2019 Official Forum Member Review- Golf Pride Grips

[Golfspy_CG2 16,082]

The Number one Grip in Golf and the most used brand on tour sent out a few different models of grips to My Golf Spy forum member to be tested and reported back on.

This thread will serve as the review thread for the following testers and grips.
 

MCC Plus 4 ALIGN 

@romeopapazulu                      Stage 1                                 Stage 2

@knightsofnii                            Stage 1                                 Stage 2

 

Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro Putter Grips

 @chemclub                            Stage 1                               Stage 2

@BigtazzGolf                           Stage 1                               Stage 2

@JDHolmes                             Stage 1                                Stage 2

@gchester33                            Stage 1                                Stage 2

Z Grip ALIGN

@LeftyHawk                             Stage 1                                 Stage 2

 

 

 

 

[romeopapazulu 473]

Stage 1 - Golf Pride ZGRIP ALIGN Review

First and foremost, so many thanks to Golf Pride for sending new products for a real shakedown and to MyGolfSpy for trusting us to put together some quality reviews.  When I told my wife and kids I was getting the opportunity to review some grips, my son asked, “why you?”. So thanks again for having more confidence in me than my own family!

My name is Randy and I live in the Salt Lake City area of Utah.  I have just one awesome wife and two great boys (14 and almost 12).  I have been ripping up sod on our great selection of public courses here for about 8 years. Where did I pick this game up?  Let’s see…

Sometime back in what I assume was fourth or fifth grade, I had accumulated a giant collection of golf balls from cleaning up the YMCA fields after the neighborhood guys would practice with their shag bags.  I put together a set of clubs from garage sales and the free piles when they didn’t sell in garage sales. I recall a crusty plaid bag full of 14 clubs, none of the same make. There couldn’t have been $2.50 invested in that set.  The favorite of them all was the 7 iron. I want to say it was a Nancy Lopez with a loud green grip. Being an L flex and having the best grip of the bunch led me to like that over the 4 iron which was probably a 150g X-flex. Most rounds as a child were on imaginary holes in that YMCA field.  My instruction came from a grocery bag full of golf magazines (read every word of those at least twice).

For a graduation present in 8th grade I got a matching set of irons.  Yonex ADX’s?? Why no, they were some 20 year old muscle backs with leather grips that were slick as snot.  At some point in the next year my friend and I regripped those with some Victory knock-offs and two bottles of lighter fluid.  If you can imagine a green and black candy cane that was left on the dashboard during a long day in Disney World, that would be how these things looked.  Just a crooked hot mess. But the fact that I did this helped me know that I can do this myself, so I haven’t kept a grip on very long that I didn’t like.

To get an understanding about what I look for in a grip, here are some that have stood out over the years:

Winn Dri-Tac:  I played these in Peru.  It was incredibly arid and a crazy strong sun, so these things got baked and soaked in sweat.  I thought I like the soft feel of these at first, but I started losing drives out the the right after a short while and realized the driver grip was worn pretty well.  A quick regrip fixed things quickly. I wouldn’t go this route again because I prefer a firmer grip and one that holds up a bit better.

Sharpro 3CAT: These are one of my favorites.  Business on top (grippy cord) and fun on the bottom (softer wrap).  I loved how the wrap at the bottom helped position the fingers in the same place each time.  If only something else out there did that… These did wear a bit quicker than I like, but they were so cheap and I usually only needed to regrip the driver and wedges.

Lamkin UTx.  I had the UTx wraps for a bit, but I wanted to experiment with extra tape on the bottom half of the grip so I pulled them off.  The normal UTx grips I have now have 4 extra wraps of painters tape on the bottom (equivalent to two wraps of double sided tape?).  I also got the GolfWorks rib pack for some DIY reminder grips. These stick to the shaft before the tape to get the rib on the bottom.  They go on easy enough. I pull the grip out of the vice and check alignment before taping and blowing the grip on. The one complaint here is that the rib under the tape doesn’t work great for blowing the grip on because the air just shoots out the channels along the side of the rib.  We’ll see how an actual ribbed grip works for this.

The best description of my game would be grip it and rip it.  A typical par four would be driver, wedge, and three putts. The next hole would be an angry driver, chip, and three putts.  I will then tighten up the shoe laces to make sure that they stay on my feet for the next REALLY angry driver. To keep the club in my hands by this time, I need something akin to velcro on the grip.  Well, there may be a teeny bit of embellishment there, but I do like tacky with a good bit of texture.

I spent some time on the Golf Pride website to see what these grips were all about.  I think Golf Pride has done the best job organizing their grips on their website. They picture all their grips in a row and I can sort by firmness or moisture control.  I can also use a couple of filters to narrow down selections further. I poked around on some other websites and didn’t find anything nearly as useful.

What is ALIGN?  Is it really revolutionary?  Well, as best I can tell, Gene Sarazen invented the reminder grip around 90 years ago. Ben Hogan was also known to create a reminder grip by putting a wire hanger on the underside of the shaft before wrapping his grips.  So I would venture to say that there is nothing revolutionary here. I don’t have a ton of first hand experience with golf pre-1980’s, but from what I remember and can find about reminder grips, they were more popular up until the early 1990’s.  When Golf Pride came out with the Tour Wrap and Lamkin developed the Perma Wrap, these grips didn’t have heavily colored patterns so the risk of installing the reminder all crooked led manufacturers away from the ribbed grips. So what is old is new...

 

Once I was finally able to get my hands on these things, I liked what I saw.  The black and white grip with the red accents is pretty slick. The texture on these is for real as well.  The grooves on these grips are deeper than the tire tread on my 2500 HD. Here are some closeups of the Z-Grip compared to the Lamkin UTx I currently play.  They are also certainly on the firm end of the spectrum. I had the wife and kids hold one of these and some other grips, and they all picked the Z-Grip and being the firmest.

Here are a couple zoomed in images of the textures of the ZGRIP and the current gamer the UTx.

Another initial observation was about the butts.  I am not opposed to a round butt, but on my grips?  I can see the Lamkin grips giving me issues if I were to finally splurge for an Arccos or Shot Scope system with sensors.  The flat butt on the ZGRIP seems to accommodate the sensors much better.

Golf Pride claims a few benefits to the ALIGN technology.  

1) Get locked in at address.  This seems reasonable to me.  I added ribs on my previous grips for this reason.

2) Clubface awareness.  I am going to get some time on a simulator to see if there are any noticeable improvements with the reminders.

3) Square club at impact.  If I can feel the clubface with the reminder, can I really return it to my intended orientation at impact?

Is there any added benefit to a ribbed grip?  25-33% of PGA Tour pros think so. How do these secure a spot in my bag?  They need to allow me to have a good solid grip, especially in damp or sweaty conditions.  The biggest concern I have after first impressions is the firmness. Are they so firm they are harsh on mishits?  Are my delicate little hands going to have blisters and calluses from hell after some extended range time with these?

[romeopapazulu 473]

Stage Two - The Review June 25, 2019

Golf Pride ZGRIP Align– Official MGS Forum Review by RomeoPapaZulu

Intro

I want to start off my Stage 2 with another thank you to the MGS team for giving me a shot at a review.  I have suffered through a hodgepodge of grips of the last couple of months. It’s one thing to get a new driver and hit some shots with a new one and then turn right around and hit some with the current driver to compare.  I have alternated the new grips on my clubs to try to get the best comparison with the Lamkin UTx’s I am (was?) currently playing. I joined the couple’s league this year, so I have been out at least once every week with some additional range time and several other full rounds.  

Here are a couple of vids of the awful swings I was subjecting these through during this testing (I recommend you don't watch these immediately after eating, you will likely get severe stomach cramps).

 

 

Looks (9 out of 10 points) 

 I really like the way these look.  There is the giant Golf Pride on the topside at the bottom of the grip that some may find distracting.  But if you are really adamant about installing a grip logo down, then a reminder grip isn’t for you in the first place.  Then again, I am sure a decent amount of golfers are going to prefer to not have a giant logo jumping out at you, so -1 for that.  After looking at the photos I took, I installed my last grips logo down, so I am one of those guys!

The rest of the color scheme really suits my eye.  The majority of the grip is black and white, so pretty standard.  They really make the reminder portion stick out by coloring that red.  I would liken this to the Cobra F9 drivers with the yellow bottom. This isn’t visible from address, but sure shows up on the camera. Here is a birdieball session in the front yard.  The ALIGN would be visible (by really tall people).

This might not pair with a pink club all that well, but I could see this looking really nice on a black shaft with a DBM finished clubhead (hint hint my princess).
 

Feel (16 out of 20 points)

These rank as the firmest of firm of all Golf Pride’s offerings.  I won’t dispute this. I have handed a few clubs to several people, non-golfers included, and everyone ranked these as the firmest.  But can these be too firm? This was my biggest sticking point during this review.  

