Hands-on Info...6
The Ever-Present Golf Glove
While you’ll almost never see a golfer step on the first tee without a golf glove, equally seldom will you find a golfer who can give you a good reason why. Similarly, you will almost never see a golfer putt wearing a glove, but few can justify why. Fred Couples never wears a glove while the Golden Bear never took his off.
Feel the palm and fingers of your hand. Then, put on a new glove and again feel the palm and fingers. What you will find is that the surface of your hand is “slicker” than the surface of the glove. The glove enables more traction than the bare hand without increasing your grip pressure. The glove is a traction-enhancing device. Minimizing grip pressure allows for greater speed and precision. You’ll note that the comparison I am suggesting is with a “new” glove. Be careful, as gloves age due to dirt, sweat, and sunlight they get stiff and degrade from tranction-enhancing to traction-reducing.
Two questions:
If a golfer is right-handed, why is the glove worn on the left hand? Consider the golf grip. What you will notice is that it is conical. It is largest at the butt end and then tapers.
When the club is swung, centrifugal force tends to pull the club away from the player. When that happens, the large end of the club will seat itself in the upper hand, and that is where the glove can impart its traction-enhancing function with the player “feeling” the club seat in the upper three fingers. If the grips are fresh (still have their “tackiness”) the significance of the glove is minimized.
Why take the glove off when putting? Imagine putting while wearing ski gloves. Our sense of the club would be greatly diminished. Removing the golf glove optimizes our feel and the brain’s subconscious management of the putt. Tour players have a highly elevated awareness of ball contact. On an iron shot, they can often report which groove contacts the ball. That is a level not shared by most amateurs and therefore removal of their glove for putting is not going to be as significant.
Bottom Line: The effectiveness of our physical connection to the club is important for both speed, precision, and clubface control. The golf glove and the golf grips are central players. When they become slick, we are handicapping our performance.
Each Thursday we’ll bring you a helpful insight.
Swing to the Target,
Ed
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