Even in 2025, with customers willing to spend thousands of dollars on a set of custom-built golf clubs, grips are still often overlooked in the fitting process.
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, co-hosts Kris McCormack and Wadeh Maroun were joined by Golf Pride COO Eric Gibson and Head of Engineering Greg Cavill to discuss how players should go about selecting the right grips and how the company is dialing the process.
Cavill said that grips are usually the last question a fitter asks during a fitting.
“It’s typically, ‘What do you play right now?’ And, ‘What color do you prefer?’, which is tragic,” Cavill said.
Golf Pride’s new Align Max grips accentuate this popular feature
Cavill added that Golf Pride isn’t just trying to say the grip question should be answered at the beginning of a fitting. There needs to be research to back that up, and Golf Pride is working on more education on what exactly custom fitting for grips is.
“My team is hard at work building up that database, that knowledge,” he said. “When you have a customer come into Pinehurst office here, understanding where they fall within the segmentation, the types of play that they’re into, whether it’s competitive, whether it’s recreational, the wear characteristics, not just on the grip but also on their hands, any ailments, etc., the list keeps on going.”
The proper grip, he said, should blend both comfort and performance needs.
Gibson explained that it starts with the size of the hands and then you factor in what a player likes to feel in their hands and if they want to have a ridge, like Golf Pride’s Align technology.
Golf Pride MCC Plus4 Grip
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One of the issues Golf Pride has confronted it is that, according to the company’s research, one-in-five golfers don’t know to replace their grips and among those who do, a large percentage don’t replace them all at once.
Many golfers also settle on particular grips because someone gave them to them, and they became comfortable with them, even if they weren’t right.
“We could come out tomorrow with a new point of view on how grips should be included in custom fitting,” Gibson said. “I think what we are guarding against is the fact that we hold such a large portion of this category that we want to make sure that we are absolutely certain that it’s going to improve the confidence of the golfers. Otherwise, it would be irresponsible of us.
“We want to make sure that we’re responsible when we do it, because it’s going to be a large change management exercise for the industry.”
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