Impact on Golf-Club Grips

One of the activities that must be carried out periodically by all Golf enthusiasts is that of the change in the grips of the golf-clubs. This component, generally made with rubber, represents one of the few elements subjected to wear in a golf-club.

The CEAST drop towers are perfect instruments to investigate the mechanical and physical characteristics of the grips. The tests can be carry out by means of a very simple set-up and allow to perfectly simulate the energies involved in the impact between the club and the golf ball. This energy will be transmitted from the club-head up to the grip and then absorbed. This is the reason of the wearing of this part of the club.

To study this problem, we cut some grips along their whole length. Then, we placed them into a standard clamping ring system and we drop a tup with 20 mm insert from different heights. The configuration is quite similar to that required by ISO 6603 standard. A variation in the impact height, the tup release position, will allow to achieve different impact energies. A golf ball has commonly a mass of 50 grams and we simulate ball speeds from 30 to 50 km/h. This leads to impact energies varying from 1.5 to 4 J.

The measure of the rebound speed of the tup after the impact, allows to calculate the energy absorbed by the grip during the shock. At the increase of the impact energy will correspond a growing trend in the absorbed energy value. There is a limit to this absorption and, surpassing this value, you can see some permanent marks in the grip. This simple procedure allows to investigate the maximum energy value each grip is able to resist. A very important parameter for all grip producers.