a technique I see more and more from golfers both on the range and on the course.

 

Matt

[RoverRick]

Thanks Matt, I have seen the first video before, but did not realize it was Kikkor Golf, nor did I realize he was using what I call the Happy Gilmore grip. Obviously, there is some merit to this idea. Obviously it is also not as original as I thought.

[Shambles]

Thanks Matt, I have seen the first video before, but did not realize it was Kikkor Golf, nor did I realize he was using what I call the Happy Gilmore grip. Obviously, there is some merit to this idea. Obviously it is also not as original as I thought.

 

 

The last time I used a ten finger grip was near 20 years ago when someone turned up at the range with shafts so stiff that the only way I could hit a straight ball was to use a 10 finger grip with some separation between the hands. It works but was not a lot of fun.

 

 

Shambles

[RoverRick]

This is one of those times of the year where the grass is dormant and chipping and pitching (inside 30 yards) become difficult for me. After a few days of too many poor pitches, I decided to revisit this idea. After all, golf is all about controlling the ball. With the hands separated it is easier to control the club head.

 

It does take some getting used to but after a bit of practice it is easy to have more or less spin depending on what you want. It takes the wrists out of the swing and forces you to turn the body more, which to me is easier to control distance.