Any golfer who has played for a while knows how nasty a set of old grips can be. Not to mention, if you let them get too slick, your clubs could come flying out of your hand! Nothing’s worse than making a triple-bogey and then having to pay someone’s hospital bill because your 9-iron went flying and hit them in the head! We want to avoid that. So let’s teach you how to regrip golf clubs.
The way I usually do it is a simple process, but you’re going to need some tools.
Conventionally, you can go to any golf store (in-person or online) and buy a grip kit. It will give you all of your grips, grip solvent (this helps the grips slide on), grip tape (helps the grips stay in place), a razor to slice the grip off the club, and a tool to smooth your grips out when you’re done.
These tools, and this method, are great. But we don’t want to use that much elbow grease. Let’s leverage modern technology in our favor here!
Here is what you’ll need to regrip your golf clubs using my method:
-An electric air pump (not a big, crazy industrial one. Just one you would use tofill up tires or a basketball).
-Grip Solvent (as mentioned above)
-Grip Tape (as mentioned above)
-1 Wooden Golf Tee (You’ll see why!)
Step #1: Removing The Old Grip
First things first, plug your air pump in. Next, you’re going to want to fit it with a nozzle that will fit tightly and securely into the little hole in the end of your grip.
Once the nozzle is inserted in the hole securely, turn the air pump on. As air is pumping into the grip, you will want to grab the grip with your hand and start to twist it from side to side. You’ll want to put a little “elbow grease” behind it. You’re essentially freeing your old grip from the old tape.
Eventually, the old grip will be freed from the old tape and you’ll be amazed at how easily the grip slides off your club. At this point, take a look at the old tape. You may want to scrape it off with a razor blade and start fresh, but I usually just put fresh tape over the old stuff. The tape usually comes in strips that are the size of a golf grip, so it’s pretty easy to tell how to put them on. The one thing you want to make sure to do, though, is leave about 1/2″ of tape over the butt end of the shaft. Once your tape is on both sides of the shaft securely, you’re just going to fold that excess tape over and down into the hole at the end of the shaft. Perfect! Now we’re ready for the next step.
Step #2: Prepping The New Grip
Now that we’re all taped up, let’s show you how to regrip golf clubs! Take the wooden tee and plug it into the hole at the butt end of the new grip. Take your bottle of grip solvent and squirt some inside the grip (you want a decent amount. Maybe like 3-4 squirts). Place a finger over the open end at the bottom of the grip, and shake the grip so that the solvent gets all over the inside of it. You don’t need to do this for long — maybe just 5-10 seconds. Remove your finger and then pour any of the excess solvent over the grip tape on the shaft of your club. We’re almost there! Now, to just get this grip on the club and we’re done.
Step #3: Installing The New Grip
Ok, now this is the easy part. Place the nozzle on your air pump securely into the hole at the butt end of the grip. Just like you did in Step #1. DO NOT turn the air pump on yet. Make sure you’ve fit the open end of the grip over the end of the shaft so it can slide on properly. This may take a little while because you want to make sure the open end of the grip is completely over the shaft. But if you’ve used enough solvent it should be easy enough.
Once the grip is fit properly over the end of the shaft, turn on your pump. Guide the grip all the way down with your hands, and you’re done! You can use the grip smoothing tool if you have one, but it’s not really necessary.
And that’s it! Viola! A crash course in how to regrip golf clubs the easy modern way. After all, this is 2020. It’s time we start using technology to our advantage!