Jumbo Max Grips Review Thread

[ddec]

I still havent received the damn thing yet. Was supposed to be here monday..... Didnt want to wait any longer so I put it on the White Tie which is 50G.

damn, no problem. I guess the same thing could be done. I know swing weight it something that really shouldn't matter all that much to majority of the golfers out there. But I remember a case with me last year where I did some things to one of my drivers and I was all messed up with it. When I got the SW checked it was around C5-C6 range. When I doctored it up back to the D3-D4 level, things were much more comfortable and better for me. To me the thought of throwing a 100+ gram grip on a club without doing anything else to it seems like it would mess things up.

 

[DevRickus]

damn, no problem. I guess the same thing could be done. I know swing weight it something that really shouldn't matter all that much to majority of the golfers out there. But I remember a case with me last year where I did some things to one of my drivers and I was all messed up with it. When I got the SW checked it was around C5-C6 range. When I doctored it up back to the D3-D4 level, things were much more comfortable and better for me. To me the thought of throwing a 100+ gram grip on a club without doing anything else to it seems like it would mess things up.

It's probably the issue alot of us are seeing. For the most part, all of us are struggling with the driver.

 

[SharkHat]

It's probably the issue alot of us are seeing. For the most part, all of us are struggling with the driver.

Good thing I'm used to struggling with mine.

 

[DevRickus]

Good thing I'm used to struggling with mine.

It's the only thing I do consistently well.

 

[O'Carroll]

Just read through this whole thread and there is all kinds of awesome input in here already. This is also the first chance I've been able to sit down at my laptop and get a full writeup started with pics (photobucket NOOB).

Me & My Game:
The only two things I think anybody would care about in regards to my game is hand size and shot shape. I have small hands...I mean "Austin Powers Carni" small. My hand measures 7" from base of the wrist to the end of my middle finger with my middle finger measuring 3". Plugging those measurements into any grip size calculator has had me playing undersize grips for the last two summers. Up until the Ultimate Club Testing in September, I was playing i20s with an aqua grip and Scor wedges with undersize grips, so switching to JumboMax grips is a huge (no pun intended) adjustment. Shot shape: when I'm playing well (not this year), I hit a nice baby draw across my whole set. When I'm not playing well, my miss is a jumbo hook. The term #sexyballflight was coined after plenty of THP'ers witnessed it. During one of those rounds I swung another THP'ers driver with an oversize grip on it...and it went dead straight. So my biggest question coming in to this testing: can these grips help with my big miss left?

Some comparison pics to hopefully show the adjustment I'm making:

(L to R: Pure Wrap P2 on my 4 wood that was also on my driver-Tour Edge Driver-i20 7 iron-SpeedBlade 7 iron-Scor GW-SpeedBlade AW)

(Tour Edge 4wood-Tour Edge Driver)

(i20 7 iron-SpeedBlade 7 iron)

(Scor GW-SpeedBlade AW)

First Range Session/Round:
Take them to the range? Or put them right in play? Well...I never go to the range, so I put them right into play. I did hit a small bucket as the first round with these was in Binghamton (2 hour drive) and I really just wanted to warm up before starting the round. I grabbed my stock gripped SpeedBlade PW and the three JumboMax gripped clubs to warm up. After hitting 5 or so balls with the PW I moved on to the JumboMax gripped others. In word: FAT. I hit everything with the AW and 7i really high and dug trenches you could turn an ankle in. My miss this season has predominitely been thin, so this was a bit unnerving. It was cold, a little windy, and the range was straight up hill, so even though I thought I may have been losing distance, I attributed any distance loss to a combination of all of those things.

Now the driver. I only hit a handful of balls with it, but saw exactly what I was looking for. Dead straight mostly, but even a hint of a fade with the first one. After the first two balls I felt that I could really go after it--and let my hands turn over naturally--as opposed to all summer I've been fighting to quiet my hands.

Obviously, with a group of 8 other THP'ers around, there was some jokes about the divots. I believe one of them cast a shadow as it flew overhead. Here is a pic of my "artwork."

