Thursday, October 27, 2011

Sanding Your Grips to Improve Your Game

The golf grip is one of the most important parts of your golf club. It is the only direct contact that you have with your golf club. I completely agree with Golf Pride's explanation: "The traction that a fresh grip provides lets you hold the club lightly without the subconscious fear of losing the club during your swing. This relaxed state promotes proper swing mechanics and wrist action. While a worn grip causes you to grasp the club tighter, causing arm and wrist tension that inhibits proper swing mechanics."

In addition, Golf Pride recommends: "As a rule of thumb, you should regrip once every year. Regardless of whether you play golf every day or twice a year, ozone, heat, dirt, and oils are constantly at work breaking down the materials that make up your grips."

However, I've been able to extend the life of my golf grips by simply sanding them down when they start to get slick with medium grit sandpaper to reveal a fresh layer of rubber. As a reference, Fred Couples uses 220-grit sandpaper. To get them extra clean, follow the sanding with a wash using dish soap and rinse with water. Try it and discover how a little sandpaper can prolong the usefulness of your grips and save you some major coin!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

People don't realize how important it is to have a good grip on the golf club. It can make a huge difference in how you strike the ball. If you don't feel comfortable holding the golf club, then you are going to have problems trying to make a good swing. The proper size grip can make sure your club gets in all the right positions during the swing and works for your body type and size.

John said...

Sanding the grips works great and saves you cash. I went to buy new grips for my clubs and a friends put me onto sanding. It makes a huge difference. I know I will have to get new ones eventually but sanding really does work well.

Anonymous said...

most part important part of a club is its face, i have 20 year old grips on m,y clubs, u can always get away with abad grip or worn grip but if the face is not clean you never get a clean strike

chris said...

My hands are big enough to where I can palm a basketball. So insted of sanding, I spent 40 dollars and got jumbo grips on all my clubs. I have had the same grips for 15 years now. They make the club feel more like your holding a baseball bat.

Anonymous said...

Every year? Seriously?! My Callaway Big bertha fusion irons are 10+ years old with original grips and they are still in great condition - I use plastic sleeves to protect them. And talking of the heads, I have rubber sleeves to protect them! I've sanded some second hand woods I got to fairly decent effect.