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Among the small but significant charms of golf is the simple feeling that comes with new grips on your clubs.
For a fraction of what a new club – or clubs – would cost, slicing off the hard, slick grip that had been forcing you to hold the club like you were carrying a bucket of water and replacing it with a fresh one is the next best thing to new equipment.
The driver, the wedge or whatever club it is may not have changed but a fresh grip – like the surprisingly cushy feel inside new sneakers – makes it seem almost new. For a time, anyway, pulling the driver out of the bag and putting your hands on a new grip is like a surprise that keeps happening.
Maybe you’re one of those people who never gets new grips. Here’s a simple message: You don’t know what you’re missing.
For all the engineering and materials that are put into clubs – and my eyes can glaze over when the discussion turns to the benefits of titanium, shaft weights and degrees of bounce – the only place we actually touch a club is at the grip. Makes sense it should feel right, like your favorite TV chair or that old sweatshirt your spouse wishes you’d give away.
Like putting strokes and barbecue sauces, grips come in a vast assortment of styles. Some people like them coarse, some like them pillowy soft. Some like them fat like a bratwurst, others prefer them standard size. You might not think an extra wrap or two of tape underneath a grip would make much difference but it does.
And I’m just talking about grips for woods and irons. Putter grips, that’s another discussion all together.
The devoted have workbenches at home complete with a vise that makes slipping grips on and off as easy as taking out the trash. Arnold Palmer was constantly fidgeting with his grips, relying for the longest time on leather grips that he would wrap around the shaft.
Now grips come in colors that can turn Ian Poulter’s head. They have graduated from being purely utilitarian to being fashion statements of a sort.
Ask almost any teacher and he or she will tell you that the basis of any effective golf swing is a good grip.
Preferably a new, tacky one.
E-MAIL RON
Ron Green Jr.