I would rate these as having a lower amount of tackiness than the UTx grip, but higher roughness.  The UTx has a bit more softness to it. It took a bit to warm up in Utah, so I may have had an affinity to the slightly softer UTx grips towards the beginning of this.

What the ZGRIP may lack in tackiness, it makes up for in roughness.  These things are aggressive. I love it under the glove hand. If you manage to let a club twist in your gloved hand with these grips, I reckon the front half of your glove is going to peel off and stay with the grip.

There is a slightly different texture to the rib on the bottom.  I really can’t see how anyone is going to be able to tell that at all.  There have been enough comments about people not even telling the rib is there!  I am certain that I saw some sort of info from Golf Pride that this different texture was some enhancement feature, but I am going to dispute that.

I purchased an MCC Align to play alongside these on my driver.  This is definitely softer on the lower hand. I think I would lean more this way if I were just grabbing the sample grips at a store, but the driver performance is in no way indicating that the MCC is more beneficial to me.  This will require more time for a thorough evaluation. 
 

Performance Characteristics (25 out of 30 points)

This was not a love at first touch situation.  I think the colder weather to start out this season may have slowed down the adaptation period.  The left hand is winning with these, though. When I set my gloved hand on these, I feel like I am locked in.  The right hand is getting more accustomed to the firmer grip, and things are going well.

The heat hasn’t hit us yet here in Salt Lake City.  I don’t think I have had to play in anything above 80 deg yet.  The last range session involved an industrial spray bottle and lots of simulated rain.  I doused the grip, gave it a wipe with the towel and then took 4-5 shots (with a naked left hand).  Then I switched clubs to try the UTx, rinse, lather and repeat until my baby soft left hand couldn’t take it anymore.  I was looking for some slippage and leaving the clubface open and losing some shots off to the right. With each grip I pulled a couple out of 20 shots, probably for over concentrating on not letting the club slip and just holding on too tight.  I didn’t lose any far out right, and a slight fade was all that resulted with either grip. Although both grips performed pretty well, the manner in which they did it was completely different. I would liken the ZGRIP to some all terrain BFG’s. The massive texture just channels the water away while the outer surface of the grip dried off after only a few shots due to a light breeze.  The UTx felt more like a drag racing rear tire after the warmup. These gripped with tack while the ZGRIP worked through texture. I will report back with some updates as I get to use these more while I am sweating my tail off.

Last season I had a serious case of the shanks for a bit.  I seem to be over that now, but the occasional shocker still pops up now and then.  In the last few rounds, twice I could have killed someone standing in front of me and a bit forward.  The interesting thing is that these were both with my 7i which had my old grip on it.

My new favorite club is now my 50deg wedge.  I hadn’t installed a rib on the 50, 54 or 58 in case I wanted to open the face up.  I don’t ever do that with the 50deg, though, so I slid on a ZGRIP and now am infatuated.  

Here is a chart of GIR from a period last year and then this year with the ZGRIPs.  Overall, there is an improvement of a couple of percent. However, comparing what I am doing now vs. the first half of last year, I am having none of the really bad GIR rounds.  Something else that is not reflected is the greens where I am playing in couples league range somewhere between red oak and black walnut in hardness. I have hit the center of one or two greens per round that just rocketed off and back to the tee of the next hole.  There appears to be only a 3ft wide strip in front of the green that will let you land short and roll up. Considering this, the coulda woulda shoulda numbers with the ZGRIPs are a good amount better. If anyone has a recommendation for a head shaft combo that could give me 10,000 rpm of spin with a seven iron, I might be able to hold a few of these greens.

I will dock a couple of points for something immeasurable.  I can absolutely feel the rib, and there have been several cases on the course where I find that I totally overthink swing path and club face.  In general I am happy with the reminders, but every now and then it gives me some sensation in a practice swing that gets me thinking or worse yet in the backswing.  I HAVE to just pull out of the swing and step back in those cases, but I don’t, and the results are usually terrible. I think this is more common with the reminders than without.

 

Durability (10 out of 10 points)

I don’t see any evidence of wear on these yet.  My hands and glove will most likely be the victims of the majority of wear here.  I will check back in to provide some updates, but I just can’t see these things wearing out for a long time.  We did just have an 84 deg day (first one of the year?), so maybe if I start sweating profusely later this summer these will start to show some signs of breaking down.

 

Miscellaneous (8 out of 10 points)

The flat end is a nice feature (+3).  I don’t have any sensors that I need to screw into the grips, but I can see how the rounded end of the Lamkins could cause an issue of a poor fit and snagging as clubs go in and out of the bag. 

The grips showed up pretty quickly (+3). It sounds like we got a few more than in the original plan (+3). The firmness does have some cons. When putting these on, I think my C-Taper shafts compressed more than these stretched to go over the shaft (-3).  I had a real battle trying to slide these on with an air compressor. For other grips I can usually put a dab of solvent on the inside of the bottom of the grip to help it slide on at first and then the air compressor slides them on and off without a hitch.  I really fought with these. On a couple grips where I put some extra wraps at the bottom, I was afraid of impaling myself if I were to slip while pushing these things on. If I were to do this again, I would just use the double sided tape and a ton of solvent. Some final bonus points are won by Golf Pride for pairing this test up with some putter grips.  I played with someone with a Tour Snsr Contour Pro several weeks ago. I loved it, got one, and now don’t feel like throwing my putter into nearby lakes. (+2)

 

Play it or Regrip it? (16.9 out of 20 points)

I started out with half of the grips on in case the ZGRIP experiment went really wrong.  It didn’t take too long and I swapped them all out for the ZGRIPs. They are showing extreme durability, provide a very secure purchase under the left gloved hand, and have passed whatever water test I could throw at them.  The performance numbers don’t show that any of you will be watching me on the Golf Channel any time soon, but comparing this time of year to last year and not penalizing me for playing on concrete greens, my iron play is showing some good improvements.

I did get an MCC Align to test alongside these and put it on my driver.  This also had a pretty aggressive texture under the gloved hand but the lower hand area is a fair bit softer than the ZGRIP.  My driver play right now would lead most people with any sense of reasoning to pull it out of the bag entirely, but that is not a grip issue.  I will play this and the ZGRIPs through the rest of this season before making a decision what will ultimately end up on the twigs.

The grip setup right now is MCC Align on driver, ZGRIP on Utility Iron, 3Hy, 4-GW, a leftover UTx on the SW and the Lamkin TS1 on the LW.  If I weren’t cheap, I would have the TS1 on the SW as well. This is a reduced taper grip that has a pretty similar texture throughout and some markings every inch or so at the top, so I find it works great for helping me choke up a repeatable amount and lets me open the clubface without the rib ending up in a weird spot in my fingers. 

The final love it /list it score awarded is 16.9 (11 out of 13 eligible clubs are now with a Golf Pride Align grip).
 

Conclusion

TL;DR:

Firmness:  I suspect these didn’t stretch over my steel shafts as much as the shafts compressed underneath the grips.  I would rate these at an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. I would recommend against these for any fans of a Winn DriTac type of squishy grip.

Texture:  All Terrain BFG’s.  Deep texture and heavy cord help with a very secure purchase and great moisture management.

Performance: Compared to this time last year, I am more consistent in my iron play.  If it weren’t for a lot of unwatered greens, my GIR% would show a good improvement as well.

These are firm enough throughout the whole grip that I would not have gone with these if I were choosing a grip by picking up the sample grips in a golf store.  After getting them on the course, though, I am seeing that they are performing great. Someone with high sensory awareness might find the ALIGN feature distracting due to the added feelings in the hand, but I have so far found them more helpful than harmful. 

Final Score: (84.9 out of 100 points)

[knightsofnii 308]

Stage1 Tour Velvet Plus 4

Hi! My name is Doug. I live in New Jersey. I'm a mechanical engineer by day, and I also own a snowboard brand. Snowboarding has been my life since 1988. Golf became part of my life later on. 

     In the fall of 2011, I was invited to play an outing with workmates. I was partnered with my boss's boss. I arrived with 1980’s Spalding clubs that I purchased from a yard sale, only to use once. My partner lent me a modern driver and helped me simplify my swing. The round was pressure free and exciting. I was hooked.

     A few days later, I purchased a starter set from Dick's Sporting Goods. I still use the same putter. By spring time the following year I was golfing 3-5 times weekly. I love the feeling of that perfect shot, of course; but, I also love the feeling of playing in a giant back yard, the feeling of the fairway and green grass under my feet, the occasional wildlife sighting. I've seen turkeys, fox, turtles, deer, and a few bears! I also love getting paired up with new people, sharing stories, and making occasional new friends.

     I’m a 19 handicap, which hasn’t changed much over seven years; however, I’m more honest with scoring now. My swing tempo is medium. My driver speed is about 90mph, closer to upper 90s mid-summer. My swing has that dreaded over-the-top move that I just cannot shake. My driver ball flight is typically a small fade, medium height. Irons are straighter, low/medium height. My main miss is mis-hits: tops, shanks, blades, fats, these are what keep my scores high. I've been working on a shorter backswing, focusing on solid contact. 

