A few years ago upon the tip of a professional, I cut down a number of golf clubs up to an inch. Yes, a DIY and drastic for some but because I am a male who stands about 5′ tall when I stretch, I needed a way to find some consistency in my game. The recommendation made sense. Plus some clubs like the driver seemed to be getting longer but my height wasn’t getting longer at the same time. Not all clubs were cut down an inch but there seemed to be a method behind the madness. When all was said and done I needed to regrip the clubs. By watching a few YouTube videos I quickly learned how to regrip a golf shaft.
Now this isn’t the video I followed a handful of years back but it is the same method I ended up using the very first time I changed a golf grip myself. It does make things easy peasy. You are more than welcome to follow this method or do what I now do in the steps and pictures further below.
How to Regrip a Golf Shaft with a Bike Pump
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
The madness part of it may not have been that I cut down the shafts myself. It was that I got partial input from the golf pro. If a lightbulb is going off in your head right now, yes. I cut down the shaft (easy to do and will be in another post) and put on a new grip. Fine and dandy but then after a while the club just didn’t feel right. Oh, the change wasn’t felt immediately but when I went back and hit one of my older clubs, I could definitely tell that something different was going on. File this under the “you don’t know what you don’t know” category.
By cutting down the shaft and replacing with a like grip, the swing weight of the club changed. Check out how to measure swing weight in golf here. Being very drastic here but imagine going from swinging a head like a sledge hammer to a head like a feather. No, nothing like that because it was almost not noticeable to me but after a long while I did think something was amiss with my swing. I was right. The long and short of it was I had to regrip my clubs again but this time with a lighter grip. This resulted in a swing weight which was more appropriate for my irons and woods. But all of this is just me rambling with a sorta heads up. Let’s get into the meat and potatoes of how to regrip a golf shaft.
I now regrip golf clubs on a nearly yearly basis. Part of this is because of the amount of time I play at the course each year but moreso because my golf simulator gets a lot of use. The other thing is I now use a smaller grip which sometimes cannot be purchased at local sporting goods stores.
What You Need To Change A Golf Grip
- Double Sided Tape
- Utility Knife or Hook Blade
- Grip Solvent
- Rubber Vice Clamp Wedge
- New Grips
If it were me and only because it is easily accessible, I would pick up a kit similar to the Wedge Guys Golf Grip Kit. It is a good place to get started and the price is right.
Tips on How to Regrip a Golf Shaft
Just some personal tips when learning how to regrip a golf shaft is that I would personally use a hook blade versus a utility knife if changing out a grip on a graphite shaft. You wouldn’t want to accidentally cut into the graphite shaft and perhaps cause any weakness in the shaft.
Double-sided tape works well but in a pinch, I have also used every day masking tape that I cut to just a little larger than the circumference of the shaft and about 1/4″ shorter than the length of the grip. This is key. Make sure the tape is not longer than the grip. I’ve seen this happen before where someone puts the tape on the shaft without realizing the tape is longer than the grip. This will cause you to…what is the word I’m looking for… re-regrip.
The rubber vice clamp wedge is not a necessity but it does make the job easier. To me, the main reason for having the rubber vice clamp wedge attached to a vice is to free up both hands when removing or putting on a new grip. But I have taken off and installed a grip without the rubber clamp. If attempting to do so, my recommendation is to wrap the head of the club in a towel so you don’t scratch or damage the clubface/head. Also, pay particular attention that you do not flex the shaft too much if you are putting the head on the ground to gain leverage.
Getting Started – How to Regrip a Golf Shaft
The below items are what I used today to regrip a golf club. Wasn’t the fastest as I was taking pictures along the way but from start to finish I had it done in under 20 minutes. I could easily halve that time if I wasn’t taking pics.
So below we have my 5 hybrid with an old grip and the new tour velvet 25 gram grip which is standard size. We also have double sided tape for golf grips although I had some masking tape off to the side if I decided to use that. I used a product called Brampton Grip Tape Spray Solution but since it is close to running out I also a new bottle of The Golfworks Grip Solvent. You will also see a utility knife and a hooked linoleum knife. Since I would be working with a graphite shaft, I chose to use the linoleum knife.
I wear rubber gloves that have some grip that I don’t mind throwing away after regripping. It both protects your hands from the utility knife or hook blade and helps to keep solvent off your hands.
A Picture Story
Here you can see the hook knife (actually a linoleum knife) I used to initially cut the grip. I chose the hook knife because of this being a graphite shaft. I initially cut the grip and was able to pull it up a couple of inches. The grip was cut twice more and then I could pull the entire grip off. Took maybe 90 seconds to do this.
Pulling back on the grip after using the hook knife.
Eventually, I had it down to where there was just tape left on the shaft. Let me tell you, this may be the hardest part of regripping a shaft… getting the darn tape off. So you will want to remove the tape in its entirety. I think it easily took me about 3-4 minutes to get the tape off. Scraping away with the fingernails.
Here is the club with the grip and tape removed. Now all we have to do is put the tape on and the new grip. See how easy it is to learn the steps in how to regrip a golf shaft?
So we’ve gotten to the point of putting on the double sided golf tape. I could have used masking tape in its place but still have a few strips of this tape.
The tape sort of overlaps slightly on itself.
Make sure to leave about 1/4″ of tape past the end of the shaft. Then tuck this tape into the end of the shaft. The thought process is that it helps slightly to block out water from getting into the shaft.
This is the grip tape spray solution I used although there are many on the market. Having used this over the past couple of years, I wish I had more of it on hand. Basically what you do is spray the entire length of the tape which you now have on your club and then give half a dozen sprays inside the new golf grip. The intention is that it makes the tape and the inside of the grip very slippery. This is also the reason why you might want to be wearing some gloves as you do this. It will help to both keep your hands clean and give enough hold to move the grip down the shaft.
Once both the tape and inside of the new grip are sprayed well, start putting the end of the grip over the shaft. It should be pretty easy to start.
As you slide the grip down the shaft, for more or less vanity purposes, make sure you align the logo of the grip with the clubhead as in the picture below. Just wiggle the grip back and forth til you have it aligned properly.
Well that’s a wrap. In the grand scheme of things it may be better to pay someone $5 a club or so do a regrip but to me the fun of DIY makes it all worthwhile. When you get good at this you literally can do a regrip in 5 minutes. After the new grip was put on, I typically wait 24 hours to play with the club.
Looking for a DIY Golf Gripping Station Project?
I’ll admit that changing a single grip is easy peasy using the above method. But as I was writing this post, I realized I would be most likely changing out a dozen or so grips. I wondered if there might be a more efficient or quicker way? So I created a DIY Golf Gripping Station. Now I really can’t promise you that it will be incredibly quicker but it can save your hand and will keep the club more stable in the process. As always, put the golf grip on in one motion. Do not stop or the grip will only get on part way and you will struggle to get the grip on or remove.
This article was very specific at regripping a golf shaft but head over here if you would like to learn how to make your own golf clubs.
I was happy to write this DIY as it is a simple project that can be done in a night or two. I hope for the reader my step by step process along with the excellent video above (which I can’t take credit for) shows exactly how to regrip a golf shaft with ease. Please reach out for any questions whatsoever.
