Every single golfer on the planet is looking for more consistency. But can our equipment help with that? Well, the new Golf Pride Align Max Grip is looking to make that a reality.
When it comes to grips, Golf Pride are the biggest name in the game. They celebrated 55 consecutive years with a major championship win in 2024, and average a whopping 84% weekly market share.
Building upon the already successful Align range, which helped Xander Schauffele en route to picking up two major titles in 2024, the Align Max grips are designed to help with consistent hand placement throughout the golf swing.
Who Are They Aimed At?
Any golfer who is looking to improve their club face control. It’s designed to make it easier to get the club face square at address. This then improves the chances the face being square at impact also.
The grip would also be great for golfers who struggle with a consistent grip. It feels like you can grip the club the same every time as you have a better reference point.
The Tech
The new Align Max is not a replacement for the original Align grip. Instead it will sit alongside it as another option in Golf Pride’s ‘raised ridge’ technology.
The Align Max features a firmer rubber feel this time around. The ridge is also 25% higher than the Align, pushing it right to the legal limit.
The ridge also stretches across a longer portion of the green, making it more effective when gripping up and down the club for greater flexibility.
According to Golf Pride the new grips offer three key benefits:
Consistent hand placement: the grip is designed to fit in to the hand’s natural contours. This encourages more consistent placement and alignment every time you grip the club.
Clubface awareness: allows golfers to achieve better face angle awareness at setup and during the swing. This helps to promote a more square clubface.
Player confidence: having more consistent hand placement helps with a more repeatable swing, giving golfers greater confidence.
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Golf Pride Align Max Grip Review
Looks and Feel
Looks-wise the new Align Max definitely stands out a little more at the back of the grip. It’s a more pronounced design than the previous Align model.
As soon as I got this in my hands and gripped the club, I could feel the raised ridge. This time around there’s a more obvious rod running down the back of the grip.
It’s not as subtle as the Align, and it definitely feels like the grip is more triangular rather than round in your hands.
There’s definitely a firmer feel when you first get it into your hands. I’ve used these grips before so the adjustment wasn’t as great for me. But if you’re a newcomer to align grips, I can certainly see how it may take a little bit of getting used to.
To begin with, the grips are available in a multi-compound finish in both standard and midsize. MMC grips are extremely popular among amateurs and pros and are great for all-weather performance.
To be honest, I’m not a huge fan as I prefer the softer feel of a standard Tour Velvet. Golf Pride do say that there are Tour Velvet and Z-Grip options coming next year though, so watch this space…
Performance
One of the things that lots of amateur golfers struggle with is consistency and repetition. We can all hit good golf shots from time to time – but it’s doing that on repeat which leads to good golf!
There’s a similar theme with the grip too – lots of golfers are making life harder for themselves because they aren’t gripping the club in the same way every time.
This can lead to inconsistency in aim, and in where the face is pointing at impact, making it really hard to get reliable results.
I had used the standard Align grip on my driver for a few years and really liked it, so this only felt like a natural progression for me.
The ridge is longer this time around, which is something that I really like. I often grip down on shots so having this extra room is really useful.
One thing that is key to make sure you get the grip put on straight. Golf Pride do say that the new design and additional rubber should make it easier to apply because it’s a little more rigid.
Even so, it might be worth asking your local PGA Pro to do it if you’re not very experienced!
Golf Pride Align Max Grip Verdict
Golf Pride suggest that golfers change grips every two and a half years on average. One of their biggest challenges is to get people doing that more often, because fresh grips can really help your game.
Part of that is also looking at grip technology, and I think the new Align Max has clear performance benefits.
For me it’s as close as you can get to a training aid or grip trainer out on the course. This is something that Scottie Scheffler still uses before every round of golf. If even the World Number One needs to constantly work on his grip, then it’s something you should consider too.
It really does make it easier to check your fundamentals before every shot. Getting into the right setup every time gives you a much better chance of a positive result.
Obviously if you’re going to be changing a full set of grips it’s going to cost a fair bit. But if it really helps to improve your scores, it might be well worth the investment.
Would I Use It?
Absolutely. Golf is hard enough, if something as simple as a new grip can help to make things a bit easier, then I’m all for it! Ideally I’d wait for the Tour Velvet Align Max because I prefer that grip, but the technology itself is fantastic.
