If you’ve been around the game of golf for any length of time, you are probably familiar with the overlapping grip (also known as the Vardon grip). 

However, most folks have never heard of the double overlap grip, the overlapping grips cousin. Though it’s not as popular, there are a few golfers that feel like the double-overlap grip is the best grip for them.

There are several reasons why golfers adopt a double overlap grip. We describe the pros and cons of this grip here along with how it can help your game. After reading this, you’ll be able to decide if you want to try out the double overlap grip for yourself.

What is the Double Overlap Golf Grip?

As you might have guessed, the double overlap grip is similar to the Vardon grip. However, the double overlap grip takes things to a whole new level. Here is how it works:

Instead of simply resting the right pinkie on top of the left index finger like in the Vardon grip, with the double overlap grip, the right pinkie rests on top of the left middle finger. Also, the right ring finger laps over the top of the left index finger.

This grip may be uncomfortable at first but don’t give up on it too quickly. Dave Pelz, one of golf’s best short game instructors, recommends using the double overlap grip during pitching and chipping drills to get a better feel for it.

The Benefits of This Golf Grip

Now let’s review some of the benefits golfer’s notice when switching to this grip…

Makes the Golfer’s Hands Act As One

Many club golfers struggle with their dominant hand taking over the golf swing. Surprisingly, some golfers on the PGA Tour struggle with this same problem. The double overlap grip helps remedy this problem because it makes the hands act as one unit.

For example, if you are right-handed, your right hand may tend to take over your entire swing at times. With the double overlap grip, the right hand is forced to simply act as a guide for the left hand. 

Gives the Golfer Better Feel

The double overlap grip gives the golfer a better feel and much more control at the top of the backswing. Since the golfer no longer has to worry about his dominant hand taking over, he is free to let the leading hand do its job. 

The better feel and increased control lead to a more effortless, fluid golf swing. This is because the double overlap grip makes the golfer let the club do the work.

Fewer Hooks and Slices

The double overlap grip can be a great option for folks that have directional problems like hooks and slices. Those annoying duck hooks off the tee box are usually caused by the right hand taking over and flipping the golf club just before impact. Since the double overlap grip minimizes the right hand, this is less likely to happen.

Most of the time a slice is caused by overswinging and too much grip pressure. How many times have you tried to kill the golf ball and ended up slicing it into the next fairway? The double overlap grip makes you lighten your grip pressure, which may help straighten out your slice.

Pro Golfers Who Use The Double Overlap Grip

Curious which pro golfers actually use this grip? Here’s the list…

Jim Furyk

Furyk has used the double overlap grip his entire career and it has helped him achieve 17 PGA Tour wins, including the 2003 U.S. Open. Furyk’s nickname is “Mr. 58” since he is the only person to shoot a 58 in a PGA Tour event. 

The double overlap grip gives Furyk a high amount of control over all his golf shots. Furyk, now 51, plays on both the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. His unique, figure-eight swing is highly entertaining to watch.

David Leadbetter

Leadbetter did not play on the PGA Tour but he did play professionally on both the European and South African Tour. Leadbetter is known as one of the best golf instructors in the world and he’s worked with some of the PGA Tour’s biggest stars like Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, and Greg Norman.

The 69-year old Englishman is a big proponent of the double overlap grip. He says the double overlap grip helps reduce tension in the wrists and hands, which leads to a more fundamentally sound golf swing.

Other Common Golf Grips

The double overlap grip style has a ton of benefits but it’s not for everyone. Some folks just aren’t able to get fully comfortable with the double overlap. Fortunately, there are several other golf grips that they can try.

Interlocking Grip

The interlocking grip was made famous by two PGA Tour megastars, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. With the interlocking grip, the right pinkie interlocks in between the left forefinger and left middle finger. 

This keeps the hands together throughout the entire golf swing, which is why many golfers prefer it. The only downside of the interlocking grip is that it may not be very comfortable for golfers who have larger hands.

Baseball Grip

The baseball-grip, or ten-finger grip, is a good grip for kids or beginners. Those who are used to gripping a baseball bat will find the ten-finger grip comfortable. 

With the baseball grip, the right pinkie and the left index finger touch, but there is no interlocking or overlapping. The main downside of this grip is that it makes it too easy for the golfer’s dominant hand to take over.

Reverse Overlap (Putting)

This is the most common putting grip in the game of golf. Lots of golfers feel this grip style gives them a ton of control of the putter. With the reverse overlap grip, the right index finger laps over the left pinkie.

