Funny you should ask. I just bought my 800L components yesterday. I normally would've done cork, but I liked rob's rods with the hypalon, so I went that route. Depending on the cork, it shouldn't get too thrashed in rod holders. Afterall, Larry has all cork handles on his rods and they're constantly in and out of rod holders. Hypalon and EVA are made for that kind of stuff though, so it's not going to get thrashed from sitting in rod holders. If I hadn't seen/built rob's rod I probably wouldn've gone cork (If I could find some with a big enough inner diameter...) but the hypalon worked out well, plus it's easier and cheaper, so I just went that route. Looks cool when all the guides are wrapped black too.
-Brian