Golfblogger

I am going to start doing my own grips.  I bought the supplies today and I have some grips to get started on. 

I am wondering what folks think of the new Winn PCI grips.  I had wanted to get the PCI Standard grips in copper for my wedges as in the past I like having the wedges in a cord of some type, while I have the standard velvet type (like the factory grips) on everything except perhaps the driver, which I usually have something like a Winn G8.  (Although my newest driver was bought in October, it still has the standard grip).

Anyhow, I think I may like this Winn PCI grip for maybe all my clubs.  Has anyone used it yet?

I really wanted this copper for my wedges, but unfortunately, Golfsmith only had the black model today and with the snow falling I wanted to do grips tomorrow since I won’t be playing.

I haven’t tried that particular grip.  I did try a Winn Harmony synthetic grip.  It felt OK, but the (rubber) grips of my other clubs seemed to abrade it pretty quickly.  That might not have happened if the other grips were synthetics as well.

Well, I installed the PCI Half Cord grips on my wedges.  They feel better than straight cord grips, but still should be firm enough for how I want my wedges.

I then found the Ping Rapture NTS Grip, which is a little softer, and with it’s spiral design, is very easy to grip.  I did my 3wood and Driver last night and went to the range today, and hit for about 40 minutes—I hit very well, and my hands felt really good.

I had started to wonder about the Winn XF Excel grip, which looks like a leather wrap grip, while being synthetic—it had the comfort I wanted, but the golfsmith guy said that they would break down quickly, and that even getting a little sweaty that they would get slippy.  He said that the Ping NTS grip is getting excellent feedback.  I will probably put this on the rest of my irons and hybrids next week.

By the way, this is so easy to do grips.  I found that I didn’t even really use the golfsmith tape remover—just rubbing the tape edge to get started I could peel it all in under a minute or so a club.  My one problem was that the base for my vise has to be my band saw and it is not heavy enough.  I will have to clear off a work counter and find a way to fasten the vise there.

Grips are indeed very easy to do—if you’re working with rounds. It gets more complicated when you’re putting on grips with a ridge on the bottom, or the pistol grips for putters. But with some care, even those go pretty quickly.

Wow.  I was about to open a new thread on my new grips, but I just found this one I did a couple years ago.  I was pretty sure my Ping NTS Rapture grips were 18 months old, but now I find out they are over 2 years old. 

I have to say those Ping NTS grips did hold up very well - and they still look good.

However, in a couple of the rainier days this spring, they seem like they are slipping a little more.  Further, it seems to bother a lot of people (especially the Callaway rep) that I have Ping grips on all my Callaways (of course that is silly).

So I found myself looking at some of the red grips, like the Golf Pride Tour Wrap 2G - it also comes in White and Black.  Golfsmith was slow in getting the red and white, but looking at the black, I figured a few weeks back that wasn’t what I wanted.  I started thinking about white grips too, but concerned about the dirt. 

Golfsmith put the TackiMac Itomic grips on their website, and ran a special, I wanted to try those, but I would have to order them, and also I hadn’t heard of that name.

During some further web research, I found the Lamkin Performance Plus 3Gen.  It is a white grip, which supposedly has a new synthetic which you can get tacky again by simply wiping the grips.  So I decided to try this out on my irons (6-9) and my 4 hybrid last week.  After two rounds I have to say I like the grip a lot.  Most of my shafts are dark in color (Driver - 9 iron are all graphite)—and the white grip is a little distracting at first, I got over that quickly.  The grip seems a little softer than the Ping NTS, but they grip very nice. 

Today I took the rest of the bag, and the assorted backup drivers into Golfsmith to regrip with the Lamkin. 

For the wedges, late last season I switched those two the Goodyear Eagle Racer Cord.  I like the Cord grips for my wedges (probably I referenced this above) - because when I am near the green I will leave the glove on the bag when I go for a short chip or out of the bunker - also so I don’t go ripping velcro while someone is putting.  The Goodyear grips I have found to be a great inexpensive grip, which also serves to be a very quick identification of my wedges when picking up greenside.

I would be doing my own grips - except a couple weeks back I got the Golfsmith Advantage card for $30, which cuts repair costs 50%  - and has 28 regrips included plus some other discounts.  As long as they are doing the regrips at no additional charge, I will save my time (and supplies).

Here are the grips I am going to :

Lamkin Performance Plus 3Gen:

Goodyear Racer Cord Black:

The Lamkins are fantastic.  They feel great.  I only have about 3 rounds on them, so I can’t say much about dirt and how they clean, but during these 90+ degree days through all the sweat, the grips are still grippy.  I have even played a few shots without gloves because they were too soaked, and that felt good.

I went to Golfsmith and felt the new Lamkins. I think I still prefer their Crosslines.