Golfers will spend months choosing a shaft and years playing whatever grip came on the club. That is a strange allocation of attention, because the grip is the only part of the club you touch, and it is the cheapest specification on it to change.
What the sizes are
Grips are sold in a small number of size steps, conventionally described as undersize, standard, midsize and jumbo, with the exact diameters set by each manufacturer.
The sizes are not standardized between makers, which is the same pattern that runs through shaft flex and grind codes. One company's midsize and another's are similar in intent and not identical in dimension. The comparable information is the maker's own published diameter, not the word.
And there is a second, finer adjustment. Grip size is affected by how many layers of build-up tape are applied underneath. Adding tape increases the effective diameter in small increments, which means the sizing is genuinely continuous rather than four fixed options. A builder can put a standard grip on with extra wraps and land between two nominal sizes.
Why the charts disagree
Every grip maker publishes a sizing chart, usually based on hand measurements: length from wrist crease to the tip of the middle finger, and sometimes glove size.
They disagree for two reasons, and both are worth knowing.
Each chart describes that company's own grips. The boundaries are placed relative to that company's own diameters.
Hand size is one input and preference is another. Two golfers with identical hand measurements can prefer different sizes, and neither is wrong. Charts predict a starting point; they do not measure a requirement.
So the useful move is to open the chart published by the company whose grip you are considering, and treat it as a starting point rather than an answer. A generic chart found in a search result is describing nothing in particular, which is the same problem as a generic shaft flex chart.
What size actually changes
Three things, and the first is the one people notice.
How freely the hands and wrists move. A thinner grip generally allows more hand action; a thicker one generally restrains it. This is the mechanism behind the most common piece of grip advice, which is that a golfer fighting a hook may find a larger grip helps and one fighting a slice may find a smaller one does.
Take that with the appropriate caution. It describes a tendency, not a fix, and it is far weaker as an intervention than either a swing change or a fitting. It is worth knowing because it costs nothing to test and because it explains why people notice a change at all.
Grip pressure and comfort. A grip that is too small for a hand tends to be squeezed harder, and excessive grip pressure is one of the more commonly cited sources of tension in a swing. If you have persistent hand, wrist or elbow pain, that is a question for a clinician rather than for a grip.
Swing weight. A grip has mass, and grips are published with a weight. Changing to a heavier or lighter grip shifts the club's balance point, which changes how heavy the head feels. Adding weight at the grip end lowers swing weight; removing it raises it. This is the cheapest way to move swing weight on a club and almost nobody uses it deliberately.
The free test
Before buying anything, there is a test that costs nothing.
Play a few holes, or hit a bucket, paying attention to grip pressure and to what your hands are doing. Then ask a shop to let you hold a club with a larger grip and one with a smaller one, side by side, without swinging. Preference is usually immediate and it is real information.
Second free test: look at the grip you already have. Grips wear. A worn, hardened, shiny grip is smaller than it was, and it is slippery, which makes people squeeze harder. A golfer who has never changed a grip in five seasons is playing a spec that has drifted without them noticing, and the fix is a purchase rather than a fitting.
Cost and timing, without a number
Regripping is the cheapest specification change available on a golf club, by a wide margin. It is a fraction of the cost of a shaft, a head or a fitting.
We publish no price, because grip prices and labor rates vary by grip, by shop and by country, and a figure here would be wrong for most readers. The relevant fact is the ordering: this is the least expensive thing on the club to change, and the one most likely to have been left alone longest.
When to do it is a wear question rather than a calendar one, and the off-season is when shops are quiet, which is why it is a subject this site returns to in the autumn.
What to check on your own clubs
When were they last regripped? If the answer is a shrug, that is the finding.
Are they the size that came on the club? Almost certainly yes, and that size was chosen for the middle of a market.
Does the wear pattern look even? Uneven wear tells you something about where your hands sit.
And what does the grip weigh? Published by the maker, and a variable you can use deliberately if you want to move swing weight without touching anything else.
The one-line version
Grip size is a real specification, it is continuous rather than four fixed options because of build-up tape, the charts belong to individual makers, and it is the cheapest thing on the club to change. A golfer who has never thought about it is not doing anything wrong, and is leaving the least expensive lever on the club untouched.
For how this sits alongside the rest of the numbers on a club, our page on the golf club spec sheet, translated covers which specifications are measurements and which are names. And if you are buying used, the grips are almost always the first thing that needs replacing, which is one of the costs our guide to buying used golf clubs says to budget for.
FAQ
What do the grip sizes actually mean?
Grips come in a small number of steps, conventionally undersize, standard, midsize and jumbo, with the exact diameters set by each manufacturer. The sizes are not standardized between makers, so the comparable information is the maker's own published diameter, not the word.
Why do grip size charts disagree with each other?
Each chart describes that company's own grips, with boundaries placed relative to its own diameters, and hand size is only one input alongside preference. Two golfers with identical hand measurements can prefer different sizes, and neither is wrong.
What does changing grip size actually do?
Three things: it changes how freely the hands and wrists move, it changes grip pressure and comfort, since a grip too small tends to be squeezed harder, and it moves swing weight, because a grip has mass and adding weight at the grip end lowers swing weight.
Can a bigger or smaller grip fix my hook or slice?
Treat that advice as a tendency, not a fix. A thinner grip generally allows more hand action and a thicker one restrains it, but it is far weaker as an intervention than a swing change or a fitting. It is worth testing mainly because it costs nothing.
How can I test grip size without buying anything?
Pay attention to grip pressure over a few holes or a bucket, then ask a shop to let you hold a larger and a smaller grip side by side; preference is usually immediate. And look at your current grip, because a worn, hardened, shiny grip is smaller and more slippery than it was when new.