Oversize Grips, Arthritis, and a Small Change That Can Save Your Hands

The Gear
Written By David Fearn

‍There's a fellow at my home club, I'll call him Walt because he'd hate seeing his real name in print, who spent two full seasons quietly retiring from golf without telling anyone, including himself. He didn't announce it. He just started finding reasons. His back was acting up. The weather looked iffy. He had a thing. The truth, which came out over a beer one afternoon, was that his hands hurt. Eighteen holes left his fingers stiff and swollen for two days, and somewhere along the way the cost stopped being worth it.

What fixed Walt was not a new driver, a lesson, or a miracle supplement. It was eleven dollars a club and forty minutes at the shop. He had the grips on his clubs swapped for bigger, softer ones. That's it. He's back to playing twice a week, and the only thing he complains about now is his short game, which is the natural order of things.

I've been writing about gear on the back nine long enough to know that the cheapest fix is almost always the one nobody talks about. So let's talk about it.

Why do my hands hurt after a round of golf?

The short answer is that you are probably squeezing the club far harder than you need to, and your hands are paying the bill.

When a grip feels too thin, your fingers have to curl tightly to hold on. That tight curl puts the squeeze right on the small joints in your fingers and the base of your thumb, which happen to be the exact spots arthritis likes to settle. Add the jolt that travels up the shaft every time you catch one a little heavy, and you have a recipe for hands that ache for days.

The fix is not to grip harder. It's to give your hands less work to do in the first place. That's where a bigger grip comes in.

What exactly is an oversize grip?

An oversize grip is simply a thicker version of the rubber sleeve already on your clubs. Nothing more complicated than that.

Grips come in a few standard widths. There's the regular size most clubs ship with, a midsize that's a touch fatter, and an oversize (sometimes called jumbo) that's fatter still. The thicker the grip, the more it fills your hand, and the less you have to clench your fingers to keep the club from twisting.

Think of holding a pencil versus holding a fat marker. The marker sits in a more relaxed, open hand. Same idea, just with a golf club.

There's a softer side to this too, literally. A lot of grips made for sore hands use a cushioned rubber that soaks up some of the buzz at impact, so the sting of a mishit doesn't travel as far into your joints. Bigger and softer, working together.

Will oversize grips actually help my arthritis?

Yes, and you don't have to take my word for it. This is one of the few pieces of golf advice that comes straight from the people who study aching joints for a living.

The Arthritis Foundation, in its own guidance for golfers, recommends that you “build up the grip size on your clubs with athletic tape or a custom grip” to make the club easier to hold and to take stress off your finger joints. They put it in the same category as wearing a glove on each hand for extra hold without extra squeezing. The whole theme of their advice is one word: adaptation. Small changes to your gear so you can keep playing the game you love.

The point is that this isn't a marketing claim dreamed up by a grip company trying to sell you something. The folks whose entire job is helping people protect their joints landed on the same simple idea.

How do I know if oversize grips are right for me?

Here's a thirty-second check you can do in your garage tonight.

Take any club and hold it the way you normally would. Now look at your top hand, the gloved one for most of us. If the tips of your fingers are digging into the meat of your palm, your grip is too thin for your hand and you're a strong candidate for going bigger. Ideally there should be a small gap, about enough to slide a fingertip into, between your fingertips and your palm. No gap means you're wrapped too tight.

The other test is even simpler. Do your hands hurt? Do you find yourself flexing them on the walk to the next tee? Then it's worth a try. Grips are cheap enough that experimenting with one club costs about the same as a sleeve of decent balls.

One honest caveat. Going bigger can quiet your hands down through the swing, which for some players takes a touch of the snap out of a hook. For most of us in our fifties and beyond, that's a feature, not a bug. But if you're a low handicapper who works the ball both ways, start with a single club and see how it feels before you change the whole bag.

What actually happens at a regrip session?

Almost nothing dramatic, which is the good news. A regrip is one of the quickest jobs in golf. I learned how to do it as a kid when I worked in a country club back shop for a few summers. Youtube has lots of instructional videos on how to do it, but your club pro or a local shop can easily do it for you (and they’d probably be thankful for the business). Just tell them you want to go up a size and they’ll likely hand you a few options to feel. You're choosing two things: how thick (midsize or oversize) and how soft. Hold a few. Pick the one that feels most comfortable and walk away knowing you’ve made a good decision.

From there the actual work takes a few minutes per club. They peel off the old grip, clean the shaft, lay down fresh tape, pour on a little solvent and slide the new grip on. A full set is usually done in less time that it takes to grab a coffee, or the same afternoon if they're busy. Figure somewhere around eight to fifteen dollars a club for the grip itself, plus a small labour charge if you're not doing it yourself.

And here's a tip the fitter may not volunteer unless you ask. If your hands are on the larger side, or if even an oversize grip still feels a hair thin, they can add extra layers of tape underneath to build it up further. Two players with the same grip can end up with very different thicknesses depending on what's wrapped beneath. Tell them what your hands are telling you, and let them dial it in.

A few other small changes that take stress off your hands

While we're on the subject of cheap fixes, the Arthritis Foundation's golfing advice includes a handful of other adjustments worth knowing. None of them require new clubs.

Wear a glove on each hand like Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey. Two gloves give you extra hold without having to squeeze, which is the whole game when your hands are sore.

Tee it up high. A longer tee means less chance of slamming the club into the turf and jarring your wrists and fingers. Less ground contact, less jolt.

Lean toward lighter, softer gear. Graphite shafts and a lower compression ball both soak up more of the shock that would otherwise reach your hands. If you're due for new clubs anyway, that's a fitting conversation worth having.

And warm up the hands before the first tee, not on it. A few slow swings and some gentle finger and wrist movement get the blood flowing so your joints aren't cold and cranky on the opening drive.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Will bigger grips mess up my swing? For most players, new larger grips actually steady things down. The only group that needs to go slowly is low handicappers who like to shape shots, since a fatter grip can mute the hands a little. Start with one club if you're worried.

Midsize or full oversize? Go by feel, not by label. Hold both at the shop. If midsize already lets your fingers relax, no need to go bigger. If your hands are large or your arthritis is significant, oversize will probably feel like a relief.

How long do these grips last? The softer, tackier ones wear a bit faster than firm grips, often a season or two of regular play. Cleaning them now and then with warm soapy water keeps them tacky longer. Cheap insurance, easy to redo.

Do I need a doctor's blessing first? The Arthritis Foundation suggests checking with your family doctor or physical therapist before taking up or ramping up any activity with arthritis. An occupational therapist in particular can point you toward the right aids for your specific situation. I’m not a doctor nor am I qualified to provide advice on the types of activity you can participate in comfortably.

The cheapest fix in the bag

Gadgets are fun, and we tend to think the answer to playing better, or playing longer, is something new, expensive and shiny. A new driver. A swing aid or a launch monitor in the garage. Sometimes it is. But every so often the thing standing between you and another decade of Saturday mornings with your buddies is a few millimetres of rubber and forty minutes at the shop.

Walt figured that out two seasons too late, but he figured it out. Don't be a Walt for longer than you have to. If your hands are talking to you, listen, then go give them less to complain about.

If you want more on the gear that actually matters as the swing changes, I made the case for swallowing your pride on shaft flex over in Senior Flex, Regular Flex, and the Lie We Tell Ourselves. Same spirit, different club.

See you on the back nine,

Dave

Written by Dave, who started Back Nine Living in his fifties after discovering that most of what helps an aging golfer has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with paying attention. I'm not a doctor or a club fitter, just a guy who reads the research and tests the gear so you don't have to.

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David Fearn
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