Golf Grips Buying Guide 2023

Golf Iron Grips

In this guide you are going to learn everything to know about golf grips and what to consider when buying new grips.

Your golf grips should not be forgotten. This is the one part of the golf club you get to touch during your swing and can play an underrated role in your performance hitting the golf ball.

Picking out the right golf grips can help your hands control the club, whether it’s your driver, iron, or even putter. Thickening the putter grip, for example, can help quiet the hands during the putting stroke to improve your distance control and consistency.

While we do recommend getting fitted for proper golf grips, below we will highlight the types of golf grips and other important features so you have what you need to know when buying new golf grips.
Let’s get started.

Types of Golf Grips:

Corded Grips – these grips contain a corded material built into them to help your hands get better control of the grip, especially in rainy situations when the grips are slick.

Wrap Grips – these are spiral grips where a piece of leather gets wrapped around the shaft. The leather material is soft and tacky to help with gripping the club.

Rubber Grips – most golf grips come with standard rubber grips. But you may also find grips made from elastomer, silicon, or plastic.

Ribbed Grips – Ribbed golf grips are beneficial because they remind golfers where to place their hands and thumbs when holding the club. There is a small ridge that runs the entire length of the grip.

Rounded Grips – A round grip is symmetrical and runs evenly all around the club shaft. It does not have a ribbed edge, so a golfer wouldn’t be able to feel anything other than the grip itself when holding the club.

Counter Balance Grips – modern grips for the irons and putter can come in a counter balance option allowing the golfer to adjust the weight to find the right fit and feel.

Heavy vs Lightweight Grips – some manufacturers produce light weight grips that go hand in hand with a lighter weight driver or fairway wood. Heavier grips are still pretty common on irons.

Driver / Fairway Wood Grips

Picking out the right grips for the driver and fairway wood clubs is super important since these are clubs that are going to start off the hole for you and set up a chance to make par or birdie. These grips also wear down quicker since the driver is used more often on the driving range and out on the golf course as opposed to other clubs in your bag. Finding a durable grip will be important to save you money. The best golf grip for the driver / fairway woods is the Golf Pride New Decade Multi-Compound. It’s available in many colors but it comes in hybrid with black + whichever color you choose, adding a unique look to your clubs.

Golf Iron Grips

Irons grips are pretty standard in size as you’ll choose one size to fit all your irons rather than have different sized grips for each iron in the bag. Most golfers prefer higher tac grips to allow them to loosen their hands on the club without losing grip. The best golf grips for irons is Golf Pride. And according to TripSavvy the best Golf Pride iron grip is the Tour Wrap 2G Grip, which is made of a unique material to combine the feeling of rubber and leather.

Putter Grips

The putter grip is the only grip that isn’t necessarily rounded. Most putters have a square shaped front side where you place your thumbs. It’s legally the only club that is allowed to have this flat edge. Putter grips come in all different sizes. The best brand of putter grips is SuperStroke and they offer corded, rubber, wrapped, and other grip options to choose from. SuperStroke is the most used brand on the PGA Tour for putter grips so you know you’re buying from a quality brand!

Grip Sizes

Golf grips also come in many sizes and thicknesses. Since golfers have different hand sizes, some players need thicker grips to fill out their bigger hands as compared to smaller handed players.

Other golfers prefer thicker or thinner grips based on personal feel and preference. As mentioned earlier, thicker grips can fill up more of your hand, taking away wrist and hand movement to keep the hands more quiet.

This is one reason you may see professional golfers with thick putter grips to assist their ability to quiet the hands and use their shoulders and arms to rock the putter back and through.

Here are the different grip sizes:

  • Junior – comes various sizes, smaller and shorter than standard.
  • Undersized – 1/64 inch smaller than standard.
  • Standard – 0.580 to 0.600 inches in diameter
  • Midsized – 1/16 inch larger than standard.
  • Oversized – 1/8 inch larger than standard

Grip Firmness

It’s also important to consider how firm a golf grip is. Professional players tend to prefer grips that are more firm as it allows for better torsion control to suit their high swing speed. Firmer grips also promote a lighter grip by the player so they aren’t as tempted to squeeze the death out of the club. This lighter grip pressure can actually help improve swing speed.

Durability

Another question to consider when buying new golf grips is their durability. Many factors can impact how long a club’s grip last like weather conditions, how you hold the grip, etc. Ideally, you should change your golf grips once per year if you play often. Other grip experts (according to GolfAlot.com) suggest once per 40 rounds of golf.

Maintenance

Grips can wear down and sometimes start tearing so it’s important to check them and ensure maintenance is taken to prolong the lifespan of the grips. One way to prolong the lifespan is with regular cleaning. This can be done by using a mild dishwashing soap on most grips. Rubber and cord grips can be cleaned using an abrasive pad to scrub them with the detergent. After scrubbing, thoroughly rinse the grips under warm water to get all soap residue off of them. Let air dry or towel dry them manually.

What size golf grips should I use?

