How To Clean Your Golf Clubs And Grips – Ultimate Step By Step Guide

How To Clean Your Golf Clubs And Grips – Ultimate Guide

People don’t really enjoy cleaning. This remains true when it comes to golf clubs apart from those who are thoroughly comitted to cleanliness.

If you have just finished cleaning the dishes, doing the laundry, and washing the car, the last thing you want to think about is the fact that your golf clubs are dirty.

Golf clubs often get neglected when it comes to cleaning, but you should not let this happen. Having clean golf clubs can have a significant impact on your game. Best practice is to give a quick clean immediatley after your round and a more thorough clean as quickly as possible once you get home.

Impact On Performance

All the years I have spent in the golf business, there have been numerous times that a golfer complains about not being able to get spin, only to find it has to do with dirty golf clubs.

Yes, having dirty clubs can have a tremendous effect on your golf shots. If you are struggling to get the ball to stop on a green, making sure that the grooves on your club are clean can do the trick.

Not to mention the fact that when you spend thousands of dollars on new clubs, you should really take care of them!

Should You Even Be Cleaning Your Clubs? How Often?

A great golfer will tell you that you should clean your golf clubs after every shot and then again at the end of the round. Doing a deep cleaning on your clubs should happen every few weeks as well. If you stay on top of the dirt and clean your clubs often, it will make things much easier when you do your monthly cleaning.

We recommend a thorough wipe down of your clubs at the end of the round and a once a month cleaning of the entire bag.

What Are The Benefits Of Cleaning

The largest benefit of cleaning your clubs is that it will make for much better contact between the ball and the club. The grooves on your golf club and the dimples on the ball need to interact with each other to get the proper ball flight and response out of your shot.

When the grooves are caked in mud, and you can’t get solid contact, you will have a very hard time getting the results you need from your golf shots. During the middle of a golf hole, you are not going to be able to clean your golf ball. This would go against the rules of golf. Since you have the ability to clean your golf clubs, you should take it!

In addition to the short term benefit of keeping your clubs clean, it is also essential to make sure that you are caring for your clubs for the long term as well. With the price of golf clubs being so high, you will want them to last for many years. When you let dirt and sand build-up on your club, it could affect the finish and the groove shape over time.

How To Clean Your Irons & Wedges

Now that you understand the importance of cleaning your golf clubs, let’s look a bit into how to clean them properly. There are right and wrong ways to clean golf clubs.

Of all the clubs in your golf bag, the irons and wedges are going to be the most difficult to clean. They will have the most interaction with the turf and therefore get quite dirty. Here are some steps to make sure your irons and wedges are very clean.

• Fill A Bucket With Warm Water And Dish Soap

• Put All Of Your Irons In The Bucket And Let Them Soak For About Ten Minutes.

You won’t want to let the irons sit overnight as it is unnecessary and could cause rust issues.

• Clean With Microfibre

You will then pull the irons out of the bucket one at a time and clean them with a microfiber cleaning cloth and a soft bristle brush. Many brushes sold for irons are wire brushes, but if you use a good microfiber cloth to get in the grooves, you should not need this.

• Rinse After Scrub

After you scrub the irons, you should then place them back in the bucket to be rinsed.

• Dry With A Towel

Finally, pull the irons and the wedges out and dry them fully with a towel before placing them back in your bag. It is essential to dry the golf clubs so that they don’t get rusty when left in your golf bag.

How To Clean Your Driver

Your driver is likely made from titanium material, which makes it much more sensitive to scratching. When you clean a driver, you are going to have to be quite a bit more careful than you are with the irons and wedges.

When you are cleaning your irons simply dip your driver’s head in a bucket of warm soapy water. Use the same microfiber cloth to clean the driver and then rinse it and dry it like you would with the irons. There is really no reason to use a brush to scrub the driver as it risks a scratch to the face or top as well.

Best Substance To Use For Cleaning

The best substance to use for cleaning golf clubs is water and soap. The soap is not dangerous to use on the clubs, and it will help to make sure that the dirt comes off with ease. Some people have luck with using vinegar to clean their golf clubs, and it can be a great solution.

If you see golf club cleaners, or Windex or bleach recommended, you most likely won’t damage your clubs; there is just no reason to use these substances. Soap and water do the trick.

How To Clean With WD40

You may have heard that WD40 can be an effective way to clean your irons and wedges. Although WD40 can work quite well in certain situations, you will need to be careful about how you use it.

