Lamkin Grips: What avid golfers look for in grips
26 Oct 2013
by Benjamin Larsen of AmateurGolf.com
see also: Equipment Reviews
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Avid golfers are quite picky when it comes to their grips. They want solid feel and
feedback, long-lasting durability and tackiness in a grip --- and they don’t want to
sacrifice one feature for the other.
WIth the help of the
amateurgolf.com Player
Staff, we put Lamkin’s 2013 line of grips to test to see exaclty what it is that
avid and competitive golfers have come to know and expect from their grips.
Feel and feedback is perhaps the most important piece to the puzzle for a golfer when
considering grips. We work hard to get the right clubs, shafts, flexes and lies, so why
would sacrifice that customization and detail when choosing a grip?
Of our group paneled, more than 50 percent said ‘feel’ was the most important feature
they take into consideration when purchasing grips.
“Durability is important but it could be sacrificed for feel,” said
Greg Austin, who
tested the recently-released
i-Line grips, which were developed by
Lamkin and IOMIC to introduce a grip that combined feel and performance. “I have
found that Lamkin grips have had much better durability without sacrificing feel.”
Many players, of course, operate on ‘feel’. For them (us), receiving proper feedback
from the grip is even more crucial.
“I am a feel player and grips are the connection, so I’m pretty picky,” said
Keith Johnson, who
played Lamkin’s
Perma Wrap ACE 3GEN grips. “There was some
dampening but I was still able to get good feedback on contact.”
Golfers that don’t let the elements dictate when they can play, or simply live in hotter
climates, look at
tackiness as the crucial benefit of a grip.
Whether it’s humid conditions causing sweaty hands or the cold and wind making your
hands in need of an extra connection, the tackiness a grip provides is important.
Player Staff member
David MacCallum,
who lives in New England where temperature and humidity is a major factor during
the golf season, was pleased with the performance of his Perma Wrap ACE 3GEN
grips.
“I generally use cord grips and have tried rubber grips in the past but my hands tend
to slip from the sweat on my palms,” he said. “The Perma Wraps are very tacky and
stay tacky even when sweat gets on them.”
Like most avid golfers, MacCallum played those grips in varying weather conditions --
- warm fall days where the weather got into the 70s and colder days in the low 40s.
In both types of conditions, he was pleased with the tackiness of his grips.
“They stay tacky when it’s cold out and that’s another good feature,” he said. “I
played a couple times in 43-degree weather and they didn’t get slick.”
Our golfers also liked the response of the grips after cleaning. With swings and rounds
logged, grips are often in need of a wipe down. Our panel was pleased that tackiness
didn’t suffer after regular cleaning.”
Durability is the third factor avid golfers take into account when considering grips.
With the amount of rounds we play, making sure the grip holds up for the majority of
a season is crucial. Lamkin’s 2013 line of grips.