Welcome to I Tried It, a GOLF.com series about golf items — apparel, gear, accessories, etc. — that we’ve recently taken out for a spin. We’re here to give our honest, no-frills takes on the latest and greatest golf or golf-adjacent items. So, scroll down to read about what we love about golf’s newest (or new to us) products.
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You know those times where you have a problem, find a solution and then that solution turns out to change something else that made everything even better?
OK, I’m not sure how common this is, but this is exactly what happened to me and my putting after a recent trip with the folks from Golf Pride.
I like a heavy putter, but I also use a Breakthrough Golf Stability shaft, which makes putters feel slightly lighter because of the added stiffness. On top of that, I was using an 80-gram mid-size putter grip, which is about 20-30 grams heavier than a standard grip.
This meant I had unwittingly counterbalanced my putter, which was causing me to yank the putter head outside on my takeaway, leading to pulls.
Luckily, I happened to be on a trip with some putter-grip experts, who quickly identified this issue and sent me home with all nine variations of Golf Pride’s Reverse Taper putter grips, which are all closer to a standard 50- to 60-gram weight putter grip. The Reverse Taper putter grips were released last year in three shapes (round, pistol and flat) and two sizes (medium and larger) and flip the traditional grip design so the wider section is in the lower hand.
We’ve seen the popularity of oversized grips for a number of years, both on the PGA Tour and in the recreational game, for their ability to quiet the hands and allow the bigger muscles to control the putting stroke. The Reverse Taper accomplishes a similar quieting effect, but isolates it to the lower hand in the stroke.
First, I tried out the Reverse Taper Medium Pistol but quickly realized the new Reverse Taper Small Pistol was a better choice for me. Golf Pride just added smaller versions of all three shapes to the Reverse Taper Lineup this year. This is great for me because I still play a blade putter — albeit a larger, wide-body blade than I used to — with lots of toe flow, and grips that are too large can sometimes work against the natural tendencies of that putter.
I would still classify the Reverse Taper Small as “oversized,” because they are bigger than the midsized grip I was playing previously, but the nice thing is the top of the grip is relatively similar.
