How did you determine your "ideal" grip size?

[Guest]

Just wondering how your process went. Did you get one club resized and see what worked (trial and error)? Measurements? Stumble onto something? What changed over time as you progressed?

According to my chart, I have a 7.6" long hand and a 3.4" long finger, meaning I should be in "standard +2" or thereabouts. Yet, I feel a lot of tension in my fingers after playing and when gripping the club, feel my fingers touching the pad of my hand. I am not sure if that is good or bad.

[Guest]

I bought a used set of clubs and the grips hadn’t been replaced. I was at a golf shop and felt some mid sized grips. They just felt so good in my hands compared to the thin grips I had. I replaced all mine at the same time. My drives have never been straighter. May or may not be a coincidence.

[jvincent]

Trial and error.

The shaft you use also has an impact since they have different butt diameters and taper rate.

[cardoustie]

Trial and error

i go iomic sticky 2.3, 2 wraps top and 4 right hand

[Paintman]

Keep in mind grip strength. I was a former competitive bodybuilder, powerlifter and current tradesmen. 53 years old.The hands are a medium to large glove. Can crush walnuts.(wink). Forearms like Frank Zane.

How to answer your question properly, would add the above in consideration.

Your background may have a big deal on how you play.

[Paintman]

Hey man, did you ever get a chance to try The Zottsman curls for relief of your tendonitis?

[jons1]

most people are standard. so if you're not sure, and your glove size is large cadet or smaller, start with standard.

If glove size is large, consider 1-2 extra wraps on a 58R. X-large, 2-3 wraps.

If you have hand or joint issue, consider midsize.

If you hook the ball, lean toward larger.

If you slice the ball, lean tower smaller.

And trying them is best option keeping the above in mind.

Even on the PGA Tour there are extremes. The best players are usually close to standard, but there are great players with monster size grips because they want to eliminate the hook. Most amateurs are slicers and would be better suited going smaller than midsize.

[cardoustie]

Yup ... was mostly cured and then strained them again badly in March / April doing some heavy stone work at the cottage ... just now starting to be able to do curls again with half the weight

[Valtiel]

Definitely trial and error, as well as listening to your gut when it comes to feel.
I have an 8.25" hand and 3.75" finger measurement so i'm normally in/around midsize. I am also similar to @Paintman but for completely different reasons, lol. As a stringed instrument player I have slightly exaggerated hand/wrist strength, so bigger grips work better for me there as well. I played midsize NDMCs for several years, but started experimenting with reducing the taper as I felt (like many people) that the bottom hand was a touch small and top hand a touch large. Lamkin has a lot of great options for that feel and I have enjoyed the standard Z5 as an NDMC replacement. I've never had success building up standard Tour Velvets even though I love their feel, just never felt right. Tour Velvet Super Tack midsize grips were nice with +2 wraps of tape, but a little hard and "plastic" feeling over time. Right now I am using standard Tour Velvet Cord with +5/+3 wraps and liking that quite a bit. We'll see how long that sticks around.

[jamcanplay]

Agree. Trial and error, but all based on feel.

Every size/brand/material is different. No all midsize feel the same. Some standard are more cushion than others.

Try different grips at stores with trade in clubs or ask your playing partners to test out their clubs.

[LukeDonaldsTiger]

Trial and error ;)

I tried Lamkin UTx Midsize and they are just a little too small. Fingers touching pad, some stiffness post round. Now I’m using Tour Velvet Midsize Plus4 and they fit well.

Also, I’m convinced that grip firmness is equally important to prevent stiff joints. For example, the GP Z-Grip is just too firm for me and I can literally feel my fingers cramping when I hold the club. I don’t like too soft, either, but my joints are grateful for some relief. Tour Velvets are very comfortable.

[TheDeanAbides]

Grip size has almost no impact on shot shape. That's one of the oldest myths around that I've seen disproven with many players (myself included). Grip size is all about comfort. I wear a small glove and prefer between 2-4 wraps under my grips. https://pluggedingolf.com/does-grip-size-matter-golf-myths-unplugged/

[TheDeanAbides]

[Howard_Jones]

For me it was coincidence. I was all new to golf and had no clue about equipment and bough a set Callaway Heavenwood hybrids, and every time i grabbed one of them, they feelt so much better in my hands than the other clubs, and they worked good too. My suggested grip size using charts we can find on the net is 0.930 or in the middle of standard and mid size. The grips on my heavenwoods was Lamkin crossline Jumbo, and i have been playing them on most of my clubs since then, but also use New Decade MID with my own Asymmetrical BU tape who makes them Mid Size +4.

Comfort, traction, and a little attention against grip weight is what matters, so when a grip change comes up again, i will try something lighter, but still the same size and taper shape as now, my eyes is on Tour Velvet MID i will build up since i can reduce grip weight with about 12-14 grams that way, but keep the size, shape and traction im used to play. Using my own method for asymmetrical BU to "plus 4", they should be about 58 to 60 grams total.

[2Down]

Grew up with my moms old patty berg set. Have used thinner grips ever since. Have tried others at the range and find they limit my wrists. Same thing in putters as well, thick grips take your wrists out of the stroke to some degree.

