Monday, January 3, 2011

There are Grips and there are Grips!

A good practice in terms of maintaining your golf clubs is to get them regripped at least once a year. And most often folks do this during the winter months, when they do not get to play as often because of cold weather.


When someone talks about "standard size grips" the actual standard is to measure the circumference of the grip 2 inches from the end of the golf shaft and 5 inches from the end of the shaft. Standard at 2 inches is 0.900 inches and standard at 5 inches is 0.807 inches. Then other sizes are based on being below or above these standards.


There are a lot of variables that are worth considering when you get your clubs regripped. One of the often overlooked ones is the size of the grip, particularly if you have problems with your hands and wrists. There are a lot of quality grips available in sizes 1/16th of an inch over up to 1/8th of an inch over standard. These can be a great option when you have issues with your hands. Most often these grips are from 10 to 30 grams heavier than standard size grips. Using these will decrease the overall swingweight of the club and so you may "feel" the clubhead a bit less.


Another option is the overall weight of the grip. There are now grips in standard size and oversize that are significantly lighter than a typical 50 gram grip. These lighter grips significantly decrease the overall weight of a club, and also increase the club swingweight - you may "feel' the clubhead more with these lighter grips.


Another great option in terms of gripping clubs is to add more tape the the lower end of the grip. This will make the club a bit larger in the lower hand, and a lot of players like this feel particularly again if they have hand and wrist problems.


It is worth it, then, to consider all of the potential options that are available to you when you get your clubs regripped. You may not know that there is more to this than simply putting a grip on!


Tony

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