Also, I mentioned that I've switched to my 14 way stand bag recently. Having the S*M sized grip, it fits OK in the smallest of the 14 way dividers; however, I'd be curious to see if the M*D would rub when you pulled it out and if the L*G or X*L would even fit.

On The Course:
The first hole was exactly the type of hole that I've been struggling with all year. Straight and short, but with room right and a creek running the entire lenght of the left side. If I hit 20 tee shots on that hole, I'd be in the creek 15 times (and a few of those 5 remaining would be across the creek). In a here-goes-nothing thought process, I lined up aiming right down the middle of the fairway and took my swing. I could feel my body stiffen up, all out of whack, and "pull" the ball left. It launched on a line down the left side of the fairway...and held the line! That's a ball I'm sure ends up in the creek 9 times out of 10.

One other hole I want to talk about is the 8th. Here is a picture from the tee:

If I remember correctly, it was just over 200 yards to carry the water left of the bunker on the right side of the fairway. My original plan was to take dead aim at that bunker and let the ball draw back towards the fat part of the fairway. After watching the first two guys hit solid tee shots left of where I would've aimed that didn't carry the water (we all agreed there was more wind around the corner of the trees that we didn't feel at the box) I adjusted my aiming point dead across the fairway to the other bunker. Again, knowing I needed to go after this one, I felt my hands release naturally and hit my tee shot of the day--dead straight and long--and right into the bunker across the fairway. In all, I hit 5 of 8 fairways with my driver with the other 2 misses being 1 miss left (kind of a pop-up) and 1 blocked way out right (5th hole--second swing with it).

Now on to the 7 iron. Ddec borrowed it to swing a few times on the range before the round, but after I had retreated to the putting green. When he returned I asked him if he hit the ball really high with it and he responded that he didn't. And if anything, he hit the first one a little low. Now back in my hands, I took 2 full swings with the 7i on the course...and skulled them both. Ugly grounders that were just terrible shots, but at least I can blame Dean.

Also a bit of mixed bag with the Aweseome Wedge. I just never found myself in full swing distance range during the round, so all I did was chip and pitch with it. The first time I used it was on the 4th hole as my approach came up about 15 yards short of the green. I decided to play a little bump-and-run and the ball landed right where I wanted to, rolled up and hit the pin. For that one shot, it felt really good. Almost as though I was much more aware of where the clubface was and what direction it was pointed in. Sadly, I couldn't replicate that throughout the round. At least one other time, and it may have been me just getting lazy with my technique, but felt that same hand release that works so well with the driver, but not so well with chipping, and sent the ball screaming across the green.

In Conclusion:
One thing I noticed right away on the range having 1 stock gripped club and 3 JumboMax gripped clubs, was that the JumboMax clubs felt fine...and the PW felt awkwardly small. Once out on the golf course it was the other way around. The stock gripped clubs all felt normal, and then when I grabbed the 7i or AW after a bunch of shots with the stock clubs, it was...different. The driver didn't bother me at all and I had no problem swinging it. Grabbing the 7i in the middle of the fairway just felt so alien. So for me anyway, having only 3 of the 14 clubs with JumboMax Grips on them, appears that it'll mess with my head. I'll definitely be paying attention to whether it continues to be a challenge.

 

[Nebgolfer]

Great comments guys, keep em coming!

I'm glad to see the drivers are starting to come around. I'm still holding out hope that an O/S grip might help me with the long stick next year. Are you guys still seeing the distance losses with the wedges, or has that normalized somewhat too?

 

[Nebgolfer]

I hit the course today for a quick 9 hole round this afternoon. Since this was a practice round I decided to put 2-3 balls in play on each hole. I only got in position to hit my 7 iron once and it went beautifully. I hit the 50° wedge a handful of times (a few full swing and a few short chip shots). Zero mishits, dead straight on line and really great spin. Honestly I only pulled the driver out once today, as I have zero confidence with it lately. I've been fighting a nagging fade/slice with the big dog and, unfortunately, the JumboMax has yet to help resolve this issue. In fact, I think it is making it worse. Every time I touched that club today I ripped off the worst slice ever. I'm going to continue testing with it to see if I can work out this slice issue, but right now I'm not feeling very comfortable hitting this club.

