Building Up the Grips on your Scoring Clubs

[Tony Covey MGS]

Hey All - SCORGolf is nearing the end of a 12-part series designed to help improve your short games. The series is being published exclusively in our Newsletter and thus far has proven to be a very interesting read. I wanted to share a snippet from today's edition (content provided by SCORGolf's Terry Kohler).

 

"One insider tip I'll pass on is that you might find that your short game gets better if you build up the grips a bit on your scoring clubs. A lifetime PGA member passed this on to me last spring, so I re-gripped my wedges to see what it felt like . . . in the name of science, of course. I've got short fingers (medium cadet glove), so I've always played standard size grips. But I put one extra wrap on my 9-iron, PW and gap wedge, and two extra wraps on my sand and lob wedge.

 

I was immediately convinced. The slightly larger grip helps me keep the hands quiet during the swing, and puts more of my fingertips on the club which enhances feel".

There's a certain logic to this I suppose, and is something Dave Pelz has advocated for quite sometime now (and is why Bobby Jones wedges ship stock with mid-sized grips). Are any of you currently doing this with your wedges? I'm re-gripping my sandwedge (just pimped it out Josh Chervokas style) today, and am seriously considering adding a couple of wraps.

[Matt Saternus]

Can't say that I've tried this, but it does make sense. Might be something to mess with in the shop this winter, though.

[Tony Covey MGS]

I probably wouldn't do it with a 9-iron or even a pitching wedge (I seldom take less than a full swing with either), but I'll try it on the sand wedge and take it from there.

[Super Tuna]

I've tried it previously on the recommendation of my instructor and the results weren't pretty. I'm not a feel short game player, everything is very mechanical, and I play with a glove on both hands to boot so the feel reason was out right away. As to keeping the hands queiter, I found that it made it worse since I didn't have the same grip that that I took with my irons I didn't trust the club to commit into the shot and when I did I found I faded the ball even with scoring clubs.

 

I like a lot of Terry's points but this one doesn't reasonate with me.

 

As an aside: for those that haven't tried or aren't looking at the SCOR wedges, it's well worth it. My shot game confidence and shot making has gotten so much better now that I have clubs that do what I want it's not funny.

[Tyk]

My experience with this has been the exact opposite. I played mid-size through my set for several seasons and the negatives with the scoring clubs were eventually why I gave up midsize completely. For me I lost feel with the bigger grips with the wedges, which I suppose is kind of the point, to improve and rely upon good mechanics and take the hands out of play. Similar I suppose to the fat putter grips. I didn't mind it so much with straight forward short chip shots, it was the mid-distance partial shots where the big grips didn't help. A big grip does not help when one is trying to hit a 30 yard high spinner from a short sided tight lie!

 

I guess I don't completely agree with the idea of trying to take the hands out of the mix. I certainly agree that overactive hands can be a problem, but a good short game requires good hands. You have to be able to adjust your grip pressure, firm up or relax your wrists, release high or low etc to be able to get creative around the greens. Bigger grips interfere with that. Now, if the goal is to get very good at one or two kinds of shots, then maybe, and that might not be a bad way to go, but it has its limitations too.

[mlf16507]

I put Precise Wedge grips on my GW,SW and LW this year. They are an inch longer than regular grip and don't taper as much. I love them and strongly advise you try them!

 

http://www.amegrips.com/precise-golf-grips/wedge

[mlf16507]

Another wedge grip is the Winn:

 

http://www.hirekogolf.com/hireko/orderportal/catalog_presentation/by_group/0/1295/0/0/0/0/0

[RookieBlue7]

I've always been the exact opposite. I build up the right hand with the driver, fairway and hybrids with 4 wraps versus 2 extra under the left hand (midsize grips). As the clubs get shorter, there's less build-up. In the 9 iron down, there is 1 layer of tape under the entire grip (still a midsize). I find having more hand involved gives me more options, flops, etc. I don't hit a lot of dead hands shots, rather I chip with lively hands. I've always had success doing it this way and don't think taking the hands out of chipping (which to me is all feel) will help me, rather it'd hurt me.

[Matt Saternus]

I put Precise Wedge grips on my GW,SW and LW this year. They are an inch longer than regular grip and don't taper as much. I love them and strongly advise you try them!

 

http://www.amegrips....olf-grips/wedge

 

That's very interesting. I don't know that I would want/need/use the extra length of the grip, but less taper would be nice since I do choke down on wedges fairly often.