[joostin]

Feel for me too going to midsize. Maybe playing other sports with bigger grips give a comfort level to me and other people - baseball, tennis, hockey, even lifting in the gym with dumbells and barbells.
Sorry to get really technical, but per the known grip effects like @golfpros1 mentions and others have tested like on a TXG video, I think there are some physics and biomechanical things in play when we go bigger or smaller in grip. Here we go..... Technically the MOI about the grip/shaft centerline goes up with a bigger diameter: MOI of a cylinder = 1/2 * mass * radius^2. That means the bigger you go, the more resistant to rotating. That along with a more open "fist" probably has an effect on the amount and rate we can pronate the bottom hand/wrist and supinate the upper hand/wrist (rolling the club closed). It would be person dependent how much that's affected, but I think that's why we see jumbo grips tend to be harder to square or close the club face.
End of Bryson DeChambeau post. Just go by feel and results!

[Tax77]

Under size TVs, trial and error. My hands are "normal standard" size but with standard and anything bigger my hands, especially my right hand and arm take the swing over and it gets chunky.

[Valtiel]

I prefer to consider this a more nuanced issue than a definite black and white one. I agree that it is primarily about comfort, absolutely. But to take the stance that it has no impact on shot shape I think is a mistake, and also not exactly supported completely by the article you linked, which merely "busted" the "big grips prevent hooks" theory. Even that "busted" conclusion I take a little bit of issue with for a few reasons.

1) It does not list the relative skill level of the players. Better players can often more quickly compensate for these types of changes and "worse" players can have swing flaws that override these types of adjustments.

2) There have been a decent number of tests that show grip size does indeed impact face closure rate, which it stands to reason will impact shot shape to a certain extent.

3) Hitting multiple shots back to back to back like this is a good way to homogenize the results a bit too much. Even the "worse" golfer will start to compensate after a few shots, and IMO it is not always what happens after the 15th shot that is important, but what happened in the first few. I would greatly prefer to see this test carried out in a way that better emphasized that.

[Howard_Jones]

Thats almost correct, too large dont really exist, but too small does, and the symptoms is "variable face angle", so my conclusion after tons of testing is that most of us benefit from a larger grip, specially for the lowest hand who is in charge of face angle timing. Every time i saw a player with a face angle that was too variable, we tried a larger side, and it works and we adapt to that very fast and the issues will for most players be gone.

And one important end note. The test you link to makes a point of resetting SW values vs grip weight, thats "DEEP goodnight" and can only be done if we stay within the players limits for total weight, so be very careful by following that advice, and we also mess with flex when we do that. If the club head feels too light during transition after we put on a larger grip, we should look at the added weight grip side and reduce it by using a different grip model when possible, the solution is hardly ever to "reset SW values", that statement alone is enough to dismiss the whole "busted story" when they use the reset SW as a blanco statement (like it was a safe non issue solution, its anything but that).

[TheDeanAbides]

Please don't misquote me. I said ALMOST no impact.

[Guest]

 

yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Pressure is different on a wider grip and is dispersed differently. As we all know from entry-level physics, moment=F*D and our distance increases for a larger grip, changing the overall relationship of how quickly a club turns for a given amount of force but then also changing the biomechanical relationship between the hands and grips. There are a lot of factors at play. Foremost (I would think) is the relationship of comfort and ability not to grip "too tight". From my experience, soft relaxed hands is one of my keys to timing and optimal club lag. Grips that cause me to over-grip are potentially disastrous.

[shart6]

I selected grip size by hitting shots on two tight holes with out of bounds left and right. A slightly oversize grip produced the best results. I've used slightly oversize grips ever since. Any measurements done suggested a slightly undersized grip.

[GSDriver]

I go by what feels right. For some reason 'midsize' grips feel too big, standard grips a bit too small, and my homebrew mix feels just right (depending on shaft/grip diameter) which is +2 then another under right hand only, works for me.

If have to grip too hard, or lose grip during swing, grips might not be the correct size. Grips are easy to blow off, so try a few combos at the range to determine what you feel is best for you.

[LeoLeo99]

Bought my irons used and they came with Tour Wrap midsize. Realized I liked the bigger squishier grips compared to the victory cords I grew up playing. They are slick in the humidity or rain, though.

[joostin]

Yep all good points. One more technical thought... A standard or smaller grip can be held more "in the fingers". The centerline axis of a larger grip may be closer to the palms of the hands. The closer that axis is to the rolling wrists, the less the rotation you can apply to the club theoretically. That's another possible reason for bigger grips making it harder to square/close for some people.

I can see comfort as #1. Wife started with ladies undersize grips because that's what the industry says she's supposed to have. Well she couldn't sustain gripping in the fingers correctly because of lack of grip strength from past injuries, and she'd end up holding on for dear life in the palms. Couldn't swing with any wrist hinge. We switched her to big arthritic grips and it was a night and day difference. She's not worried about grip as much and can put a good swing on it.

[games]

Having put Jumbomax grips on over a month ago, I really believe much of my golfing "life" was wasted trying to get my brain wrapped around how to swing a golf club with my fingers.

The weight of the grip has taught me how to use the physics of the golf club. The thickness gives me confidence through control. A true jumbo grip 1/8" over standard feels like a twig now.

I think this is how juniors should be started, with grips of similar size as their tennis rackets and baseball bats. If smaller grips are truly superior, they can shrink as golfers progress.

IMO, after over a month with these, I truly believe standard grips are responsible for five-hour death marches on Saturday mornings at the muni...

[kleydejong]

Two years ago I went through kind of a phase. Learning how to blow on grips with an air compressor opened pandora's box. Tried a bunch of different grips and number of wraps. Slowly found what I like and now I have it dialed in.