My observation thus far from both myself and some of the other testers is that these grips serve a similar role as the Super Stroke putter grips in that they are really good at quieting the hands and allowing you to "feel" mid to short range shots exceptionally well. I'm actually giving some thought to picking up a few more and installing them on my 54° and 58° wedges. In fact, I could easily see these on my 8-PW set up, too. In terms of fairway woods and the driver, though, the jury is still out.

It sounds to me like these grips are giving everyone a ton of confidence in their irons and wedges, and we all know how important confidence is in golf. That's somewhat counter-intuitive for me, especially on wedges because I would think those are "feel" clubs, and a larger grip would lessen the feel, but I guess results speak louder than theory.

 

[DevRickus]

Reference Links:
Initial Thoughts
First On Course Testing

Location / Conditions: Willowbrook Golf Center - Wayne, NJ. Weather - High 40's and windy. Hitting off mats. No grass area available.

Plan of action: I went into this session hoping to figure out the driver. After my first round with these grips, and knowing I was only able to hit off of mats, I really wanted to focus on the driver. Again, I brought with me my Cobra Amp Cell with 2 shafts. The stock shaft with a Golf Pride NDMC grip and a Matrix White tie with the Jumbo Max Grip, size MD. During my previous round, I struggled with the driver in 2 different ways. There was a significant loss of distance which for someone who, like me, that doesnt hit the ball far to begin with, is a big issue. The 2nd issue was a mean hook. I am by no means perfect with the driver but one thing I never do is hook the ball which I did on more than a few occasions last time out. So went into this session focusing on those two things.

Range Session: Will not bore you with all the details of the first 50 balls I hit with the stock shaft and the NDMC grip but out of 50 balls, I did not hook the ball once. Moreso, I hit 19 fades and the rest were straight for the most part. Distance was what I am used to seeing. Factoring in the wind, the range balls and the usually not accurate distance markers, I was consistently hitting the ball around 230-235 in the air with obvious roll out. Here comes the fun/confusing/depressing part. First ball I hit with the White Tie / Jumbo Max combo was a vicious hook. Chalked it up to a mental block as I went into this focusing on the hook. Hit a few more balls and then hooked 3 in a row. Immediately threw the stock shaft back in and hit 10 balls without a hook. I was extremely perplexed and still cant quite figure it out. I put the White tie back in and hit the rest of the bucket alternating between hooks and straight shots. No fades at all. Not really sure what to make of it but if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them. As for distance, it stayed on plane with what I saw last time out. 5-10 yards of a distance loss. Not sure if its because I am focusing on the hook or what the issue is but like I said in my last review, the Jumbo Max website boasts that these grips should increase distance and swing speed.

Short Game Practice: After I finished up with the driver, I headed over to the practice green/bunker/chipping area. It's not very well kept but I gave it a go anyway. Try hitting a few different types of shots with the PW/JumboMax combo and still absolutely love this combo. I feel so confident and in control of the club. Like I can do whatever I want to do with the ball. Shot after shot was going where I wanted and on the trajectory that I wanted. No thin shots or fat shots, just nice turf interaction and soft landings on the green. Really confirmed alot for me based on what I saw last time out.

Summary/Thoughts: I left the range both perplexed and excited. Perplexed with the driver and obviously extremely excited over the PW. I am not really sure what to make of the driver issues. I would normally just chalk it up to me being a bad golfer but when I hit the stock shaft with standard size grip, I have no issues. I did not hit my 6 iron at all because I am an absolute mess off mats so didnt think the data would be useful at all. I am going to a local course early in the week where I will be able to hit off grass and get some more feedback with full shots with the 6 iron and PW. Will continue to try to figure out the Driver. Any tips things I should try would be appreciated. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

 

[#Cookie]

Great thoughts Dev! Did you try to weaken your grip at all? I saw a significant difference with slight grip changes.

 

[DevRickus]

Great thoughts Dev! Did you try to weaken your grip at all? I saw a significant difference with slight grip changes.

