Tiger Woods at the 1998 Masters.
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Martin Hall changes the tone of his voice. It becomes exaggerated.
He wants to make sure his point is made.
“Now make sure you hold the club really lightly, like you were holding a little bird through the whole swing, and keep your arms completely relaxed — that’s the key to making the ball go far.”
Hall then goes back to sounding like Hall, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Lifetime Achievement honoree.
“That’s the key,” he said, “to never finding the ball when you hit it.”
Hall was talking on a recently released video from Chris Como, another Top 100 Teacher, and his subject has its sides. Some will tell you to hold the club lightly. Some will tell you to hold the club firmly, which is where Hall stands.
And apparently Tiger Woods, 15-time major winner, and Byron Nelson, five-time major winner. In the video, which you can watch in full by clicking here or by scrolling immediately below, Hall shared a story he’d heard about grip pressure from Woods, who’d been told about it by Nelson at the 1998 Masters Champions Dinner.
“I had the chance to watch Tiger do a small clinic a few years ago,” Hall said on the video, “and there was maybe 15 people there and I happened to be one of them. But someone said to Tiger, ‘What do you think about grip pressure, should it be light?’
“He said, ‘I won the Masters in 1997 and of course therefore hosted the Champions Dinner in 1998 and we’re sitting down there and we’re having dinner, I’ve got Byron Nelson on this side, I’ve got Ben Crenshaw on that side, and for whatever reason, grip pressure comes up. Ben Crenshaw says to me, ‘Oh, you want to hold the club so lightly that I could almost take it out of your hand. You want your arms to be so soft through the whole swing.’ ’
“And no sooner Crenshaw said that, then Byron Nelson goes to Tiger, just nudges him and says ‘We will talk about this later.’ Actually, Byron Nelson takes him outside, puts him under the big tree there, you know by the clubhouse, and he says to Tiger, ‘You know this whole idea of
holding the club lightly, you know like [Sam] Snead says, don’t agree with it at all.’
“He said, ‘When I won 11 in a row and won 18 in one season, I held the club firmly, my arms were structured and I didn’t hold the club lightly at all.’”
So who’s right? We won’t argue with Hall, Nelson and Woods; their results speak for themselves. Nor will we argue Crenshaw and Snead, though, as they also need no introduction. But maybe an article will help.