Grips and taping

I thought about adding extra tape to my wedges so that they had the same feel as the rest of my clubs, but a friend of mine who is a scratch golfer told me not to because it would hinder my ability to release the club around the green. I have no idea if he is right, but it made sense to me. I would love to get some insight on this.

Yea he is tall with large hands I bet.

I put 2 additional wraps under my right hand.

Since my mishit is a hook, the added wraps support me in not releasing too much.

Other than that, in my wedges it helps to avoid the taper in the grip, when gripping down on the club for chipping and around the green.

greetings

michi

Sorry, English is not my mother tongue...

Here's the longer version of what I was trying to say: :)

When you grip down on the handle, the grip will gradually decrease in thickness. Once you reach the iron, the grip is fairly thin.

I often grip down on my wedges to play the short shots around the green and the thin grip really disturbs me.

So I put 2 extra wraps of tape under the right hand which keeps the grip at the same thickness down to it's end.

greetings

michi

Extra tape under right hand (bottom) as follows:

Measure 4.5" down from butt and do layer 1 to end of grip.

Measure 5.5" down from butt and do layer 2 to end of grip.

Measure 6.5" down from butt and do layer 3 to end of drip.

This takes the taper out of the grip, but staggers it so there is not a ridge by just doing 3 straight layers under right hand. This stops my right hand getting over active at release.

Fiinsh this off with 1 full length of double sided tape. Put grip on.

Applying extra layers of tape, whether it is to enlarge grip sizes or to alter grip taper (or both), is a technique employed by all types of golfers and is largely based on personal preference and by the way you place your hands on the club.

As in shaft flex and iron lofts, there is no industry standard for grip size or taper, so grips from different companies will vary in size and taper.

I like Golf Pride grips and prefer a grip size that sits in between "standard" and "mid-size". 4 layers of tape gets me to the correct size for me and 2 extra layers under the right hand (my bottom hand) lets me set the right hand just right in relation to the left so that both hands work together properly.

The size of your hands is just one of the things that needs to be considered in determining what is the proper grip size. Your grip "style" is also important. Do you use a "long" or "short" thumb in your top hand grip? Do you use "finger" or a "palm" grip (or a combination)?  Ultimately, only through experimentation will you get the right answer.

Also, be aware that the butt diameter on your clubs will influence grip sizes.  A larger diameter will usually result in a slightly larger grip size once the grip is applied to the shaft.  Typically, the graphite shafts used with woods will have a larger diameter at the butt end and I use one less layers of tape on those. Also, as the shaft gets shorter on the irons and wedges the diameter will get smaller as the shaft gets progressively shorter, but I find this less of an issue than with woods.

Here are a couple of interesting links to thoughtful articles regarding grip sizing.

http://www.golf.com/instruction/youre-playing-wrong-size-grips

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/TWGOLF/fact1A.html#g

Putting extra tape under the bottom 4 inches of the grip (away from the butt) is a tip I got at the GolfWorks club assembly school.

It allows you to grip down on the club for partial wedge shots, or control shots, without turning the club in your hand because the grip gets too narrow.

This is most useful on the 3/4 and full shots. On a 3/4 shot, I hit my 50* GW 82 yards, and my 46* PW 90 yards. If I'm 86 yards out, I would choke down 1/4" on my PW to split the difference. This assumes I've been playing frequently and have good feel with my wedges.

Personally, I have the clubfitter put an extra three layers under the low hand on my wedges.