Review: Butch Harmon Right Grip Golf Glove

July 27, 2004 - The most fundamental of golf fundamentals, the most basic of golf basics, is how we hold the golf club. Ask any teaching pro and they'll tell you they can improve most recreational golfers without ever seeing them swing, simply by looking at their grips. The grip is our only point of contact with the golf club, and the Butch Harmon Right Grip Golf Glove helps us get a handle on the right way to hold the club.

The Butch Harmon Right Grip Golf Glove is actually a pair of gloves (right and left) with a dark green, black and bright yellow color scheme.

What makes these golf gloves different is the insert that is used in both gloves. The company calls this "Soft Bar Technology." A padded, raised bar sits in the palm of the left-hand glove (for right-handers), and another one appears between the thumb and index finger on the right-hand glove (for right-handers; this is reversed for lefties).

As mentioned, the gloves come in right- or left-handed versions. Unisex sizes are extra small, small, medium, medium/large, large and extra large.

The Butch Harmon Right Grip Golf Glove costs $49.95 and comes with an instructional DVD featuring Harmon. The instructional video, along with the directions provided in the packaging, make a good, basic, neutral golf grip easy to achieve.

The soft bars also serve to address another problem many golfers have: gripping the club too tightly. So the Butch Harmon Right Grip Golf Glove addresses all three grip basics.

Those basics are these: positioning the club properly in the hands; holding the handle with the proper amount of pressure; and having a grip that is neutral - not too strong or too weak (when a golfer rotates his hands clockwise or counterclockwise around the handle, he is said to be strengthening or weakening the grip, which affects the position of the clubface at impact).

With the Soft Bar Technology, it is close to impossible to hold a club in the palms of the hands. The proper grip is one that places the handle in the fingers (see Michael Lamanna's instructional article on About.com on the proper grip). Simply following the instructions provided with the gloves will position the club properly in the fingers.

Many recreational golfers grip the club too tightly. A tight grip causes tension in the hands, wrists and shoulders, and tension is never a good thing in a golf swing.

However, anyone wearing the Butch Harmon Right Grip gloves and gripping too tightly will certainly know it. The soft bars press into your hands, telling you to lighten up.

And by following the directions for use (where to place the handle, where the soft bars should be once your hands are on the handle), the golfer should achieve a nice, neutral grip - one that is neither strong nor weak.

(A neutral grip is one in which the "V" formed between the thumb and forefinger on each hand is pointing at your back shoulder - see Lamanna's article.)

A neutral grip is the proper starting point for a great grip. It's possible that a golfer will need to adjust the grip, to strengthen or weaken it. But starting with a neutral grip is important, and these gloves help the golfer achieve that.

Are there drawbacks to the Butch Harmon Right Grip Golf Glove? Certainly there will be folks who balk at paying $50 for a pair of golf gloves, even ones that also serve as training aids.

The color scheme might be a bit bright for many golfers' tastes (many others will find the colors quite cool). The DVD featuring Butch Harmon is repetitive without being all that illuminating; Harmon seems, at times, to be struggling to come up with something to say to fill out the necessary time.

And the gloves aren't a magic bullet. They can't adjust their qualities to your swing.

But the Butch Harmon Right Grip Golf Glove does what it claims: helps golfers hold the club in the proper manner. And that will be a major improvement for many recreational golfers.

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