Free Grips For Everyone! Lamkin Announces Upgrade With Lamkin Program

If Bob Lamkin swapped places with Oprah Winfrey, February 15th would sound like this:

“You get a free grip, and you get a free grip, and you get a free grip, too!”

Lamkin is getting its Oprah on for its 95th birthday by giving every golfer in the U.S and Canada a free grip, including installation, through its new Upgrade With Lamkin program.

The offer- also known as Regrip America – runs from February 15th through the end of the year and covers any grip in the Lamkin catalog (excluding putter grips). The program also includes the new grips Lamkin introduced at the PGA Show (more on those further down).

How It Works

With “free,” there’s always a process. To get your free grip, you must first visit the company’s Upgrade With Lamkin webpage and take a short quiz designed to get you into the right grip. Once you finish, you’ll get a voucher to present to a participating retailer who will install the grip at no charge.

If you decide to buy at least eight more grips, Lamkin will shoot you one more freebie. You’ll find a complete list of participating dealers on Lamkin’s new, updated website once the program goes live. Lamkin will announce other countries for the program in the coming weeks.

About Those New Grips…

Lamkin has had many firsts over its 95 years: the first leather grip, the first combination leather/injection-molded rubber grip, and others.

Lamkin is dropping three new grips for this year and, if combining two things that haven’t been put together before counts as a “first,” then then you can make that four.

ST+2 Hybrid

Lamkin’s one completely new grip is the ST+2 Hybrid. It features what Lamkin is calling its newest Smooth Tack Genesis Material. Lamkin introduced Genesis last year in its TS-1 and Sonar grips – it’s a proprietary rubber compound combining the tackiness of a soft-feeling grip with enough traction to be playable in wet or dry conditions.

The ST+2 Hybrid grip also kinda/sorta emulates Golf Pride’s MCC grips as well as Lamkin’s own Z5 grips. The upper portion of the grip combines Infused Cord with the Smooth Tack Genesis material. Lamkin says that provides extra traction for the anchoring hand (important when it’s wet or humid) while maintaining softness for better comfort.

Like Golf Pride’s Plus 4 grips, the ST+2 Hybrid is a mid-size profile with a reduced taper.

Calibrate

The other three grips Lamkin is introducing all feature Calibrate, Lamkin’s take on Golf Pride’s popular ALIGN technology. The Calibrate reminder ridge is considerably more subtle looking than ALIGN, while at the same time being a bit more pronounced. You definitely feel it more than see it. Lamkin says Calibrate is the most prominent reminder spine it has ever put on a grip.

The theory behind reminder spines or ridges is they help make sure your hand placement is consistent as well as promoting club face awareness, control and feel.

From what we’ve seen, Calibrate is different enough from ALIGN to notice but similar enough not be classified as ground-breaking. ALIGN is visually bold but its slightly raised ridge provides a subtle feel. Calibrate has a more subtle look but has a more pronounced feel.

Lamkin is offering Calibrate on the new ST+2 Hybrid grip (along with the standard, non-Calibrate version). You’ll also find Calibrate as an option on two of its year-old Sonar grips.

The Sonar+ Tour Calibrate grip features Lamkin’s previous-generation Genesis material. It’s slightly firmer than the ST+2 Hybrid while remaining tacky and includes Lamkin’s Fingerprint Technology, what the company calls a micro-texture pattern that promotes a lighter grip pressure.

That new thing that’s really “two things combined that had never been combined before” we mentioned earlier? That’s the Sonar+ Wrap Calibrate. Lamkin says it’s the first and only wrap-style grip to feature reminder technology, so that’s something. Again, Lamkin says Genesis and Fingerprint combine to give the grip both traction and tackiness.

Price and Availability

Lamkin is definitely vying to be a company to watch in 2020, with more consumer-focused programs in the works. Just before Christmas, it announced a new in-store putter grip fitting system and Lamkin just gave its website a badly needed and long-overdue facelift.

The ST+2 Hybrid Hybrid (without Calibrate) is $9.99 in standard and $10.49 in midsize; with Calibrate it’s $10.49 in standard and $10.99 in midsize. The Sonar+Tour Calibrate is $9.49 and the Sonar+ Wrap Calibrate is $8.49. Both are available in standard size only.

The new grips are available now on Lamkin’s new website.