     The grips I’m replacing are as follows: 
56° wedge: Wynn Dri-tac oversize.
50° wedge: Golf Pride Decade Multicompound 
PW & Irons: Lamkin Crossline 2
Hybrids, Woods: Lamkin Crossline

     These grips were all stock except for the 56 wedge. The Lamkins on the irons are brand new, and feel quite rough. The others are aged and have lost some of their feel and comfort. 

     I chose the Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus 4 medium. The MCC Plus 4 Align was not an available choice, as it was released in 2018. The Tour Velvet hopefully is less harsh of a feel than the Wilson branded Lamkins, with some added comfort of the extra width. I’m hoping to make it through 18 holes without having to glove up my right hand. I’m also hoping the extra width and reduced grip pressure help with pain and discomfort to my right wrist and hand. I’d like some tackiness but not at the expense of resilience to wetness.

First impressions: The only color is black with gray ends. The gray looks nice, the black looks normal. 

 

The print looks fine. One drawback to the print is the underside has the "Tour Velvet" logo: there is no advantage to installing this grip "logo down". 

I received a full box of 13 grips--a nice surprise!

I also have some Niion grips from a few years ago. I’ll use one of these on my 56° wedge, with 3 wraps and “plus 4” wraps to get them comparable to a medium Plus 4.  I’m curious if the DIY +4 method is similar in feel and performance. The Niion grips are very similar to the Tour Velvets from a few years ago. 

 

So far I regripped Dr, 56°, 50°, PW-8i.

Golf Pride Claims versus my first impression:

"LARGER LOWER HAND
The larger outside diameter simulates the feel of building up the grip with four extra wraps. This reduced taper encourages lighter grip pressure, promoting less tension in the hands and creating more fluidity and power throughout the swing."

     There’s definitely a larger lower hand section. The added grip width makes me feel like I’m holding a more powerful club. I’m trying to focus on a more relaxed swing.


"MODERATE SURFACE TEXTURE
Scientifically designed plus sign texture created to pull moisture away from surface to allow for consistent traction."

      It is indeed a moderate texture, feeling more on the high side of moderate: it’s slightly rougher in feel to the rubber GP grips of previous generations that I've tried. It’s a pinch softer than the Wilson Lamkins (which I had mistaken for cord grips initially). 

     The benefit of this is grip! The club stays in my hands and will not slip. Hopefully it will perform nice in the rain also.  I did have to glove up my right hand deep into my first round with them. It’s still early-season for me, my hands need to build up. The grip is as strong of a hold as the Wilson Lamkins, but a softer feel. 

"MODERATE FEEDBACK
The standard in grip feel providing comfort and moderate feedback."

     I’d say this is true. Stingers still sting. Flush shots feel awesome. Toe hits feel like they went off the tip of the bat.  Compared to the Lamkins, the feel is an improvement in dampening.  I still feel mishits, but it takes some of the harshness away. Over the course of my first round, when I needed long irons, I dreaded having to swing with the narrower, harsher grip. The older Lamkins on my hybrids were not harsh but the width loss made it feel like I was holding a pencil, I felt like I had to tread lightly.  With the driver, I felt like I could take a more relaxed swing. 

     The 56° wedge, with the Niion grip stretched over 3+ +4 wraps, felt great size-wise. It’s comparable shape wise. It’s slightly less grippy but slightly tackier, with harder feedback. It’s pretty much as I expected it to be. I will say, it was a painstaking tape-job. I appreciate the easier install of the Tour Velvet +4.

     These grips should allow me to focus on a relaxed swing. I’m hoping they provide decent feel and grip when wet. I have a goal of playing 9 holes gloveless, and 18 holes without any right hand discomfort. 

 

 

Edited April 25 by knightsofnii

[knightsofnii 308]

Stage 2 Placeholder

Stage Two - Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus-4 Official MGS Forum Review by knightsofnii

"Grip it and rip it!" I imagine if Tin-Cup had today's technology, he would be able to rip it another few yards x every piece of new tech x 30something years past, hitting drives over 1000 yards? 

Or, at least his hands would be more comfortable. 

My two personal goals were as follows:
1: Play 9 holes without any gloves
2: Play 18 holes without having to glove my right hand at any point. 

I have been able to play 9 gloveless twice. I have not been able to endure 18, however, without gloving up my right hand. My right ring finger developed a split right through a callus, which has been plaguing me for the last few weeks. (This may have been influenced also by the harsher original iron grips) It's not a game ender (thank god for liquid bandage), but it becomes quite sensitive. I will say that this is more due to my own physiology, and also my own swing. I have a very heavy right hand in my swing. There is no avoiding it. There is no swing training or thoughts to stop it. (Though, I have yet to try playing lefty )

Despite my hand getting torn up probably from beating way too many range balls, the Tour Velvet plus-4 is a comfortable grip. It has good traction and stays in your hands. I did try saturating the grip with water and hitting a few. In these instances, the grip failed to hold and twisted in my hands. In damp and humid conditions, or late round sweaty conditions, they are just fine. They will hold longer than a Wynn, CP2, or other tack grip when your hands get slick, but they are cushier than the sandpaper feel of a cord. The tread is a deeper pattern that you can feel. 

The plus-4 section feels great under the right hand. Does it result in less grip pressure? I am not sure because my right hand normally clenches the club and any grip like a vise. Whenever I try to swing loosely, I find myself trying to "catch up" bringing the club head back to square, hitting with the face very open.

For half of the elapsed time of this review, I gripped only my 50° wedge, PW-8i, and driver. I left the remaining old grips on other clubs to have some comparison. I also gripped a standard rubber grip (GP Niion) over my 56° wedge with 3 full layers of tape to get it to medium, and an extra 4 in the +4 style for the bottom hand section. Yes, there are 7 layers of build up tape over about a 2inch section, gradually tapering in both directions. 

After a few weeks, I regripped the remaining clubs and decided to focus on how the grips felt vs. how I played and see if any correlations could be made. 

 

Looks: 8 out of 10 points

The black grip with white logos and marks is unremarkable. However, it offers no distractions, the exception being the "Tour Velvet" placement on the underside. A reader had pointed out the words are stacked horizontally rather than printed along the axis. This is a different and neat appearance; but, for alignment purposes, it creates distraction and confusion if one relies on such a logo for hand placement. I do not. So, for me personally, this is no issue; but it is worth noting.  The rest of the alignment graphics are standard for Golf Pride. 

After some time with these grips, I do like the look. The gray end caps are a nice subtle touch. Ideally, I would love to see these in colors. Bring back the Niions!

-1 point for lack of color choices
-1 point for the funky placement of the model name. 

If you don't care for flair, and you simply want performance that is felt rather than seen, this grip excels. Therefore...

Feel: 19 out of 20 points

The stiffness and flex of these grips are pretty much middle-of-the-road. They are comfortable in the hands, but not to the point of causing any torque, twist, or shock issues. The engineer in me would call them "critically damped," meaning, they absorb what is thrown at them, and rebound properly, with no extra bounce or unwanted forces. 

The surface has a good, strong texture. I would rate it stronger than other all-rubber grips I've used. The tackiness holds until rain or moisture makes the grip visibly wet.  This grip will stay in your hands. But, if you sweat a ton, have gloves handy. If it rains, have rain gloves. I didn't get a chance to play in rain. I soaked the grips in puddles, or poured water over them, then wet my hands, and shook the excess off. A few swings this way and the grip will twist in my hands when soaking wet. With rain gloves they performed good when wet. Are they a go-to grip for rain performance? I would say, maybe if your normal grip is a Wynn or other super-tack grip like a CP2. Otherwise, glove up. In damp or misty conditions, they were fine, I did not need to glove up, and never felt like I had to squeeze harder. 

The sizing is nearly perfect. I can really feel the Plus 4 section. Jumping to a medium grip also was a nice move. My previous irons have CP2s in standard, with 3 extra wraps, bringing them close sizewise to these. But, the CP2s are stretched and firmer. The TV+4s have the sizing and shaping benefits without the compression losses. Compared to the +4 taped Niion grip I installed, they are similar in shape but softer with more traction. I do like how my tape and install of the Niion worked out. But, taping alone more than doubled the re-gripping time. I also don't have factory skills, so my personal +4 job is lumpy and more abrupt in comparison. 

Bottom line for feel: It has excellent traction for its level of cushion. I would like to see a texture in the low hand section that somehow is a touch less harsh on the lower hand, but it is really close to perfect. -1 

Performance Characteristics:  28 out of 30 points

I believe the traction, cushion, and sizing of the lower hand all combine on course to inspire confidence. Has this made me play better, or improve my ball striking or alter ball flight? Not really, due to swing or physical issues that are personal to me. But, I am not worried about grip. I would loathe the harsh, hard, narrow grips on the irons; and the old, hardened, slippery grips of the woods and wedge grips. Having a good feel that is exactly the same for every club has freed my mind to focus on other things, or focus less in general.