I did mess around with grip pressure a bit and it helped a little but it's difficult with such a big grip. Will keep working on it. I won't give up. Haha

 

[#Cookie]

I did mess around with grip pressure a bit and it helped a little but it's difficult with such a big grip. Will keep working on it. I won't give up. Haha

I don't mean grip pressure but rather weakening your overall grip by rolling your knuckles left (for a lefty). That's what I saw a big change with in where the face angle was at impact.

 

[DevRickus]

I will give that a try. Thanks

 

[Germerican]

Finally hit the range today, left very unsatisfied.
To start off, the weather here is around the mid 50s and the wind was blowing in, but to see the extreme results I had was a bit odd. After warming up and hitting my 6i a few times, I went for the gripped clubs. Started off with the 50* wedge and immediately noticed a difference. Every single hit was a flop shot and I do believe it was because I was sweeping the ball instead of hitting down on the ball. I was hitting the ball about 80-100 yards and straight up in the air, but they were straight, then again if a ball travels that short of a distance it can't go anywhere. I moved on to the 7i and saw something that I never did before. The ball was straight, but instead of a arch, it began to balloon. I never balloon my iron shots so this was new to me. I was getting my regular distance of about 170 with very little movement. After about 15 balls the shots began to hook to the left and I tried to reset myself which didn't work. Decided to give my driver the chance. I still had my aftermarket shaft on it and hit 10 balls to get a sense of what I was doing, all banana slices, typical of me. IO swapped out the shaft and noticed a great shift in weight from my driver head to my grip. I wasn't to happy with it since I felt like I had no control over the club path now. The grip on my driver gave me a wide range of inconsistencies. There were three different types of shots that I got. My banana slice, which was now very high, a dead straight ball, or a low flying laser. No matter how I set up or swung, it was one of those three shots. I really did not like using the grip on my driver and felt uncomfortable using it. I set the driver aside and grabbed my 6i with stock grip and attempted to reset my swing again. After using the JumboMax grips, my 6i felt extremely tiny and could not get a good feel for it. My shots were flying all over the place. Tomorrow when I go to play a round, I am going to have to grab an iron out of my bag and hold it for a while after I tee off just so my hands can "shrink" back down to use a stock grip. I went back to the driver and hit some more ball and same the saw flight paths. Giving up, dropped down to my 7i and hit around with it and really began to see ugly results. I was hitting 150-160 (I hit my PW 140 easy), shots were being thinned and the straightness was gone. I have no idea why this was happening. Went with my 50* wedge and also saw inconsistencies. I no longer had accuracy, but the ball would still travel a mile high as I did the first time using it.
I don't know if it was the cold, the wind, the fact that I was wearing pants and a long sleeve, or I hadn't picked up a club in a couple of weeks, but my results after day one of field testing proved that these grips so far are not right for me. I men tione din an earlier post that the grips added weight made the club more counter balanced. That may be good for some, but after using my sticks for so long, I felt the clubs were too light and I did catch myself throwing the club head towards the ball giving some bad feedback.
I will bite the bullet and game the grips tomorrow when I play the yellow course at Bethpage and post my results.

To sum it up:
AW: High flop shots 80-100 yards
7i: balloon shots 170 yards at first, 150yards the second time around
Driver: Banana slices, dead straight, laser shots.

As of right now these grips in my opinion would be great on short game sticks; wedges and perhaps the 9i. I don't think they would give great feedback on longer sticks, woods, and the driver.

 

[#Cookie]

Pre-round range session with some lead tape on the R1 and it has made a significant difference. I can feel the head much better, my shots are straighter, and I just had to up the loft to 11.25 in order to get the ball flight up.

Much more post round! 54* is still money!

 

[ddec]

Pre-round range session with some lead tape on the R1 and it has made a significant difference. I can feel the head much better, my shots are straighter, and I just had to up the loft to 11.25 in order to get the ball flight up.

Much more post round! 54* is still money!

I was thinking that would make a big difference.

I tried O'Carroll's out again yesterday. I just don't like them. But you all are doing a really good job.

 

[Nebgolfer]

Pre-round range session with some lead tape on the R1 and it has made a significant difference. I can feel the head much better, my shots are straighter, and I just had to up the loft to 11.25 in order to get the ball flight up.

Much more post round! 54* is still money!

So it would seem like the issue is in the weight of the huge grips, not the size. Right?

