11/6/12: Howard Twitty and I attended the practice rounds prior to the Schawb Cup. We went with little expectation as this was the last tournament of the year on this Tour and biggest price money at stake.
To our surprise there was real interest in the Groove Golf Grip. We had success on the Champions Tour with several players and the word gets around this small group very fast. One previous Major winner played our grip since May. In 2011 he was 47th in putting and this year with the grip on same putter he was 8th and 10th in the stats for the year. Other players were successful even in the 2nd week of use.
Most every player that put the grip in play putted better in stats than year to date. Another Major winner put it on his driver in practice rounds and hit all fairways and added 10 yards to his length of drive. In competition is stats were about the same as year to date until the last day when he added 10 yards with same accuracy.
Two players with grip on putter contended and were top of putting stats for the week. One went from from 40th to 18 in number of putts and about the same in putts when greens hit in regulation (GIR). However it is only fair to mention one player with full set of grips played no better than year to date stats, but he was top 10 in total driving, so hard to improve on that. Another Major winner did not putt up to his year to date stats. A look at his year to date stats showed he averaged 22nd place with long putter without grooved grip. With grooved grip he had higher finishes in putting stats a 3rd, a 1st and 9th. A couple bad rounds raised the average. During last few tournaments he switched to short with worse results. He put our grip on short putter, but did not improve his putting stats. I worked with him on technique which needs real attention.
Summary: We are gaining acceptance on all PGA Tours; most on the Champions where we have spent most of the time. The best player this year on this tour expressed a willingness to try grips in the off season. I told him, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. He still said he wants to try it. Other have taken the groove golf grip to try in the off season on both tours. It is clear now that it is a combination of Technique and the Groove Technology at the professional level to make improvement. Improvement at this level is difficult to achieve, but we are. It is happening.
