A Golf Club Care Guide: What You Need to Know

Whether you bought stock golf clubs and are playing with the pairing the manufacturer recommended, or you paid extra for custom golf clubs online, it still pays off to know how to properly care for your golf equipment.

Knowing how to clean, store, and otherwise maintain your golf clubs, as well as a few things you should avoid doing with them, will help ensure they last for longer and don’t rust, break, or experience other forms of premature failure or damage.

So, with that said, here’s what to know about golf club maintenance, from a high level.

Keeping Your Golf Clubs Clean

The most straightforward aspect of golf club maintenance is keeping your club heads clean. Doing so isn’t rocket science, either. All you need is some warm, soapy water and a clean rag.

For very dirty clubs, you might want a soft bristle brush - nylon only, as brass and steel can damage the club head or its coating.

Wipe down the club head with a rag soaked in warm water. If the club head is particularly dirty, you can submerge it in warm water for a few seconds - but the head only, you don’t want the ferrule and hosel to get soaked.

Then, remove the head from the water, wipe clean, and if you need a little extra elbow grease, use that soft-bristled brush to remove any mud, sand, dirt, leaves, grass, or anything else sticking to the club face.

One more note. If you use water and soap (as opposed to just water) make sure you rinse your clubs or wipe them down with a clean rag so that you don’t leave any soap residue on there.

One more note. If you use water and soap (as opposed to just water) make sure you rinse your clubs or wipe them down with a clean rag so that you don’t leave any soap residue on there.

The truth is, you should keep your clubs clean on the course, too. This is why so many golf bags are outfitted with a D-ring for a golf towel. Many players wipe their club heads so that they’re clean and dry, between every swing. That will ensure optimal performance.

The long and short of this is, whether you clean your clubs after every swing or just once per outing, is primarily that it will keep your club face’s mills or grooves unclogged.  

The grooves of your club face are like a boot’s treads. You need them to “bite” the golf ball and generate adequate traction so that the right spin and launch characteristics are attained. If the club face’s grooves are clogged or dirty, the club won’t deliver optimal performance.

Lastly, keeping your clubs clean - at least those made of metal alloy - will help prevent them from suffering damage due to corrosion. So cleaning them at least after every outing is one effective way to protect your investment in your golf clubs.

What Not to Do with Golf Clubs

First, you want to avoid abusing your clubs. While you’re going to hit the turf with your wedges and irons, you won’t want to do this with a driver or hybrid. Use a tee; fat shots that bite the turf may not damage the driver itself, but they can damage the shaft.

While in Transit…

When you’re traveling, whether you’re just going down the road to a local course or flying across the country to a prestigious, exclusive golf course, you need to pay extra care and attention to how you move your clubs.

First, make sure you travel with them in an appropriate golf bag - preferably a travel bag - that individually secures them or at least has full-length shaft dividers. Dividers help separate your golf clubs and prevent the shafts from rattling around and getting damaged.  

The club heads should also be expressly protected, ideally by individual club socks. These will cushion the club heads and prevent them from scratching, gouging or dinging each other.

Storing Your Golf Clubs: Temperature and Humidity

Our last note for proper golf club care and maintenance is that you should store them conscientiously. You can store your golf clubs in your golf bag, provided you keep the bag clean and dry and store the whole thing in an appropriate location.

There are three things that can be disastrous for golf clubs - both stock and custom clubs. These are direct sunlight, extreme temperatures and high humidity.

Let’s take them from the top. Most golf clubs are made with composite graphite shafts. These are bound with epoxy resin that is subject to photodegradation as a result of UV exposure. Leaving your clubs in the sun can cause them to break down. For what it’s worth, both golf club grips and carbon fiber club heads are also subject to UV-related damage.

High temperatures are another issue. Extreme heat can damage the epoxy that secures the club head to the shaft. Therefore, it’s not advisable to store your golf clubs in the car, garage, attic, or outside - or anywhere else where they will experience extreme temperatures. Short term storage in these places is acceptable, but bring them inside otherwise.  

Lastly, we have to contend with the potential issue of high humidity and moisture related damage. The concern here is any exposed metal alloy component of your club - which generally means the head. Irons and drivers made with metal alloys will rust if exposed to chronically humid conditions. Therefore, they should never be put away while damp and should always be stored in a cool, dry location.

For what it’s worth, chronically high humidity can also damage your golf bag and other gear, so it’s in your best interest to store all of them all inside, in a climate controlled area that’s cool, dry, and out of direct sunlight.

Working with a Fitter to Get Custom Golf Clubs Online

Shelling out extra cash for custom golf clubs online, with bespoke shafts, isn’t worth it if you don’t properly care for them. It also isn’t worth it if you don’t work with a fitter to determine the proper club and shaft pairing in the first place. We can help with that. Get in touch with our professional golf club fitters, let us know what you’re looking to accomplish, and we will not just recommend specific clubs, but the shafts to pair with them.