Grips

Best golf grips

Pick the size first, then the feel your hands need. For most golfers Golf Pride's Tour Velvet is the safe all-rounder. For sore or stiff hands, Golf Pride points to its softer CP grips, such as the CP2 Wrap, and Winn's Dri-Tac is another soft choice; hands that sweat, or a lot of golf in the rain, call for cord, as in the MCC. A grip with a larger lower hand, such as the MCC Plus4 or SuperStroke's Crossline 2.0, is made for golfers who squeeze the club. Every size and weight here is the maker's own, read on 15 Oct.

Size first

The same model in the wrong size will feel wrong, so start with your hand. Measure from the crease of your wrist to the tip of your middle finger; the grip size chart turns that, or your glove size, into undersize, standard, midsize or jumbo on Golf Pride's and Winn's charts. A bigger grip is heavier, too: the MCC Plus4 weighs 52 g in standard and 82 g in jumbo, which makes the club head feel lighter in your hands.

For most golfers: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Golf Pride describes it as a rubber blend for comfort and moderate feedback, with a plus-sign texture for traction. On Golf Pride's own scales it sits in the middle for firmness and for moisture control (3 and 3 of 5), and it comes in five sizes, from junior to jumbo. If you want the same grip with a thicker lower hand, the Tour Velvet Plus4 has one.

Choose something else if your hands sweat or you often play in the rain (the MCC or a cord grip below), or your hands ache after a round (the CP2 Wrap).

Sore hands or a softer feel: Golf Pride CP2 Wrap

Golf Pride calls the CP2 Wrap one of its softest swing grips, tacky, with a larger lower hand like four extra wraps of tape and an inner core that cuts twisting. It is 2 of 5 on Golf Pride's firmness scale, softer than the Tour Velvet's 3, and comes from undersize to jumbo.

Winn Dri-Tac. Winn's most popular grip: a polymer it rates for comfort, non-slip in all weather, with high shock absorption. Winn's FAQ adds that its midsize and oversize grips absorb more shock than standard, and that its Excel grips absorb the most of all.
SuperStroke Cross Comfort. SuperStroke describes a soft, tacky polyurethane outer layer for comfort over a firm rubber layer for stability and feedback, in undersize to oversize.

Golf Pride also suggests going a size up for sore hands, as long as you can still hold the club securely; the grip size chart shows where your hand sits.

Sweaty hands and wet weather: Golf Pride MCC

Cord is cotton fiber worked into the rubber; Golf Pride says it wicks moisture away, so the grip keeps its traction when your hands are wet. The MCC has cotton cord in the upper hand, which Golf Pride calls ideal for sweaty hands, and rubber in the lower hand for feel, and it scores 4 of 5 for moisture control on Golf Pride's scale. If you want the most grip in the wet and do not mind a firm feel, cord through the whole grip goes further:

Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord. Cotton cord through the whole grip to wick moisture away in all weather, with the most feedback at impact: 5 of 5 for moisture, 5 of 5 for firmness.
Golf Pride ZGRIP Cord. Full cotton cord, ultra-firm rubber and a deep Z-shaped texture for the most traction in the wet: 5 of 5 for moisture and 5 of 5 for texture, the heaviest on Golf Pride's scale.
Without cord. SuperStroke's Crossline 2.0 and Winn's Dri-Tac are both sold as all-weather grips without cord.

Avoid for sweaty hands: the Golf Pride Tour Wrap. It is Golf Pride's tackiest grip (5 of 5), and the lowest of these for moisture control (1 of 5).

If you squeeze the club

Golf Pride's answer is a grip that tapers less, with a thicker lower hand; it says this encourages lighter grip pressure and less tension in the hands. Three grips here are built that way, each like four extra wraps of tape under the lower hand: the MCC Plus4 (cord), the Tour Velvet Plus4 (rubber) and SuperStroke's Crossline 2.0, the newer version of Lamkin's Crossline.

