Weather has been a factor in golf since the first players were trying to see through Scottish fog. While some weather conditions are simply unplayable, you shouldn’t have to wait for a sunny day of 72 degree weather to enjoy a few rounds.

One of the most common weather-related problems is the way temperature and moisture affect a player’s golf grips. Whether it’s a light rain creating wet golf grips or a cold day that’s making the grips feel stiff, a player’s game can suffer when the conditions aren’t optimum.

Wet golf grips change the feel of a club, disturbing concentration and even affecting the muscles you use to hold the club and the way you have to swing to maintain control. Rain, high humidity and sweat are all factors. And if you’re not using all-weather golf grips that are truly all weather, your game might suffer.

Similarly, without highly durable golf grips on your clubs, a drop or rise in temperature can negatively impact your game by causing the grips to harden or soften beyond your comfort level. Many people don’t think about this, but all grips are somewhat fluid and temperature changes can bring the material closer or further from their freezing and melting points. However, not all materials are created equally. Some materials maintain golf grip feel far better than others.

When we at PURE Grips began looking to invent an all-weather golf grip that could handle moisture and temperature variations in ways existing grips couldn’t, we quickly learned that there is no substitute for natural rubber. In fact, the properties of natural rubber make it the only true all-weather golf grip material on the market.

These days, you’ll find a number of multi-material golf grip blends available in the pro shops. Blending rubber with polymers is a popular way to make weather-resistant golf grips. However, these blends do not make for durable golf grips as the non-rubber materials tend to wear out much faster than the rubber components. They also tend to perform less predictably when temperatures change.

To maintain a golf grips’s feel in multiple weather conditions, there’s no substitute for natural rubber. In our next post, we’ll go into more of the benefits of rubber and how it compares to other grip materials.