Swing Into Success With A Comprehensive Guide To Golf Club Care and Maintenance

An old saying goes, "Take care of your tools, and they will take care of you." Could this saying apply to our golf clubs? Our clubs can undoubtedly bear the brunt of our frustration if we hit an errant shot with plenty of new shafts being required as the offending clubs are swiftly snapped in two across the knee.

Taking care of our clubs can add some performance benefits to us and add longevity to the club's use, so it's worth paying more attention to ensuring their well-being. To prove this point, we'll guide you through the following key areas to help you maintain your clubs to the highest standards:

• Routine Maintenance
• Proper Storage
• When Would Professional Help Be Needed?

Routine Maintenance

Routine maintenance starts out in the course when you are playing. You can clean your club heads after each shot with a towel. Pouring some water onto a corner of your towel will help remove any dirt left on the club face or sole of the club after a shot.

For irons and wedges, you can use a small cleaning brush, which can be kept in your pocket or golf bag to get dirt or sand out of the grooves to keep them clean. If you are playing in wet or hot conditions, rub your grips with a towel to keep them dry and tacky. For wet conditions, finding a place to keep your towel dry is essential, so golfers will place their towel in the spokes of their umbrellas or inside a golf buggy if using one. After you've completed your round, you can give your clubs a more thorough cleaning.

How to Clean Your Driver, Fairway Wood, and Hybrid Heads

Cleaning the heads of your driver, fairway woods, or hybrids requires little work or equipment. You need nothing more complex than hot water with washing-up liquid applied as a cleaning agent. Use a brush with plastic bristles to remove dirt from the club's face, sole or crown.

You can also use an old toothbrush to get into areas with weight tracks or speed pockets in the club's sole, which can be havens for collecting unwanted dirt. Once washed, use a clean towel to dry the heads off.

How to Clean Irons and Wedges

As mentioned, it's all about keeping the grooves clean for irons and wedges. Clean grooves impart consistent spin and trajectory on the ball, leading to more predictable outcomes in your shots.

When you get your clubs home, give your irons a deep clean by submerging the heads in warm, soapy water for five to fifteen minutes, depending on how dirty the heads are.

Use a soft bristle brush to clean the face and an old toothbrush for any cavity areas in the club. Wash each head individually, then use a clean towel to dry each head off.

How to Clean Putters

Putters will likely pick up the most minor dirt of any club in your bag, so keeping them clean is very straightforward. Using a cloth soaked in warm water and washing up liquid will work on the face of the putter. If your putter has any grooves on the face, a soft bristle brush or an old toothbrush will work to remove any dirt that might have built up. You can use an old toothbrush to get into any cavity or exposed slots in the putter head.

Headcovers

Headcovers aren't just about advertising the latest driver you are using. They offer practical protection for woods or hybrid heads, so take the opportunity to use them as intended to prevent minor nicks or dents from appearing.

Forged irons like a set of Mizuno Pro 221 irons can pick up nicks and dents by knocking them together when in your golf bag, which doesn't cause problems in their performance.

Golfers generally will not use head covers on their irons - the exception might be if you've just purchased a set of Miura irons and want to keep them in pristine condition!

Shafts

When it comes to shafts, they require only a little maintenance. Graphite composite shafts in woods and hybrids can start to show some wear marks from being in the golf bag. This is more likely to cause cosmetic damage than structural damage to the shaft.

Steel shafts offer few problems for golfers. The one thing to watch, primarily if you use an older set of irons, is checking for any rust spots, indicating that the shaft (or irons!) needs replacing. Cleaning shafts with warm water and a sponge will remove any dirt on the shaft, then dry off with a clean towel.

Grips

Grips are like tyres on a car. The more they are used, the more likely they will get worn. You can prolong the life of your grips by washing them in warm, soapy water and then drying them off with a towel. If your grips are hard to the touch, shiny in appearance, and show wear markings to the patterns or colour, these are all indicators that it's time to change.

Other aspects of routine maintenance come in situations such as properly drying clubs off after a round in the wet. Every golfer will have had an experience of playing a round of golf where it has rained from the first tee to the last putt has been holed.

When you get the opportunity and the space after the round, the best way to dry your clubs out is to remove them from the golf bag and use a dry towel to remove excess dampness from the grips, shafts, and heads. Leave them to dry out by leaning each club against a wall with the heads resting under a dry towel. Don't put any clubs back in the bag until it completely dries.

Proper Storage

Keeping your clubs in the car's boot generally doesn't pass the test of proper storage for your clubs, so if possible, try not to leave them there. The main principle for storing your clubs is that they are in a secure and dry area. There can be three spaces that fit the bill:

• Golf Club Locker
• Garage
• Spare Room at Home

Golf Club Locker

If you are fortunate enough to rent a locker at your golf club, there will be just enough room to store your clubs, golf bag, and golf shoes. The one downside is that there is no safe space to lay out your clubs if you have been out in the wet, as we have already discussed.

Garage

The garage can provide a decent space for all your golf equipment. It won't take up a lot of room, and you can maybe store additional golf-related items, such as spare towels, golf shoes, or training aids.

Spare Room at Home

The spare room is an ideal spot to store your clubs. Like the garage, it can also provide a space to store all golf-related equipment. You also have the advantage that if your clubs have got soaked after a round, you have a warm and dry environment for them to dry out properly.

When Would Professional Help Be Needed?

General cleaning of your clubs can obviously be done by yourself, but if you don't have the tools, space, or knowledge, you can take your clubs to a professional fitter for assistance with:

• Re-gripping clubs
• Checking Loft and Lie Angles
• Re-Shafting Clubs

Re-gripping clubs

Consulting a professional fitter for re-gripping clubs allows you to see and feel what grips are available. Discussing with the fitter the types of conditions you generally play will mean you can make a more informed decision on what will work best for you.

The professional fitter will have all the necessary tools to remove your old grips without causing any damage to the shafts and can expertly add more layers of tape if needed to ensure the grip is the perfect size.

Checking Loft and Lie Angles

Checking loft and lie angles is essential if you have played a lot of golf over the year. Lofts can be weakened through continual use, especially in the irons you most practice with. This can lead to distance gapping and trajectory inconsistencies, affecting approach play into greens. If you are starting to miss shots right or left of target consistently, ask the fitter to check the lie angles of your clubs to ensure they are correct.

Re-Shafting Clubs

This will be necessary if any damage is sustained to the original shaft. Consulting with a fitter will ensure a replacement shaft is fitted correctly and cut to the correct length for the particular club.

Any damage caused by hitting a shot off a rough surface or anything hard unseen under the golf ball can cause damage to the sole of the club, so if you see a dent in the leading or trailing edge of the iron, it's worthwhile getting the club checked by a professional fitter.

This is important for two reasons. One is the opportunity to check that the loft and lie of the iron haven't been affected by the damage caused. Secondly, it allows assessing what repairs are required to return the iron to its former glory. If there is any cosmetic damage, such as sky marks on the crown of a driver or fairway wood, there are specialists out there who can make the necessary repairs.

At Golf Tech UK, as part of our custom-fitting process, we stock various grips and shafts to make you the best clubs for your game. We also carry out services like spine alignment to ensure your shafts deliver optimal performance. For any other enquiries, please feel free to get in contact with us, and we'll be happy to assist.