Every grip compared

Each grip's feel, wet-weather grip, sizes and standard weight, from its maker
Grip	Feel	In the wet	Sizes	Standard weight
Golf Pride Tour Velvet	medium (3 of 5)	3 of 5	junior, undersize, standard, midsize, jumbo	49.5 g
Golf Pride MCC	firm (4 of 5)	4 of 5, cord in the upper hand	standard, midsize	46.5 g
Golf Pride MCC Plus4 larger lower hand	firm (4 of 5)	4 of 5, cord in the upper hand	undersize, standard, midsize, jumbo	52 g
Golf Pride CP2 Wrap larger lower hand	soft (2 of 5)	2 of 5	undersize, standard, midsize, jumbo	51.5 g
Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4 larger lower hand	medium (3 of 5)	3 of 5	standard, midsize	52 g
Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord	firmest (5 of 5)	5 of 5, cord in the whole grip	standard, midsize	50.5 g
Golf Pride ZGRIP Cord	firmest (5 of 5)	5 of 5, cord in the whole grip	standard, midsize	50.5 g
Golf Pride Tour Wrap	soft (2 of 5)	1 of 5	undersize, standard, midsize, jumbo	48 g
SuperStroke Crossline 2.0 larger lower hand	rubber (SuperStroke's Genesis)	all-weather traction, in SuperStroke's words	undersize, standard, midsize, jumbo	49.5 g
SuperStroke Cross Comfort	soft polyurethane over a firm rubber inner layer	not stated	undersize, standard, midsize, oversize	48 g
Winn Dri-Tac	polymer (WinnDry)	non-slip in all weather, in Winn's words	standard, midsize, oversize	48 g

Read from each maker's own pages on 15 Oct. The scores out of 5 are Golf Pride's own scales (1 is the softest or the least moisture control), so they compare Golf Pride's grips with each other only; for the others the column gives the maker's own words. In standard size every grip here has a .600 core; the grip size chart explains what a smaller core does on your shaft.

Driver grips: what comes on each forgiving driver

A driver takes the same grips as your irons, so the advice above holds: size first, then the feel your hands need. The most common stock grip is Golf Pride's Tour Velvet 360, the round version of the Tour Velvet: 9 of the 27 current drivers whose stock grip we could read come with it. The women's drivers come with smaller, softer or lighter grips instead: an undersize Golf Pride women's grip on the Callaway REVA Rise; the Lamkin ST Soft on the Callaway Women's Quantum Max D and Callaway Women's Quantum Max Fast; an undersize SuperStroke Crossline 360 on the Cobra Women's OPTM MAX-D; the Golf Pride Soft Tack on the PING G Le4; the SuperStroke Traxion Tour on the TaylorMade Kalea Gold; an undersize Lamkin Z5 on the Tour Edge Hot Launch Max D Women's; the XXIO 14 Weight Plus Ladies on the XXIO 14 Ladies.

A lighter grip is part of how a light driver is built. The grip on the XXIO 14 Ladies weighs 27 g and the one on the Callaway Quantum Max Fast 33 g, against 50 to 52 g for a standard Tour Velvet 360, and Cobra's Lite version of the OPTM MAX-D uses a grip 6.4 g lighter than standard, in a club up to 15 g lighter overall. So if you regrip a driver, a much heavier or bigger grip than the stock one changes how the head feels, as the size section explains.

