Why are cord grips getting less "cordy" in recent models?

[golferdude54]

Has anyone noticed how much less cord there are in today's cord grips compared to cord grips in the 90's and prior? I have a MacGregor Muirfield 1-iron from the 80's and the grip on it is a Victory cord grip. This grip model had way more cord than the Z-Cord grip that's the current model today.

 

Even Tiger plays the old pre-"BCT" Tour Velvet cord grips to this day. There are some pictures of Ben Hogan's grips close up and they look awesome with how much cord they have. I've provided a couple pictures of the old school cord grips that he played.

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by golferdude54

[phizzy30]

Probably to save money. 

[Chopper Dave]

Because

 

 

 

In all seriousness tho, is it cutting costs? A lot of the knock offs and junky rubber cheapos can have more chord than the legit stuff

[Chunkitgood]

Dave beat me to it.

 

For some reason what old timers used to do regularly is now painful to people.

 

Last time I brought some corded grips the guy selling them said “oh, so you want to tear your hands up.”

[skraly]

I had some corded grips in the mid 70’s that felt about like 80 grit sand paper in roughness.  I loved them.  It’s hot and humid in the summer where I live and they gave great traction in any conditions.  They didn’t bother my hands.  But if your grip was faulty I can see how they might.  Sadly they are long gone and no corded grip available today even comes close.

[Valtiel]

I found a good balance between cord and rubber to have the best overall traction honestly. Tons of cord is nice for humid conditions, but in drier ones all that cord just starts to feel drier and slicker to me. 

[anser85029]

Back in the 1980s full cord Green Victory grips could be purchased for around $2.50 per grip.  In a case qty of 150, about 50 of them had uniform, consistent cord around the entire grip, another 50 had a medium, but inconsistent amount of cord around the grip, and about 50 had a light and variable cord consistency.  

 

Around the turn of the century, Golf Pride made a limited run of the 50th anniversary edition of the Victory cords with extremely high quality control.  Every single one of them had a uniform cord consistency throughout the entire case.  If memory serves, they had a little gold paintfill on the fronts.

 

Sadly GP discontinued the Victory grips.  To this day, I don't understand why.

[rynobucket]

I used to love when golfworks would have the "blemish" Crossline cords on deep discount (couple bucks per grip). On about half of them, the blemish would be that there was 'too much' cord. I would buy about 100 grips, keep the ones that had a ton of cord and sell the rest on ebay.

[Rapidcat]

It's simple - more people do less manual labor now so their hands are soft, pink and weak so cord destroys them, the poor darlings.

[Cwebb]

37 minutes ago, Rapidcat said:

It's simple - more people do less manual labor now so their hands are soft, pink and weak so cord destroys them, the poor darlings.

 

sponge grips!!

[Rapidcat]

Just now, Cwebb said:

 

sponge grips!!

[Double Mocha Man]

On 12/1/2022 at 4:52 PM, golferdude54 said:

Has anyone noticed how much less cord there are in today's cord grips compared to cord grips in the 90's and prior?

 

My understanding is that the cord grip makers asked folks to send them their old cord grips.  They discovered a lot of human skin residing on those grips.

[Neo1]

On 12/2/2022 at 12:55 AM, Valtiel said:

I found a good balance between cord and rubber to have the best overall traction honestly. Tons of cord is nice for humid conditions, but in drier ones all that cord just starts to feel drier and slicker to me. 

 

yeah living in so cal it's very dry and too much cord feels terrible

[aswile]

Firm and heavily corded grips are what I love, but are no longer available.

 

[Begbie]

20 minutes ago, aswile said:

Firm and heavily corded grips are what I love, but are no longer available.

 

What grips do you play?

[Bonneville85308]

On 12/2/2022 at 7:54 AM, anser85029 said:

Back in the 1980s full cord Green Victory grips could be purchased for around $2.50 per grip.  In a case qty of 150, about 50 of them had uniform, consistent cord around the entire grip, another 50 had a medium, but inconsistent amount of cord around the grip, and about 50 had a light and variable cord consistency.  

 

Around the turn of the century, Golf Pride made a limited run of the 50th anniversary edition of the Victory cords with extremely high quality control.  Every single one of them had a uniform cord consistency throughout the entire case.  If memory serves, they had a little gold paintfill on the fronts.

 

Sadly GP discontinued the Victory grips.  To this day, I don't understand why.

 

They also did another run of regular Victory and Victory Cords around 2015 but apparently without the special features. They must not have sold well, in 2017 I bought a full set of the Victory Cords from the clearance bin at my local big box golf store marked down to like $3 each, That's the last I've ever seen them for sale in a store. I am currently playing the Golf Pride MCC.