As you know, there are services out there for re-gripping golf clubs. And I’m not gonna tell you that regripping clubs at home by yourself is a fairly easy job – it’s not that hard as you might think either, but it does take time especially if it’s your first time doing it. But one thing you should know, once you managed it, it will only become easier and easier every time and you shall feel much more comfortable doing the job.
Why do you need to regrip golf clubs?
Your golf grip is the only link between you and your club, that’s why it’s one of the most important part in your game. A consistent golf grip will improve your ball striking, provides more consistency, and give you an all-round better golf game.
How you regrip the golf club directly affects your game. It can change the speed and direction of your club swinging, and the position of the clubface at impact. By using an overly-worn and sometimes even torn grips can lead to slippery gripping and impact your performance.
Choose the right grip size for regripping clubs
There are four sizes in general for grips: oversized (jumbo), midsize, standard and undersize (junior), they are based on your hand size.
How do you decide on the right size for you? When you grip the club, your fingertips should gently be touching the base of your thumb. If they dig in to your hand too much, your grip is too small; if your fingers don’t touch your hands, your grips is too big. Make sure you don’t choose the wrong sized grips, or your golf game will suffer along the way.
Regrip golf clubs in 4 easy steps
Things you will need for regripping:
• new grips
• double-sided tape
• grip solvent (or mineral spirits)
• hook blade
• shaft clamp
• vice
Now, let’s start!
Step 1, remove your old grip
This will require the use of a hook blade. It’s better to use this tool instead of the utility knife because you don’t want to damage your shafts. Once you’ve sliced through the grip, pull the old grip off with ease.
You can use a vice and shaft clamp to head the club steady. A vice can help keep your workspace organized and clean. Make sure to cut away from you to avoid injury while the club is held securely by the clamp.
Step 2, remove the old tape
So now the old grip has been fully removed, time to remove the old tape off your club. Note that it could be the most time-consuming part of the job.
You might wonder if you can just put the new tape on top of the old one? By doing so could save you some time, but we strongly recommend removing all of the old tape to achieve a better result, since leaving old tape on may cause the new tape not properly stick to the old one and cause unwanted bulges in your grip.
So now take out your hook blade and score across the old tape all the way up the entire shaft until it’s completely gone.
No need to worry about damaging steel shafts with the blade, but be extremely careful with graphite. A little tip to be able to peel off the old tape easily is using a heat gun or a simple hair dryer to warm it first.
Step 3, apply the new tape
With the old grip and tape fully removed, now place the pre-cut double-sided grip tape lengthwise along the shaft, apply the tape below the bottom of the actual grip, and leave about 1/4″ to 1/2″ sticking off of the butt end of the shaft as this will make it easer to slip the new grip on.
By doing that, you can hold up your grip next to the shaft and leave your thumb at the bottom of where you want the tape to end.
Don’t unpeel the other side of the double-sided tape until you are ready to fit the new grip.
Step 4, apply the solvent and the new grip
Now take out your new grip, cover the opening at the end with your finger, and pour in some grip solvent. Cover the opposite opening of the grip and shake the solvent inside it for a minute until the whole of the inside of the grip is coated. Then spray the shaft with the solvent so all the tape is covered and moistened.
So before the solvent dries out, quickly align the grip and slide it onto the butt end of the shaft. Keep it straight while pushing until the end of the shaft nestles into the very end of the grip.
And done! Now just wait several hours for it to dry before playing.
How often should you regrip golf clubs?
We recommend that you re-grip once every year.