Welcome to Play Smart, a game-improvement column that drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Game Improvement Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter, better golf.
With the weekend coming into sight (and hopefully a few rounds) after a busy work week, I always like using these Friday columns to take it down a notch. Mondays are for the hard-grafting, nitty-gritty game improvement stuff. Fridays are for a more leisurely form of game improvement, which brings us to today’s topic: Some relaxing and helpful re-gripping videos.
I’m a big fan of TikTok, and there’s a growing golf scene on the platform which, if you’re TikTok-curious, you should definitely check out (shameless plug alert: You can follow me on the Tok right here!).
My new favorite follow is Ethan Welsh, who has amassed almost 680,000 followers thanks to his meditative club re-gripping tutorials, where he narrates himself installing different types of grips on different types of clubs.
Here he is replacing a red Winn grip on a putter, which has almost 10 million views.
@ethanjameswelsh That’s a 10 ##golf ##golftok ##griptok ##fyp ##filthygolf ##golfgalaxy ##jabroni ##foryoupage ##philly ##followers ##satisfyingvideo
♬ Relax – Karma Keyz
Here’s some SuperStroke-on-SuperStroke action, which cracked more than 1.5 million likes.
@ethanjameswelsh ##golf ##golftok ##griptok ##fyp ##filthygolf ##golfgalaxy ##jabroni ##foryoupage ##golfclubrepair
♬ original sound – Ethan Welsh
And here’s a handy tip about what to do if you accidentally put tape too far down the golf shaft, which is tracking 3 million views.
@ethanjameswelsh ##golf ##golftok ##filthygolf ##fyp ##foryoupage ##golfgalaxy ##golfgrips @golfpridegrips
♬ original sound – Ethan Welsh
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Regripping your own clubs is actually easier than you might think. I taught myself to do it and now I regrip my clubs every season, and am always tinkering around with different kinds of putter grips.
If you’re getting into the regripping game, you’ll learn a few things from watching Ethan’s videos:
– First, you’ll obviously need to buy a grip (or grips). We’ve got a bunch of grips in our Pro Shop you can buy right here.
– Outside of the grip itself, you’re going to need grip solvent (lighter fluid works too), a knife, and wide double-sided masking tape.
– A recurring theme in Ethan’s videos are that the right tools are important, because they can save you time. He recommends a vise and hook blade, though you don’t *need* those things.
– Once you’ve got all those things you simply cut off the old grip, remove the tape, put a new layer of tape on the shaft, pour over some fluid and slide the new grip straight on. Here’s a step-by-step process.
It’s a handy, easy skill to have in your back pocket. And also, as Ethan’s videos show, a strangely therapeutic one.
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