Taking proper care of your golf clubs is something every golfer should take pride in. When you step on the first tee and grab a club out of your bag, you want it to be clean and shiny. For some people, it gives them confidence. For others, they just hate having to scrub a layer of dirt and mud off of their clubs from the last round before they’ve even taken a swing that day.
Cleaning your golf clubs is important for more than just the psychological benefits. Taking care of your clubs can help them last longer, ensure consistent contact with the ball, and allow the grooves of your clubs to “bite” more, which is critical for spin. This article is going to cover how to clean the face of your golf clubs.
How To Clean Your Clubs at Home
If you’re at home and have 10 minutes to really clean your clubs before your round the next day, start by grabbing these items:
- A golf club brush
- A bowl or bucket
- Some dish soap (optional)
- Paper towels or a rag
We recommend doing this outside on a patio, a deck, in a garage, or somewhere you can get your hands dirty. It shouldn’t be too messy, but dirty golf club water in the living room is best avoided. Cleaning your clubs at home can be a nice little ritual for golfers. Grab a beverage of choice, throw on some music, and relax while cleaning your clubs.
STEP 1: Start by filling up a small bowl of warm water. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need dish soap, but if you have a lot of dirt built up, you can add a few drops into your water. This will help loosen up the dirt on your clubs.
STEP 2: Before getting your clubs wet, brush off any dry dirt that you can with your golf brush. Use the metal wool side of the brush to lift up any heavy dirt. If possible, try doing this quickly on the course before you put your clubs back in your car. This will prevent the dirt from clumping / sticking to your clubs and make the cleaning process at home a lot quicker.
STEP 3: Once the obvious dirt is lifted from your clubs, wet the face of your clubs. You can dip them briefly into the water or just dip your golf brush into the water (whatever you prefer). Next, you’re going to want to start by cleaning out the grooves. Think of this as flossing for your golf clubs. Take your groove tool and scrape out each groove 1 by one. You don’t need to be very aggressive here. We aren’t trying to sharpen the grooves like they’re a chef’s knife. Over time that won’t be great for your clubs and would make the grooves deeper which would attract more dirt. Simply clear them out with a few gentle pass-throughs.
STEP 4: Wipe off any of the dirt that got pulled out from the grooves. Next, re-wet the face of the club and use your brush to clean the face of the club. If we’re following our dental analogy, think of this as brushing your teeth. For this step, you can use the metal brush or soft brush. Typically the soft brush is fine if you’ve already removed the heavy stuff and cleaned out the grooves. Once you’ve brushed the club thoroughly, use your rag to wipe down the face of the club dry.
How to Clean Your Clubs on the Course
Cleaning your clubs at home will keep them shiny and in good condition for the next time you show up to play. But when you’re on the course in the middle of a round, it’s essential to correctly clean your clubs between shots because if you don’t, it can actually affect your play.
If there is dirt on the face of the club, the ball might not make proper contact with your irons. The dirt could cause the impact to be lopsided, resulting in less than ideal spin or trajectory. Additionally, if the grooves of your clubs are filled with mud or dirt, your clubs won’t be able to “bite” the ball properly which helps produce spin. When you’re playing your next round, try to incorporate these habits into your routine.
After taking (flushing) your shot, grab the brush on your bag and quickly brush the face of the club. If the dirt is dry on your club, a little spit can help. Or, if you’re lucky, your cart might have a golf club cleaner on it with water in it. Brush off your club, particularly focusing on clearing out the grooves. Wipe down the club with your towel and move along. It’ll take 10 seconds but the habit will pay off. If you took quite a divot with your shot (think approach shots), you might want to make sure your brush has a groove tool to scrape out the grooves.
Pro Tip: If you don’t have a groove tool or sturdy brush,
a tee can do wonders for cleaning out the grooves as well!
One thing that’s important to note is incorporating this into your golf game at the right time to be cognizant of pace of play. That’s why we recommend cleaning your clubs right after your shot when you’re putting your club back into your bag, that way you aren’t keeping others waiting for you to clean your clubs before your next shot. Just use general court awareness in this regard!
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