Available in cadet* fit: Yes (left hand only) Weather: All

About this glove: Haven’t heard of Hirzl? It’s time to get familiar with this Swiss company.

Hirzl is best known for making high-quality biking gloves, but branched out into golf and entered the U.S. market in 2010. Hirzl is the official glove of the RE/MAX Long Drive Championship and has been worn by numerous winners of the event. Hirzl’s gloves aren’t just for golf gorillas, though. They’ve received a stamp of approval from short game guru Dave Pelz.

Hirzl’s USP (unique selling proposition) is multi-pronged. It starts with kangaroo leather – yes, kangaroo leather, often used in cycling gloves – in the palm. The leather is specially tanned to produce, in the company’s words, “unparalleled levels of grip and control” and “long-lasting softness,” plus exceptional performance in wet conditions and greater durability than a typical golf glove.

Other unusual Hirzl features include fingers pre-curved at 45° and an extra-deep thumb cut.

Hirzl has certainly turned heads with the big claims for its Trust Control and Trust Feel gloves, as well as the Soffft Flex and Hirzl Hybrid models. Here’s what we found when testing the Hirzl Trust Control.

Appearance: It’s a high-tech glove that looks the part. Some golfers have compared it to the gloves worn by receivers in football. It may not be the most elegant accessory, but Hirzl’s Trust Control puts technology front and center with its rippled palm surface and meshy back of the hand. The palm looks tacky and the mesh looks cool—and we mean both adjectives in the literal sense.

Comfort: Sublime. It turns out kangaroo leather is every bit as thin, soft and supple as the cabretta found in most high-end golf gloves (including this glove, on the back of the hand). Fit was excellent, including the pre-curved fingers. About those: They’re not rigidly curved or pre-set, so there’s no problem straightening your fingers as needed.

Feel: The appearance raised mild concerns. Performance immediately dashed them. The ultra-thin palm transfers feedback like copper conducts electricity. Our tester usually removes his glove when putting, but wanted to try the Hirzl Trust Control on the practice green. His report was highly positive, noting the impact sensation was virtually the same with or without the glove on.

Tackiness: The Trust Control glove, Hirzl claims, provides three times the gripping power in dry conditions, five times more in wet conditions. While we lack the instruments to verify these assertions, our experience did nothing to dispel them. This is one seriously “grippy” glove.

We were most intrigued by the wet weather claim, so we splashed a bit of water on the palm while hitting range balls. Amazingly, the water seemed to vanish by the time we grabbed the club. We repeated the process several times and the Hirzl never soaked through, never lost a bit of tack.

Color us impressed.

Durability: After a couple of rounds and range sessions, Hirzl’s Trust Control glove still looks and plays like new. We’ve heard and read reports of this model lasting for literally years – encompassing dozens if not hundreds of rounds, in some cases – without breaking down or losing grip. We’re inclined to believe them.

Bottom line: It’s hard to think of a $29 golf glove as a great value, but we’d label Hirzl’s Trust Control as exactly that. You can wear it in the rain and on the muggiest of days. By all accounts, you can use it a whole lot longer than your average glove. It’s as comfortable as any we’ve worn and offers exceptional feel. Hand it to Hirzl: This glove is the real deal.

*Cadet gloves have shorter fingers than regular gloves of the same size; e.g., a cadet medium glove has the same palm fit with shorter fingers than a standard medium.