Claw Grip (Putting)

Golfers who aren’t comfortable with the reverse overlap putting grip often switch to a claw grip. One of the main benefits of using a claw grip is that it makes the shoulders lead the putting stroke instead of the hands. This often results in better ball speed on the greens and more accurate putts.

Mike Noblin

Mike has been involved with sports for over 30 years. He’s been an avid golfer for more than 10 years and is obsessed with watching the Golf Channel and taking notes on a daily basis. He also holds a degree in Sports Psychology.

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Thanks to my erratic driving game, I had to learn the art of drawing and fading shots out of the woods to get back into play. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, your ball flight turns out opposite to your initial intention. As a result, your ball vanishes off its target line. This post is to educate you about what is a double cross in golf?

The aim is to help you identify when it happens and how you can fix it. Those who struggle with other elements of their swings can read our various detailed guides on how to resolve your challenge.

What is a Double Cross in Golf?

In layman’s terms, a double-cross occurs when your golf ball travels in the opposite direction you were aiming.

For example, a tree sits in your line to the green, and the only shot you have is to induce a fade. As a right-handed golfer, you aim to the left of your target, preparing for the left to right-hand shape, but it doesn’t come. Instead, it develops a draw shape and hooks away from your target.

You were aiming left of your target, and you hooked your shot. That means that you are now well beyond the left side of the fairway.

I, unfortunately, endured a double-cross in my last round. My tee shot ended behind a shrub on a par 5, leaving me with the option of hitting a lofted club over the shrub and laying up or fading a fairway wood. Naturally, I opted for the latter option.

I aimed my feet to the left of the target, positioned my open clubface behind the ball, and initiated my backswing. However, my rotation slowed before impact, causing my hands to take the lead and closing my clubface at impact. That led to a snap hook 20-yards in the wrong direction.

A more common scenario for higher handicap players is that you set up for your ball to shape from the left to the right side of the fairway, but you snap hook it left. Since you were aiming left to account for a slice or fade shape, the result is far worse than if you aimed directly at your target.

Causes of a Double Cross

Rotation

Like I described with my experience with the double-cross, it is often caused by lower rotation speed. That leads to your hands moving ahead of the ball and prompts your clubface to close.

As a result, your ball hooks uncontrollably to the left hand side of the course, putting you on the back foot for the remainder of the hole.

It is vital to turn your hips through impact for optimal power and accuracy. Read more about how much hip turn is best for your golf swing in our detailed guide. Understanding these elements will lead to distance and accuracy consistency.

Weight

Those who consistently slice their shots will notice that you often lose your balance at impact and fall back. That is because you struggle to shift your weight forward and leave your body and clubface open at impact.

On the contrary, if your golf shots draw excessively, you may shift your weight too early on your downswing. That closes your body and clubface, causing your ball to hook.

Ball Position

Where you position your ball in your stance can impact the direction it curves. Mark Blackburn from Titleist explains that it is best to place the ball slightly back if you wish to prompt a draw. That position helps you close the angle of your clubface at impact to initiate a right to left curve:

Conversely, Blackburn recommends placing the ball front center in your stance when attempting to fade the ball.

If you place the ball in the incorrect position of your stance, it is difficult to get your clubface to the angle it needs to be at impact. Therefore, you may slice the ball when you had hoped to draw it.

Swing Path

Besides slow hips and the incorrect ball position, your swing path can also cause your golf ball to travel to the opposite side of the course. For example, if your golf swing moves inside-out, you are more likely to prompt a draw than a slice or fade.

Contrarily, an outside-in swing is most likely to produce shots that fade or slice. The bottom line is if you aim right of the target intending to draw the ball but swing outside-in, your ball may slice or fade away from the pin.

In addition, if you set up for a fade by aiming left of your target, but then you produce an inside-out swing, you may hook your ball.

You can learn more about different swings and the types of shots they produce by reading our informative guide.

Clubface At Impact

While your swing, rotation, and ball position may all impact the final result of your shot, your clubface at impact has the final say. When you leave your face open at contact, it results in left to right sidespin, which leads to a slice or a fade.

Inversely, a closed clubface at impact causes increased right to left sidespin, encouraging a draw or hook.

