Pain in left hand fingers

[Durtman]

In an attempt to combat my slice, I recently quit the interlock grip and have started using an overlap type. This grip feels more natural and I do feel I have better control, but I've recently been getting sharp pain from the first joints of my middle and ring finger to the knuckles(and only those two; like when i ball a fist or grip for the next shot). I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to gripping to tightly, but...when I changed grips, I made a mental note to hold the club more in the fingers of my left hand than the palm. I also have a tendancy to tighten my grip on the downswing just out of reaction to the feel of the club coming down. I know it is doing something because thats usually when I get a sharp jolt in the knuckles and top the hell out of the ball. I do this with all my clubs, except for the putter. It hurts so bad now that I know I couldn't grip a golf club without major uncomfort. Do you think this is something that will be persistent or just a sign of weak unworked muscles? This is going on the 3rd week and I've played 6 rounds and with trips to the range in between, so it really hasn't completely had time to "heal" or adjust and strengthen. I taped my middle finger on one outing so that it wasn't even gripping the club and went without pain the whole round (just looked like I was flipping everyone off) and still shot an average round.

I feel like I'm lacking power I guess, when I swing easy, my 7i may be lucky to get 140 with a roll. I have a downhill(~15ft down) 141 yd par 3 I usually end up short by about 30 yards with my 9, but every once in a blue moon end up right on. For example, I usually hit 2 clubs lower than my regular golfing partners. The things I've been concentrating on are loosening my left grip and going low and slow on my backswing.

[chessbum]

Re: Pain in left hand fingers

Time to see a medical doctor, bub.....


Chessbum....

[Durtman]

Re: Pain in left hand fingers

Time to see a medical doctor, bub.....

Not likely. I figure it's coming from poor technique and not giving it any time to rest as I had been playing twice a week for the last 3 weeks with trips to the range inbetween. I aggrevated it Saturday even more by going to the range after playing 18 earlier that day. I've laid off swinging clubs since Sunday...just hitting the putting mat and the fingers aren't sore.

Cmays,
If I'm doing what you described correctly, it has brought my left grip more to the right at address, the "V" between the thumb is pointing directly at my right shoulder. I noticed when I use an interlock grip it does almost the same with the orientation of the hand and "v". I hadn't really thought about the difference between the orientation I had with my left hand and the interloack/overlap grips and was nearly inline/fairly weak with the "v" pointing left of my chin, hence the reason I believe the club was slipping when I started overlapping and I over compensated. Atleast that's what I've convinced myself as of now.

My little sister is in physical therapy and is the one that suggested taping my fingers as the tendons and muscles could be weak and it did help by not letting me use my middle finger. But, I play guitar for hours on end so I would think my left hand fingers are fairly strong, has to be poor technique.