In my 10+ rounds, I do not recall a moment where I felt a bad shot was due to these grips.

My hands hurt less. The back of my right hand and wrist will become sore after a round from pounding the turf. I am not hurting as much the next day. I feel like I might be able to play more or recover quicker. The grips may be absorbing more and translating less into my hands. Despite this, mishit feel vs. flush shot feel has not changed negatively. I can keep my head down and know when I struck the ball well or not. 

The only performance drawback is the "tour velvet" underside logo. I wanted to install these grips "logo-down" due to the tendency of my grips to twist some, thus rendering any alignment marks useless for me. The bottom logo becomes a distraction, especially with the words stacked as opposed to along the grip. So, I did my best to install normally. I mistakenly installed my 3w grip logo down.

Durability: 9 out of 10 points

There is barely a sign of wear on the grips I installed earlier. The later installed grips were a pinch softer and tackier, but after a few rounds, they all now look and feel exactly the same. They have not lost much of the feel, tack, or traction, and the original 5 grips have over 10 rounds on them now. 

The print shows minimal wear. Some of the grips have twisted on the shaft a pinch, but that is expected and more a product of my amateur install. (The 2nd 5 were installed with better tape, and I suspect they will twist less). 

If these grips make it to September and still appear decent, I will update this score to 10.

Miscellaneous: 8 out of 10 points

The Golf Pride grip box was not packed into another box for shipping.  The grips were loose in the box, there was no extra fill. The only wrapping was at the butt end over the caps. There was, however, a full bakers-dozen of grips:  an added bonus. The grips did arrive appearing new. I suppose either GP put in less packing work knowing the circumstances, or, perhaps they are streamlining packaging and reducing excess. Whatever the case, it was not a problem, but worth noting. 

Nobody has said a word to me about these grips as they don't really stand out in appearance. 

Another miscellaneous is size related. Being my first set of all medium diameter grips, I notice more trouble with fitting the clubs down into the bottom of my bag; and I’m only gaming 12 total clubs. 

These grips are also about half inch longer than all my old grips, probably due to the medium size.  I consider that an added bonus: extra grip on the shaft for choking down for specialty shots, like 6i pitch shots under trees. 

Play it or Regrip it: 19 out of 20 points

My eyes are bigger than my stomach. I gravitate toward flashy or pleasant colored items. The Tour Velvet Plus 4 is black with a subtle gray cap.  But, I like them. My hands love them, even. Close your eyes, your hands are blind. My eyes could be happier, but my data (if you can call it that) say these will stay. 

I would not have chosen this grip to evaluate without the circumstances given. I am glad I did. I think it fits a niche. I like how they feel gloveless, something I believe would be tough to do with MCC +4s or Z grips. When it gets damp or moist, they still work good, something I know the tack grips lack. I think this is an outstanding +4 bottom performance grip for dry and damp, gloved or not. I would buy them again, my likelihood of purchase would increase if they add color options. I am subtracting one point for this.

I will use these until worn, updating as time allows. I have 2 spares for my next new purchase.

Conclusion

Final Score: 91 out of 100 points

It hurt to cut that first brand new grip off of these nice Wilson Staff C300 Irons; though, the pain subsided immediately knowing I was replacing a pretty, albeit harsh grip with a less appealing one that was all performance and comfort based. I really wished these were nice blue or gray MCC Plus 4's going onto the shafts, but after several rounds and probably 1000 range balls, they are the right grips. The ordinary appearing, mostly black grip is really its only fault, if you can call it that. The "Tour Velvet" logo placement may be its only technical flaw, depending who you ask, and whether or not it shows up in your visual frame if you tinker with shaft/head orientation on your adjustable shafts. The larger, reduced-taper lower hand section is a welcome addition to this model grip. The tread of this grip offers above average traction without sacrificing the cushion of the all rubber surface, and might even surprise some cord and MCC fans. I personally like that I can play after work without gloves. It is a medium firmness grip that will absorb the blows without slipping.  

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks MGS Staff for choosing me for this evaluation, I really enjoyed this.  Thanks to all you readers, forum participants, fellow reviewers, and donors.  Thanks to my wife for being just as excited for me to have this chance.  Thanks to Golf Pride and all the other brands who support unbiased testing.  

 

 

 

Inflated technical features description:

Happy set of regripped clubs:

Edited June 4 by knightsofnii
Stage 2 up!!

[LeftyHawk 193]

Z Grip ALIGN

Let me start my story by telling you that I’m a 59, live in Michigan and I’m addicted to Golf.
My first set of clubs were a used set of Ram Aries, I was 20 and had no idea what I was doing. With clubs in hand I headed to the driving range. Over the next decade I spent way too many hours trying to get a handle on this game of golf. As it turned out I was quite a hot head out there, I just couldn’t understand why if I was aiming at the flag, why it consistently went in the woods. I once wrapped a 5 iron around a tree because it failed to send the ball where I was aiming. After a few years of little to no success I left the game. 
Around the year 2000 I started dreaming about getting back on the course, being outside, fresh air, birds, green grass.  This time it would be different. I managed to find a better set of used left handed clubs and set out for the driving range, still all the old demons haunted me, I couldn’t hit the ball straight if my life depended on it. Nothing but banana balls, the hot head returned and my driver bite the dust. While browsing through a used book store one day I came across a book titled “Golf begins at 40, How to use your age advantage” by Sam Snead.  I bought it and that was my “Eureka” moment. Everything he had to say in the book really hit home with me. That lead to me reading everything I could get my hands on. I’ve had some great teachers through books, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nacklaus, Tom Watson, Dave Pelz and Gary McCord to name a few. I don’t remember where I read it but the one phrase that hit home to me was “the ball will tell you what you’re doing wrong, if your willing to listen”. WOW, that was a real awakening for me. From that moment on I became a real student of the game, trying to understand the physics of ball flight.  I did a ton of research and reading on how and why that little white orb did what it did in the air and what affects ball flight. Turns out it wasn’t the club, it was me!!! Go figure. 
 I finally have clubs that fit me, I start the season at about a 9 handicap and end the season around a 4, broke 80 enough times that I dream about becoming a scratch golfer.   My bag currently is a Ping 400 driver, Ping G30 3 wood. Ping G30 19* Hybird. Ping i10 irons (4-PW), Ping Tour-S wedges (50,54,58) and a Ping Vault 2.0 putter.

And here we are today, I was lucky enough to have been chosen by MGS to be one of the testers for the new Golf Pride grips with the “Align Technology”. As my current grips are older Lamkin I am really excited to give the Golf Pride a run. For me I am quite interested in how, or if, the Align Technology can improve my game. I will admit that I’m really skeptical of any “gimmick” that claims “game improvement” because, like Mr. Hogan, I’m a firm believer in the only way to improve is at the practice range.  
My first impressions of the grips were could they really do what they claim? On one level it made sense to me that the Align Technology would help with getting the club in your hand with the club face square, I mean after all from what little I know about football tech, I reasonably concluded that one reason for the laces on the football was to help the quarterback line up the ball in his hands the same everytime.

 

I must admit I was rather excited when the grips arrived from Golf Pride. 13 grips came in the box, the  black, white and red colors really make this grip stand out. And the feel was exactly what I look for in a grip, not sticky and not slick. I knew that when I put my hands on the club and hit the ball the club wasn’t going to rotate in my hands at impact.

 

So for looks I give this grip a 10. The colors contrast nicely and with the design on the grip it’s easy for the eyes and hands to work together to get the club square in your hands.
For feel I would also give this a 10. Like I said, it’s not “sticky” so you feel like you have to peel your hands off the grip and not so slick so as to allow the club to rotate in your hands at impact. The grips give you the proper amount of “grab” so the club is comfortable in your hands.
 

I chose to put the grips on myself so I could control the variable of how the grips line up with the club face, I wasn’t confident that someone else would be as careful as I was. I will admit I was skeptical after the first club was finished. When I put my hands on it I really couldn’t feel the align strip in the under side of the club shaft. I went ahead and re-gripped all the clubs   
So now comes the testing part. Things I will be testing is;
Do these grips “really” help with alignment?
Do they do what they claim?
Do they help or hurt my game?
Until then...keep it in the short grass....

Edited May 5 by LeftyHawk

[LeftyHawk 193]

Z Grip ALIGN

Ok, I've had the grips on now for a few weeks and have played about a dozen rounds with them, enough that I'm pretty comfortable with them. So I though it was time to update on what I've learned. Before going on the course I ran a few tests and took some measurements. As you can see in the first 2 photos I measured the "align" strip to be 1.16mm above the grip.

