When it comes to cleaning your clubs, you have two basic choices. Have someone else do it for you, say, the pro shop--or, do it yourself. While there are a lot of things I recommend that the pro shop do, cleaning my clubs is something I like to do myself. Not only does make me feel good afterwards--newly cleaned clubs look great--but it also gives me some quiet time to inspect my clubs slowly and closely, which is something I totally overlook during playing season.
If you want to clean your clubs yourself, grab a few things and get to work. You'll need a bucket, some clean clothes, a tooth brush or something similiar, some mild dishwater soap and some elbow grease.
For your irons:
Important Tip: Do NOT submerge your club heads into the bucket of water above the ferrules!!!
For newer golfers, the ferrules are those black rings where the club meets the shaft.
Okay, here we go. Put some warm water into the bucket, along with a dab of soap. Don't use very hot water. Hot water can loosen your ferrules. Also, you only need enough water to cover the heads of your irons...not the ferrules!
Put your irons, club face down, into the bucket and let them sit for a bit. When you're ready, take one out and using the old toothbrush, give the grooves a nice washing. Technically, cleaning the grooves is the most important part of the whole cleaning process. You need and want those grooves to be clean so they can do what they need to do when they impact the ball.
After you get the grooves cleaned out, run your brush over the sole of the club and get rid of any dirt or debris that might be hanging on there. Once you've finished this step, you'll need to rinse the heads with clean water. A garden hose works well for this.
Use your clean cloth to wipe and dry the club heads. Make sure they are dry. You can also run your cloth up the shaft to wipe it down to. Do not put your clubs back into the bag wet.
For your Woods:
Never submerge persimmon woods into water! Many people suggest that you never submerge metal woods into water either. Doing this tends to fade their shine, or so I've been told.
My advice, and what I do, is simply use a wet cloth on my persimmon woods to wipe them down and then I immediately dry them off. I use the same old toothbrush I used on the irons to clean out the grooves on my woods (and, again, this is the real reason you're cleaning in the first place) and then I wipe them down again.
Cleaning your grips:
Unless you have a unique set of grips, the following works pretty well. If you have special grips, do what the vendor suggests for cleaning them. For the rest of us--
Put some warm water in sink and add some dishsoap. You're going to need suds (and lots of 'em) so give the soap bottle a good squeeze. When you have a small mountain of suds, turn off the water. Dampen a cloth and wringe it out. Then get some suds on the cloth. Use the cloth and suds to wipe away any dirt, oil, etc from the grip. Turn the water on, hold the grip under the water to rinse, then dry the grip off. Do your clubs one at a time and make sure they are dry before putting them back into the bag.
If you find a really hard place to clean, try some Windex on it. Wipe and rinse as before.
This is also a great time to check the worthiness of your grips. If you have some (or all) that have seen better days, think about replacing them before the season opens.
The rules of golf, as set forth by the United States Golf Association (USGA), dictate that a golfer'sbag may hold 14 clubs. Most golfers will carry a driver, two fairway woods, 7 irons, 3 wedges and the putter. A driver is a long-shafted club with a full head used to strike the ball that is set upon a tee.
The club head does not have much lift to it, to achieve maximum distance off the tee. The fairway woods have club heads that are slightly more lofted than the driver, and are used for long shots when the ball is lying on the ground.
Most brand name drivers cost between $200 and $400. Fairway woods normally retail from $150 to $300. Golf irons are the essential part of a set of golf clubs. Two thirds of the shots in a normal round of golf will utilize an iron.
Irons are used to hit the golf ball off the ground from distances of 125 yards to 225 yards. Each iron is assigned a number based upon the loft angle of the club head. The 9-iron has the most loft, and is used to hit short, high shots. A 2-iron has very little loft, and is used to hit low, long shorts.
Wedges are normally included in the purchase of a set of irons. The most common wedges are the pitching wedge, the sand wedge and the lob wedge. These golf clubs are used for short, controlled shots, normally very close to the putting green. Some golfers may choose to remove one of the wedges in lieu of a 2-iron. Also worth noting, there are two primary types of irons available. Forged irons are precision clubs that can give experienced golfers a greater ability to shape their shots.
Gravity-back irons are considered to be more forgiving, with a larger sweet spot and primarily for golfers who want to focus on hitting straight shots. A set of 10 irons can range in price from as little as $250, to as much as $1,500.
The final and perhaps most important golf club, is the putter. The putter is also known as the money club because it is the club used to tap the ball into the hole. The purpose of the putter is to roll the ball, so there is no loft on the club head.
There are many varieties of putters in all shapes and sizes. Some of the putter shafts are so short that the golfer grips it near his knees, and some are so long that they are gripped at the golfer's chest.
Many golfers spend their entire lives changing putters to find the one that feels right for them. Simple putters can cost as little as $20 but some of the more exotic putters can cost as much as $300.
Some players opt to avoid some of the more difficult-to-hit longer irons in favor of higher-lofted "fairway" woods and extra "utility" wedges. In part, this reflects a pattern of design of clubs in which club manufacturers have reduced the lofts of the irons so that they can be used from longer distances.
In effect, today's 3-iron has a loft that is equivalent to a 2-iron of years ago.
Both Robert Partain & Irene Forde are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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