Golf Pride CPX Grips – Key Takeaways

Newly developed rubber compound is the softest ever for Golf Pride EXO Diamond-Quilted pattern – raised texture for traction First grip from Golf Pride’s Global Innovation Center in Pinehurst $9.49 to $10.49, available April 1

There’s one thing for certain about the new Golf Pride CPX grips.

They’re different.

They’re also bumpy.

And, according to Golf Pride, it’s the softest performance grip the company has ever made.

Golf Pride’s press release says CPX provides “increased softness and tackiness” and a “proprietary design for more traction.”

When it comes to grips, soft and tacky go together like biscuits and gravy. The industry calls them “comfort grips.” Traction, however, usually goes with firm. And the industry calls them “performance grips.”

Soft and tacky comfort doesn’t usually travel with firm and traction. You typically have to pick one combo or the other.

But both? What kind of alchemy does Golf Pride have up its sleeve here?

Golf Pride CPX Grips: “Comfort Performance Extreme”

“This is a significant departure from what you’ve historically seen from Golf Pride,” Eric Gibson, Golf Pride’s Global Marketing Director, tells MyGolfSpy. “It looks like nothing anyone has ever seen in the grip category.”

Well, there’s no arguing that.

The CPX is the first product developed entirely at Golf Pride’s new Global Innovation Center in Pinehurst. Grips such as the MCC and the Z-Grip are among the firmest grips going. They’re the grips of choice for the best golfers on the planet. But Golf Pride has used the Pinehurst facility to study what Gibson calls the “everyday caliber golfer.” That guy or gal is looking for a balance between the comfort of soft and the performance of firm.

“There are a lot of comfort grips on the market today,” says Gibson. “But there have to be performance-based characteristics built-in, or it’s just going to feel mushy. It’ll twist in your hands.”

The new Golf Pride CPX is undeniably soft; according to the company, the softest grip it has ever made. It’s not Winn Dri-Tac soft, but it does feel soft without feeling mushy. However, what catches both your eye and your hands are the bumps. Or, as Golf Pride calls it, their first-ever “raised EXO diamond-quilted pattern.”

Yep, it’s bumpy, alright.

Diamonds Are Forever

Usually, grip texture patterns are molded into the rubber. With CPX, however, the EXO diamonds are, quite literally, bumps. But they’re bumps with a purpose.

“The inspiration came from BMX bike handles,” says Gibson. “The texture pattern isn’t inverted. It’s external. CPX has the highest ratio of hand-to-surface area of any grip in the marketplace.”

Golf Pride says it’s that ratio that sets it apart from the other soft grips in its portfolio when it comes to traction, particularly when it’s humid out.

“This is not your MCC or your Z-Grip,” says Gibson. “But we built it with harsh conditions in mind. The surface pattern combined with the soft rubber material will allow you to play in the humidity. Everyone knows the Tour Wrap will get pretty slippery when it’s humid. But the CPX is very versatile.”

Soft is comfortable, but one drawback to soft is that it can make it easy to hold the club like you’re trying to choke the life out of it. It’s still early, but we’ve found the combination of the soft rubber compound and the raised EXO diamonds tend to counteract each other. It doesn’t keep you from gripping the club too hard, but it doesn’t encourage it, either.

To quote Crash Davis, “It’s an egg. Hold it like an egg.”

“A Soft Grip for a Hard Game”

Also of note, the new CPX grips are serving a dual purpose for Golf Pride. They’re also the vehicle for what the company calls a new focus. And it’s summed up by the new slogan, “A soft grip for a hard game.”

“Golf Pride has been focused on communicating technology and our dominance on Tour,” says Gibson. “But I think what’s humbled us is the reality that golf is difficult. We’re going to humanize ourselves a little more. It’s less about the technology itself, but more how golfers experience that technology in their hands.”

That may sound like the old marketing adage, “sell the sizzle, not the steak.” But it’s really a take on an even older and much more valid marketing truism:

Don’t tell the consumer what the product is. Tell them what it does.

“Sometimes the finer details of golf equipment and technology are lost on consumers,” says Gibson. “We’re utilizing CPX to acknowledge the internal and external distractions they face on the golf course, and we’re providing a solution they can hold in their hands.”

An Interesting Pivot

It’s an interesting shift in marketing for Golf Pride. While it’s not quite the warm and fuzzies, Gibson’s choice of words such as “humbled” and “humanize” isn’t accidental.

“We love having the opportunity to educate golfers of all skill levels,” he says. “We’re going to focus a little more on speaking to golfers themselves. We think that’s going to put us in a much more relatable position.”

If you’ve ever tried explaining something technical to a layman, or even an advanced layman, you’re probably familiar with the Hinge Principle. That’s when they nod their head up and down repeatedly while you’re talking to show you they’re following what you’re saying. In reality, they’re just waiting for you to stop talking because you’ve given them a headache.

I don’t believe Golf Pride is saying it thinks most golfers are too stupid to understand the tech behind their products. You may have noticed that Golf Pride and Lamkin both have company in the marketplace. To keep their positions at the head of the parade, smart companies look for holes in the market and develop products – and messaging – to fill those holes.

CPX, it would seem, fills the hole between comfort and performance. And the new messaging approach is, pardon the pun, a softer way to tell the story.

Golf Pride CPX Grips: Price and Availability

The new Golf Pride CPX grips will come in four sizes: Undersize, Standard, Midsize and Jumbo. At this time, they’ll be available in only one colorway: light gray with a blue cap and white highlights. However, Gibson tells us Golf Pride is looking at collaborations and other opportunities for more colorways in the future.

Pricing is in line with Gold Pride’s CP2 offering: $9.49 for the smaller grips and $10.49 for the larger sizes.

Golf Pride CPX grips will be available online and at retail starting tomorrow, April 1st.

For more information, visit golfpride.com.

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