 

In my opinion the "Align" strip needs to be a little higher. When I got word that I'd be testing the "Align" Z Grips my first thought was that it sounded like a great idea. This should make lining the club face consistantly a no brainer. In my mind the "align" strip would function like the laces on a football, which to my understanding the quarterback uses to put the ball in his hands in the correct position. I knew the real test would be on the golf course to see if that thinking was in the right direction.

The next test was a Blind gripping the club test. What I did was had my wife hand me the clubs one at a time, I kept my eyes shut, and I was handed the clubs so that I grabbed the middle of the shaft. I know what you're thinking, the weight of the head will make it easy to line up the club face with your eyes closed. Not so, give it a try!! I have the grips set so that the "Align" strip falls right in the 2nd joint of my left hand index and middle fingers. I'm left handed, so this is my ungloved hand furtherest from the butt end of the club. I must admit, I was pleasantly suprised at how close the wedges were to being correct in my hands with my eyes closed. As I progressed thru the clubs I was getting better at lining up the club face with my eyes closed, and by the time I got to the driver I had it almost perfectly square. I will say thet I don't feel the "Align" strip at all in my right hand (the gloved hand). The only part of the strip that I am aware of both with eyes closed and open, is the 2 fingers of my left hand. Still needed to be tested on the course.

Following are a couple of pics with my hands on the club;

 

Now as for on the course in actual play;

FIrst thing I noticed is that tempture makes a huge impact on feeling the "Align" strip Here in Michigan most days start in the 40's and doesn't get much past 55 later in the day. Because of this the start of each roung I coundn't feel the strip under my fingers. One big suprise was I found the "Golf Pride" logo on the top of the grip down by the shaft to be a valuable aid in linging the club face, that along with the line in the bottom groove on the club face (Ping Clubs) for cold weather play.

As the weather warmed up I became aware of the "Align" strip in my 2 fingers and it served to confirm what I was seeing in aligning the club face square. 

 

So after palying several rounds the big question is do these grips help my game? With the testing I've done so far the answer would be yes....to some degree.

 

HERES MY TAKE AWAY:

While I wall admit the "Align" strips did help in squaring the club face, I found that working in conjunction with the "Golf "Pride" logo on the top of the grip made squaring the club face easier especially in cold weather. The grips themselves, "Align" strip aside are wonderful. They are very comfortable in the hands, the coloring helps the eyes focus on squaring the club face. They have enough "grip" so as not to let the club spin in your hands on a miss hit and you don't feel like you have to "peal" the club out of your hands after the shot.

At this point in time I'm not so sure that the "Align" strip by itself will ensure that the club face is square, In my opinion the strip is too small to be felt across both hands. Perhaps if the srtip transition from the thickness it is at the shaft end to being much thicker at the butt end of the club it would help, especially through a glove. I found myself wanting to feel it through the glove, but it just wasn't there.

Golf Pride is definitely on to something here, and it may very well work in much warmer temperatures. 

So to recal,

Feel; 10/10. They feel comfortable in the hands and no fear of the club slipping.

Looks; 10/10. The colors and design helped me with getting theing lined up.

Do they help my game; 5/10. While the "Align" stirp helped in a small degree, the logo on top was more of an aid then the strip.

Do they do what they say; 5/10. Again, they helped some, I do believe the strip needs to be more pronunced especally at the butt end of the club.

I will add to this review sometime in August to see if warmer weather (hopefully) makes a difference.

 

**** June 15, 2019*****

After using these now for a couple of months I'd have to say I've confirmed everything I originally thought. The idea of the alignment strip in my opinion is a great idea, especially if you're having issues with hitting your target consistently. Even in the warmer weather I am not able to feel the alignment strip in my hands and only barley in the index and middle fingers of my left hand (remember I'm left handed and I stand on the other side of the ball). The grips themselves are wonderful, I have a solid, secure feeling between my hands and the club and no fear of the club rotating in my hands at impact. even in a light mist and light rain the club was still secure in my hands throughout the swing.

Thanks again to GolfPride and MGS for giving me this chance to be a tester for the new Z Align Grips.

Edited June 16 by LeftyHawk
Update Review

[chemclub 1,017]

Tour SNSR Contour Pro

A huge thank you to MGS for letting me review the grip and being patient while I get things going on this review.

I’m a 36 year old golfer living in central Iowa. There are a lot of great public courses in this area with greens ranging from fast and undulating to burly and basic.

I’ve been playing all my life but took about 12 years off for school and grad school. I have two kids so I can really only get out on weekends. I would say 3/month is a good number for me right now which should increase as the kids get older.

As for my skills as a putter of the ball... I and the epitome of average.

I would say I have a good stroke (see video below) and I am a decent green reader.

You can get more details about my game here

Like in all sports there are certain people that have IT. They are goal scorers, play makers, able to make the right move at the right time. Yeah, that ain’t me. I’m an over thinker/analyzer/choker.

So let's get on with the initial impressions of this grip. The basic shape and profile fits very comfortably and naturally in your hand. 

 

 

The all rubber grip has excellent tack and feel in your hand.

 

I should clarify that I was pushing pretty hard on the grip to deform it in that way. In reality the grip doesn't nearly compress like that, but your fingers and hand are sensitive enough to feel just the tiniest bit of give as you hold it which is really comfortable and gives great feedback.

 

I'll get into other performance features stage 2 so stay tuned. 

[chemclub 1,017]

chemclub, May, 2019

It took a little while to get enough reps with this club to give a thorough review, mostly because our early May weather was atrocious. Thankfully, the golf gods have smiled on Iowa for the last month or so which gave me a chance to put it through the ringer.

DISCLAIMER: Grips are admittedly such a feel category of equipment that you cannot really make credible claims about performance increases that would seamlessly transfer to another player. 

Looks ( 9 out of 10 points)

This is likely not a huge player in the grip category. I can’t say I am a huge fan of the bright yellow but I also don’t really care.

 Feel (25 out of 30 points)

Like I said in my Stage 1, I absolutely love the texture and firmness of this grip. It has just the right amount of give in all the right places. 

One thing to consider is that the grip has more taper towards the bottom than a SuperStroke, which obviously has no taper. This taper took a little to get used to and I was not a fan at first. @BigtazzGolf seems to acknowledge this fact as well. 

Another thing to point out is that the grip feels short. Even the way it fits in my hand, it feels like the grip could be a little longer. You can see it in some of the photos below. The shortness of the grip really becomes apparent because of the grip taper you feel in whatever hand you place lower on the grip (right in my case). It is something to consider, given the contour and taper of the grip itself, that certain hand sizes might not fit as comfortably on this grip. This is in contrast to the constant-width philosophy of SuperStroke, in which any hand size will more or less feel the same.

Over time, the natural contours of the grip were quite comfortable and I became used to it. I greatly prefer the rubber grip feel to whatever is on the SuperStroke grips (some kind of plastic bag-like material?)

 

 Performance Characteristics ( 20 out of 20 points)

For me, successful putting is about relaxing and this grip does just that. When your hands can comfortably grasp the club, that sensation feeds back to help me feel like I can get into a comfortable position. For that reason, I think this grip is exactly what I would look for and might not have considered leaving my SuperStroke or similar constant-width grips were it not for this test.

 Durability (10 out of 10 points)

Not sure if this could ever be a huge problem with a putter grip. I will say that I have not noticed any drop off in the tackiness and texture to the grip, but I haven’t had if for 100 rounds yet. For the cost of this grip, I think the durability is an appropriate 10/10.

 Miscellaneous ( 10 out of 10 points)

It might be the way I re-gripped my putter, but that little bit of give I showed in my stage 1 photos is really pronounced on the butt-end of the club. Sometimes kind of strange feeling when you are manipulating the putter by just holding the butt-end of the grip. Is that even scorable? Sure – 10 points for weird and fun.

 Play it or Regrip it? (20 out of 20 points)

Don’t plan on changing any time soon. My decision to keep the grip is mostly because I putted insanely good my last round. Making par-saving bombs all over the course to shoot a 74 (which for a weekend warror like myself is a great round). That great round paints over some other rounds in which I putted horribly. But I can’t blame the grip in those cases. The grip makes me feel comfortable holding the club so I can focus on other things and that is what is important to me.

FINAL SCORE = 94

[BigtazzGolf 1,820]

Stage One – Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro Putter Grip

by BigtazzGOLF April, 2019

 

Intro

Hello Spies,

I’ll be reviewing the Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro Putter Grip (104cc) for you.

I’ve been using the SuperStroke Mid Slim 2.0 with the 50g CounterCore weight.

Reason I’m excited to test this grip is the same reason we all like to test things and change up our equipment…change equals lower scores and more birdies???

 

 

The Personal Stuff

My story is similar to a lot of others here. Late getting to the game then once I did I fell in love for it hard.

Living in Memphis, I usually get to play year round, but lately Mother Nature has had different ideas on this subject. I’ve been playing for maybe 20 years and golf has a love hate relationship with me weekly.

