I’m not privy to the methods used to source golf gloves. For all I know, every golf glove originates in the same shop, the same city, the same country. I know that cabretta leather is the softest material available for gloves; since I’ve never seen a cabretta (not even in captivity), I don’t know whether to feel sorry for them or applaud their demise.
Two gloves caught my attention recently, for markedly distinct reasoning. Hirzl is a Swiss company with lines of gloves for golf and cycling. Its golf gloves line up under one of three categories: Trust Control, Trust Feel and Soffft. LeviTee is a California-based company with one specific goal: to decrease pressure in the golf grip. Its golf glove features six foam pads (two each between each set of parallel fingers) that separate with comfort. One evening in January, 2012, I had the opportunity to put both gloves through my paces at the Paddock golf dome in Tonawanda, NY.
The Hirzl gloves have a following in Europe, including status as the official glove of the Ladies European Tour. I debuted the gloves during my snow round at Byrncliff in January, then followed up a week later at the Paddock dome. The platinum cabretta glove was softer than a blanket and allowed me to grip the club with extreme comfort. The Trust gloves were equally reliable, although I did not have the opportunity to confirm the company’s claims of “100% Sweat Resistant Palm ~ 4X/5X more grip in wet weather conditions.”
I did notice that the Trust Control glove felt a bit tighter in the index (pointer) finger. The company incorporated a pre-curved finger system into the Control line, which may explain the sensation of constriction. I would personally opt for the other two lines.
The six pads of the LeviTee glove serve the purpose of forcing the fingers apart in a gentle fashion. The company seeks to avoid the “death grip,” as it states on its website. The pads serve a physical and psychological purpose. The physical approach to death-grip avoidance is the actual separation of each finger from the neighbor. Without proximity, it is much more difficult to truly clasp the club with every ounce of pressure in the big muscles of the arm. The psychological execution is the reminder that each pad offers to the wearer, to simply grip in a gentler fashion. As Sam Snead used to say, as though you had a baby bird in your had that you didn’t want to get away, but didn’t want to kill, either.
My concluding thoughts are simple. Each company achieved its goal at first blush. As the 2012 season returns/continues, I’ll be able to offer in-depth follow-up on the worth of each glove.
For more information, click the links below to reach their websites.
