For years reminder grips were a staple on the clubs tour players used (Ben Hogan, in fact, was known to place part of a wire hangar under his grips to promote a weak grip to prevent the hook he hated). Manufacturers also made them for the masses. For those not familiar with them, the reminder is a narrow rib located on the underside of the grip that fits into the crease of the fingers—in short, a way to “remind” a player to grip the club properly.
Golf Pride, which has had the Align reminder grip in its line for several years is taking the reminder grip to another level with the introduction of the Align Max—a grip with a noticeably more aggressive—but still legal—reminder rib than its predecessor.
The reminder rib is not just the 25 percent higher ridge to promote a more noticeable feel and consistency, but it also includes a longer ridge that runs from top to bottom on the grip, providing players flexibility to adjust their hand placement for any shot.
Of course, the question is why now and why not sooner? Golf Pride engineer Greg Cavill has the answer.
“First, it was highly complex,” Cavill said. “We weren’t producing just an evolution of what we already had. It’s significantly different in its structure, different rubber compounds. The manufacturing process had to be enhanced, and we were trying to tackle a number of different areas from the original design. The final result is something that is markedy different in terms of feel. It’s all about hand placement. We want to make sure that you’ve got every every opportunity to hold the club correctly.”
Not known to many is the USGA has rules on how high the ridge on a reminder grip can be. Being close to that line without going over it was a key in the process as any product that is manufactured has tolerances.
“It’s one thing about rib height and getting that so it’s controllable,” said Cavill. “But at the same time, we could put features on that rib which really elevate the feel. We could make it extremely aggressive and we wanted to make sure that what we came up with not only satisfied the need for a greater performance but also satisfied the Rules of Golf.”
The Align Max can provide a guide to the feel of where to position the hands on the club. Players can also benefit from grip alignment features as they can enhance face awareness such as getting the face square at impact with a “protrusion” that is in line with the leading edge. Moreover, certain players may favor a stronger or weaker grip position. Having the reminders can provide consistency of grip position.
Harris English knows this well. A longtime reminder grip user, English switched to the Align Max Monday of the Farmers Insurance Open. According to Golf Pride’s tour reps, English, who went on to win the tournament, made the switch because he liked the feel in the left hand, as well as how his pointer finger felt on his right hand.
“We need golfers to think of grips as performance equipment, not merely handles on golf clubs,” he said. “Hopefully Harris’ win and this product will help achieve that.”
Align Max is now available in MCC and MCC Plus4 grip models in both standard and midsize.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
