Building Up Grips - Hand Specific

One Planer

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I've been building up my own grips and fitting them for a good while now, but have a question on the following.

You hear of people having a number of grips under a specific hand. Bubba having something stupid like 13 wraps under his lower hand as an example.

I currently build my grips up from standard to 1/32" over size by adding an additional 3 layers of tape (+ 1 grip tape) under my grips.

I noticed, last night in particular, that my hands felt very active through impact. On one swing in particular I could feel my lower hand wrap over either just at or just after contact. Missed green left - Just.

My top hand (left) feels comfortable on the grip, with the fingers just touching the fleshy pad at the base of my thumb. The lover hand doesn't feel bad, per say, just a little thin.

I'll get a picture up when I get home tonight.

I've felt my hands become active before and put it down to a bad swing. Now I'm not so sure.

My new grips have been delivered today and I'm wondering whether to build the grips up a little more, either to:

A) Midsize - This is what Golf Prides Static fitting has me at.

or

B) Add a few additional wraps under my lower hand.

My only worry with building them to a midsize (6 layers) is that my top hand would be affected and would feel in as good a position as it is now. That and the monumental amount of masking tape I'll need to build up a full bag :mad:

Has any body got any experience of building up grips under a specific hand, rather than the total length of the grip?

I'd be interested to hear any thoughts you have as to why it helps you :thup:
 

fundy

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Im currently using midsize grips but with 4 extra wraps under the bottom hand. After a long chat with the fitter at Taylormade at the Belfry he recommended trying building up the bottom hand. After a bit of trial and error 4 layers seemed to be the right number (albeit in hindsight I may go to 5 or 6 next time). Personally not a fan of tapered grips so the build up under the bottom hand effectively turns them into parallel grips which feel much better to me and allow me to put the right hand on the grip where it should be. That said I do have big hands and partly come from a cricket background and used to having very thick bat rubbers on the handle so always been a little different!

My bottom hand is noticeably less active now (albeit thats a conscious thing with having the hand in the right place gripwise as well as having neutralised my swingpath), but Im much more confident that my grip (right hand at least) isnt an issue since making the change
 

One Planer

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Im currently using midsize grips but with 4 extra wraps under the bottom hand. After a long chat with the fitter at Taylormade at the Belfry he recommended trying building up the bottom hand. After a bit of trial and error 4 layers seemed to be the right number (albeit in hindsight I may go to 5 or 6 next time). Personally not a fan of tapered grips so the build up under the bottom hand effectively turns them into parallel grips which feel much better to me and allow me to put the right hand on the grip where it should be. That said I do have big hands and partly come from a cricket background and used to having very thick bat rubbers on the handle so always been a little different!

My bottom hand is noticeably less active now (albeit thats a conscious thing with having the hand in the right place gripwise as well as having neutralised my swingpath), but Im much more confident that my grip (right hand at least) isnt an issue since making the change

Interesting read Steve, thanks.

I don't have big hands at all, yet both Lamkin and Golf pride Static fittings have me at Midsize.

I wear a M/L glove and interestingly, when I state this on the fitting guide, my spec' drops from midsize to standard :mad:

I'm guessing based on this my hand size falls between standard and mid, so 1/32" oversize may be right for the top hand, but I'm not sure about the bottom hand.
 

fundy

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Interesting read Steve, thanks.

I don't have big hands at all, yet both Lamkin and Golf pride Static fittings have me at Midsize.

I wear a M/L glove and interestingly, when I state this on the fitting guide, my spec' drops from midsize to standard :mad:

I'm guessing based on this my hand size falls between standard and mid, so 1/32" oversize may be right for the top hand, but I'm not sure about the bottom hand.

Might be worth just building up one club with a few wraps and seeing how it feels, can always remove them if doesnt work and put the grip back on normally
 

One Planer

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Might be worth just building up one club with a few wraps and seeing how it feels, can always remove them if doesnt work and put the grip back on normally

I thought of that as an option too.

I think I may give it a nudge with an extra couple of wraps and see how they play.

A further question Steve.

Do you feel the ridge in the grip where the different layers meet or does the grip core do a good job of levelling out any bumps?
 

fundy

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I thought of that as an option too.

I think I may give it a nudge with an extra couple of wraps and see how they play.

A further question Steve.

Do you feel the ridge in the grip where the different layers meet or does the grip core do a good job of levelling out any bumps?

No bump at all on mine, assume the grip levels it out fine but you couldnt tell where the line is thats for sure
 

Slicer30

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Gareth - how snug is the M/L glove? When I buy a new one it fits almost perfect - little bit tight you might say.

The Lamkin site recommended me Standard + 3 wraps. In the end i went to a Pro and ended up with Midsize and 1 wrap. I have recently done a wedge with Midsize and 2 wraps and its perfect so will do that for my irons next time.

In short - those websites are not ideal I think - in your position I would build up 1 club until I was happy with it and then do all the others.

edit - not really what you were asking about in your post - as we same glove size I thought it worth pointing the difference I had in grip size.
 
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One Planer

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Gareth - how snug is the M/L glove? When I buy a new one it fits almost perfect - little bit tight you might say.

The Lamkin site recommended me Standard + 3 wraps. In the end i went to a Pro and ended up with Midsize and 1 wrap. I have recently done a wedge with Midsize and 2 wraps and its perfect so will do that for my irons next time.

In short - those websites are not ideal I think - in your position I would build up 1 club until I was happy with it and then do all the others.

It's an interesting point you raise about glove size.

The M/L is tight fitting, as that's how I prefer them. The Velcro closure only fastens about 3/4 of the way over (Which is apparently correct).

If you fill in the info here:

http://www.golfpride.com/fit/

It has me at midsize (Size A = 8" - Size B = 2"-4"), yet by glove size it has me standard :mad:
 

Slicer30

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Yep - in that case you should look at midsize. I tried both options ( standard with 4 layers(I think) and Midsize with 1) The Midsize felt better and less work in doing so.
 
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