As the temps begin to lower in most parts of the country and the color of the tree leaves starts to change, many golfers are quick to pack away the golf clubs for the season.

Maybe it’s because they think they can only golf when they can get a sunburned neck. Or maybe they feel they can’t play their best game unless wearing some khaki shorts and sunglasses. Or just maybe they feel that their game has tanked so much over the summer that it is time to call it quits (maybe for the year, maybe for life).

Whatever the reason, many golfers bid their local course adieu before fall, the time of year that many players call the “low shoulder of the golf season.”

But that shouldn’t be you. Instead, you should keep playing in the autumn months to take advantage of the cheaper greens fees, great course conditions and a chance to reflect and prepare for the spring.

Matt Just, Class A PGA Professional for the Life Time Fitness Golf Club in St. Louis Park, MN, said too many golfers are too quick to pack the clubs away in the garage in the fall when there are still plenty of great opportunities to golf and get better.

“Fall golf in any state … is by far the best,” Just said. “The courses are always in really great shape and with the changing leaves it’s really nice to be out there. Plus, they’re less busy; there’s just not as many players out there.”

Just said most golf courses also have fall playing rates where the greens fees are usually cheaper than during the summer. That fact alone is quite interesting because the courses are probably in the best shape they’ll be in all year, Just said.

However, Just said, many golf clubs will aerate their courses in the fall, which usually make the greens a little bumpier. So, golfers should be sure to ask the course staff about the course’s aeration status before setting up a tee time, Just said.

One thing many golfers have to remember about playing in the autumn, Just said, is that it is also easier to lose a golf ball that went into the rough or trees when there are plenty of red, orange and yellow leaves on the ground.

“If you’re playing by the rules of golf, if you lose your golf ball in some leaves, you have to go to your original lie and hit another one,” Just said. “You can’t just drop one down.”

Besides playing to take advantage of better rates and playing conditions, Just said, more golfers should play into the fall months to shorten the offseason and develop a plan for the winter that will help them improve their game.

Just said many golfers fall into the “End of the Golf Season Blues” during the early part of the autumn, usually finding themselves evaluating all their goals they didn’t accomplish and concluding whether they improved from the year before.

Instead, those golfers should develop a plan for getting better in the offseason that is filled with swing practice, instruction, physical fitness training and development of good attitudes and habits, Just said.

“If you don’t develop a plan in the fall and quit playing in the fall, then you’re going to be right back at Square One in the spring when everybody’s all excited,” Just said.

One of the goals players should include in their offseason plans is to find the sweet spot of each club, Just said.

“Find the middle of the clubface in the offseason,” Just said, explaining how golfers should repetitively swing a club in the mirror during the winter to maintain and improve their swing.

“(The middle of the clubface) should be worn out on your golf club and you could do that for 10-minutes a day.”

Just said many players also neglect to take a golf lesson with a certified professional after the summer, usually thinking it won’t help them at that point in the year.

“Just because the summer’s over, doesn’t mean you don’t want to keep taking lessons from a qualified teacher,” Just said.

Ultimately, Just said, when so many golfers are stowing the clubs away, fall is actually the perfect time to get more excited about the sport.

“People are gearing down instead of gearing up,” Just said. “So, take advantage of when everybody else is slowing down. That’s when you need to kick it into the next gear.”

No matter if you’re a novice or Jack Nicklaus, your grip on the golf club can play a big role in how you play a round of golf.

But even if you’re an avid, longtime golfer, it’s never a bad thing to have a refresher course on proper grip.

Matt Just, Class A PGA Professional for Life Time Fitness in St. Louis Park, MN, said proper golf grip is vitally important because your hands are “your only attachment to the golf club.”

“The No. 1 most important thing is having a fundamentally sound and comfortable grip,” Just said.

However, there isn’t a universally acceptable grip that will allow you to hit the ball perfect every time, Just said. There are only grips that correct or promote certain types of ball flight.