I’d like to think of myself as an average golfer, maybe a hair above at times. I carry a 13 USGA index and play in a local handicapped league called the GolfNuts. We play all over Memphis and always have a little side money involved in the game. Nothing crazy, but it seems to add spice to our matches.

 

The Golf Questions

• Handicap? 13
• Strengths/Weaknesses of your game? This has been a revolving door for me the last 5-6 months. One weekend, my tee box game is stellar and around the green game is weak. Then the next week, just the opposite.
• What are your current grips? My current grip is the SuperStroke Mid Slim 2.0

Lately with my current grip, I’ve been burning the edges on puts a lot more and I’m not sure if something new will help or hurt in getting those putts to fall

 

First Impressions

 

From the Golf Pride website; 3 SHAPES. 2 SIZES. 1 REVOLUTIONARY FEEL.

·         PISTOL CONTOUR Most Tour-preferred sculpted pistol shape in upper hand helps lock-in grip for repeatable putting motion.

·         FLAT PADDLE FRONT Proper thumb placement and face alignment.

·         MAXIMUM FEEDBACK Tour-validated feedback to feel precise ball contact for a repeatable stroke.

NOW AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

The most-preferred sculpted pistol shape on the worldwide Tours is now available in our proprietary SNSR rubber blend for maximum feel and feedback.

 

Size      Colors       Weight*  Core Size

                                                                      140cc     Black/Grey     124g      58 Round

                                                                      104cc     Black/Grey     90g        58 Round

* Weight measurements may vary ±3.5g

 

 

The above is the claim and I’m going to find out if it’ll hold up or if it is just another golf claim.

Going from a straight round grip to a pistol grip could be just what I need and maybe what you need as well. Join me in this never ending tweak to find lower scores for us.

Looking forward to your questions and comments 

[BigtazzGolf 1,820]

Stage Two – Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour  Pro Putter Grip

by BigtazzGOLF May, 2019

After putt after putt with the SNSR grip I can complete my review and provide you with my insight on the Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro grip

From Golf Pride, the claim; The Contour Pro putter grip offers the leading Tour-preferred, pistol-shape in two oversized models for unsurpassed feel and feedback. The TOUR SNSR Contour Pro utilizes the same soft, ultra-tuned rubber formulation as its predecessors giving the grip an excellent feel and facilitating lighter grip pressure to encourage a smoother stroke. The proprietary TOUR SNSR technology enhances feedback, affording better distance control on greens of all speeds.

 

Looks ( 9 out of 10 points)

The grip I tested was black and grey with yellow lettering (pro version). To me this was a traditional color vs the black and red version. Grip color to me doesn’t weigh a lot in my preferences but it is to some. I think you'll like either

 Feel (15 out of 20 points)

Golf Pride claims the grip to be softer to provide better feedback. To me I don’t grip a putter firm enough to really tell or for this feature to benefit me. The grip was tacky and easy to hold on to during my rounds and when practicing.

Switching from a Superstroke grip to the pistol grip was not as pleasing as I expected it to be nor as easy as it was when I switched from the pistol to the mid-slim years ago.

 Performance Characteristics ( 16 out of 30 points)

During the break in period it felt like I was fighting the grip and not trusting my lines on longer putts. I did settle down with it, but never had the feel I had with my other grip. Especially on fast greens.

 Durability (10 out of 10 points)

The putter grip was holding up nicely to normal wear and tear and bag chatter during my review process.

 Miscellaneous ( 5 out of 10 points)

The little things matter and this section will capture them. When the grip was shipped to me for testing and I opened it, it felt like Golf Pride was just going thru the motions with no effort in the process. It felt like they didn’t care if I reviewed it or just throw it in the trash based on the packaging. Maybe I expected more having reviewed other products for other companies and usually the offer a note of thanks in reviewing their product.

 Play it or Regrip it? (13 out of 20 points)

In the past, this was the “likelihood of purchase” category…I will be re-gripping my putter and going back to the SuperStroke CounterCore Slim for the feel and touch I’ve acquired from using it over the years.

If you like pistol grip putting grips, you will like this one. Please take my review with a grain of salt and keep an open mind in trying it if you have not tried pistol grips.

 

Final Score: ( 68 out of 100 points)

 

Let me know if you have any follow up questions, I’m here to help ya

[JDHolmes 70]

Stage 1

Tour SNSR Contour ProFirst, sorry for the delay in posting. A new job has consumed most of my time the last two weeks then I lost the word version and had to redo.

 

Hello All and thanks for reading my review. I’ll be reviewing the Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro Putter Grip (104cc – 90g) for you. My normal putter grip is a standard size grip, usually known as the Pingman grip. I like smaller grips rather than larger grips.

 

About me

I began playing golf 48 years ago…wow that seems like a long time ago…at the age of 13 when I played in my first tournament. I had whacked the ball around the yard at my grandparents house and my grandfather was an avid golfer who always had a couple of sets sitting in the garage. I had played one or two rounds with he and my uncles at a local course before going to this tournament. I used a set of his old clubs and competed for two days against other junior high boys. I won the tournament with a 133 and 117. Yeah, we weren’t very good. However, this gave me the bug and I’ve loved golf every since those days. During these days we lived in Indiana so there wasn’t a lot of year round golf.

 

Through the years, there have been times when I was a very avid golfer, playing many times per week and times when I didn’t have the time to play much due to work and kids. During high school, we moved to Louisiana and I just stayed here in the south.

 

Now, the kids are gone out on their own, money is more plentiful and until very recently, time to play golf was in great supply. Until last week, I’d been unemployed for 17 months and consequently, played at least three times per week.

 

I currently carry an 11 handicap in non-tournament play and a 13 for tournament play. I play frequently in the Golf Channel Amateur Tour out of Houston TX where I have lived for the last 20 years. I’ve been as low as a 3 in the past and am reasonably satisfied where I am now. I’d like to be better but I don’t put in the practice time.

 

I’m a club hoarder like many of you. I currently have five iron sets, 12 drivers and about 40 putters. I generally stay with one set of irons but swap out the other stuff from time to time when one misbehaves and needs to be punished.

 

My game strengths have always been my length (I’m 6’4, 240), but as I’m getting older, my strength now is course management. I can still hit it long enough, but trying for 300 yd drives has gone out the window, so to say. Control is most important in all aspects of my game. I like to think I’m a reasonably good putter.

 

First Impressions

I like the more subdued colors of this grip. The black and gray with just a splash of yellow is more pleasing to me that the older red and blue. I chose the 104 because as mentioned above, I like smaller grips. I like the softness of the grip and particularly like the flat front which allows me to get both of my thumbs on the flat portion of the grip.

 

I chose my Ping to use this grip on. It’s been a fairly consistent putter for me though it’s been out of the bag for a few months.

 

I’ve evaluated my putting pre-grip change by going through my last 15 rounds of golf dating back to last October 18 which were also played using a Ping putter (Fetch) with a standard PP grip. These rounds were played on seven different courses. Average score of 88 with several poor high scores of 97,97,91,91,92 and just one “good” score of 80. Average putts per round for these 15 rounds was 34.7 with one horrible outing of 42 putts and the best round of 30 putts. The scores and number of putts do not coincide except the 42 putts did result in a 91 score. A 31 putt round was achieved on a score of 91 and one of the 97 scores had 33 putts.

 

I mention all of this because I intend to track improvement or not of the putting stat with the new grip. While you may be chuckling reading this, improvement would be a key factor for me to actually change to this (or any) putter grip on a permanent basis.

 

Thanks for reading and I look forward to using this new grip and reporting back to you for the stage 2.

JDHolmes

 

 

 

[JDHolmes 70]

Tour SNSR Contour Pro

Stage Two- Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro Putter Grip

Sorry for the delay. I really thought I’d have some quality time for this evaluation and in my mind, that meant some months though in retrospect, we are talking a golf grip here, not a full line of clubs to evaluate. So, I apologize for any delay in getting this done.

I’ve been using this grip now, exclusively, since I received it. I wanted to have significant rounds under my belt to be able to provide data for comparison. However, since receiving this grip, I have gotten a new job which greatly limits the number of rounds a week I play, down to one. There was also some putting practice time in the intervening time getting ready for tournament rounds. So, I do feel like I can make a decision, for myself, about this grip based on what I’ve experienced so far.

I was able to get in 7 rounds, three of which were competitive tournament rounds. Average putts per round were 34, more or less the same as my previous grip/putter. Two of the tournament rounds did skew this score a bit higher with this small data set. The greens were slick as glass and very very fast with large undulations. These are the most difficult greens for me to score well on and had 38 putts for each of those rounds. I don’t fault the putter grip for this, but my choice of a heavier putter but I wanted to use this one and for the grip evaluation. I prefer to use a lighter putter on super fast greens, but oh well.

