Anthony Kim: Gripping Down

Gid Pool of North Port, Florida, was so taken with the way Anthony Kim grips down on his clubs that he went out and tried it, to good effect:

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After watching Anthony Kim choke down on this clubs and just crush the ball, I decided to play my next round choking down on all my clubs, even the driver. Boy was that a fun round of golf. More solid contact, better distance, straighter shots. I'm hooked. After about 4 holes my playing partners started trying it.

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What once looked like a crutch, now looks like "the way to go."

Don't know if you caught it today, but Johnny Miller addressed Kim's gripping down and made this point:

__"If you grip down, you don't get the club stuck behind you. Your body can move much faster. It's probably something that could help Tiger", who tends to have that problem," Miller said. "But if you don't have that kind of arm and body speed, you're not going to hit it so far gripping down like that."

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Kim apparently began gripping the club this way when he was a kid because his father gave him a hand-me-down set with shafts that were too long for him. He's never been able to make the transition to gripping up.

Lord knows we don't have the swing speed that Kim does, but after watching Kim play as he has at Valhalla and now East Lake, it's easy to see why you'd give it a try. It may be the earliest instruction we ever got in baseball or golf: choke up for more control.

--Bob Carney

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