PHOTO PROVIDED Check your grips to see if there are thumb or finger depressions. This is a good indication you are holding the club too tight.

After giving thousands of lessons for over fifty years, I have found a majority of my students could gain at least ten to 15 miles per hour clubhead speed by relaxing their grip pressure.

Relaxing your grip is the easiest way to add distance to your drives and irons. For example, if you wanted to shake water off your hands, you would relax the hands while shaking the moisture off. The same theory can be applied to holding a golf club. Tightening the muscles in the hands and forearms creates the manipulation of the golf club, slows down the momentum, and makes more work with the least results. Relaxing your grip will help you enjoy this great game called golf.

Rick Musselman, golf author and professional, owns Musselman’s Golf in Williamsport.