Looks ( 9 out of 10 points)

I like the gray and yellow of this grip. I like the way it looks on the putter. I’m more of a solid color person though when evaluating my other favorite grips. I like a uniform look and the dual colors, while appealing, are not my favorite. Not perfect for me, but close enough. Will you, the reader like it? <shrug> that’s anyone’s guess based on individual preferences.

Feel ( 18 out of 20 points)

I love the feel of this grip. It has everything I look for in a grip. It’s soft enough to provide feedback on my strike. I love a pistol grip so this met that requirement. For me, this grip helped position my hands in the exact position I like them to be in for quality putter stroke. The grip is a cushiony feeling for your hands without being too soft.

The one thing that detracted from a perfect score for me was that this SNSR grip is just a bit too large for me. I prefer a standard pistol grip and this is a bit larger than standard. While I have no idea why Golf Pride chose this size, I imagine that going to a larger size grip was to be “in vogue” with the current trend of large size putter grips and their popularity.

Performance characteristics ( 27 out of 30 points)

Since I installed the grip myself, it was installed correctly and the alignment on my putter head was perfect when my hands were on the grip. This is of primary concern to me when using/selecting a putter. The head and alignment feature must be perpendicular to the hole when my hands are on the grip without any special modifications to my hands gripping the grip in order to use the putter.

I am mostly a feel putter, and this grip did not let me down. My hands fall into natural position with the SNSR grip. There’s plenty of room for both thumbs on the top of the grip. The flatness of the top is what I’m used to and what I look for when positioning my thumbs correctly. My line is found quickly and easily and I don’t have to anything then to putt the ball. If the read is good, the ball goes in the hole.

Interestingly, I had become known among golfing friends as 6” Jeff because I would consistently leave my putts 6” short of the hole. It was quite the joke as you can imagine.

I can state that the 6” short has been solved with this grip. I am now, in the rounds used, consistently tap in distance beyond the hole. This is a huge plus over my other preferred putter/grip combination as you can imagine.

Durability (10 out of 10 points)

I see no reason this grip will not outlast most others. Quality materials and quality manufacture. In my 300+ putts with it, there is no wear apparent anywhere on the putter grip.

Miscellaneous (5 out of 10 points)

Not much “miscellaneous” about a putter grip. There are no little details like on a club that could be off to discuss. Printing was perfect on the grip and it was perfect, no flaws whatsoever. However, I was a bit put-off from my receipt of it. I received a beat-up, non-descript box, with a putter grip in it. No paperwork, no logos on the box, no identification of who or what sent it, just a putter grip in a box. Picky? Maybe.

Play it or Regrip it? ( 18 out of 20 points)

I will Play It. I will purchase additional and use them on my alternate putters. I didn’t give it a perfect score because of the size issue. There’s a 90% chance that it will be my go-to-grip going forward. While the size is not perfect for me, the shape is. Additionally, there are very few options in standard size pistol grips that are readily available so knowing what this one is and does will sway me towards trying anything online without being able to see it locally.

Final Score (87 out of 100 points)

Not much more to say. Not perfect, but a really good putter grip. I would recommend it for those who use pistol grip putter grips and who need a quality grip for feel putting.

Edited June 23 by JDHolmes
update stage 2

[gchester33 110]

Hello MGS community and thanks to all of you for taking the time to read through this review and an especially big thanks to the MGS staff/mods for all they do in getting these set up. I am pretty excited to have the opportunity to review Golf Pride SNSR 140 grip and to see what differences I can find moving forward.

Golf has been in an out of my life for the last 15+ years. Through my formative years,  I never got very good at it though and ultimately quit the game fully for a few years during high school as I simply wasn't enjoying it. Since that time I would play maybe 2 - 4 times per year over the next 10 years through college, starting a job, and then moving into working and working on my Masters degree simultaneously. You would think that living in Orlando for the last 7 years, a place where I could golf all year would have encouraged me, but I still didn’t get back into the game until I finished my Master’s degree about a year ago. With newly freed up weekends when my wife works, I decided it was time to get back on the wagon. I pulled my old hand-me-down clubs out of the crawl space, dusted off more spiders than I would ever like to remember, and realized just how long it had been. I mean, I still had these irons:

 

(honestly just needed a medium to post how old these things were)

I knew needed new clubs if I had any hope of enjoying myself so like any good millenial I started doing my online research. Thank god I found MGS! I do research for a living, so researching golf clubs was a natural extension for me. And then BOOM I found a website that was actually presenting their results as data and not just awarding every club they get for free 4 -5 stars or giving every club a gold or silver just for being produced by a major manufacture. Not that other review sites aren’t objective...

Ultimately having been back on the golf course for a year I’ve spent a lot of time honing and tweaking my game trying to find what works consistently and I’ve found one of the things I love about golf is that there isn’t a right and wrong way to do something. I love that you can make it as cerebral as you want like Bryson’s science experiments or just grip it and rip it like Brooks. I play as a 17 – 18 handicap, i.e. I’m your everyman. If my front nine is off to a rough start, I’m going to grab a few beers for the back to hopefully lube up the swing. At this level I don’t think there is a truly consistent part of my game and feel I’m in a constant state of flux with my tee-to-green game. My approach/around the green definitely holds me back which leads to long lags and lengthy attempts at par saves – or as I like to call them – bogeys. Putting may actually be the most consistent part of my game. I can typically be confident that I’ll two putt most anything and I can be pretty good inside 10 ft. Honestly though that is purely hubris as I have definitely four-putted recently. A good round for me could be 36 putts if my approach game was horrible but I typically try to target 30 putts/rd. With luck maybe a grip change can drop that.

The Weapon

I currently game Odyssey O-Works Marxman S putter. I loved the feel/sound of the face, the high MOI, and my stroke favors a putter with some toe hang.  It’s a real love it or hate it style, and as much as I might love the classic Anser shape, this is a more reliable putter for me.

 

The Marxman came standard with a Super Stroke 2.0 counterweighted grip. It’s my first oversized grip and I like the way it helps minimize wrist flip. The grip isn’t as big as the giant 5.0 and I have smaller hands, so a grip that size is a nice compromise. When it comes to my ideal putter grip, I’m looking for something that keeps from squeezing too hard, limits my wrist motion and feels natural. I’m not particularly picky about the tack or squish of the grip itself but like something that transmits impact feel well enough that I can tell how I hit a putt. I use a pretty traditional grip but I know that everyone is different and there are as many different putting hand positions as there are grip styles to account for them. I like my putting stroke to be a shorter backswing with some acceleration through the ball especially on putts 10' and below. I find that this keeps me from trying to take speed off during the stroke which leads to mishits and poor distance control.

The still frame here shows my typical grip and set up. I play a shorter 33" putter as I tend to lean over the ball a fair amount which to me encourages a more natural pendulum putting motion I also tend to grip down toward the bottom of my grip which can be seen as I hook my right index finger over the lower edge of the grip. I'm interested to see if the shaping of the new grip changes how I hold it. 

First Look

The Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro 140 cc is the heavier, wider version of their Contour Pro grips. The grip weighs in at 124 g, so just slightly heavier than the 114 g Superstroke (including 50 g counter weight) which should be a simple transition and prevent my putter from feeling like a completely new device. All Tour SNSR grips feature a flat paddle front while the Contour models have a pistol contour in the upper hand. The Contour Pro has a frontside offset in the upper hand while the Contour (non-Pro) is flat across entire front. Golf Pride’s other SNSR offering is the Tour Straight which is more like a SuperStroke Flatso grip.

 The grip diameters are similar and the SNSR has a slightly softer rubber which may have an effect on feedback. Here’s a quick shot that shows this grip vs. the Non-pro SNSR vs. the SS 2.0 vs. the SS 5.0.

 

As you can see the non-Tour SNSR has a more pronounced pistol back than the Tour SNSR and no front offset. Both the SNSR grips have a tapered bottom hand section in comparison to the taper-less super stroke grips. At first feel, I like the top hand contouring and the tapered lower section as I I feel it allows my hands to fall more naturally which should hopefully help keep them moving in a natural stroke. Golf Pride is priding  itself on its new rubber formulation which should provide "Precise ball feedback" and "Optimal grip pressure".The grip is undoubtedly softer than the Super Stroke offerings so I'm interested to see how I feel about it after a few rounds. 

Testing Procedure

Before getting into the testing the actual product I felt I should lay out a testing plan. Putting is probably the easiest portion of the game to record a significant amount of shots and results without needing access to a Trackman or similar shot tracker.

To me there are 3 aspects to comparing these grips: accuracy, consistency, and on course performance. To test the accuracy, I’ve taken my putter out to a couple different putting greens (both fast and slow) and taken 20 – 30 putts from 3’, 10’, and 25’ and recorded how far from the hole the ball ends  up (see data below). For consistency, I'm using the Ping Putting Cradle to compare the consistency of my stroke before and after the grip change. And finally for on course performance I am recording strokes gained data using 18 Birdies (with NO GIMMES!) which should hopefully correlate with the practice data. Pins will be in for all testing, because that’s what MGS says is the most effective; definitely not because I’m lazy. As a little appetizer I’ve included the baseline putting results for the SuperStroke grip.