The grip each current forgiving driver comes with, its size and weight where the page gives them
Driver	Stock grip	Size	Weight	Read from
Callaway Quantum Max	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360	–	–	Golf Discount
Callaway Quantum Max D	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360	–	–	Golf Discount
Callaway Quantum Max Fast	Lamkin Crossline 360	–	33 g	Callaway (archived copy)
Callaway REVA Rise	Golf Pride women's grip	Undersize, .580 core	–	Golf Discount
Callaway Women's Quantum Max D	Lamkin ST Soft	–	–	Golf Discount
Callaway Women's Quantum Max Fast	Lamkin ST Soft	–	–	Golf Discount
Cobra OPTM MAX-D	SuperStroke Crossline 360 The Lite build's grip is 6.4 g lighter.	Standard	–	Cobra
Cobra OPTM MAX-K	SuperStroke Crossline 360	Standard	–	Cobra
Cobra OPTM X	SuperStroke Crossline 360 Black	Standard	–	Cobra
Cobra Women's OPTM MAX-D	SuperStroke Crossline 360	Undersize	–	Cobra
PING G Le4	Golf Pride Soft Tack Lilac; also in three thinner sizes.	Standard	–	Golf Discount
PING G440 K	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 PING lists it first of three standard grips, with the Tour Velvet Cord and the lighter Lamkin UTx Lite, as on its G440 MAX and SFT pages.	Standard	–	PING
PING G440 MAX	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 PING's page lists a Lamkin UTx Lite on the HL build.	Standard	50 g	Golf Discount
PING G440 SFT	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360	Standard	50 g	Golf Discount
Srixon ZXi MAX	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360	Standard, .580 core	52 g	Srixon
Srixon ZXi RKT MAX	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360	–	–	Srixon
TaylorMade Kalea Gold	SuperStroke Traxion Tour A Kalea Gold edition in white, navy and gold.	Standard, .580 core	37 g	TaylorMade (archived copy)
TaylorMade Qi4D	Golf Pride ZGrip Plus2	Standard, .600 core	52 g	TaylorMade
TaylorMade Qi4D Max	Golf Pride ZGrip Plus2	Standard, .600 core	58 g	TaylorMade (archived copy)
Titleist GT1	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 Lite Titleist lists it on a .580 core (31 g) or a .600 core (29 g), and in undersize versions of both (26 g and 25 g).	–	–	Titleist
Titleist GTS2	Titleist Universal 360 Titleist lists its standard size on a .580 core (52 g) or a .600 core (50 g).	Standard	–	Titleist
Tour Edge Hot Launch Max	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 Midsize, 60 g, to order.	Standard	50 g	Tour Edge
Tour Edge Hot Launch Max D	Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 Midsize, 60 g, to order.	Standard	50 g	Tour Edge
Tour Edge Hot Launch Max D Women's	Lamkin Z5	Undersize	48 g	Tour Edge
Wilson DYNAPWR Max+	Lamkin Crossline 360 Black	–	–	Wilson
XXIO 14	XXIO 14 Weight Plus	.640 core	33 g	XXIO
XXIO 14 Ladies	XXIO 14 Weight Plus Ladies	.620 core	27 g	XXIO
Mizuno JPX ONE	not named on the pages we read Mizuno's store pages for the stock driver name no grip; its custom builds offer a choice of grips.	–	–	Mizuno

Read on 15 Oct (the PING G440 K's on 16 Oct) from each maker's own page, or from Golf Discount's product page where the maker's page does not name the grip or would not load for us (PING and Callaway). No page we read names the grip on the Mizuno JPX ONE. A dash means the page gives no size or weight.

What grips cost

Golf Pride puts a new grip at $7 to $15. SuperStroke sold the Crossline 2.0 and Cross Comfort for $5.99 on its own site on 15 Oct (the Cross Comfort $6.49 in midsize and oversize). Golf Pride puts shop fitting at $1 to $4 a club; the regrip guide shows how to do it yourself and what a whole set costs.

Putter grips are a different family, sold by shape rather than by hand size: putter grips compares them.

Questions golfers ask

What are the best golf grips for seniors or arthritis?

A soft grip in a size that fills your hand: the Golf Pride CP2 Wrap or Winn Dri-Tac, in midsize or bigger if the size chart allows. Winn says its larger sizes absorb more shock, and the CP2 Wrap's thicker lower hand is one Golf Pride says encourages lighter grip pressure.

Are cord grips good for sweaty hands?

Yes. The cord soaks up moisture, which is why Golf Pride calls the MCC ideal for sweaty hands. A full-cord grip such as the Tour Velvet Cord grips best in the wet but feels firm; the MCC keeps rubber under the lower hand for feel.

How often should I change my grips?

