Why Grip Size Is Far More Important Than You May Believe
If you’re thinking about buying new clubs, or even wondering what’s wrong with your current set, you could focus on the vast array of specifications that can affect performance: loft, lie, length, weight, shaft flex, and on and on and on. Or you could examine the only part of the club that you actually touch during the swing.
“Grip size is the most important element related to grips, and it is a significant component of a properly fit set of clubs,” said Craig Zimmerman, general manager of RedTail Golf Center in Beaverton, Ore., a perennial choice for Golf Digest’s list of America’s Best Clubfitters. “Grip size is frequently overlooked or treated as an afterthought during the fitting process, and the wrong grip size can have a significant impact on how clubs perform.”
Best Guide: proper grip for a golf club
It’s not just that so many average golfers don’t think about the size, texture, composition, or weight of the right grip for their games; they may not think about them at all, aside from some superficial surface-level motivation, such as what model a favorite tour player uses. But here’s the thing: there are dozens of grips and grip configurations used at the highest levels of play today. As an example: Look at Ping’s website, which lists the club specifications of each member of its tour staff. Each listing is distinct, even within the same player’s bag. Harris English, for example, uses the Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align 58 plus one wrap and one black tape on his G410 Crossover hybrid iron, which uses a Golf Pride MCC with three extra wraps under the right hand, one extra wrap under the left hand, and one black tape.
Every aspect of your grip selection can affect performance, but that doesn’t mean the best grip is solely a matter of personal preference. “I prefer to get something that feels good in the player’s hands, but many times what feels good does not work,” said Woody Lashen, principal at Pete’s Golf in Mineola, N.Y., another long-time repeat selection on America’s Best Clubfitters. “Larger grips may feel good at first, but they may not be the best choice for the player.” So we can see the results, we look at someone’s hand size, how they grip the club, and how much pressure they apply to the grip during the swing. Similarly to testing different shafts, the player may need to test different grips to determine which is best.”
Zimmerman and his RedTail team created the Total Hand Size chart, which measures the distance from the first crease of the wrist to the tip of a golfer’s longest finger as a static starting point and the length of a player’s longest finger as a dynamic starting point. Larger grips, such as those listed as Midsize or even larger, can typically (but not always) assist a player who is struggling with a hook. Smaller grips can assist a player fighting a slice by allowing the hands to release more efficiently, allowing the clubface to square at impact.
“A player with a large hand size may have less face awareness with a grip that is too small,” Zimmerman explains. “A player may also experience excessive grip pressure as a result of this.” This can cause forearm tension and make it more difficult for a player to square the face. If the player has trouble over-rotating the face, we increase the grip size. For someone who closes the face too much, larger grips or those with a built-up section for the lower hand, such as the Golf Pride Plus 4 models, are preferable. Consider Bryson DeChambeau, Bubba Watson, and Tony Finau. They use extremely large grips to ‘take their hands out’ and reduce over-rotation and club face closing.”
Most fitters agree that better players with faster swings prefer firmer grips, but there are no hard and fast rules about grips that golfers should follow. However, a player should be aware of certain physical tendencies (such as how sweaty his hands become) as well as the frequency with which rounds are played in wet or rainy conditions. Certain grips address some of these specific issues more effectively, but they may come with a compromise in terms of what feels right when they’re trying out a grip on a simulator indoors versus what it might feel like in a cold, gentle rain during an early morning round.
Furthermore, a softer grip may necessitate a little more attention to maintenance and wear. Softer grips may benefit golfers suffering from hand injuries or arthritis, as well as those who prefer not to wear gloves, but they may not last as long for a player with faster swing speeds. While softness can be beneficial, “these grips tend to have more give in them, adding to the natural torque of our hands,” according to Kyle Cullum, owner of No Bogeys Golf in Southern California and another perennial favorite on Golf Digest’s list of America’s Best Clubfitters. “We typically do not encourage better players to use softer grips with more play/give/torque, because this is not beneficial for consistency under pressure.”
Average golfers should pay attention to how their hands fit a particular grip size, understanding that while “midsize” or even jumbo grips are available, the right grip adds the kind of consistency that can serve as the foundation for an improved swing. Players should insist on a selection process that includes more than sorting through dozens of boxes of new grips or grabbing some partially shafted grip samples. Testing them during a fitting should be as common as experimenting with a different shaft or setting on an adjustable driver.
“If I had to bet, I’d say grip fittings will be the next big thing,” said John Hutzler of Swingfit in West Virginia, another one of America’s Best Clubfitters. “It’s just that important, and when compared to buying a brand-new golf club, it’s not a bad way to give your clubs new life at a very low cost.”