When you find that your clubs have a bit of rust on them, you can use WD40 to get it off. The great thing about WD 40 is that it can sometimes help prevent rust in the future. Here are the steps to follow to use WD40 to clean your clubs.

• Remove the golf clubs from the bag; if you spray WD40 on your bag, it will smell for a long time.
• Spray the WD40 on your irons and wedges and let it sit for a few minutes. Take a dry cloth and wipe the WD40 off the clubs. Once it is off, you can wash and rinse the clubs.
• You do not want to leave excess WD40 on the golf club as it can cause the clubface to perform differently.

Can You Clean Golf Clubs With Coke?

If you haven’t already heard, Coke can have some super cleaning abilities. If only it did as much good for our bodies as it does for some dirty golf clubs! You can fill a bucket with a 2 Liter bottle of coke, place your irons and wedges inside and come out with some really sparkly golf clubs.

Coke works well to break down the dirt and grime that may be on your clubs; however, it has quite a bit of sugar in it as well. If left on your golf clubs without rinsing and cleaning after, you can be left with a sticky mess.

Coke has also been touted as an effective way to remove rust spots from your golf clubs.

As long as you rinse the golf clubs after you soak them in the Coke, you should have no long term issues.

Can You Clean Golf Clubs With Vinegar?

Vinegar is an all-natural cleaner. You can use it to clean clubs, remove rust, and it is very helpful in the kitchen as well. When you clean your golf clubs with vinegar, you do not have to soak them in pure vinegar. Simply add a few tablespoons to a bucket of water, and you will get the benefits.

If you notice some rust starting on your golf clubs, vinegar is also a great way to get rid of it. If the situation seems pretty bad, making a paste with vinegar and baking soda and letting it sit on your club for a few minutes can really change the way the golf clubs look.

People are often surprised how great of a job vinegar does when it comes to polishing the clubs. You will notice that they shine a bit when they come out of the bucket full of vinegar.

How To Clean The Grips Of Your Golf Clubs

When you do a deep clean on your clubs, you must not forget about the grips. The grips of your golf clubs are very important to keep clean. Remember that your only connection to the club is the grip. If the grip is not in good shape, you can end up hitting some pretty terrible golf shots.

When you clean the grip of your clubs, you do not want to soak the entire grip in the bucket of water. There is no reason for this, and it just takes a very long time to dry. Instead, you will take a brush with plastic-type bristles or a designated grip brush and use some soap and water on your grips.

You can use this brush to scrub the dirt, oil, and grease out of the grip. You will be amazed at how much black liquid will pour off of your grips as you scrub them. The best thing about washing your grips is that they will get much tackier after the fact.

Don’t put your wet golf grips back in your bag before they are dry. Allow them some time outside to dry. Don’t place them directly in the sun when they are drying, as it could break down some of the rubber that the grips are made of.

If you are going to clean the clubface and the grooves, do not leave the grips out!

Is There A Cleaning Service For Golf Clubs?

Generally, after a round of golf, you will see that there is a golf shop attendant waiting to clean your clubs. If you notice, they will use a wet towel to clean the clubs. This is because that towel is generally very effective.

Although this is a great service and it certainly helps to keep your clubs clean, we recommend doing the monthly deep clean of the clubs anyway. When you do the deep clean, you also get a chance to clean the grips on your clubs as well.

In fact, while you are at it, you may as well clean your golf shoes; it’s probably been a while!

How To Remove Scratches From Golf Clubs

Sometimes after cleaning your golf clubs, you will notice that they have some scratches. This is unfortunate, and sometimes there is not much that can be done.

If the scratch or mark is on the top of your driver, you can use a golf club paint to paint over the scratch and clean it up a bit.

If the scratch is across the face of your irons or wedges, it could be affecting the play. You may want to take your club to a local repair shop and have them see if the scratch is deep enough that it is affecting the play of the club.

A very light scratch in a club is probably not going to have much impact. Keep your headcovers on your driver and fairway woods at all times to prevent them from getting damaged.

Conclusion – Why Cleaning Clubs Is Important

As you can see, cleaning your golf clubs is an essential part of being a great golfer. If you don’t clean your clubs, you will have trouble making significant contact with the ball. Golf as a sport is hard enough. You do not need a piece of mud or dirt blocking you from your next best golf shot.

Always be careful what cleaning solutions you use on your clubs. Using something that is corrosive could do some damage, especially if you have golf clubs with a special coating.