The 4 best ways to clean your golf clubs

Club cleaning is a lost fine art for many golfers, simply it doesn't take to exist for you. Here are the best ways to wipe down your clubs.

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As you prepare for your next golf outing, at that place's something your caddie wants you to know: your clubs say a lot about you. Before you lot ever run across the human being or woman jump to your putter for the afternoon, they've already reviewed your group'south setup and come to a serial of conclusions about how their (and your) solar day is about to unfold.

The ideal setup: four carry numberless with a set of clean irons and wedges released in the terminal x years. These groups are regular golfers who care plenty nearly their functioning to regularly invest in their equipment and its upkeep. Your caddie loves seeing these bags considering your group appears to be made upwardly of half-decent players, and good golf makes piece of work like shooting fish in a barrel.

A hodgepodge of bags filled with old, mud-caked wedges and irons? That would authorize equally a "nightmare." Whoever came up with the maxim "it's not the arrow, it'due south the archer" clearly never witnessed the divergence between filthy hickory sticks and sparkling, brand-new irons. And those archers who feel they tin survive on a modern golf course with a setup crafted and nigh recently cleaned in 1940 would be wise to invest in better arrows (and perhaps a swing coach).

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While you lot might not want to trounce out for a brand new set of sticks, every golfer tin can afford to better their handbag'due south appearance and performance by giving their clubs a skilful, DEEP cleaning. All you demand are a few minutes and a few tools. Trust u.s.a., your scorecard, your clubs, and (most importantly) your caddie volition thanks. Hither are the all-time ways to do so.

The "yous were in a rush"

Run half of an old towel under warm h2o. Bring it outside. Utilise the wet end to clean each of the clubs in your pocketbook and the other stop to dry out them.

Perks/Drawbacks: By far the fastest way to clean your clubs, but this is aesthetic-improving only. If you want to bolster performance, you've got to get into the grooves.

The "Dad"

Pull out the power washer. Fire that sucker up. Use your legs or easily to concur the face of the club in place. Indicate and burn down.

Perks/Drawbacks: Your clubs will literally never exist cleaner and you got to use the ability washer. Mayhap save this for one time or twice a season, it tin can't exist good for your clubface to become repeatedly blasted with pressurized h2o. And be careful! This is the just club-cleaning method yous can reasonably hurt yourself doing (as our Alan Bastable learned the hard manner).

The "bare essentials"

Grab a tee, divot tool or groove sharpener. Start digging away at your clubface. Repeat with every lodge with grooves.

Perks/Drawbacks: You've washed what'southward necessary to score depression, no need to worry nigh your performance tanking due to dirty clubs. The result likely won't exist aesthetically pleasing, but you've handled your stop of the bargain.

The "Sometime Reliable"

A favorite of the caddie yard. Toss your clubs in a saucepan filled with warm water. Snag a guild-cleaning brush. Moisture half a rag in the bucket and get out the other half dry.

First, dunk a club in the water, then employ the wet half of the rag to wipe the hosel, face and back. Dunk it once more and fashion the brush to make clean out the grooves, periodically toweling to wipe away excess clay. And then, dry using the other end of the towel and end off by returning the club to your pocketbook. Continue this process until every guild is cleaned.

Perks/Drawbacks: This is the tried and truthful method of cleaning clubs, used in handbag rooms, caddie yards, and past golfers around the world. It's certainly the most time-consuming of the cleaning methods, but it yields the most consistent finish. And like everything else in golf, a little bit of elbow grease goes a long way.

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James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is an assistant editor at Golf, contributing stories for the website and magazine on a broad range of topics. He writes the Hot Mic, GOLF's weekly media column, and utilizes his broadcast experience across the brand'south social media and video platforms. A 2022 graduate of Syracuse University, James — and plainly, his golf game — is still defrosting from four years in the snow, during which fourth dimension he cut his teeth at NFL Films, CBS News and Fox Sports. Prior to joining GOLF, James was a caddie scholarship recipient (and acute looper) on Long Island, where he is from.