Once very much part of a “one size fits all” segment, the putter grip has undergone a metamorphosis in the past decade. Companies are now willing to experiment more than ever with sizes, shapes, and materials. While that is fun for us consumers, some companies prefer to innovate with a purpose, instead of for the sake of innovating.
Garsen Golf was established with the idea that the putter grip should complement the players stroke rather than trying to force a square peg into a round hole. It is because of this, that the company has continually worked to design multiple outside the box options for golfers to find that comfort. To get a closer look at that aspect, THP was able to get both their QUAD Tour and MAX grips in hand and see how they have worked to accomplish their goals.
Quick Take
The QUAD Tour and MAX grips are two entirely different shapes from each other, as well as from every other putter grip shape on the planet. Best yet? Despite the unique design shapes, they feel extremely natural in hand and give a shockingly good ability to get the putter face back to square. It is of little surprise we are seeing more putter manufacturers offer Garsen grips as an option.
Garsen QUAD Tour
Though many who have been familiar with Garsen Golf since they came onto the scene associate the name with a putter grip that has the two-sided front section of the MAX and EDGE, the company also understands that golfers are creatures of habit. What I mean is that “tradition” in putter grips has been a flat front paddle section where the thumbs rest, and when people are brought up in the game with one thing, it often becomes difficult to get them to try something new thing.
With the Garsen QUAD Tour, the idea is “Tradition that Fits”, meaning taking something familiar to most golfers on top where the eyes and thumbs recognize comfort and safety, but beyond that creating a shape which frees up the body to allow more consistency. Using a parallelogram shaping, the shape aims to get the users elbows more “in” towards their core and keep the shoulders set back rather than hunched over. This is to engage the big muscles and a one-piece putting stroke as opposed to a handsy and variable filled one.
This one shocked me. I knew I would enjoy the MAX because I’d played the EDGE in the past and believe in that shaping for what it does physiologically. I never expected a totally different and unique shaping to accomplish the exact same thing in my putting stroke. The biggest surprise for me was the flat bottom of the grip, I thought it would be inherently awkward, but instead it really helped get the grip into the palms a little more and thus stabilize things. The company claimed benefits of the EDGE and MAX but a more traditional “feeling” grip in hand, to which I admittedly scoffed internally, but they were spot on with the description and I will happily eat my crow now.
The QUAD Tour comes in both a taper (70g) and non-taper (55g) version, with the shape being the most subtle subliminally in the taper for those not wanting to feel they are moving to too unique of a grip. The non-taper is one of the most effective putter grips I have tested to date for doing exactly what it claims. The QUAD in both shapes worked well for me also as I tried various putting grips, so if you are a claw or pencil grip putter, don’t fret, these work with that grip as well. Priced at $34.99, the polyurethane covered QUAD Tour comes in all black, red/blue, and blue/red color options.
Garsen MAX
When I found out I would be getting a couple of Garsen Golf’s current putter grips to do a review, this is the one I was most eager to get in hand. The biggest reason is because I played the EDGE for a season and a half after it was initially introduced and had a lot of success with it. For those not familiar, the company refers to this grip as “Innovation with a Twist”, which is based on the fact that they originally took a square shape and twisted it 45° to put a hard edge directly on top leaving a flat section for each thumb rather than one for both.
This design aspect is both obvious and strange to golfers when you first put one in hand, it’s so outside of the norm that your mind tells you one thing, but the hands sit so naturally on the grip that it becomes overwhelmingly intuitive. The grip naturally allows the palms to face each other more under the grip while placing the thumbs on each side, this helps take hand dominance out of the equation as well as engaging the big muscles through the stroke to eliminate variables that handsy putting strokes naturally introduce.
As a golfer and a coach, I spend a lot of time on myself and my kids with ingraining using the big (muscle groups) to move the small (ball), this shape does a great job at unlocking that feel for people naturally by the way it organizes the body physiologically. It’s crazy to think that a putter grip can do so much for posture and form, but it does. The fact that it feels so natural takes some time to get used to, but it was definitely the consensus of those who tried it during my testing.
The MAX is a 55g grip which keeps a firm feel in its semi-taper profile. Size wise, this one does lean mid to mid-plus in my opinion, which makes sense as the company has the EDGE to hit that “traditional” size for them. These come in at $34.99 and there are six color options available, all combinations of black/blue, black/red, and black/white, and two different textures depending on the combo picked.
The Details
As mentioned, both styles we got to review hit the $34.99 price point, they are available now at various retailers as well as directly from www.garsengolf.com. The MAX and QUAD Tour are just two of many different grip options from Garsen and we are sure to see the company continue to expand that lineup in the future.
Have you tried any of the Garsen Putter Grips before? Are these something that interests you? Jump on in to the conversation with golfers around the world just like you and have your thoughts heard below or right on the THP Community!
