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While checking my clubs in preparation for the new season one thing I noticed was that I have a collection of different grips on my clubs.
Having swapped clubs in and out of my bag over the last number of years I’ve now ended up with different golf grips on my driver and fairway woods, compared to my irons and compared to my specialist wedges.
I had never really noticed it before and so prior to deciding whether to do anything about it I did some detailed analysis on what grips the top 100 players on the PGA Tour are using to see what the best players on the planet are up to.
75% of the top 100 PGA Tour players use Golf Pride golf grips. The Tour Velvet grip is the most popular with 32 players choosing it but 23 different grips made by 7 different brands are used by the top 100. Lamkin grips are the only other brand used by more than 10 players but none of the top 100 currently use Winn grips.
Even though there seems to be a clear consensus among the best players on the PGA Tour that Golf Pride grips are their preferred choice our research still found 23 different grip models being used by the top 100.
Clearly therefore the pros have detailed requirements when it comes to their grips and pay close attention to which grips feel and work the best for them.
Breakdown of Golf Grips Used by Top 100 PGA Tour Players
The golf grip is the only point of contact every golfer has with the golf club so it makes sense that it should never just be a case of any player simply living with whatever grip comes on the clubs they choose.
The best pros on the PGA Tour clearly don’t and our in-depth analysis of the golf grips used by the top 100 players on Tour found that the pros clearly spend a great deal of time ensuring the only direct contact they have with their clubs is as comfortable and suited to them as possible.
For example, while 2021 US Open Champion Jon Rahm uses only 1 tape wrap underneath his Golf Pride New Decade MultiCompound grips Bubba Watson by comparison has between 11 and 15 wraps of tape under the left hand and between 11 and 13 wraps under the right hand across his golf set.
Tony Finau meanwhile opts for 4 wraps under the left and 3 wraps under the right hand of his Lamkin UTX Midsize Full Cord grips.
When it comes to whether the pros use the same grips on all their clubs however, with the exception of the putter, the answer would seem to be pretty clear.
All of the top 100 PGA Tour players use the same golf grips on all their clubs with the exception of Lee Westwood. He chooses Lamkin Crossline Full Cord grips for his woods but then uses PING ID8 White 1/2 Cord grips on his irons.
It is highly unlikely that golf grips are ever the main topic of conversation in the clubhouse among amateur golfers across the world but it is clear from looking at the golf grips chosen by the top 100 PGA Tour players that it is something they pay close attention to.
Here is a complete breakdown of all the golf grips being used by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour.
| GOLF GRIP | NO. OF TOP 100 PGA TOUR PLAYERS | |
| Golf Pride Tour Velvet | 32 (inc. Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Joaquin Niemann, Stewart Cink) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Golf Pride MCC (MultiCompound) | 18 (inc. Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Jason Kokrak, Corey Conners, Max Homa, Phil Mickelson) | Check eBay View on Amazon View at PGA Tour Superstore View at Worldwide Golf Shops |
| Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord | 9 (inc. Brooks Koepka, Billy Horschel, Martin Laird, Jason Day) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord | 7 (inc. Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, Paul Casey) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Golf Pride Tour Wrap 2G | 1 (Daniel Berger) | Check eBay View on Amazon View at PGA Tour Superstore View at Worldwide Golf Shops |
| Golf Pride Victory 2000 Cord | 1 (Lucas Glover) | |
| Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align | 1 (Harris English) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Golf Pride Tour Velvet Super Tack | 1 (Cameron Smith) | Check eBay |
| Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4 | 1 (Kevin Na) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay |
| IOMIC X-Grip | 1 (Matt Kuchar) | Check eBay |
| JumboMax JMX UltraLite | 1 (Bryson DeChambeau) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay |
| Lamkin Crossline Full-Cord | 4 (inc. Carlos Ortiz, Sam Burns, Lee Westwood – woods) | View on Amazon Check eBay View at PGA Tour Superstore |
| Lamkin UTX | 2 (Tony Finau, Charley Hoffman) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Lamkin Crossline | 2 (inc. Adam Long) | View at PGA Tour Superstore View at Worldwide Golf Shops Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Lamkin ACE 3GEN | 1 (Brendan Steele) | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| PING ID8 White 1/2 Cord | 1 (Lee Westwood – irons) | Check eBay |
| PING 703 | 2 (Bubba Watson, Brandon Hagy) | |
| SuperStroke S-Tech | 3 (Jordan Speith, Sergio Garcia, Joel Dahmen) | View at PGA Tour Superstore Check eBay View on Amazon |
| SwitchGrips ER | 1 (Louis Oosthuizen) | Check eBay |
Do Pros Use Cord or Non-Cord Golf Grips?
Watch the PGA Tour for any length of time and it won’t take long before you notice the various multi-coloured golf grips that many of the pros have on their clubs.
While all the main golf grip manufacturers produce multi-coloured grips these days the most common coloured grip is the Golf Pride MCC (New Decade MultiCompound) which is a hybrid grip with a standard lower section and cord upper section.
[Editor’s note – Hybrid golf grips are also known as ‘half cord‘ grips]
And when it comes to cord grips it is interesting to see what proportion of the PGA Tour pros use them.
Over 20% of the top 100 PGA Tour pros use full cord grips with over 20% choosing hybrid grips which have a cord upper section and normal rubber lower section. The majority of the top 100, just over 50% choose non-cord grips, and among this group Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet grip is the most popular.
By choosing Lamkin Crossline full cord grips on his woods and PING ID8 1/2 cord grips on his irons Lee Westwood was once again the anomaly we found with his choice of a mixture of full cord and hybrid grips in his golf set.
But why do some of the pros decide to go for cord grips, whether that is just for their top hand with the hybrid grips or for both hands with the full cord options?
Pros choose full or half cord golf grips because of the extra traction they give to stop the club spinning in their hands when their hands are sweating or they are playing in wet conditions. Cord grips absorb more moisture by virtue of the cord strands that are sandwiched and moulded between two thin layers of rubber.
The key word when it comes to golf grips is ‘feel’ and with cord grips they have a lightly sanded feel.
And it is this which adds the extra friction with a player’s hands when they grip the club compared to a standard soft non-cord rubber grip.
| GOLF GRIP TYPE | NO. OF TOP 100 PGA TOUR PLAYERS | SELECTED GOLFERS |
| Non-cord | 53 | Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Jordan Speith, Dustin Johnson, Harris English, Cameron Smith, Louis Oosthuizen, Patrick Cantlay |
| Hybrid | 21 | Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Jason Kokrak, Patrick Reed, Cory Conners, Max Homa, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson |
| Full cord | 25 | Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa, Carlos Ortiz, Charley Hoffman |
| Full cord / Hybrid | 1 | Lee Westwood |
Like every golf swing however, every player is different when it comes to which golf grip types they prefer the feel of in their hands.
I used to use full cord grips in the past simply because I saw a lot of the pros using them however I found that due to the additional roughness they caused my hands a few problems, especially when I was practising and playing almost every day.
I therefore switched back to the non-cord grips and have stuck with them since simply because I prefer the smoother feel in my hands and I have never noticed any problems with my hands slipping due to sweat or in wet weather.
Every player is different though and personal preference clearly plays its part also among the top 100 players on the PGA Tour.
[Editor’s note – We also took a detailed look at the putter grips the top 100 PGA Tour pros use which you can check out here.]
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