Some golf equipment innovations are spectacular and immediately visible. Others come down to a few millimetres of material positioned differently. The Golf Pride Reverse Taper clearly belongs to the second category. Launched in 2024, this putter grip is based on a relatively simple idea: reverse the conventional taper by making the upper section slimmer and the lower section, where the bottom hand sits, noticeably larger. Golf Pride says the concept is designed to stabilise the hands and help golfers deliver a squarer putter face at impact. Two years later, the Reverse Taper remains part of the range and has even expanded. That makes it worth revisiting, not simply as an unusual-looking grip, but as a way of addressing a much more interesting question: how much can the shape of a grip actually influence the way we control a putter?
An idea that is not quite as new as it looks
Golf Pride’s credentials in full-swing grips are difficult to question. Tour Velvet, Tour Wrap and the MCC family have become familiar products to generations of golfers, but the company’s position in putter grips has historically been less dominant. SuperStroke, in particular, has spent more than a decade popularising larger-diameter and reduced-taper putter grips. With Reverse Taper, Golf Pride therefore entered a category where its name alone did not necessarily make it the reference.
Nor did Golf Pride invent the idea of increasing grip volume beneath the lower hand. When Reverse Taper was introduced, Golf Digest recalled an intriguing example involving Jim Furyk. In 2010, Furyk reportedly cut the upper section from a putter grip and installed it upside down to create additional volume beneath his lower hand. A few weeks later, he won the Transitions Championship. It is an interesting historical anecdote, although clearly not evidence that the grip modification caused the victory.
That distinction matters. Reverse Taper is perhaps better understood not as the invention of an entirely new concept, but as Golf Pride’s attempt to study, engineer and commercialise an idea golfers have experimented with in various forms before. The current family includes Round, Pistol and Flat profiles and has expanded beyond the original Medium and Large sizes with a Small option. Two years after launch, Reverse Taper has therefore developed into a genuine product family rather than disappearing after its initial marketing cycle.
Why put more material under the lower hand?
To understand the principle, forget the marketing for a moment and simply look at a golfer’s hands on the putter. With a conventional grip, a right-handed golfer places the right hand lower down the handle. When that hand becomes excessively dominant, it can contribute to changes in face rotation, grip pressure or wrist action around impact. That is not universally a fault — some excellent putters have traditionally used their hands considerably — but for golfers trying to reduce excessive lower-hand activity, increasing the diameter beneath that hand is a logical avenue to explore.
That is essentially what Reverse Taper does. Rather than becoming progressively narrower towards the shaft, the geometry works in the opposite direction. The upper hand occupies a relatively narrow section while the lower hand sits around a larger surface. Golf Pride argues that this arrangement helps stabilise both hands and promotes a squarer putter face at impact. The distinction between a plausible mechanical principle and a proven performance benefit is important here. It is perfectly reasonable to expect a different grip diameter to influence how a golfer holds and applies pressure to the club. Demonstrating that it automatically improves face control for every golfer is a much bigger claim.
The construction also contributes to the experience. Reverse Taper uses polyurethane with a tacky surface and textured traction pattern. The sensation is therefore closer to that of many modern oversized putter grips than to a thin traditional rubber grip. This matters because changing diameter, geometry and material simultaneously can also alter how much feedback a golfer receives from the putter head and impact.
What does “15% squarer” actually mean?
When Golf Pride launched Reverse Taper, much of the technical discussion centred around testing conducted using SAM PuttLab. According to figures supplied by Golf Pride, 364 putts were analysed and more than 21,000 variables measured, including path, timing, face rotation, face position at impact and loft. From those tests, the company produced a particularly memorable figure: Reverse Taper delivered a putter face that was 15% squarer at impact than a parallel-style putter grip under the conditions of its testing.
That figure needs considerably more context than a headline usually provides. First, it comes from testing conducted for the manufacturer, and we are not aware of an independent scientific study that has reproduced the complete protocol and confirmed the same improvement. Second, “15% squarer” absolutely does not mean 15% more putts holed, 15% better accuracy or 15% less dispersion. It refers to a relative improvement in an angular face measurement against the reference used in Golf Pride’s test.
Without access to the complete raw dataset, the distribution of results between individual golfers and the statistical significance of those differences, it would be unwise to translate that figure into a universal performance promise. Golf Pride itself frames the claim as a comparison with a parallel-style putter grip. The 15% figure is therefore useful as evidence of the manufacturer’s development work and as a technical hypothesis worth investigating; it is not, on its own, proof that fitting a Reverse Taper will make any individual golfer a better putter.
Independent testing provides a more nuanced picture
Two years of perspective allow us to look beyond Golf Pride’s own claims. Golf Monthly’s initial testing produced a broadly positive impression. The tester reported feeling less activity from the lower hand and found the grip helpful in terms of perceived speed and face control. Adaptation was relatively quick, although the test involved the Medium size. This remains useful real-world feedback rather than scientific confirmation of Golf Pride’s performance claims.
