Small Hands, Big Power: Why Your Standard Golf Clubs Are Secretly Holding Back Your Distance

One of the biggest misconceptions in women’s golf is that petite players don’t have the capability of hitting the ball very far because of their small hand size. While hand size does impact strength and technique, those with bigger hands having a genetic advantage, there’s plenty of examples on the LPGA, LET and particularly on the Asian Tour of pint-sized pocket rocket players with tiny hands who bomb the ball big distances.

There are two critical factors that contribute to small-handed players being able to hit the ball a long way - good technique and the best grip and best shaft combination.

The latter is often the most difficult to address, especially with standard shop bought clubs, and therefore overlooked, as we assume that clubs are going to be made to suit us. Unfortunately there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all women’s grip and it has to be combined with the right shaft to ensure maximum performance.

How Grip Influences Technique

The foundations of a powerful golf swing are laid at the very formation of your grip, the way you hold the club in your hands. Put simply, a correctly formed grip contributes significantly to your ability to release the club powerfully through impact and hit it far.

It’s a topic particularly relevant to petite players like me. At 5’1” I’m short with small hands. There was a period of several years as a junior when I really struggled with my grip. The women’s clubs I was using weren’t suitable for me, the shafts were way too whippy, yet my hands were so small that men’s clubs didn’t work either due to their oversize grips. My fingers simply weren’t long enough to wrap around the grip.

As a consequence I played with the 10-finger grip, that’s often referred to as the baseball bat style, just to give my hands a fighting chance of maintaining a good hold. My breakthrough came when a county coach wanted to change my style of grip to the more traditional interlocking method, connecting my fingers and uniting my hands, but to do so he recognised that I needed thinner grips on my clubs.

There were limited grip choices available to me when I was a junior (30 years ago) so he took my clubs into a pro shop fitter, cut my old grips off, found the thinnest grips that they sold and used some white spirit to stretch the grip out down the shaft, holding it in place with a clamp until it set.

Fast-forward to 2026 and there’s absolutely no need for such an antiquated procedure as there are dozens of small grip options on the market. Leading grip manufacturer Golf Pride is at the forefront of development and has some fantastic undersized grip choices for golfers with small hands including the CP2 Pro, CP2 Wrap, CPX, MCC Plus4, Tour Velvet, Tour Wrap and the Tour Velvet 360 Soft Track.

Grip Research & Development

While there is currently not a wealth of clinical evidence in support or contradiction of any well-known rumours regarding grip size and the effect upon performance (i.e. we cannot say for sure that thicker grips for example lead to any specific shot patterns), Golf Pride are taking a number of measures to address this gap in the research market.

Firstly, Golf Pride are currently working alongside Sheffield Hallam University in a study on the effects of different grips on swing and performance. The results will provide an in-depth understanding and influence product invention.

Meanwhile, in the USA the brand has recently revealed plans for a Performance Lab within their Global HQ in Pinehurst, NC. This facility will be used to host grip fittings but also carry out research to further help to de-mystify this area of golf, steering future product development.

One particular aspect of these studies will be looking into how to help golfers with issues such as those suffering with arthritis. At present, the best option for arthritis sufferers is the softest available grips in undersize, such as the Golf Pride CPX , CP2 Wrap, CP2 Pro and Tour Wrap which are all particularly soft, as well as the tackiest model available to compensate for reduced grip strength - Tour Velvet 360 Soft Tack, Tour Wrap or CPX.

How The Shaft Effects Grip Size

One factor that is often overlooked is the golf club shaft and how that can influence the type of grip that can be fitted to clubs. You may be surprised to hear that men’s and women’s shafts are all made to one uniform width. A standard adult golf club shaft typically has an outside diameter of 0.580 inches (about 14.7 mm) near the butt (grip end), with the key difference being that thinner grips are added to the best women’s golf clubs.

Importantly, shafts can also be tapered so that they are thinner at the grip. This is a factor that a professional custom fit expert will take into account when recommending what clubs, shafts and grips you should use. It is certainly not something we would be aware of by buying a set of shop-bought standard clubs, but can have a profoundly positive effect on your game, enabling the perfect shaft/grip marriage.

How To Select The Right Grip?

Although there is no substitution for having a professional custom fit experience, there are DIY ways of making the right grip selection via online tools that can help you determine which grips will suit your hands. The Golf Pride website, for instance, has a handy grip finder to help pick the right model for you; https://www.golfpride.com/gb/en-gb/grip-finder.html