Exploring The Best Golf Grips For Better Control and Comfort

When it comes to golf clubs, our attention is drawn to the latest technology designed to help us play better.

Whether it’s the latest batch of golf drivers that promise us more distance off the tee, irons that will help us knock out the pin from any distance, or wedges that will load the ball with spin and have it dancing around the flagstick, we always want the best.

The modern golf shaft is also designed to the highest level of detail and can equally help us generate more speed, distance, and accuracy.

However, there is one element of a golf club that can easily be overlooked but is vitally important to our success: The golf grip.

It’s time to put the golf grip in the spotlight and help you understand the importance of selecting the correct grips for your clubs.

We’ll cover the following topics to help you understand why the grip is so important and how to choose the correct grips for your game:

• Why Getting the Correct Size is Important
• The Differing Materials for Golf Grips
• Who are the Golf Grip Masters - Spotlight on Golf Grip Brands
• The Custom-Fitting Solution

Why Getting the Correct Size is Important

For most of us, we don’t pay too much attention to golf grips. Many golfers wait until the last minute to replace the grips on their existing clubs, or choosing grips becomes an afterthought in some club fitting sessions.

However, the humble grip is equally important as marrying the correct shaft to the right head in our search for more distance and accuracy.

We should pay more attention to having the correct grip fitted for one simple reason. It’s the only part of the golf club we make physical contact with.

We’ve touched on the subject in other posts that golfers come in different shapes and sizes, which means we need to have our clubs fitted for length and lie to our individual needs.

It goes without saying that if we come in different shapes and sizes, our hand sizes can’t all be identical, and therefore, we can’t all use the same size of grips and be effective golfers.

If the grips fitted to our golf clubs don’t match the size of our hands, we can expect to hit bad golf shots. What do we mean by this?

If the grip is too big, we will struggle with clubface control. With a grip that is too big, our hands become impassive, and we struggle to set our wrists correctly. The net result is we’ll struggle to square the clubface up at impact, potentially leaving the clubface open, leading to leaked shots out to the right (if you are a right-handed golfer).

If we play with golf grips that are too thin, the opposite happens. Our hands can become too active in the swing, and we can shut the clubface down at impact, meaning shots go left (again if you are a right-handed golfer).

Golf grips that aren’t the right size for us can lead to other problems, such as gripping the club too tightly to try to restore some control of the clubface.

When we grip too tightly, our muscles tense up through our hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, and back. Tight muscles do not help us make a free-flowing swing and deliver maximum power at impact. Ineffective muscle use can also lead to injury problems, leading to time spent away from golf to recover.

These issues can be caused by using golf clubs with the wrong grip sizes fitted.

Manufacturers produce different-sized grips, and during a fitting process, additional layers of tape can be added to ensure that you have precisely the right thickness of grip you need.

The Differing Materials for Golf Grips

Golf grips are made of different materials to suit golfers and the conditions they play in the most. Grips are also selected based on factors such as durability and price.

Generally speaking, there are three types of grips available in the market for golfers to choose, which are:

• Rubber
• Cord
• Leather

Rubber

Rubber grips are best highlighted by the highly popular Golf Pride Tour Velvet. The Tour Velvet is a soft rubber compound grip that provides a great balance between traction and comfort. Small indents are cut into the rubber, which helps provide traction by channelling moisture to provide maximum control.

Rubber grips are a good choice if you are prone to getting blisters or calluses from extended practice sessions or heavy play.

Rubber grips are durable. If you play or practice a lot, you will accelerate the grip’s wear quicker, which means re-gripping your clubs sooner.

Cord Grips

Using the rubber grip as the foundation, corded grips add small cotton fibres into the surface.

There are variations within cord grips. You can choose from half-cord grips, where the cord can run the length of one side of the grip, or full-cord grips, where, you’ve guessed it, the cord runs throughout the entirety of the grip.

Cord grips are a great option if you play a lot of golf in wet conditions. They are also a good choice if your hands sweat a lot or you play in very humid conditions, as the cotton fibres help keep moisture away from the grip, allowing you to maintain maximum control of the club during your swing.

Cord grips can suffer from durability issues. The grips tend to succumb to surface cracking, especially if they are subjected to a lot of wet weather and then exposed to heat to dry them off.

Leather Grips

If you are considering leather grips, you have two options. One is synthetic leather, which is fitted like a normal grip. Synthetic leather emulates the same levels of softness as a real leather grip but offers more durability if you play in various weather conditions.

If money is no object, you can opt to have real leather grips fitted to your clubs. Real leather grips offer the ultimate feel and softness. They also provide a more traditional look, evoking images of older generations of golf clubs, so if retro is your thing, leather grips might be the way to go.

