What’s in a grip? The materials matter. You can get grips made from leather, leather with cloth, natural rubber, vinyl and a bunch of other stuff that originally came out of an oil well. But only one material is inherently tacky by design.
Natural rubber is the best material for golf grips because it lasts longer and is more comfortable. Artificially tacky polymers and other substances used for golf grips wear down faster and must be re-gripped more often than natural rubber. Rubber is also a better shock absorber than other grip materials. It’s also more expensive, which is why Daddy Warbucks and his big corporate pals have been shilling knock-off rubber for the past few years.
Have you ever swung a club and felt the vibrations from contact all the way to your bones? Check the grip. It probably wasn't rubber, was it? If you have joint pain or arthritis, rubber grips will dampen club vibrations significantly – but not to the point of numbing the swing. Round rubber grips are also much more comfortable than cord grips. My old set of clubs used to have cord grips. Every time I would come home from the course, I would have blisters and torn skin all over my hands, even the hand I wear my glove on. This is a big reason we sought to design a good natural rubber grip.
Rubber also has a natural tackiness to it that other materials, such as leather or nylon, simply do not have. Whereas you might worry about a club with a leather grip flying out of your hands, you will have no such worries with rubber grips.
“What is tackiness?”
Tackiness is simply the amount of stickiness that a material has. Rubber will give the necessary amount of friction to your hands as you are swinging the club. Other materials have to be made tacky, and these chemicals and compounds are likely to lose their tackiness long before rubber wears down.
What does this mean in practical terms? If your hands slip even a few centimeters while you are swinging your club, your shot can be thrown offline by a number of yards by the time it lands. The results on the course can be exponential, and the results off the course can be expensive.
Don't want to have to worry about grips changing your game? Go with natural rubber. We humbly submit our own natural rubber PURE Grips, but you have to go with what works for you. If you’d like to find out more about how our proprietary rubber formula is designed for both heat and moisture resistance, we invite you to find out more. In the mean time, be sure to keep a suspicious eye out for those non-rubber substitutes.
This post was created by the makers of PURE Grips, the most durable all natural rubber golf grips now available in full color. Find out more about our tapeless installation, advantages and color options.
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