Replace grips yourself? Yes...well...maybe

First of all, the process is environmentally friendly, without the usual glues and other solvents. It eschews adhesive tapes and eliminates the need to wait around for the fluids to dry. You can use your clubs immediately with no danger of slippage.

Those obvious benefits inspired me to pack up a boxful of electric yellow, green, and a myriad of other colorful cloaks, compliments of Pure Grips. Then I memorized Pure Grips’ detailed how-to video (which has nary a frame of a female hand, of course) and invited myself over to my friend Meg’s state-of-the-art workshop. There, the single-digit handicapper crafts bookshelves and other miracles of carpentry, and also re-grips her own clubs.

Really, I wondered, how difficult can this grip-fitting thing be?

Not exactly as simple as advertised, as it turned out -- even without the materials you need to glue other vendors’ sheaths on your clubs.

The tools you do need probably are not lying around the digs of someone who is not a handywoman. I can barely file my own nails, let alone hammer the little spiky variety, so I confess, I do not have the required air compressor and vise.

I do have a friend like Meg, who quickly secured a club and showed me how to slice off the old grip without losing a finger or two. She then easily attached the Pure Grip connector, which resembles a gun silencer, to the air hose.

So far, so good. “What a cinch,” our thought balloon would have read.

Until it wasn’t.

Stretching the opening of the grip enough to fit over the shaft takes a bit of strength and patience -- neither of which resides in great quantity on my personal tool belt. Luckily, Meg had done this hundreds of times before and was able to coax the first grip onto the end of our 7-iron.

Now that the fire-engine red wrap hung limply off the end of the club, it seemed the only things missing from our would-be erectile-dysfunction  commercial were the twin bathtubs. With several short bursts of air from the compressor at the same time we were grunting and pushing the grip farther onto the stiff wand, we could only imagine how onlookers may have interpreted the scene.

For sure, it was not a simple matter to shove the wrap all the way onto the club. Once accomplished, however, we felt pretty darn good about ourselves. So we installed several more until we became fairly proficient.

Even so, I came to this critical conclusion about golf grips: Choose the wraps that are right for you and leave the muss and fuss of installation to your friendly LPGA or PGA professional or local golf retailer.

Or do what I do -- provide the companionship (and maybe a favorite bottle of Merlot or box of Godiva), and let your friend Meg do the heavy lifting (and pushing).

New grips every year: A guide to shopping