Golf Pride is a colossus within the golf industry making many of the best golf grips in the game. Chances are if you are reading this, you have definitely picked up a golf club before and if so, it is more than likely you will have touched a Golf Pride grip. More than 80 per cent of the world's touring professionals choose to play Golf Pride grips, and not one of them is paid a penny to do so. One of the company's most recent successes has been with the Align series of grips, and new for 2025, we have the Align Max.
WATCH: Robert Rock shows you how to build the perfect swing using Golf Pride Align Max Grips
Those of you familiar with the grip landscape will know that you can separate grips into two main categories in terms of shape - ribbed and round. Round grips are exactly what you would expect, perfectly round in circumference. Ribbed or ‘reminder’ grips as some people refer to them have a spine, or raised ridge along the back, sometimes hidden like in the historic Tour Velvet ribbed grip, but very visible as a red stripe in the Align grip series.
This spine provides a point of reference on the club to help not only finger placement at address but also to provide a reference point of feel for clubface alignment throughout the swing.
In 2025, Golf Pride has taken this to a new level with its new grip the Align Max. In basic terms, it has taken the Align concept and pushed it to its legal limits within the rules of golf. It has increased the protrusion of the ridge section to the maximum allowable height (25 per cent higher than on the Align series), lengthened the area the rib covers to help players who like to go up and down on the grip, and finally has made the ridge rubber firmer than before to make it feel even more prominent.
During testing, I immediately noticed that the rib was significantly more prevalent than the original Align and much, much firmer, which I wasn’t necessarily in love with at first touch, but as I began to hit balls the benefit soon became very apparent. I would consider myself more of a feel player than a technique sort of a guy generally, but the awareness the Align Max gave me of the clubface orientation throughout the swing was very difficult to ignore, and that certainly manifested itself in my dispersion during my testing sessions. I found myself with a visual in my head of almost trying to bring that red line back to square at impact, and that focus seemed to be an excellent catalyst for straight golf shots.
Club builders and PGA Professionals will be thrilled with the new design also as it makes it significantly easier to install the grip consistently and accurately. The firmer ridge holds its shape and alignment more stoutly and as such it is much easier to avoid wobbles and curves when installing Align Max.
Overall, the introduction of this model makes a lot of sense. For those players who favor a ribbed grip, they don’t come any more ribbed than this, and for any player that struggles with consistent hand placement and/or facial awareness, this could be a game changer.
The Align Max is now available in standard and Plus4 models in both standard and midsize sizing. It will initially only be available in the Multi Compound finish, however, Golf Pride will be adding a Tour Velvet option in 2026.