Golf Pride recommends new grips at least once a year, or about every 40 rounds; the guide to how long golf clubs last lists the signs of a worn grip, and the cleaning guide how to keep one tacky.

The other questions

The most forgiving of each club

Most forgiving irons
Every forgiving iron set scored and compared, with picks for slicers, slow swings, seniors and budgets.
Most forgiving driver
The most forgiving head in each maker's line, scored, with the draw models for a slice and picks for slow swings and budgets.
Most forgiving fairway woods
Fairway woods with the shallow faces and low centres of gravity that get the ball up off the deck.
Most forgiving hybrids
The hybrids built to replace long irons, with lofts, flexes, hands and price.
Mini drivers
The smaller driver heads between a driver and a 3-wood, by head size, lofts and draw setting, each price dated.
Utility irons
Driving irons compared for forgiveness, lofts and hands, and when a hybrid is the better club.
Forgiving wedges
Compare cavity-back wedge lofts, bounce, sole options and hands.
Forgiving putters
Mallets and zero-torque putters scored, with lengths, hands and price, and a pick for each kind of miss.
Most forgiving Callaway irons
Callaway's forgiving iron line, set against each other on offset, sole, loft, flexes and price.

For your game

Best golf clubs for beginners
What a first set needs, a boxed set against a built set at the same money, and the picks by budget.
Beginner golf club sets
Every complete boxed set scored, with its club list, flexes, hands and price, and a pick for seniors, women and budgets.
Best golf clubs for beginners to intermediate
The second set: what to buy when a boxed set stops being enough, without paying for clubs you cannot use yet.
Best golf clubs for high handicappers
Choose a replacement by bag role and check it against the clubs you keep.
Best irons for mid handicappers
Game improvement and players distance sets for a 10 to 20 handicap, scored and priced.
Best driver for slicers
Every driver with draw help, by how much it gives, its lofts and its price.
Best driver for beginners
Forgiving heads with 12° in stock and draw help for a slice, for beginners and high handicappers, each price dated.
Best putters for beginners
Forgiving mallets and zero-torque heads by price, stock length and hand, for a first putter, each price dated.
Senior golf clubs
Every club sold with a stock senior (A) flex or as a senior set, and what senior flex actually changes.
Best driver for seniors
The forgiving drivers sold in senior flex, by slow-swing help, loft and draw help, each price dated.
Best irons for seniors
The forgiving iron sets sold in senior flex, by launch, sole and forgiveness, each price dated.
Women's golf clubs for beginners
Women's lines and ladies-flex options, complete sets and individual clubs, with a pick for each.
Best irons for women
The forgiving iron sets sold as a women's line or in ladies flex, with each 7-iron's loft and length, each price dated.
Best driver for women
The forgiving drivers made for women or sold in ladies flex, by draw help, loft and price, each price dated.
Golf clubs for petite women
The women's sets sold shorter, by how much, and the heights each maker names, each price dated.
Golf clubs for tall men
The men's sets sold longer, by how much, and the heights each maker names, each price dated.
Junior golf clubs
Every maker's junior sets by the child's height band, with what is in each box and its price, each checked.
Left-handed golf clubs
The most forgiving club of each type sold left-handed, and the ones that are not.

Paying less

Best budget irons
Forgiving iron sets for less, new, earlier and used, every price per club and dated.
Best budget drivers
Forgiving drivers for less: current heads at low prices, last year's still sold new, and used, each price dated.
Used forgiving golf clubs
Check the exact used configuration, condition, contents and return terms.
Used golf drivers
Every forgiving driver with a used price beside the new one, current and earlier models, each listing dated.
Used fairway woods and hybrids
Every forgiving fairway wood and hybrid with a used price beside the new one, and each listing's club, loft, flex, condition and date.
Used golf irons
Every forgiving iron set with a used price, current and earlier models, with the clubs, shaft and flex each price buys.
Golf club deals
Forgiving clubs below the maker's list price, last year's models still sold new, and used savings, each price with the day we checked it.
Black Friday golf clubs
The price to beat for the most forgiving club of each type, so you can tell a real Black Friday deal.