Swing Easy

When golfers swing rapidly and try to smoke their ball, it generally ends in a bad shot. From past experience, I hit double-crosses when I attempted to swing faster than Kyle Berkshire. My advice to the average player is to take it easy and don’t force it.

4 Tips to Fix a Double Cross

1. Rotate Through Impact

The first area you need to work on to eradicate a double-cross from your swing is rotation. Putting the brakes on hip rotation before impact causes your hands to lead the clubhead. That often prompts a closed clubface position and causes you to hook your shot.

Golf coach Alistair Davies provides a simple drill to improve your rotation. Pick up a golf ball and imagine that it is a stone you are trying to skip across a lake. Rotate your body, and release the ball. You will notice how that motion increased your power and accuracy:

Once you have practiced that motion three to five times, take three practice swings. Focus on rotating your hips through impact to propel your clubface along the intended line. As a result, you increase your chance of executing your intended shot shape with added power.

2. Correct Your Weight Position

You can practice inducing a fade by placing your weight on your back foot at address. Once you are over the ball, lift up your front foot, and maintain the weight on your trail leg. That position prompts you to keep your body open through impact, leading to a fade.

Take a few half swings and feel how this position enables you to keep the clubface open at impact, causing your ball to fade.

On the opposing end, lift up your back foot and reposition the mass on your lead leg to prepare for a draw.

Overall, these drills help improve your muscle memory to consistently execute fade and draw shots and avoid the double-cross.

You can learn the best setup for your golf game by reading about employing a proper stance.

3. Correct Your Swing Path

When your club veers off the intended swing path, it is a mission to get your clubface into position at impact. Failure to achieve the desired clubface angle at impact sends the ball traveling in the unintended direction.

When you prepare to strike a draw, you should swing in and out to give yourself the best chance of closing your face at impact.

Instead of repeating myself, you can learn how to execute an inside-out swing by studying my review here. Instead, let me help you with pulling off a fade to put you in the fairway.

A fade or slice is prompted by an open clubface at impact that generates left-to-right sidespin for right-handers. For starters, widen your stance and position the ball in the front center of it. Next, take your club back and out away from your body, then follow an inside path on your downswing.

This angle causes your clubface to cut across the ball and generate sidespin with an open face, resulting in a fade.

4. Fix The Position of Your Clubface at Impact

The angle of your clubface when it strikes the ball determines which direction the ball will travel. By implementing the above steps into your swings, you should see improved ball striking and the position of your clubface at impact.

A drill that I find handy is breaking up your backswing into three parts to ensure that your club is on plane the entire way. Once you hit the top of your backswing, pause for a moment and commence your downswing.

If your club remains off plane after this drill, you need to take it in baby steps. Take a half swing, pause, and focus on swinging inside for a fade and outside for a draw. Familiarizing yourself with the club’s position at that point of the swing helps you improve your consistency and avoid double cross shots in golf.

Matt Stevens

Matt Callcott-Stevens started playing golf at the age of 4 when Rory Sabattini’s father put a 7-iron and putter in his hand. He has experienced all the highs and lows the game can throw at you and has now settled down as a professional golf writer. He holds a Postgraduate in Sports Marketing and has played golf for 28 years.

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Putter fitting has so many aspects that it can be a bit difficult for golfers to wrap their minds around all of it.

In addition to figuring out if you have an arc stroke or a straight stroke, there are options for face balancing, toe hang, lie angle, and even hosel offset choices on your next putter.

However, before you purchase a putter, we highly recommend you get an idea about certain features, such as single bend vs. double bend putter shafts. Let’s take a look at the differences between these two styles and which is going to be the best for your game.

Overview of a Single Bend Putter Shaft

A single bend putter shaft has a minimal bend in the shaft about the width of half the shaft. This allows your hands to be slightly more in line with the ball. The putter will be just slightly offset, and most of the time, this bend is located just above the hosel location on the golf putter.

The single bend putter shaft is very common on a blade style putter, and it is known as a great club for the straight back straight through putting stroke.

Overview of a Double Bend Putter Shaft

The double bend putter shaft has two bends in the putter as opposed to the single bend putter shaft. With double bend, putters expect a higher MOI and even more offset. The double bend putter shafts tend to have a bit more accuracy on those shots that miss the center of the clubface.

Interestingly the double bend putter shaft is also a good option for the golfers with the straight back and straight through putting stroke. Golfers that like to keep more stability in the putter and ensure that there is less twisting in the face will enjoy this style.

