The QUANTUM GRIP Story

QUANTUM GRIP was originally developed out of one man's desire to simply play golf… again. Inventor and owner, Patrick Pinkart, grew up in a small town in Northeast Wisconsin. Throughout his teen years his home, to his delight, was directly across the street from the Legion Municipal Golf Course. During those long cherished days of summer and fall, weather permitting, he would often play golf from sun-up till sun-down.

When he was 25 years sustained a broken neck and spinal cord injury when he made a "bad dive" from a pier into a shallow lake. Three vertebras in his neck were fractured, including a "burst fracture" of the 6th cervical vertebra. His doctors gave him a 5 % chance to ever walk again or use his hands.

After years of intensive therapy, Patrick regained the ability to walk, but leg strength, balance and agility challenges remained. He was also left with limited hand strength and hand function.

By 1994, he had graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy and was ready to try to play golf again! His balance was not great, but good enough to try. His arms and shoulders could swing the club well enough, but his grip strength however, was not sufficient to hold the club firmly. Although he was very happy to be out on the golf course at all, it was frustrating when the club would very often twist or slip in his hands.

An exhaustive search of the golf market for assistive devices to help enhance his grip turned up nothing of any real, practical help. He began to experiment with different things to help him hold the club securely. He tried enlarged grips, soft grips, tacky grips, and training grips with raised and contoured areas. But the only thing that really helped was when he started to apply Velcro on the club grip, and the mating Velcro on a golf glove. It worked well enough for him to enjoy golfing again.

Over the years, Patrick refined his system with various layouts of the material on the golf grip and glove. The main trouble he continued to encounter was the Velcro applied to the grip would frequently peel off or snag things. And the mating Velcro on the golf would not adhere for long and was only tolerably comfortable. One day, he imagined, he would engineer his optimal design. During the next 10 years, his friends and family encouraged him to look into patenting his system and having it professionally manufactured.

In his work as an Occupational Therapist, Patrick recognized the need existed for his system that would help many arthritic and geriatric, stroke and brain injury patients, and those with hand injury or amputees that he had treated in his practice.

In 2005, he was finally able to begin patent searches, patent writing and filing processes, and to start to engineer and build his "dream grips and gloves". He hired Chamber's Product Design to construct a computer rendering of his golf grip. It would have a built-in, recessed groove to house the hook Velcro material so the hooks would be smooth and flush with the gripping surface. It would take several more years to find someone capable of assembling a prototype golf glove with the mating loop Velcro material constructed into the palm.

In 2009, 15 years after his project began, Patrick received a US Patent for the Quantum Grip technology, and additional patents are now pending.

He has now introduced his invention, QUANTUM GRIP, to golfers of all ages and a wide range of physical challenges. He has participated in golf clinics for wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. Several golf Pro's and instructors now enthusiastically endorse it. Although it may not be right for every golfer, all who try QUANTUM GRIP become instant fans of the system, because it's so beneficial and works so well.

Once in your hands, QUANTUM GRIP speaks for itself!

Patrick is especially committed to getting QUANTUM GRIP into the hands of golfer's who need help to play golf. He is passionate about helping the disabled or those who have had to stop playing golf due to injury or age-related gripping problems. Golf has served as a rehabilitation activity for Patrick, and most importantly, has lifted his spirit and quality of life!

"Quantum", literally means that all possibilities exist simultaneously. QUANTUM GRIP puts "Possibilities in the Palm of Your Hands".

Thank you for reading the QUANTUM GRIP story. We are so pleased to be here to help people enjoy this great game called Golf!