Even among avid golfers, grips are often an afterthought. If the anatomy of a driver were cast in a film, the clubhead would be the leading man, the shaft a sturdy supporting actor, and the part players actually hold onto—made of cord, rubber, and composite materials—that unsung crew member ensuring everything stays on script.

Last year, 40 of the 45 victories on the PGA Tour were won with clubs using Golf Pride grips. To maintain their dominance, the leading grip manufacturer invests heavily in research and development, determined to shift the perception that they’re merely a component supplier churning out a commodity. Instead, they want to be recognized as a performance equipment brand—one that produces grips engineered for better control and consistency.

“I came to Golf Pride eight years ago and was shocked by how complex golf grips really are—we don’t just buy rubber compounds, we actually develop them ourselves,” Greg Cavill, Golf Pride’s Global head of engineering, explained.

They begin by mixing raw materials that are customized to hold up to the rigors of golf. The rubber compounds must withstand environmental factors too with built-in UV resistance that adds further layers of complexity to the process of crafting grips for pros and amateurs alike.

Golf Pride’s latest innovation features an ultra-pronounced ridge designed to help players achieve consistent hand placement, making it easier to groove a more repeatable swing. Bringing the product to life required developing an entirely new tooling process—proof that the company is committed to resuscitating the reminder grip category.

The concept of grips that sport a hand placement reminder, dates back to the Ben Hogan era. The Hawk would straighten a wire coat hanger and slip it under his golf grips when he trained to help him avoid dreaded hooks and mass market iterations would follow.

The Align line, bolstered by the brand new Align Max intends to turn what had become a niche product mainstream. And these aren’t just training aids for range session practice, they’re USGA approved—so they’re kosher for competition.

More Cowbell

The Align Max features a much more pronounced raised ridge—25% higher than the Align—that is set at the maximum height allowed by golf’s rulebook. The benefits of the design are myriad, a touchpoint that increases hand-club connection, encourages consistent hand placement and helps promote face angle awareness.

“It’s a problem for golfers to get their hands on the grip consistently every single time. People think they do, but they don’t. I’ve seen some players that have a grip that is fundamentally rubbish but they’ve figured out a way to get their hands around the same way every time and some of these guys can shoot zero—they’ve cracked the code,” Bruce Miller, Golf Pride’s putter product manager explained.

The original Align was a hit off the bat and the Max is not a kill and replace product. The feedback Golf Pride was getting from a sizeable cohort of golfers was they wanted to feel that ridge in a more pronounced manner which is why they supersized it to golf’s legal limits. PGA Tour Players have been putting the new Align Max in play for months, but now the general public can get their hands on them.

“Last year we were fortunate to have two major wins with Align and it continues to gain adoption on the PGA Tour and over on the European Tour but we know there are inherent limitations to the design,” Cavill explained. “There were a number of players who tried it but it didn’t resonate—they were willing to experiment but moved away to a different product.”

Regrip Rationale

83% of golfers do not regrip their clubs on a regular basis (the industry standard is once a year or every 4o rounds or so), before they wear out. Golf Pride see plenty of runway to grow sales simply through consumer education and building awareness for the downsides of playing with worn out grips, namely that they become slick and slippy as traction degrades over time.

“The fact of the matter is most people just do not regrip with any frequency. It just doesn’t happen very often. Certainly, there is a core audience that regrips every year or every couple of years but most people just do not regrip,” Miller said.

“Some of these players are playing grips slicker than a bare metal shaft. They’re spending a lot of money to go play but the one part of the club that they are actually touching is completely worn out. So, it’s not resonating with players right now but it’s on us as the category leader in the brand to get their grip antennas up,” he added.

Innovations like the new Max, intended to encourage correct hand placement, are one way to crack the consumer code and increase regripping frequency. Leveraging pop culture intellectual property is another avenue they’ve pursued to broaden their audience, such as striking a

partnership with Eon Productions on a James Bond collection last year. They believe fashion-forward grips will become a bigger niche stateside, a trend that is already taking hold in the Asia-Pacific region.

“These grips are not necessarily going on clubs—they could, but they also can be sitting in someone’s collection on a shelf for years on end,” Cavill explained, highlighting an emerging end market of collectors.

For too many golfers, grips still barely register. Tactile innovations like the Align Max show that grips aren’t just necessities—they can be game-changers. And collaborations show they can also be a pure style statement.