In the fiercely competitive world of professional tournament golf, every piece of equipment is scrutinized, and every choice is a strategic decision. Players and their teams meticulously select drivers, irons, and shafts in the pursuit of even the slightest performance edge.
Yet, when it comes to grips, Golf Pride seems to have established such a level of dominance that I can’t think of another brand that even comes close to being as well-represented in a DP World or PGA Tour field.
Champion Alex Noren was using a full bag of Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips at the BMW PGA Championship
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Before I saw these statistics, if someone had asked me what the most dominant single piece of equipment at any tour event was, my instinct would have taken me towards the eternally popular Titleist golf ball. However, despite producing some seriously impressive numbers in its own right, with 68.8% of the recent BMW PGA Championship field using a Titleist ball (nearest competitor 13%), even those figures are dwarfed by Golf Pride’s presence.
World number two Rory McIlroy favours the half cord MCC grips
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Statistics from the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth show that of the 138 players in the field, an astonishing 133 had at least one Golf Pride grip in their bag, representing 96.4% of the field. This is not just a strong showing; it’s a near-monopoly of a category among the world’s best players.
Ryder Cup player Tyrrell Hatton is another who prefers the multi texture feel of the Golf Pride MCC grip
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This choice becomes even more interesting when you delve deeper into the numbers. Looking specifically at iron grips, for example, 127 players used Golf Pride, and perhaps more tellingly for me, 100 of these players used a non-standard model, size, or technology.
As a grip nerd, this is intriguing to me, as it means that these players aren’t just defaulting to the brand; they are actively seeking out a specific configuration that gives them the exact feel and performance they need.
Playoff runner-up Adrain Saddier was one of a number of players to use Align technology which offers a very pronounced rib on the back of the grip to help finger placement
(Image credit: Getty Images)
While Golf Pride’s standard Tour Velvet grips accounted for the largest single model in play, with 29 players using them, even on those grips, many of the players will adopt their own specific taping…
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