Lofts, gaps and wedges

Golf club loft chart
Loft ranges from the driver to the lob wedge, then every forgiving iron set's lofts, current and earlier, in one sortable chart.
Golf club gapping
Even loft steps from your longest club to your wedges, each set's uneven steps, and how to check them with your own distances.
How many golf clubs
The 14-club rule in plain words, what a first bag of eight to ten needs, and how many clubs each boxed set really holds.
Wedge lofts
Every iron set's pitching, gap, sand and lob wedge lofts in one chart, and the names makers give the gap wedge.
52, 56 and 60 degree wedges
What a gap, sand and lob wedge is for, and which lofts to add after your own set.
Wedge bounce
What bounce does, drawn to the angle, which bounce suits your swing and turf, and the bounce on every forgiving wedge we cover.
9-iron vs pitching wedge
The loft, length and bounce between the two in every forgiving set, and which one to hit.
Hybrid vs iron
Which hybrid replaces which long iron in each set, by the makers' own lofts, and when a hybrid is the easier club.
Hybrid vs fairway wood
Which wood matches which hybrid by loft, which to carry, and every maker's stock lofts side by side.

How clubs forgive, fit and last

What makes an iron forgiving
Offset, sole width, moment of inertia and loft explained with the numbers from this site's own table.
Game improvement vs super game improvement irons
What separates the two classes in loft, offset, sole and price, with every set in each, and how to tell which one your strike needs.
Cavity back vs blade irons
Why a cavity back forgives and a muscle back does not, with the makers' own offset figures, and how to blend the two.
Senior flex vs regular flex
What the A flex changes, who it suits, and which clubs we cover offer it as stock.
Shaft flex chart
Each shaft maker's own swing speed for every flex, side by side, and the flex each chart gives at your speed.
Best driver shafts
Driver shafts for a slower swing, more height or a mid flight, with each one's weight, torque and flexes from its maker, and the stock shafts on every forgiving driver.
Steel vs graphite shafts
What a graphite or steel shaft changes, who each suits, and every forgiving iron set's stock shafts.
Golf club fitting for beginners
Prepare your shortlist and check length, lie, shafts and set makeup at a fitting.
Golf club fitting cost
What Club Champion, True Spec and PGA TOUR Superstore charge for each kind of fitting, the free ones, and what the fee buys, each price dated.
Golf club length chart
Every iron set's standard lengths as its maker prints them, and a calculator that adds the change a fitter gives you.
One-length irons
Every iron built to one length: Cobra's ONE Length sets against its standard sets, club by club, and who still makes one.
Standard driver length
Every forgiving driver's stock length from its maker, men's, women's and mini, why two makers' figures can differ, and when shorter helps.
Golf club lie angle
What a wrong lie does to your shots, how to check yours, and every forgiving iron set's lie angles club by club.
PING color code chart
What each PING dot color means, and every PING iron set's lie angles for the dot you have.
Golf grip size chart
Your grip size from your hand length or glove size, on Golf Pride's and Winn's own charts, with the feel test and PING's grip colors.
Putter grips
Pistol, parallel, flat-front and claw putter grips in their makers' words, their weights and prices, and the stock grip on each putter we cover.
Blade vs mallet putters
Which forgives more, which suits your stroke, a six-foot test for your misses, and the mallets we cover.
Putter length
What length putter you need, checked from your own setup rather than your height, and the stock lengths of every putter we cover.
Zero-torque putters
What a zero-torque putter does, the balance test, who it suits, and how each maker builds one.
How long do golf clubs last
When grips and wedge grooves wear out, by the makers' own advice, what a regrip costs, and when a new club is worth it.
How to clean golf clubs
Irons, woods, grips and grooves cleaned the right way, the grip care Golf Pride advises, and how to store clubs over winter.
How to regrip golf clubs
Golf Pride's ten steps with a hook blade, tape and solvent, sizing a grip up with tape, and what a shop charges.