A golf glove that helps eliminate death grip

Sam Snead used to say that one should hold a golf club as though they were holding a bird -- tight enough to keep it from escaping, but not too tight that you might injure it. The LeviTee golf glove will help alleviate the death grip that too many novices and other amateurs apply to a club.

The company has placed foam pads between the fingers of the glove, rendering it virtually impossible to squeeze a club too hard.

"What that does is gives you separation at the fingers, so you don't have to squeeze too tightly," said Corey Kasif, CEO of LeviTee. "The pads help you reduce grip pressure by up to 30 percent.

"A lot of new golfers, a lot of amateurs, have that death grip, and they have tension in the arms. Now they're very stiff. It's very hard to swing the club when you're stiff. Having loose hands translates to a loose core, a loose body."

Kasif said he developed the idea as a caddy, when he began putting cuticle pads between the fingers of a golf glove. "A couple guys at the course said you have something."

Kasif proved it does what he says it does with a hand dynomometer that measured grip pressure with and without the glove. It was impossible to apply as much force with the glove.

Rule 14-3c in the Rules of Golf would forbid the use of the glove in competition, stating that "during a stipulated round the player must not use any artificial device or unusual equipment, or use any equipment in an unusual manner...that might assist him in gripping the club."

"A lot of the teaching pros we work with will recognize it as a training aid," Kasif said.

The LeviTee retails for $19.95.

-- John Strege