 

[O'Carroll]

So it would seem like the issue is in the weight of the huge grips, not the size. Right?

For me...I would agree with this.

 

[DevRickus]

So it would seem like the issue is in the weight of the huge grips, not the size. Right?

For me...I would agree with this.

I would agree as well. The size isn't an issue once you get over the initial shock so to speak.

 

[ArmyGolf]

I took one swipe with SkiBum's 7i and I couldnt believe how large the grip was. Pictures dont do it justice.

 

[SkiBumGolfer]

For me the heavy weight acts like a counterweight, which really seems to help me with short clubs and chipping, and is pretty much indifferent to slightly negative with longer clubs.

I took one swipe with SkiBum's 7i and I couldnt believe how large the grip was. Pictures dont do it justice.

He was pretty dumbstruck, I can attest to that haha. I'd bet if you had a little time with it you would get used to it though, it really feels nice at impact with the 7 iron and the wedge.

I'm still organizing my thoughts from yesterday's round, because I played terribly and I'm not sure how much of it I can attribute to the grips and how much of it is user error. Highlights for now though are that I definitely feel that it helps hugely with the wedges/short irons - I hit an outstanding chip with the GW that sat down about 6 inches from the hole, and a number of nice 7 irons and partial swing gap wedges. I will say though that I don't see a huge difference in accuracy or distance between clubs with and without the JM grips, but it does introduce an additional adjustment that I need to make when playing two radically different size grips. I'm not sure at this point that it's worth introducing that additional variable in order to get a little help on chips.

More detailed round thoughts coming soon!

 

[Germerican]

So, a bit of bad news, lost my AW with the fatty grip on it so now I can only test the 7i and the driver.

Played 18 today and used the driver on about 14 holes. I was still experiencing a slice that would make any banana jealous, but when I calmed myself down I did find it easier to turn my wrists over and hit the ball straight. And when I hit the ball straight, did it go! It got to the point where I had to wait for the foursome ahead of me to take their second shots before I teed off, even came within 10 yards of a under GIR. I find it funny that with all the troubles I had on the driving range with this grip and how worried I was about the weight shift, I felt really great (when I hit it well) and the weight issue did not at all come into question.
The 7i was an issue today even though I only used it twice. The first time I needed it was on a par 5 and needed to reach the green. I took a bad swing, wound up shanking the ball and dropped to my PW. The second time I needed it was to tee off on a short par 3. I felt fine on the tee box and my swing felt great, but unlike my usual iron hits, I sliced this one. I wish I could give more feedback on the iron, but I only needed it twice today. I could have used my AW had I not lost it since I was in a few situations where I needed it.

any of you testers worried about mid round going from jumbo grip to regular grip? that would totally mess with my head

When i was using the fatty on the range and dropping down to a stock grip, I felt a noticeable change as if my grips were tiny. When I was on the course today there was no issue. Perhaps it is because I am taking two or three swings per stroke, counting practice swings, and then walking to where the ball landed and going for a different club. My hands "reset" and grabbing a club with a different grip felt normal.

 

[Smallville]

So it would seem like the issue is in the weight of the huge grips, not the size. Right?

Kinda sounds like it. But not with the other clubs, which seems weird to me, but it does sound like what the testers are saying. I am still going to go oversized when I regrip this winter, but am now considering these or similar for my irons and wedges, and a lite version for my woods.

 

[War Eagle]

Had these on the course again today, and so many mixed thoughts on these it's not funny.

Distance loss, lack of feel, and just overall poor results for me with them.

Will have a review up tomorrow on my first few rounds with them.

 

[O'Carroll]

Distance loss, lack of feel, and just overall poor results for me with them.

No bueno...eh? I have a pretty long post planned for the morning when I'm not drinking, but this sounds an awful lot like my last two rounds with them.

I'm hoping a range session tomorrow afternoon will shed some hope on getting them figured out.

 

[War Eagle]

No bueno...eh? I have a pretty long post planned for the morning when I'm not drinking, but this sounds an awful lot like my last two rounds with them.

I'm hoping a range session tomorrow afternoon will shed some hope on getting them figured out.

Just not jiving with me, at all.