So how exactly do you take a grip used by up to 63% of the 2013 PGA Tour winners and improve it?
That is what the world's largest manufacturer of golf grips, Golf Pride have done. They have redeveloped the Tour Velvet, one of their longest running and most popular ranges, by creating the Tour Velvet Super Tack grip.
I caught up with Golf Pride's Development Bruce Miller at the PGA Show in Orlando to find out what was new.
Why have you introduced the Super Tack?
"The Super Tack is under the Tour Velvet family which is one of the heritage grips in our catalogue. It was launched in 1995 and the original Tour Velvet has remained essentially unchanged that entire time. But the interesting thing about the Tour Velvet is that if you go to any PGA Tour event, in fact any global Pro Tour event, roughly half of that field will be playing the Tour Velvet model. It could be the rubber version or it could be the cord version."
"We wanted to introduce some new technology into the Tour Velvet family, but keep some aspects true to the original intent of the Tour Velvet. So the technology surrounding this new Super Tack grip centres mainly around the material. It is a brand new material formulation, so this is not the same material as the Tour Velvet."
What is unique about the new material?
"It has dual-tackifiers in the material. What do I mean by tackifiers? Think of it as a liquid adhesive that bubbles up to the surface of this grip when it is being moulded. It gives the grip its tack and its shine.
The Super Tack also looks different, so what did you change and why?
“All of the feedback we got in development was from Tour players. We went out on Tour with different textures, patterns, materials and weights and all their feedback went into to producing what you see here today. So the second change is the texturing pattern on the grip, and there are two different textures as well."
“Above the ribbon is a diamond pattern and this provides stability when the golfers is swinging the club. It really bites into the palm and stabilizes or reduces any torque or twisting that a golfer might experience."
“Beneath the ribbon is the traditional plus-sign texture on the lower part. This texture is wider and fatter versus the original and there is now a closer cluster of texture on there, meaning there’s 33% more texture. This allows the golfer to have, what we call, more ‘hand purchase’ or ‘hand nesting’, sort of like thousands of little suction cups grabbing your hand back. So that’s the lower portion below the ribbon."
Does the Super Tack perform better when dry or wet?
"You will see Tour players take a damp towel and wipe the grips before each shot as this re-activates those dual tackifiers that we have embedded into the material. This makes the Super Tack very tacky and you simply cannot move your hands on the grip afterwards."
When will the Super Tack be available?
"The Golf Pride Tour Velvet Super Tack grip will be available from 1 March 2014."