Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4 Grips
Not being satisfied enough by being the #1 Grip on Tour, Golf Pride continues to innovate with their newly released Tour Velvet Plus4 line. Here, they make the clubmaker and tinkerer’s life easier by creating a ready-made grip that simulates the feel of four wraps of grip tape under the bottom hand.
The Looks
Following up on the incredible success of the Tour Velvet ALIGN line, Golf Pride gives you the iconic look of their Tour Velvet grip with a modern touch in the Tour Velvet Plus4. It features the classic black coloring with a grey butt cap and an understated logo. Feel free to install facing down if you like a clean look and don’t like to advertise (logos up for me – you know it). While you can’t expect the same tech advancements going into a golf grip like you can an Artificial Intelligence designed driver face, Golf Pride does offer their scientifically proven and familiar grip pattern and materials. If you want flashy colors, check out the MCC line. If you want old school cool, the Plus4s have you covered.
How Does it Feel?
The Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4 will of course feel familiar, as the original might be the most used grip in the game. What’s brilliant about these is that they skip the tedious task of using grip tape to change the feel of the grips by building up the bottom hand. The buildup is done via the grip itself. Not only can that take a ton of time on every install, but you’re not going to get it 100% perfect. With these, you will. Remove variables from your club build – set it and forget it. The same concept can be found in the ALIGN grips. Ever try to do a reminder rib by yourself? It’s a nightmare. The simplicity is the genius here. Golf Pride claims the Plus4s allow you to go with a lighter grip pressure, therefore less tension, therefore more power.
On-Course Performance
Does the Golf Pride Plus4 technology make your swing better? Make you a better golfer? Honestly, that’s kind of a stretch. However, I’m a big believer in the psychology of this stuff. It feels awesome in your hand. It gives you a slight tactile change, barely perceptible, and then you’re free to swing away. There’s just something about a fresh set of Golf Prides that makes your whole confidence level go through the roof. This is definitely a “Look good, feel good – feel good, play good – play good, get paid good” kind of deal. Thanks Deion!
As we Northerners have awoken from our winter hibernation, I’ve had a chance to bag these on the course and in practice a couple times. It’s all positive from me! It’s a very small change in feel, and I do buy in to the “tension reduction” part a bit. That’s always a good aspect of the golf swing technique, but I feel the Plus4s do a great job of reminding you hold it softer and swing smoother. From there, you can do what Mr. Palmer used to say, “swing your swing.”
Final Thoughts
We feel that Golf Pride has released yet another winner with the Tour Velvet Plus4 grips. I was very curious to try the Plus4s, but not at all convinced I’d like them. Turns out I do. I’m rarely one to customize my grips. Maybe one extra layer. Adding FOUR, and adding them under my bottom hand seemed way past my comfort level. My thought was that these would be great for those with bear claws, but not me and my regular-sized human hands. I was totally wrong. While these grips they do what Golf Pride says they’re going to do (add some girth), the +4 part comes across more subtle than you’d think.
The Plus4 is something even the most reluctant of tinkerers can adopt quickly and has the potential to improve the player’s comfort level from the top of the bag to the bottom.