 

I just changed the grip on the putter so beginning this week I’ll start testing the new grip in the same manner . I’ll obviously include my observations throughout but I know I love seeing fresh data and I think that will help back up my final conclusions on the SNSR grip. I’ll continue to post updates on any early findings I have.

Edited April 25 by gchester33

[gchester33 110]

Stage Two - The Review 07/10/2019 Golf Pride Tour SNSR 140 Putter Grip

– Official MGS Forum Review by gchester33

Intro

I’ve now had this beautiful beast attached to my putter for about 2 months. The majority of my time was spent testing it on course through 5 or 6 rounds with some practice green work in order to compare the performance metrics I set in Stage I. If I had to describe the Golf Pride Tour SNSR in three words it would be “Damned near perfect”. My previous putter grip, the SuperStroke 2.0, was my first foray into oversized putter grips and while I liked it and felt it improved my putting stroke, I always had two small issues. First, I was not excellent at returning my hands to the same position every time I gripped the putter. Second, my hands never felt completely natural on it. As you can read in more detail below I felt the SNSR grip addressed both these issues and don’t expect I will have a putter without this grip for a long time. I almost wanted to not like the grip before I gamed it as I feel there are so many overly positive reviews for products that it muddies the review waters and makes it difficult to find truly critical reviews from those that are purely “everything is awesome ”. That being said I could find nearly no faults in the grip, would recommend it whole heartedly to anyone considering an oversized grip, and believe it would be worth testing for many who like the feel of an oversized grip but are not satisfied with the SuperStroke offerings.

Looks (9 out of 10 points) - I’ll admit that I was impressed by the looks of the SNSR right out of the bag. I like the black/grey color scheme, I love the hand placement guides as a visual cue to go along with the physical guide, and I don’t feel it looks out of place. For some it may be overly loud, which is my only point deduction. Altogether though I like the way this looks both on its own and while looking down at it while putting. I tried to take some pictures of myself holding with both hands, but honestly it just looked like pictures of my hands.

Feel (18 out of 20 points) - The SNSR grip is slightly softer than the previous SuperStroke I had on my putter. I like that feeling as I tend to grasp my putter pretty firmly. I haven’t had any issues with slippage while putting, even in the Florida humidity/sweat, and I putt without a glove. I love the way the flat face and curve along the shaft allow my hands to fall into the exact same spot with every putt. I’ve said it time and again in this thread but that was one of my biggest gripes with the SS was getting a consistent hand placement. With this grip it’s completely natural. The taper with the lower hand area allows it to fall naturally into place without twisting at a strange angle. I have smaller hands but I feel this grip fits my hands to a tee; however, if you have larger hands you may find it small if you’re used to playing the SS 5.0 as this is the larger of the SNSR grips but it is not significantly oversized. I’ve deducted two points as I feel some may find the grip overly soft. Here is a gif to show my putting stroke from 10’ to compare to my Stage 1 post. I don’t notice much a difference, which is inherently good, but doesn’t indicate a significant difference in stroke

Performance Characteristics (28 out of 30 points) - I had the opportunity to play 4 or 5 complete rounds with the new putter grip attached and I’ve never been more surprised by how much a simple change such as a putter grip can improve the act of putting. While I don’t believe my putting stroke changed, I felt that the Tour SNSR grip gave me improved confidence by providing a natural hand placement guide and ideal feel. My 18 Birdies app crapped out on my multiple times during the testing (sometimes due to poor connection, sometimes due to slow app performance, and once due to my own lack of battery) so I don’t have as much actual SG:Putting data as I would like to be able to present to you. What I can say is that through those 5 rounds I think I had at most 1 three-putt per round and it was typically due to an extremely long first putt. My confidence standing over putts was never higher especially on those 5 – 6 foot second putts to save par/bogey. I felt that pistol grip shape reduced the likelihood that I would rotate the grip through impact which improved my putting consistency. I also found that the soft rubber allowed me to better lock my hands in place which helped me maintain a pendulum like putting stroke. The real question here is how did the grip affect my overall putting performance. I’ve updated the graph from Stage 1 to compare the data from the two grips. As you can see, the performance is fairly consistent between the two. At 3’ there is not an appreciable difference; however, there is an improvement at 10’ by using the SNSR grip. My strokes gained putting data stands nearly equal between the two grips though I have 3 putted less frequently, it hasn’t completely disappeared.

Durability (8 out of 10 points) - We’re only 2 months into this review so it’s hard to say how the grip would hold up through a full season or two. To this point in time it is holding up perfectly adequately and showing little no signs of wear. Putter grips experience very little physical stress so we would typically expect them to last a few seasons and I see no reason why this wouldn’t. I did however deduct 2 points as I feel that the soft rubber of the grip is more likely to get beat up after a few hundred pulls into and out of the bag. I can tell that the clubs it shares an opening with are grabbier when I remove them and that will be more likely to induce premature wear on the grip. Ultimately though, while it may not survive as long as a rock hard putter grip, for the price I expect to last an appreciable amount of time. You should be able to see from the still image above that the grip is still in excellent condition with no discoloration or wear.

Miscellaneous (8 out of 10 points) - There’s only so much you can say about a putter grip. You use it for a single activity and it doesn’t see the stresses and wear and tear of your other grips. That being said, I was a little surprised by the shipping condition where it was loose packed in an oversized box better fit for a full set of club grips vs. a single putter grip. I’ve let anyone I play with take a few strokes with the grip and most people have been fond of how it feels, looks, and swings. Obviously putter to putter and person to person can make a huge difference but I have not heard a bad thing about the grip from anyone. The point deduction here is for shipping condition.

Play it or Regrip it? (20 out of 20 points) - This is an easy one. 100% play it. If you couldn’t guess from having read this whole review. I have espoused the good characteristics of the grip throughout so I won’t go back over them here. I have not a modicum of desire to return the SuperStroke grip though. Ultimately I wanted to show a measurable improvement in statistical performance in order to merit a more complete recommendation. But my recommendation is based purely on how it feels in my hand in comparison to my previous SueprStroke.

Conclusion - Again, I cannot say enough good things about the Tour SNSR 140 putter grip. This grip will be staying on my putter for years to come. I think the score below speaks for itself but in detail my utmost approval of this putter grip boils down to:

1. Oversized pistol shape feels more natural to grip in comparison to a single diameter
2. The tapered lower hand section improves grip stability
3. Grip design creates an automatic grip point for improved hand placement consistency
4. Softer rubber prevents over-gripping and improves feedback without feeling harsh.

Final Score: (91 out of 100 points) If anyone is considering the Golf Pride Tour SNSR and has questions please reach out to me on here or on Twitter @gchester33 and I’m more than happy to provide any insights or answer any questions you may have. I offer my sincerest thanks to MGS and Golf Pride for the opportunity to review this grip and look forward to using it for years to come.

Edited June 9 by gchester33

[romeopapazulu 473]

Stage 1 is here:

 

[JohnSmalls 2,709]

Keeping an eye on this, good start fellas!

[knightsofnii 308]

I wanted to say so much more, I think last minute I added one extra sentence and photo and busted my 1000 word limit

 

Thanks MGS for running these reviews and including me in this.  Thanks to Golf Pride for the grips also! 

Thanks to all the MGS participants and donors, without whom this would not be possible. 

 

Long story short or TLDR:  I like my grips so far, I'm hating the old grips I still have left on other clubs, for various reasons.  My game is not improving yet.  But, my right wrist and hand do NOT hurt after 13 holes Tuesday evening   

 

 

[TSauer 3,718]

@romeopapazulu You killed it with those pictures, I love the closeups and being able to see all the detail. Never really thought about the Lamkins having the rounded butts (no pun intended). Like you mentioned, that's a good note for those Arccos users. 

@knightsofnii These are the grips I have been looking at for a little while now, so I'm anxious to see if you end up liking them. First thing that came to mind was, why in the world did Golf Pride not format "Tour Velvet" in a straight line instead of stacked? Interesting tidbit there. Where did you get that regripping station thing from? I need to add something like that to my shop. 

@gchester33 Glad you uploaded those side by side pics for comparison. I just took the grip off of my Evnroll last night and am planning on putting the regular SNSR Contour on there. Haven't had a chance to see the new Contour Pro in person, so this will be some good insight. 

 

Great job, fellas!

 

[Golfspy_CG2 16,082]

2 hours ago, romeopapazulu said:

Stage 1 is here:

 

I loved the comment, "why you?" from your son.  That's often the reaction I get from people around our course that have a much better game than I do, "Why did they pick you?"    I've run out of funny clever things to say, so I just say "why not me?"  and encourage them to check out the site and join and they could possibly be picked.

Great job on the stage 1!