The Complete Handbook of Golf Club Grips

Finally a book that treats grips like engineering components. I've been regripping my own clubs for a few years and this cleared up two things I'd been faking: how to properly measure butt diameter and why the taper on a grip matters more than I thought. The installation section is exactly right. Only reason it's not five stars is I wish the troubleshooting chapter had a bit more on dealing with shafts that have old tape residue, but overall it's a genuinely useful reference.

I run a small repair operation out of my garage and this has become my go-to for grip questions. The chapter on suppliers is worth the price alone — it gave me a clear picture of margin expectations and how to position my own pricing. The material breakdowns are accurate, not the usual fluff. Knocked one star off because the writing is a bit dry in places, but for this kind of book that's probably a feature, not a bug.

Decent technical content, and I appreciate the effort to be rigorous. But I felt it leaned a bit too much on the specifics that would matter to someone running a business and not enough on data for a club player like me. For example, there was no direct suggested list of grips by hand-measurement range; it was all generic. That said, the maintenance and cleaning procedures are solid.

Maybe I was the wrong audience. I was hoping for more comparative data specs — actual weight, butt, core values of common grips on the market. This book tells you to measure and research but doesn't provide a definitive spec table. The business section is also pretty high-level, assumes you already know basic retail. It's a well-written starting point, not the last word.

As a teaching pro, I recommend grips to students all the time and this helped me standardize my own advice. The breakdown of cord vs. rubber in different humidity climates gave me exactly the language I needed to explain why a student's club was twisting. The straight talk about installation is also great — I've seen plenty of grips ruined by bad technique. Good reference, though I would have liked a little more on the rules regarding grip size conformity in tournament play.

Strong practical book. I've been fitting at a pro shop for a decade and I still moved the cleaning and inspection chapter to the staff break room. The maintenance schedule at the start of Chapter 5 is realistic and actionable, and the troubleshooting guide for fraying cord is exactly right. It's not a thrilling read, but it does what a reference should do. Four stars only because I found the glossary a little short for what it promises.

This is the first book I've read where I didn't feel like I was being pitched to. Every claim is measurable, every procedure is laid out in steps, and every material difference is explained with its consequence. The fit section alone — explaining how a 0.58 vs 0.60 core interacts with shaft butt size — is worth the whole book. It's clearly written for people who actually work with clubs, and it completely satisfied my need for real, non-marketing knowledge.