Plugged In Golf produced an arguably more revealing result precisely because it was less dramatic. Tester Matt Saternus compared a Reverse Taper Pistol with his regular grip both on grass and using a launch monitor and reported no significant difference in performance. That was not necessarily considered a failure. As an experienced golfer already comfortable with conventional-sized grips, he was able to switch to a substantially different geometry and produce comparable results almost immediately.
This highlights something frequently overlooked when discussing golf equipment: changing a variable does not necessarily create a measurable improvement in a player who did not have a particular problem to solve in the first place.
An additional piece of evidence emerged with the introduction of the smaller Reverse Taper models. Saternus, who had found the Medium and Large versions too bulky for his preferences, responded much more positively to the Small Pistol. For him, the smaller version filled the hands without producing the cumbersome sensation of the larger models. That may ultimately tell us more about Reverse Taper than any headline performance figure. The success or failure of the concept probably depends not only on the reversed taper itself but on matching size and shape to hand dimensions, grip style and personal preference.
Round, Pistol or Flat: there isn’t just one Reverse Taper
This is another reason why making a blanket judgement about Reverse Taper is difficult. The Round has a more conventionally rounded upper section before widening towards the lower hand. The Pistol introduces greater definition at the top, designed to give the upper hand a more distinct reference. The Flat uses a flatter upper geometry that may appeal to golfers who prefer positioning their palms more directly opposite each other.
The choice of size adds another variable. A golfer may like the principle of Reverse Taper and dislike a particular version simply because it is too large or because the shape does not complement the way the hands sit on the putter.
Weight should not be ignored either. Changing a putter grip can alter the player’s perception of the overall balance of the club. A golfer who is particularly sensitive to head feel may appreciate the Reverse Taper geometry but dislike how a different grip weight changes the putter’s perceived balance. Putter fitting should therefore not end with head shape, loft, lie and length. The grip is part of the fitting equation too.
Who might actually benefit from Reverse Taper?
This is ultimately more useful than asking whether the grip is simply “good” or “bad”. A golfer who feels that the lower hand becomes excessively active, who noticeably increases grip pressure on short putts or who wants greater stability in the hands has a logical reason to experiment with this type of geometry. It may also prove interesting with alternative putting grips, including left-hand-low, claw and saw variations, where the larger lower section provides a different platform for positioning the hands.
Conversely, a player who enjoys a very thin grip, wants strong feedback from the putter head and deliberately uses some wrist action has no reason to assume that a larger grip is automatically superior. Indeed, Golf Pride’s own fitting guidance broadly acknowledges this trade-off: larger grips are generally presented as a way of reducing hand and wrist action, while thinner grips preserve more feedback and potentially greater involvement of the smaller joints.
Again, this should be viewed as fitting guidance rather than a universal biomechanical rule. Two golfers may legitimately be looking for completely opposite sensations from their putter grips.
How to test it without being fooled by first impressions
Rather than buying a Reverse Taper and expecting it to fix a putting problem, we would treat it as a fitting variable. Ideally, golfers should test several shapes and sizes on otherwise identical putters. A series of 20 straight putts from around 1.5 metres can provide an initial indication of how consistently the ball starts on the intended line. A second series from approximately three metres introduces more speed control, while putts from six to eight metres are particularly useful for observing distance dispersion.
Simply counting holed putts is not necessarily the best measurement. Over a small sample, the result can be heavily influenced by green reading, surface imperfections and chance. A line on the ball, a simple putting gate positioned shortly after impact or, ideally, a dedicated putting-analysis system can provide more useful information about initial direction and repeatability.
The golfer should also be given time to adapt. Comparing five putts with a grip used for three years against five putts with a completely unfamiliar shape tells us very little. The immediate sensation matters, but so does what happens once the novelty of the grip has disappeared.
The real value of Reverse Taper may lie elsewhere
Two years after its launch, the Golf Pride Reverse Taper appears neither to be a proven putting revolution nor merely a marketing exercise without technical interest. Golf Pride’s internal data provide a rationale for the product, but without independent replication of the testing protocol and results, those figures should remain exactly what they are: manufacturer-supplied data. Independent testing is arguably more useful because it reveals different reactions depending on the golfer, existing habits and the particular Reverse Taper model being tested.
That may ultimately be the product’s most interesting contribution. For years, many golfers have selected putter grips because they felt comfortable in a shop, because a Tour professional used one or simply because the grip looked right on their putter. Yet grip geometry directly changes one of the most important interfaces in putting: the connection between the golfer’s hands and the club.
The Reverse Taper cannot guarantee that you will hole more putts. What it does is remind us that grip size and shape deserve to be treated as genuine fitting parameters rather than cosmetic accessories.
Before replacing a putter because those five-footers keep starting left, it may therefore be worth looking a few centimetres higher up the club. For some golfers, Reverse Taper may quieten an overactive lower hand. For others, it may remove feedback they actually need. And for many, it may change very little at all.
That is precisely why this is a grip worth testing rather than simply believing.