The name’s Pride, Golf Pride.
They’ve got a license to grip. It’s an odd job, granted, but You Only Grip Twice. Especially if you’re The Man With the Golden Grip.
Are those enough James Bond-related references yet? No, there is no such thing when it comes to Bond, James Bond. In fact, The World Is Never Enough.
(Sheesh, when will these Bond jokes end? Never Say Never Again. Arrgh.)
Let’s continue Bond-ing. Look, if you’re a fan of 007, you’ll want to wrap your little gold fingers around Golf Pride’s special edition grips in honor of the 60th anniversary of 1964’s most daring movie, Goldfinger, which featured Sean Connery as the famous British spy.
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The 007 grip kit comes with 14 custom grips in a special display box with a decorative gold bar (not a real one, unfortunately). Each grip is black with a long, white triangular design that resembles a tuxedo and lapels, along with a black bowtie. According to Golf Pride, the lapel pattern is inspired by Connery, the white diamond-quilted pattern shirt evokes Daniel Craig and the tie is a homage to Pierce Brosnan. (What, nothing for George Lazenby? Yeah, that’s probably smart.)
The body of the grip has 007 engravings for texture. The top of the grip has tunnel-like scope lines from of the movie’s traditional opening credit sequence.
The Golf Pride 007 package sells for $189. It is available for pre-order online from 007Store.com; at GolfPride.com next week; and at retail stores like PGA TOUR Superstore in November.
“This has been a fun project, probably the most fun Golf Pride has had in designing a grip,” said James Ledford, Golf Pride’s president. “It definitely pushed us. We were geeking out over all the little details on the tuxedo, even the bowtie. Should it be regular silk satin or cross-grain? We went pretty deep.
“Word got out a bit that we were looking at different design collaborations. I don’t remember if the 007 crew found us or we found them. We had a debate at Golf Pride, should we do this? It’s so different. But we had enough Bond fans here who said, ‘Why not?’ We leaned into it and it’s been a ton of fun.”
The Golf Pride Bond project started a year ago. Andy Erickson, Golf Pride’s director of global product innovation, said Golf Pride’s previous collaboration on a limited-edition golf grip with basketball great Steph Curry was a successful step in heightening brand awareness and grip importance that helped made the Bond idea appealing.
“We were thinking about iconic moments and nothing has the market cornered on cool like James Bond, Double-Oh-Seven,” Erickson said. “There’s this consumer out there who’s still in love with James Bond and 50% of that audience is international. In the research, Bond’s audience skewed a lot younger than I thought. That was a big surprise for me. Everyone has their own version of Bond in their mind’s eye.”
In Erickson’s case, the bond with Bond was personal.
“When I was growing up, my dad and I would always watch the Bond marathons together,” he recalled. “I grew up in Tennessee and my dad had what was called a ‘Baptist bar’—two wooden doors that hid your bar in the living room. He loved making cocktails. He’d make whatever you wanted, even a martini that was shaken, not stirred. I’m 41, my dad is gone now but I think of him when I think of James Bond. Those are special memories.”
It was November 1964 when Goldfinger made the cover of LIFE magazine. LIFE was a big deal then, for you under-60 readers, the biggest deal of all the news/feature magazines. (Sorry, Saturday Evening Post.) LIFE’s cover shot was Goldfinger actress Shirley Eaton covered in gold paint in a bikini, the way her character was found, dead, in the movie. The cover was the ultimate ad placement and it was free.
The movie’s release was a big event and the movie didn’t disappoint. It was full of innovations. Besides death by body paint, there was the Aston Martin DB-5 car with machine guns, revolving license plates, smokescreen capability and a passenger ejection seat (still waiting for Toyota to offer that); a deadly boomerang-bowler hat wielded by Oddjob, a unique henchman; an audacious plot to rob Fort Knox; and the most famous golf scene in a non-golf movie in which serial cheater Auric Goldfinger gets outsmarted (out-cheated, technically) by Bond on the final hole.
Golf Pride kicked off its 007 grip launch with an event at Stoke Poges Club in Buckinghamshire, England. It is the course where the Goldfinger-Bond match was filmed. A few of the original film crew members attended including Norman Wanstall, who won an Oscar for Sound Effects (now Sound Editing) for the movie.
“It was fantastic to be able to just walk around there,” Ledford said. “We were able to recreate some of the scenes on the 18th green. We had a working replica of the Aston Martin DB-5 and it was putting out smoke. Even 60 years later, that car is still beautiful.”
Ledford asked a Bond crew guy where the statue was that lost its head to Oddjob’s hat toss in “Goldfinger.” He was told that part of the scene took place in Pinewood Studios, west of London, not at Stoke Poges.
“I’ve always been a fan, Roger Moore was the first Bond I ever saw when I was a kid,” Ledford said. “I fell away from Bond a little during the Pierce Brosnan days but Daniel Craig pulled me back in. He was really compelling. He was the first Bond who looked like he could actually kill somebody.”
Craig is Ledford’s favorite Bond; Casino Royale and Skyfall his favorite Bond films; and Quantum of Solace his most underrated Bond epic. He discovered On Her Majesty’s Secret Service with Lazenby, an Australian who appeared only once as Bond, and was pleasantly surprised. “I didn’t know about it until a few years ago,” Ledford said. “That’s a good Bond film.”
Are the special-edition Bond grips good golf grips? That’s an easy question because Golf Pride, based in Pinehurst, N.C., has a long reputation for quality and attention to detail.
“We nerd out on grips, Ledford said. “We treat them as equipment for your hands.”
Erickson remembers the excitement he felt when the first 007 grips arrived at headquarters for testing in late February.
“It matters what is under my thumbs,” Erickson said. “So we had to make sure everything was right, like checking so the lapel design doesn’t interfere with the fingertips. I got to beat balls with a piece of art in my hands but after 10 swings, I was just working on my swing and not thinking, ‘I’m holding onto James Bond.’ The grip felt like anything else we make because at Golf Pride, we wouldn’t sacrifice feel for art. I’m pretty pumped about this final product.”
Golf Pride’s Bond grips present a dilemma: Keep them as souvenir collectibles to display or install them on your clubs and tee it up? (I’m doing the latter.)
While you ponder that, here’s a dilemma from 1964 …
Bond, understandably anxious as a laser inches closer to slicing him in half: “Do you expect me to talk?”
Goldfinger: “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!”
Luckily, the Golf Pride Bond grip dilemma isn’t life and death. But you’ll have to make a decision soon because the 007 grip kit is limited edition. Its availability is temporary.
Only diamonds are forever.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as This James Bond Golf-Themed Golf Grip Is Worth Getting Your Hands on.