Most golfers use a standard sized golf grip which runs .58 to .60 inches in diameter. However, you should try holding clubs with different grip sizes to get a feel for what is most comfortable to you. You may find you like thinner or thicker grips once experimenting. If you play with a certain grip thickness and find it’s uncomfortable after awhile, you can always change it out with new grips. Luckily there are 5 main grip sizes to try out; junior, undersized, standard, medium sized, and oversized. Start with standard and then test one size up (medium size) and one size down (under size).

What are the best grips for golf clubs?

According to TripSavvy, Winn Grips and Karma Velvet are two of the top 8 golf grips in 2019. Winn grips are one of the most popular grip brands and their Dritac grips will fit the hands of most male golfers. But what makes Winn standout above other grip brands is that they have an excellent design that creates great traction and feel so you are confident swinging the club, even on rainy, wet days.

According to GolfPracticeGuides, Golf Pride is a grip brand used by more than 80% of professional players on the tour. It’s a well known brand and they can offer both rubber and cord in their design to give you the best of both worlds. Most golf pride grips offer align technology, which features a line draw down the length of the grip to help you with hand placement.

How important are grips on golf clubs?

Golf grips are very important and one of the most underrated features on the golf club. Most players focus their attention on the shaft weight, shaft flex, adjustability of the club head, loft of the club head, and other features about a golf club. But the grip is the only contact point you make with the golf club, so have comfort and good traction is key to ensure your hands have proper hold of the club before swinging. This can help you control the face of the club better during the golf swing, thus producing straighter, more consistent ball flights.

How often should you change golf grips?

According to Golf Week, you should change your grips once every 18 months if you play 2-3 times per week. If you play more frequently you should change your grips once per year. If you play less frequently on special occasions then your grips might be durable for longer. More importantly than setting a specific time frame, you should decide based on feel. If you like how tacky and grippy brand new grips feel then you may change them more frequently when this feeling starts to wear down after several rounds of golf. Certain, lower quality brands may be cheap upon looking at price, but can become slick and worn down quite quickly costing you more money in the long run.

How do I know if my golf grips are worn?

When golf grips begin getting slick, this is one clear indication that your grips may be wearing down and need changed. Slick grips will feel more slippery as opposed to having that sticky, rougher feeling like when you first buy them. In the initial stages of grips becoming slicker in feel, you can lightly sand them to roughen them up again to help prolong their lifespan. Here is an article on how to make your grips tacky again.

How much does it cost to re grip an iron?

The cost to regrip golf clubs can vary. Electing to do it yourself is probably the cheapest option as golf grips are not that difficult to replace yourself. But if you wish to hire a professional you can expect to pay $75 to $130 depending on if you’re regripping a full set of clubs or not. For regripping only a few select clubs, you may get a deal under $75 from the club expert.

How long does it take to Regrip clubs?

It will depend on how busy the golf shop is that you take your clubs to for regripping. Sometimes these shops can start working on them that first day and have them back to you tomorrow. Usually gripping golf clubs takes 24-48 hours. This allows for time to take off all old grips, prep the club for the new grips, and then glue on the new grips and wait for the adhesive to dry. The most time consuming part is removing the old grips and doing the prep work to get ready for sliding on the new grips.

What do I need to Regrip my golf clubs?

According to this article you’ll need several tools to regrip your golf clubs. These include:

  • Double sided tape for grips to adhere to
  • Stanley knife for cutting the old grips
  • Vice grips for keeping the club steady
  • Solvent (paint thinner)
  • New grip
  • Bucket

You’ll start off by cleaning your old grips and the area around them to make the removal process easier. You don’t need a vice clamp but it’s recommend to hold the club steady to make the job easier as you are pulling off and sliding on the new grips.

Using the knife you can cut a line down the entire length of the grip. Cut away from you to avoid injury and don’t cut too deep that you cut into the shaft under the grip.

Pull off the old grip from the tape / adhesive using your hands or some pliers to get better hold on it while ripping the grip off the shaft.

Once the old grip is removed, you should clean the golf shaft again and prep it for the new tape and grip.

Wrap the shaft with double sided tape to create an adhesive material the grip can stick to when you slide the new grips onto the shaft. Wind it around the shaft in one continuous piece if possible and make sure the tape doesn’t overlap as this creates a bulge underneath the grip.

Next use a solvent to make the tape more slippery to allow you to slide the grip down the shaft until the shaft hits the butt end of the grip, stopping it from sliding further. If you are having a hard time sliding on the new grip, use more solvent.

Conclusion

Congratulations on completing the beginners guide to golf grips. We covered the different types of grips which include corded, rubber, wrapped, ribbed, and rounded. We also discussed grip sizes which come in junior, undersized, standard, midsized, and oversize or jumbo.

There are also some unique types of grips you can get like counterbalance grips which adjust the weighting to fit your feel preference. Putter grips differ from all other grips in that they’re allowed to have a flat edge side for your thumbs.

When buying grips remember to consider the durability and maintenance factors which can help prolong the life of your golf grips. We also discussed changing grips when they become slick and lose their tacky feeling. This usually occurs every 12-18 months depending how frequently you play golf.

Lastly, in the event you are buying new grips or need to get clubs re-gripped, you should expect to spend $75 to $130 in total. Each grip can run $3 up to $15 depending on the brand and type of grip. Cost also depends on how many clubs you need to buy new grips for.