Differences Between a Single Bend and Double Bend Putter Shaft

The main difference between the double bend and single bend putter shaft will be the hand placement and the offset of the putter. However, putters with more and less offset will perform differently on the course.

Although a lot of the decision as to whether to use a single bend or double bend shaft will come down to personal preference, it pays to understand exactly what to expect here.

Look at Address

The look at the address between a single bend and a double bend is considerably different. The single bend has very little offset and a more straight look to the putter head from the top down. This tends to be a better overall look for the lower handicap player that likes that smooth transition.

The double bend putters, although helpful from a forgiveness standpoint, will have a more detailed look that can be almost overwhelming for some players. If you like a clean and simple look, the double bend putter shaft is likely not the best solution for your game.

Offset

Offset is something that we see in almost any club in the bag. Whether you are purchasing a driver, hybrids, wedges, or irons, offset is a piece of the puzzle that will come into play. The more offset a clubhead is, the further behind your hands it will be at address.

The goal of an offset club is to help players that struggle to square up the face have a little extra time to do so before impact. Most golfers that slice the ball, or in the case of putting, those that hit it off the toe, will be more likely to benefit from offset.

The double bend putter, because of the two bends in the shaft, is going to have a slightly more offset design than the standard single bend putter shaft. Players who tend to have a hard time keeping the clubface square can trust that a double bend shaft will help them.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is becoming more and more important in putters, not just for beginners but for lower handicappers as well. The common terminology you will see for putter forgiveness is MOI or moment of inertia. The putters with the highest MOI will have the most forgiveness.

Most of the time, the mallet style putter with a double bend shaft will lead the way when it comes to forgiveness. A blade putter that has a single bend shaft will be less forgiving. Many golfers have a very consistent putting stroke with high levels of accuracy.

These players can use any different style putter head and shaft combination they would like. As long as the roll coming from the club head is a good one, players should be pleased with their progress.

Availability

Custom putter fitting is getting increasingly popular, but it still can be hard to find the exact putter you are looking for. Not all manufacturers offer options for single bend or double bend putter shafts in each of their models.

You may have to get a custom fitting done to find the right shaft configuration for your new putter. In addition, both the single bend and the double bend putters are designed for the straight back and straight through style stroke with high levels of consistency.

If you are set on a particular type of putter and can’t find it, talk to a local golf club repair shop and see their custom capabilities. Chances are, you will be able to find something that fits your needs.

Stability

A golf putter that is stable at impact will produce a much better roll. However, stability in a putter is not only impacted by the golf putter a player uses but also by the stroke. Players that want ultimate stability should consider the double bend putter shaft.

Most of the time, the double bend putter shaft is something that has a face balanced design and a little more stability in the overall putter head. Golfers that use this double bend putter shaft should stick with a straight back and straight through style and keep the wrists and hands out of the stroke.

Although a single bend putter shaft is somewhat stable, the double bend steals the show here.

Who Should Use a Single Bend Putter?

A single bend putter tends to be the best option for the golfer that wants a clean look at the address, one that sets them up for more accuracy and consistency. Many times players with lower handicaps are going to have a hard time finding a putter that looks good to them at address.

Typically speaking, the better a player gets, the harder it is to please this golfer’s eye. With higher handicappers, the look of a golf club is not quite as much of a concern, and it can often be something that the player overcomes.

Lower handicap players like the single bend putter because it makes it easier to square the clubface up and have a look that allows you to make more one-putts on the golf course. As with all golf equipment, nothing states a higher handicapper can’t use a double bend, but it may not be as beneficial.

Who Should Use a Double Bend Putter?

The double bend putter shaft adds some forgiveness to the golf club. With this extra forgiveness in the putter, higher handicap golfers find it to be a good fit for their game. Overall higher handicapped golfers tend to struggle with some inconsistency in their putting stroke. These players have difficulty squaring the clubface up perfectly and getting the ball to roll on the same line.

With the double bend putter shaft, players can focus more on their distance control and be more confident that the putter face will be square when the club returns to the impact position.

The extra offset of the double bed putter makes this a perfect choice for any golfer in the mid to high handicap range, as well as a beginner.

Brittany Olizarowicz

Britt O has been playing golf since the age of 7. Almost 30 years later, she still loves the game, has played competitively on every level, and spent a good portion of her life as a Class A PGA Professional. Britt currently resides in Savannah, GA, with her husband and two young children.

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