When it comes to listing the most iconic names in golf, there’s a strong argument to be made for True Temper. This American company began making steel shafts almost 100 years ago, and Dynamic Gold, their flagship iron shaft line, has been around for over 40 years. How many golf products in regular play today can make a claim like that? It’s difficult to grasp the impact True Temper has had on the golf industry. It would be almost impossible to conceive a player that hasn’t had a set of their shafts in the bag at some point, and the list of Tour players and wins in their stable is almost impossible to tally up. How do you describe a brand like that best? Easy. True Temper is iconic.
Knowing all that, it just makes sense that True Temper’s first entry into the grip market is named ICON. Believe it or not, I didn’t even mean to get deep into wordplay when I wrote down those words. Nonetheless, it’s going to seem like I did anyway, so I’ll just lean into it a bit. Can True Temper really compete in a market dominated so heavily by a couple main players? It seems like if anybody can, it would be them. Let’s look at what they are bringing to the table with ICON.
Before we go too much further, it’s important to make clear that True Temper isn’t just outsourcing a grip and slapping their name on it. Rather, they’ve invested substantially into grips with a brand-new, 60,000 square foot facility in North America. ICON is the product of three years of R&D and prototyping rubber compounds and designs.
Knowing that, we’re going to address the elephant in the room. Yep, it looks like a grip. From a distance, there isn’t really anything about ICON that is going to elicit a bunch of chatter. However, when you 1) consider what types of grips get the most play, both on Tour and with amateurs, and 2) the deep ties that True Temper has both with Tour and the equipment manufacturers, it makes perfect sense that the company would work on perfecting the industry standard.
A close look at ICON reveals exactly how True Temper chose to reinvent the wheel. The iX Perforation pattern delivers aggressive traction in the hands and quickly channels away greater amounts of moisture than their competitors. It’s one thing to see the iX Perforation pattern in pictures, but it’s even more noticeable in hand. The ICON somehow feels incredibly familiar and comfortable while gripping firmly against the hands.
“The ICON grip features our new iX perforation, which provides superior moisture control and increased traction compared to traditional perforations,” said David Barker, Vice President of Grip R&D. “We’ve implemented the iX perforation in a higher density pattern than traditionally used, delivering a 20% increase in perforation surface area over leading grips on the market. In addition, we’ve focused on increasing the pattern density even further on the lower section of the grip to provide more control in the bottom hand.”
True Temper is using laser machined tooling in their new facility, enabling extremely high levels of quality and consistency from grip to grip. The rubber compounds are cross-linked, which may take a college class to truly understand, but in the simplest terms this process creates a very strong rubber that maintains the feel we expect while resisting deformities. Many players will find instant comfort with the mid-firm, slightly tacky feel of the ICON.
“We are extremely excited to expand our product portfolio into grips,” said David Walker, General Manager of True Temper’s golf division. “True Temper has a 100-plus-year heritage of developing the finest quality golf shafts, trusted by golfers at all levels, including many of the greatest players in the history of the game. The introduction of the ICON grip represents another important step in our commitment to providing top-tier equipment to golfers worldwide.”
The True Temper ICON grips will be available through online retailers, golf stores, and club fitters across True Temper’s extensive network of distributors. Stay tuned to THP to learn more as we continue to test them in the coming months.
For more information, check out their website at www.truetempersports.com.
