Flipping the Grip: Golf Pride’s Reverse Taper Technology

Golf Pride is an industry leader in golf performance equipment, and to make sure you can weld your putter with confidence, they are releasing a new putter grip featuring Reverse Taper Technology.

The Golf Pride Reverse Taper Family

Engineered to optimize both hands during the putting stroke to help square the clubface at impact, Golf Pride designed Reverse Taper with a slimmer upper half and wider lower section to help anchor the top hand for stability and reduce tension in the lower hand for smooth acceleration through the stroke.

The unique design also prevents micro-levers in the stroke, which all help golfers to not flip their wrists at impact. Reverse Taper is constructed using polyurethane to deliver the right softness, texture and weight that enables more consistency and confidence in golfers’ hands. The feel is soft, yet responsive with unique traction elements to help each hand control speed. The grips feature a vibrant color palette with visual cues and textures to help with finger placement regardless of how a player likes to grip their putter. Despite there being multiple sizes, the weight of each model maintains a balanced ‘sweet spot’ so golfers can sense the putter head throughout the stroke. Speaking of sweet spots, the Reverse Taper grips available in two sizes in three unique shapes:

• Round – Universally popular for all hand gripping techniques; features a traditionally round upper section that tapers into a wider lower section.  Available in Medium (63g) and Large (68g).

• Pistol – Classic pistol shape to help golfers lock in their upper hand; designed for all and often popular with players who use a left-hand-low technique (right-handed golfer). Available in Medium (68g) and Large (70g).

• Flat – Slightly more oval shaped upper section; designed for all and often preferred by golfers with a palm-to-palm putting stroke style. Available in Medium (64g) and Large (64g).

James Ledford, President of Golf Pride, said:

“Within the putter grip category we observed a trend in which manufacturers were actively trying to design products that removed the hands from the putting process, whereas our research indicates that by optimizing the connection between the hands and grip that players can improve their performance. Through hundreds of concept iterations, our innovation team created Reverse Taper, which has tested quite positively with players of all skill levels.”

I had the opportunity to tour Golf Pride’s Pinehurst HQ and test the Reverse Taper series at the nearby No. 8 and infamous No. 2 courses (as well as a few holes on their office putting course), and was very impressed; there’s a very good chance, in fact, that the Flat will be getting paired with my Evnroll Tour Blade in the coming weeks.

The Reverse Taper Flat paired perfectly with my palm-to-palm grip preference

After learning about the technology and the level of science and testing that went into the Reverse Taper series, it was unsurprising that when I got onto the Pinehurst greens, I frequently found my putts rolling right on the target line my caddie showed me, which makes perfect sense given that Golf Pride looked at thousands of putting strokes on SAM PuttLab’s and saw the Reverse Taper grips provided double digit improvements for face control. Indeed, the most time consuming aspect of switching to a Reverse Taper was finding which of three grips fit my putting stroke best. But once I committed to the Flat, the visual cues helped make sure that I was making a consistent grip before approaching the ball.

The bottom line is that we can all benefit from making the game a little easier, so when a putting grip offers measurable improvements, the only question should be, “How fast can I get this into my bag?”

Reverse Taper is just the second product in Golf Pride’s storied history that was conceptualized, designed and tested at their state-of-the-art Global Innovation Center (GIC) in Pinehurst, NC. Located next to world-famous Pinehurst No.8, the GIC is the epicenter for all global consumer research, product design and brand marketing.

Cover Image via Golf Pride