The feel advantages offered by leather grips can be offset by durability issues. If you don’t treat your grips after each round or practice session, the leather is likely to wear and crack, making them less than ideal to use and requiring quick replacement.

Jumbo grips, made popular by players like Bryson DeChambeau, are a new grip we are seeing more golfers use. They help keep grip pressure light, making them an option for players who suffer from arthritic or other muscular pains in the hands, wrists, and arms.

Jumbo grips are also helpful for players who have excessive hand action during the swing. Reducing excessive hand action will help deliver the clubface more consistently into the ball, resulting in more predictable shots. 

Jumbo grips can have the downside of altering the swing weight of the golf club. However, advanced lightweight materials are used to construct the grip, making it weigh no more than a normal-sized golf grip.

Who are the Golf Grip Masters - Spotlight on Golf Grip Brands

Golf Pride is arguably the most well-known grip brand in the market. 2024 marks their 75th anniversary, and their line-up is arguably the most extensive available.

We’ve mentioned their Tour Velvet grip, which is hugely popular amongst professionals and amateurs. The Tour Velvet also comes in a full cord version, which was made popular by a player who likes to wear red on Sundays.

Golf Pride has also achieved great success with its Multi Compound MCC grip, which combines cord and non-cord with a highly durable rubber compound. The MCC grips are available in multiple colour combinations, adding a bit of variety to your selection process.

Lamkin has been producing golf grips since 1925 and is one of the most respected brands in the business.

Like Golf Pride, Lamkin has succeeded greatly through the years with its Crossline and Crossline Full Cord grips.

Winn Golf Grips are newer to the golf scene. Their Dri-Tac 2.0 technology combines lightweight polymer technology to create the best-feeling and most durable grips Winn has ever produced.

Winn also produces Dri-Tac 2.0 technology in an ultra-lightweight and a less tapered form, which produce maximum shock-absorbing capabilities and are more friendly to golfers who suffer from arthritis and hand injuries.

The Custom-Fitting Solution

Now that we understand the importance of the golf grip, it makes sense that the best way to ensure you have the correct grips fitted to your clubs is through custom fitting.

When we focus specifically on what grips are needed during a fitting session, the fitter will obtain information like what size of golf glove you use. If you have a golf glove size that is large or extra large, you’ll need bigger grips.

Whether you opt for jumbo grips or standard grips with more layers of tape underneath comes down to personal preference. The fitter will also take the time to let you try different grips to see which feels best in your hands and, from there, incorporate your choice into the spec sheet of your ideal club or clubs you are opting for.

If you opt for a normal-sized grip with more layers of tape, it’s important to establish how many additional layers of tape are needed and whether the additional layers apply to the entire grip or under where either the left or right hand is placed on the grip.

Adding more layers of tape before fitting the grip means that the rubber will stretch further, which can make the grip feel harder.

Re-gripping

Changing grips is part of the natural maintenance of golf clubs, just as you change the tyres on your car when they are worn.

If you play a lot of golf, you should be looking to replace your grips after 40 rounds. However, if you play more and spend a lot of time practising, you might need to replace your grips quicker.

Look for wear marks in the rubber, loss of colour in the grip, or wear of decals as a sign that your grip’s practical use is ending. If the grip starts to feel hard or takes on a shiny look, it’s also time to replace your grips. If the wear is so bad that you can see the grip tape or even the shaft, you definitely need to replace your grips!

In a recent YouTube video, John Daly talks with Bryson DeChambeau about the importance of getting fitted for golf grips as much as golf clubs.

The golf grip is our only physical connection with the golf club, so it is essential to take time to consider the best grips for our clubs. Having the correct golf grips fitted to our clubs can help us control the clubhead during the swing, helping us hit more accurate shots.

Understanding what grip material will be the most comfortable and durable for our hands and the conditions we play in will help us understand which grip is best for our needs.

At Nine By Nine Golf, we carry rubber, cord, and leather grip variations from Golf Pride, Lamkin, Iomic, and Winn.

Grips are available in different sizes, helping to ensure that when you come for a fitting session, you have the broadest range of grips available to try and discuss with our fitters what is best for you.

You can book a custom-fitting session via the Nine By Nine Golf website for any department of your game. During your fitting session, you’ll spend time with our fitters deciding what grips are best for you.

You can also view our extensive range of grips and order what you need directly from our website. You can also send your clubs to us, and we’ll fit the grips you need.

If you have any further questions about the importance of having the correct grips fitted to your clubs, custom-fitting them, or sending them to us for re-gripping, we would be happy to help.