General Look at Pure Grips(part one)

Golf grips with a one-year guarantee and no tape or solvent required? Sound like hocum? It's not.

Take a moment to consider the grips on your golf club. Odds are they're the most unappreciated piece of equipment in your bag.(Callaway Diablo Forged Irons) I know guys who care more about their ball markers, their divot repair tools, and their towels than they care about their grips.

What sense does that make? The only way you can control the golf club is through your hands, and your hands touch the golf club via the grip only. In some ways, the grip is more important than whether you've got a game-improvement cavity back iron on the end of the shaft or a 1970s style muscleback blade – if you can't grip the club properly you've got little chance of success with either.

As a kid I remember installing new Golf Pride Tour Wraps (was there any other kind in the early 1990s?) every two months. It cost a few dollars per grip – installed – and I just left it up to my pro.

As I got older – and grips got more expensive – I opted to buy the solvent, the drip pan, the shaft vice, the grips, the double-sided tape, a hook blade, and a hot air blower to regrip my own clubs. It was okay for a grip or two but I still found myself giving my large regripping jobs to a local clubmaker.(Callaway Diablo Edge Irons) It was such a pain in the rear. I'd inevitably get solvent on my hands or the outside of the grip, I'd have a hard time getting the grip on all the way, cleanup and preparation took longer than I cared for, etc.

change all of that. With a line of reasonably priced grips that come with a one-year guarantee and the easiest installation process I've ever seen, PURE is positioned nicely to take over from giants Golf Pride, Lamkin, and Winn.

Do their grips hold up? Is installation as easy as the videos on the site?

PURE Technology
You might not think there's a lot of technology in grips, but Golf Pride, Winn, Lamkin, and of course PURE would beg to differ. After all, the first three companies must so that they can continue to charge $8+ per grip, and PURE must so that they can convince you they've got a better product.

PURE grips are created using a proprietary injection molding process. This process forms PURE's proprietary rubber formulation into shape. The rubber itself is completely absent of plasticizers or any other diluting additives that may otherwise negatively effect the life and durability of the grip. This is in stark contrast to the majority of grips on the market, which aren't "pure rubber" at all and are surprisingly high in these plasticizers.

PURE's injection molding process and quality assurance keeps their grips to tight standards. PURE says their grips vary in weight less from grip to grip than any other manufacturer and claim to have the most unvarying weight of any grip on the market. I can vouch for the consistency – I measured over 20 grips on a scale and each one of the PURE Pros clocked in at 50 grams on the button.

PURE's consistency doesn't stop there. The company also claims that their grips have the most uniform wall thicknesses in the industry throughout the grip length for a consistent feel in your paws.

As I said, (Callaway X-22 Left Irons)PURE's grips are made of rubber and no plasticizers or cord that can wear out, so the company claims that these grips not only start out tacky but remain tacky throughout their lifetime. There's nothing to get firm, dry, or crack. Whether you're playing in wet or humid weather or colder temperatures of spring or fall, PURE says their grips will remain naturally tacky.