REVIEW – Golf Pride CPx Golf Grips

“Get a Grip“

The Set-Up

The golf grip. An integral part of your golf equipment that might be taken for granted or completely overlooked. Yet without one on the end of your shaft it makes swinging a golf club a little more difficult. The grip is important when it comes to golf equipment because it not only is your connection to the golf club – your hands and glove notwithstanding – but the grip also helps to reduce vibration and absorb energy at impact with the golf ball.

Many thanks go out to a few people for this testing opportunity. First of all there’s Claudio DeMarchi (www.travelinggolfer.net) who got the tires rolling for this opportunity and secondly Jeff Dezen of public relations firm JDPR (www.jdpr.com) who handles marketing and communications for Golf Pride.

Golf Pride has its roots in Cleveland, Ohio and has been producing golf club grips since 1949. During this time it was Golf Pride that invented “slip-on grips”. Moreover, Golf Pride claims to have more major wins than any of its competitors and over 80% of golf professionals around the world play their grips. In fact, Tommy Bolt was the first player to win a major with Golf Pride. Bolt won the 1958 U.S. Open

Fun Fact: The name Golf Pride was inspired by a popular motor oil… Gulf Pride.

GolfPride.com

Arrangements were made for me to test and review a newcomer to the Golf Pride stable. The new Golf Pride CPx. As Golf Pride says the CPx grip is a “Soft grip for a hard game”. Available in four sizes (Undersize, Standard, Midsize, and Jumbo) these grips are relatively light as the Standard size weighs in at 52 grams. This weight is somewhere in between other Golf Pride stablemates like the Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align and the MCC Plus 4. On the other side of the spectrum, the Jumbo grips weigh 82 grams.

The design of the grip features something newly developed by Golf Pride. What Golf Pride refers to as “EXO Diamond-Quilted surface pattern technology” which enhances the feel and actual grip onto the club. Coupled with a very tacky and soft rubber, the “EXO Diamond-Quilted” texture offers terrific feel in all weather conditions. Also, the CPx features a larger lower hand profile. The larger size of the lower hand promotes a lighter grip pressure for more clubhead speed/power.

The Transition

When the full set box of CPx grips arrived I wasted no time in unboxing them. I was impressed with the feel right away. At least from a tackiness point-of-view. At this moment in time I actually hadn’t noticed the larger lower hand. But, I made a few observations.

• I liked the overall feel of the grip. In particular, the “EXO Diamond-Quilted” texture.
• A grip that is super sticky. There is a lot of confidence-inspiring tackiness.
• This grip felt soft… really soft. This created just a little bit of apprehension in my head as I typically prefer a grip that’s a little bit more firm.

Feeling and holding the grips out of the box on their own is one thing when it comes to feel and judging its firmness but being on the business end of things and on a shaft is another thing altogether. I couldn’t wait to put them onto some clubs. Ultimately, the CPx ended up going onto my Tour Exotics CBX Forged irons and Edison Forged Wedges. Unfortunately, I had to wait about 24 hours because I had to order some grip tape and purchase the rest of my supplies for regripping clubs.

Alas, I had all of my supplies and outside I went in front of our apartment building where I unceremoniously removed the pre-existing grips and replaced them one at a time with no vice. It didn’t take long at all so now, I waited for the grips to set.

With the grips now installed and set I finally had a chance to put the Golf Pride CPx grips to the test. The first thing that I noticed was that the CPx grips actually felt firm for being labeled a soft grip. I don’t know if it was because I only did a single wrap all that I know is that I liked how it felt. Typically, I don’t prefer a soft grip (see Golf Pride Softie, Whisper, Tour Wrap et al) but I really liked the feel of the CPx. The CPx is touted as being Golf Pride’s “softest performance grip ever”.

Throughout the season, I had the opportunity to test these grips in every possible weather condition. I don’t know if the CPx is considered to be an all-weather grip or not but if it isn’t, it could very well be deemed so. These grips provided great traction in hot and humid conditions. In the rain, these grips fared very well and I didn’t lose any confidence in my ability to maintain control of the golf club throughout the swing. I wasn’t even wearing rain gloves.

Overall, I really thought that the CPx grips were very comfortable in-hand. Like I mentioned, they were soft yet firm. Had I built them up with a few wraps of tape underneath or went midsize, maybe this part of the story would have changed. I really like the texture of these grips and I feel that Golf Pride R&D did very well in acquitting themselves with these grips and to be precise, the “EXO-Diamond Quilted Texture”. Also, the larger lower hand portion further solidifies the feel and comfort of the these grips. The bottom hand stays loose.I liked the innovation of the CPx.

If there is a flaw with these grips I feel that they do involve a little more maintenance than say an MCC Plus 4 etc. Dirt and grime does get into the “nooks and crannies” and a little more effort is needed when cleaning them. Maybe I’m nitpicking? I also have some concerns regarding the durability as some wear was indicative with moderate use.

The Finish

If you’re in the market for a soft grip that is a high-performing asset to add to your arsenal then maybe the Golf Pride CPx is just for you. This is a grip that performs well in all weather conditions. Sure, I might’ve had some durability concerns but if you play a lot of golf or strike a lot of golf balls you should be changing your grips every 6 months or so.

They are a grip that looks great on the end of a golf club but they are only available in a blue/gray colorway (if that’s important to you). At $9.49 USD/grip the Golf Pride CPx are an innovative grip at a reasonable price.

For more information about CPx grips, please click here

Until The Next Tee!!

#fightandgrind #seeuonthenexttee