Golf Grips Explained: Size, Material and When to Replace Them

The grip is the only part of the club a player touches, and on junior clubs it's the component most often wrong.

The grip is the only contact point between player and club, and it is routinely the least considered component on a junior's set. It is also one of the cheapest things to get right.

Why grip size matters

A grip too large for a child's hands prevents them from holding the club securely and restricts the wrist movement that generates clubhead speed. A grip too small encourages an over-active, grabby hold.

Junior grips are made undersized specifically because children's hands are smaller. This is one of the clearest reasons a cut-down adult club disappoints: the shaft has been shortened but the grip is still built for an adult hand.

A rough check: with the club held normally, the fingertips of the top hand should just brush the base of the thumb pad. Fingers digging hard into the palm suggest the grip is too small; fingers not reaching suggests too large.

Materials

• Rubber: the standard. Durable, grippy, inexpensive, and fine in most conditions
• Corded: rubber with fabric woven through, giving extra traction in wet weather at the cost of a rougher feel
• Softer polymer grips: more comfortable and tacky, often preferred by players with smaller or weaker hands

For most juniors a soft rubber grip is ideal. Corded grips can be abrasive on young hands and are rarely necessary.

When to replace

Grips wear out gradually enough that players stop noticing. Signs it is time:

• The surface has gone shiny and smooth rather than tacky
• The child has to hold on harder than they used to, especially in warm or damp conditions
• Visible cracking, or sections worn slick where the hands sit

For an adult playing regularly the usual advice is roughly once a year. A junior playing less often may go longer - but a child who grips harder to compensate for a slick grip develops tension that works against a smooth swing, so it is worth staying ahead of.

Regripping is a genuinely achievable home job and much cheaper than a shop fitting - we walk through it in how to regrip a junior golf club.

The growth angle

Because hands grow with the rest of the child, grip size should be revisited at the same time as club length. A set that still fits for length can have grips that have become too small, and rebuilding grips is far cheaper than replacing clubs.

Our guide on reassessing a junior club fitting covers what else to check at the same time.