Nick Piastowski
Josh was cut. Like, cut off cut off. That he knew. And why did his ball go to the right?
That’s when things started to get crazy.
Josh and I were talking last weekend with Kelan McDonagh, the director of instruction at Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson Township, NJ, and the purpose of our visit was to “save” Josh — my old friend was so frustrated with golf that I was thinking of quitting, so I put together this meeting between the instructor and the student. If you should be interested, that full story can be read by clicking here.
One of the biggest revelations was how poor Josh’s left and right hands were – which Kelan showed in two tests, which we’ll review below.
Is your left hand on the club correctly?
In Josh’s case, his left hand was placed where he could see maybe one knuckle; the preparation moved them clockwise. With the exercise machine, he was shown how the left hand was – or wasn’t – effective.
At his Metedeconk training center, Kelan used a machine built by his mentor, Mike Adams (a GOLF Top 100 teacher’s hall of famer), but two-four-four works. Kelan repeated Josh’s grip, placed the clubface at the end of the two-four, and then rotated, showing the open clubface. That leading hand, Kelan said, has a relationship with the lower body. “Your lower body opens the clubface, so we better make sure the lead hand is in position to keep it square.”
Videos showing this are below.
Is your right hand on the club the right way?
Josh’s right hand was placed where his right thumb was almost parallel to the shaft of the club; To adjust, move the thumb and knuckles slightly counter-clockwise.
With another exercise machine, he was shown how his right hand was – or wasn’t – working. Holding the iron in his right hand, Josh took a quarter swing, then stopped in the follow-through, showing an open face – and an obvious problem. So if you are very open with holding and your body wants to do this [come over the top, as Josh was],” said Kelan, “now you have many things left.
Videos showing this are below.
Where should the club sit in your hands?
Josh’s palms have been holding the club; the adjustment moved the club through his fingers. Remarkably, Kelan said Josh threw the golf ball, then asked where he caught it. Fingers, he replied. “So every time you hit a golf putt, you’re throwing anything on the other side of the shaft. [the clubface]so this thing [the clubface] thrown into that thing [the ball] to go somewhere else. … So when we throw something, we better make sure the grip is in the fingers. If it rises in the palm of the hand, we have no power over it.”
Not sure where to hold the club? Kelan asked Josh to put the stick in his left palm, then asked him to try to lift it. He struggled. But do you hold it with your fingers? Easier. You can also hold the club in front of you and swing it left to right, and the results are the same.
How much grip pressure should you apply?
I was curious about this. We’ve heard that you should hold the club with gentle pressure. We heard it hard.
What did Kelan think?
“When we go on a chainsaw,” he said, “I’m in the middle of that conversation.” Most of my teachings are about creating movement and swinging with freedom. If you’re compressing, you can’t really swing freely. So if I ask you to push this as far as you can, that’s the kind of conversation I’m going to have with the reader. If you’re going to throw it, you need enough control over it to hook it and let it go. … So it’s a fun way in between obviously you can get very little out of it, and some people’s veins seem like they’re going to burst when they’re standing on the ball.”
To wrap things up, Josh’s left hand needed to be strong, and his right hand needed to be weak. Making square contact previously would have been difficult, Kelan said. “Maybe one in 10.”
Here, I also asked if Josh’s new grip was universal, or more specific to him.
“It’s 100 percent for him,” Kelan said. “The next person that comes after Josh and for whatever reason I do what I just did with Josh and not rate him, that would be a complete mistake. The chances of them needing what they need are very small.”
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