On the contrary, a “weak” grip has the v’s of the hands pointing straight up toward the chin of the head. The “weak” grip hand position is also called the “neutral” grip.

There are advantages and disadvantages of using either the strong-grip or the weak-grip. The choice between the grips can be influenced by the natural physique of the individual. Nicklaus wrote that the grip position should match the orientation of the hands when standing naturally without holding any clubs. When standing naturally with the hands and arms hanging freely down along the sides of the body, some people’s hands naturally turn inward, while others not. According to this approach, those with hands naturally turning inward while just standing should adopt stronger grips. Another consideration is that tall players have naturally more upright swing arcs, so that the clubface naturally tends to be more squared during the back and down swings, and they may favor weaker grips. Handsy players may adopt a weak grip so as to allow more rolling of the hands and arms during the release like Hogan. With a strong grip more rolling of the hands and arms will over close the clubface by impact.

The advantage of a “strong” grip is that there is less need to rotate the hands, and the leading arm back to the setup position during the release. This less need for hands and arm rotation results in more control of the club, specially during the release. Parts rotating less means more control. This less need for hand and arm rotation during the release just before impact tends to avoid leaving the clubface still somewhat opened by ball impact, which opened clubface coupled with an inside-to-out clubhead swing path will produce straight-pushes. Since in a very powerful driver swing, when the clubhead is swung to high speeds, there is less time to square the clubface during the release, and a stronger grip is advantageous, as there is less need to rotate the hands and arms during the release with a stronger grip position.

Thus, the advantage of the strong grip position is that for power driving, there is less need to rotate and roll the hands and leading arms to square the clubface by impact to reduce leaving the clubface still open by impact resulting in straight pushes. Some golfers are very good iron and fairway woods players as they have large delay-hit (delay release to hit down,) type of release, and they tend to carry these delayed-release iron and fairway swings to the driver swing. They may adopt a stronger grip to compensate for the opened driver clubface caused by the hands being a little in front of the ball at impact. The disadvantage of the strong grip position is the increased risk of over closing of the clubface at impact, specially for tall players, and for players with specially strong and fast hands.

The advantage of the weak grip position is that for tall players with more upright swing arcs, there is less risk of over closing the clubface during the release. Another advantage of the weak grip is that for handsy players, a weak grip provides more room for rolling of the hands and arms during the release to generate more power. For players with very powerful or fast hands, a weak grip allow these players to use their hands and arms to the fullest to take advantage of their specially strong or fast hands. The weak grip is also adopted when the fade is adopted as the standard driver shot pattern, although a medium strong grip can still be used for the fade shot. The disadvantage of the weak grip is that for players who are not especially tall, and whose hands are not specially powerful nor fast, a weak grip tends to leave the clubface still opened by impact, promoting pushes, specially for the driver, which can result in a vicious cycle of pushing and pulling, where pulling is used to compensate for the pushing, and blocked push is used to compensate for the pulling and so on.

In general, the true neutral (weak) grip with the v’s pointing up at the chin, and the very strong grip positions with the v’s pointing to the rear shoulder and beyond are at the extreme ends, and they should be adopted with caution.

An odd numbered set of violin strings can be imagined to be drawn vertically on the back of the teed up golf ball using visualization. For example, five vertical and parallel lines can be imagined to be drawn on the back of the teed up ball. The are some range golf balls that have three parallel lines actually imprinted on the ball. The idea is to “select” the middle vertical “string” to hit with the driver, that is to contact the middle vertical line with the driver clubface. Thus, the hands at driver impact should not be too far ahead of the ball, nor too behind the ball at impact to “select” the middle “string” like in violin, the bow hand is neither too high nor too low to select the middle strings. In addition, because, the amount of rotation of the clubshaft and club handle during the release affects clubface angle as there is a bend where the shaft connects to the clubhead, this can also effect which “string” will be selected. A squared clubface at impact will select the middle string. An opened clubface will select an inner string closer to the player instead of the middle string. A closed clubface will select an outer string farther from the player rather than the middle string. In addition, reducing the loft of the clubface (from turning the club handle forward more like rolling the hands over more during release) will tend to close the clubface to select an outer string, while increasing the loft of the clubface will tend to open the clubface to select an inner string instead of the middle string. In addition, severely out-to-in, or severely in-to-out clubhead swing paths will also tend to result in the selection of the wrong strings that are not the middle string.

The virtuosity of using the violin bow contributes to playing fine music. Similar virtuosity of using the driver in the manner of using the bow of a violin contributes to playing fine golf.