Moore County has a lot to offer visitors and residents alike, but it is most well known for being a hot spot for golf. Players of all levels and from all over
the world travel to play on these legendary courses and compete in high profile tournaments.
Nestled within this golfers’ paradise is Pinehurst-based Golf Pride, an innovative and influential golf grip manufacturer.
President James Ledford, who has been with Golf Pride for 11 years, shared additional details about the history, purpose and priorities of the company.
Golf Pride is owned by Eaton Corporation. Their business is global, but their presence in Pinehurst allows them to connect in person with the players.

“There’s about 20,000 golfers from around the world that come to Pinehurst to play Pinehurst No. 8 and so not only are we seeing local Pinehurst golfers, but we’re seeing golfers from all over the place come through here. So we kind of tap into the world of golf a little bit…that’s what it feels like to be a golf company here in Pinehurst, you just kind of can touch the world of golf in this tiny little town, which is really unusual. It’s pretty cool,” remarked
Ledford.

Additionally, they’ve got their Global Innovation Center in Pinehurst where customers can come and get a glimpse at the science behind the grip making process.
“It’s a custom designed 36,000 square foot space for innovation and we did that in partnership with Pinehurst Resort. So we have this innovation center [that] sits inside the gates of Pinehurst No. 8 and we have about 50 employees here working on either innovation or kind of global supply chain planning. Then, at the very front of the innovation center, we have essentially what we call a ‘Retail Lab.’ It’s like a grip shop. We call it the Retail Lab because we’re learning how to sell and install grips better, but that’s open to the public Monday through Friday. Anybody can come in and see us,” shared Ledford.

Employees in the Global Innovation Center are responsible for various specialties such as chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, process engineering, industrial design, graphic design, marketing and consumer research. While manufacturing golf grips may seem like a niche industry,
a variety of skill sets and personalities are needed to get the job done.

Golf Pride sells grips to both golf club manufacturers and individual players. Ledford shared that how often someone plays affects how often their grips need to be replaced, but most avid golfers replace their grips about once a year as they get ready for the new season.

The design of the grips vary in texture, size and style. Prices of the grips range from about $5.50 to about $14.
In the spirit of innovation, the company always has something new in the works.
“Right now, launching like this week, we have a new grip and glove collaborative design project that just hit the market. There’s a really cool kind of up and coming glove brand that’s based out of Salt Lake City and we did a design collaboration with them where the grips and the gloves were designed together and those are just starting to hit the market now. So it’s a company called ASHER and it was one of our first ever design collaborations…So it’s
kind of a new territory for us to explore. Really excited about that,” stated Ledford.

In addition to this exciting collaboration, Golf Pride is working on a new product that they plan to launch just in time for the next season.
“We’ve also been putting the finishing touches on our new product that will launch in the spring, so that’ll get announced in a couple of months. That’s where a lot of our energy is going to right now, we launch a pretty big new grip innovation to the market, every kind of late winter, early spring, so we’re putting the finishing touches on that,” added Ledford.
Novices and professionals alike are invited out to Pinehurst to check out Golf Pride’s Global Innovation Center and “explore the world of grips in a way that they haven’t seen [before].”

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The Retail Lab is located at 15 Centennial Blvd. Hours of operation are Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.