To cure chunks and blades, Jordan Spieth’s coach uses a ‘pencil grip’

Cameron McCormick starts somberly.

Chunks, he says.

Blades.

Overly high iron shots “that travel far shorter than they otherwise should.”

But the mood quickly improves. He says the ghastly trio shares both a symptom and a cure.

McCormick, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher and Jordan Spieth’s longtime instructor, was talking on a recently posted video to his Instagram account — which you can watch in full here — and the cause behind the problems, he said, is an “overly active” trail hand (your right hand if you’re right-handed) in the swing.

“That overly active right hand,” McCormick said on the video, “essentially causes the grip, this end of the grip [he motioned toward the bottom of the grip, near the shaft], and therefore the clubhead, to spin down toward the ground too early, causing that fat contact, causing that high dynamic loft and high launching irons.”

So what’s the fix?

On practice swings, McCormick uses what he calls “a pencil grip.”

Here, McCormick holds the end of the grip between his right thumb and right index finger while keeping his left hand in its normal position — so the hands are separated by a few inches — before making swings, bringing the club back past the golf ball with his left hand. He then grips the club normally.

“And you’ll see the effect this is having,” he said on the video. “It’s actually increasing the angle between your lead arm and the club shaft.

“Without skipping a beat, place your hands back on correctly, quiet the right hand’s involvement and then blend it into a full swing. It’s going to solve the fat contact, [and] it’s going to drop the launch angle of your golf ball, providing more ball speed and longer distance.”