How often should you clean your golf clubs?

We are all guilty of not cleaning our clubs during the round. After we hit a shot, it’s easy to forget about cleaning your grooves and these can sit for a long time before getting cleaned. But how often should you clean your golf clubs?

Not cleaning your grooves can impact so many things on the golf course. All of these things are going to be a problem and are going to lead to you hitting bad shots. No one wants that.

The grooves in your golf clubs play an important role to help control ball flight and the spin you need to hit the best shot possible.

But, if there is dirt, grass or sand in them it can affect the performance of your irons giving you inconsistency in flight and distance. If you’ve ever hit a 7-iron and it’s looked great in the air, only to airmail the green by 20 yards, this could well be because your grooves are caked in mud, and you’ve not imparted any spin on the ball.

What we see with every tour player across the world is their caddie out with a towel, cleaning their player’s club after every shot they hit. This is particularly true with the wedges, as spin control around the greens is so important, especially at the professional level. Having clean grooves and no moisture on the clubhead allows for maximum spin on those partial and greenside shots. It gives you the best chance to have the best control over the golf ball. 

What you also may not consider is if there is dirt in your irons and wedges, this can affect the swing weight of the club. It only takes about 2g to really impact the weight of your iron, and thus making your club perform differently to how it should.

So, if you’re not cleaning your clubs after each shot, the subtlety in weight can change the way the clubs feel and how you swing. You’ll see off-centre hits, inconsistencies and timing and tempo can be thrown off just by a small amount of grass or dirt in the grooves and even on the clubhead, away from the face.

How often should I clean my golf clubs?

The moral of the story is to clean your clubs and grooves after every shot. Even the smallest bit of grass or dirt could be the difference between a shot that finds the green, or misses the green.

If you want to have the best control over the golf ball you need clean grooves to give you a better chance of getting the ball close to the hole. Not only that, but you want your clubs feeling great, so make sure they are free from dirt, sand or grass so you can swing with confidence.

The pros all do it, so should you.

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James Tait is bunkered’s Gear Editor. Want to know how the latest Callaway driver, Vokey wedge or Scotty Cameron putter performs? He’s the guy to ask. Better yet, just watch his videos on the bunkered YouTube channel. One of the biggest hitters in the UK, James also competes on the World Long Drive circuit and is a descendent of former Amateur champion Freddie Tait.

Gear Editor