“A good grip is the one that is the same every time and produces the ball flight that you want. Period,” Just said. “That’s the correct grip.”

With that in mind, Just broke-down golf grip into the following areas:

Styles
On the majority, Just said golfers use either the interlocking or overlapping style of golf grip.

In the interlocking grip for a right-handed golfer, Just said, the golfer’s left index finger interlocks with the right pinky while holding onto the club with both hands (see image).

Contrarily, in the overlapping grip, the golfer’s right pinky actually just overlaps the top of the left hand’s index finders while the hands are on the club (see image).

Just said the last grip he may teach to a student is the 10-finger grip where all fingers grip the club and the hands are one above the other while on the club (see image). Just said he only recommends this grip to beginning golfers or golfers with small hands.

After choosing a style and grabbing a club, Just said, you need to make sure it is situated in the hands properly.

For a right hander, the club should sit in the left hand so it crosses diagonally over the first joint of the index finger and last joint of the pinky with the grip’s end near the heel pad of your hand (see image). Then the fingers should wrap around the club in that position with the thumb pointing down the clubshaft.

With interlocking and overlapping grips, the golfer should place the right hand over the thumb of the left hand, giving it a “hot dog in a bun” look, Just said. After closing the fingers around the club, the right thumb should cross over the shaft a little, never running straight down the club’s grip (see image).

“God made our hands perfect for the golf club to fit right in there,” Just said, a line he usually tells a beginning student when teaching.

Grip Pressure
Moving along from the grip style, Just said the No. 1 problem he sees with his students’ grip regards their tension and pressure on the club itself.

“They hold it way too tight,” Just said.

To correct this fault, Just recommends that his students hold their club like they are “shaking hands with a small child.” In other words, hold the club quite gently.

Positions
Once a style and pressure are settled, the last essential is figuring out where to position the hands on the club.

Just said the positions are usually broken into three categories: neutral, weak/counterclockwise and strong/clockwise. Each one, he said, has a different influence on how the clubface makes impact with the golf ball.

With the neutral grip, Just said, the club's setup is designed to hit the ball as straight as possible, limiting an types of ball curvature. However, mastering the neutral grip position is difficult as many golfers have to rely on the two other grip positions.

In the neutral grip, both each hand is general on it side of the club. One hand isn't more on top the club shaft and one isn't on the bottom side of the club shaft (see image).

The weak/counterclockwise grip, Just said, causes the golf club to contact the golf ball with a more opened clubface. Such a grip usually makes it more difficult to close the clubface before impact.

What results, he said, is usually a ball flight that will either be straight or curve to the right, or slice, for a right-handed golfer depe

nding on the swing.

“A counterclockwise grip doesn’t mean you’re going to slice,” Just said. “What it means is that you might not hit a draw.”

Just said he may recommend the weak/counterclockwise grip to right-handed players whose ball flight consistently curves to the left or for lefty’s who curve to the right.

In such a case, Just said a right-handed golfer should rotate their grip counterclockwise on the club so their right hand is more on top of the club shaft and the left is more to the front side and a little more underneath the club shaft (see image).

Contrarily, the strong/clockwise grip causes the club to impact the ball with more of a closed clubface. Again, he said, the grip position makes it more difficult to open the clubface before impact.

With this grip position, Just said, the ball usually flies straight or curves to the right, or hooks, for right-handed golfers or the opposite for a lefty.

Just recommends this grip position to right-handed golfers whose ball curves right consistently. He also suggests it to beginning golfers or golfers who struggle to get the ball airborne.

To perform the strong/clockwise grip, Just said, a right-handed golfer must rotate their hands clockwise on the club so the right hand is more behind and underneath the club shaft while the left hand is more on top of the club shaft (see image).

Just said most PGA golf professionals do not use the “weak and strong” grip terminology with students because they can confuse it with how tight or loose they should hold the club.