Whether you are a professional, highly skilled amateur or just an occasional player of golf, you always want your clubs to be in their best possible condition. When you know how to clean and polish golf clubs, you have less debris and better shots awaiting on your next round. You also help to preserve the clubs and keep them in like-new condition.
Just 18 holes of golf is enough to put a lot of wear and tear on your clubs. The impact of the clubhead against the ball is a clean enough exchange. But when you factor in the grass, sand and occasional mound of topsoil that leaves a sizeable divot when you really miss the ball badly on an approach shot, your clubs can take a lot of abuse very quickly.
The accumulation of grass and dirt combined with potential moisture from dew, rain or a water hazard can cause a lot of foreign material to build up on the clubface and sole. Even wiping off the clubface with a towel can force a small of debris further into the clubface rather than wiping it away.
Let this pattern continue for several rounds of golf, and you suddenly have golf clubs that perform at a less than ideal level. You can take care of the problem when you know how to polish golf irons and woods. It just takes a little time and the right materials.
Prepare Properly for Club Cleaning
You do not need a lot of fancy cleaning products to make your golf clubs look and play like they did when you first bought them. Some dish detergent added to a bucket of lukewarm bucket of water will do nicely. About 2 tablespoons added to a 5-gallon bucket and filled with water will do nicely.
The bucket just needs to be large enough to hold the heads of your irons and woods fully immersed in the cleaning solution. You also should have a towel that you do not mind getting dirty, a nylon brush, some metal polish and some clean rags to put a shine on the clubs. So a good cleaning mostly just requires a bucket, warm water, detergent, metal polish, nylon brush and some clean rags that you do not mind getting dirty.
How to Polish Golf Clubs: Get the Gunk Out
You do not have to soak your clubs overnight or for any extended period of time, but you need to give them at least 10 or 15 minutes in the soapy bucket of water. That will get all of the embedded dirt and grass time to absorb the soapy substance and loosen up. Much of it will come off naturally, but the worst of it will remain embedded to the clubface.
At this point, the dirt and grass stains on the clubface and sole of each of your irons and woods should be ready for cleaning. You can take your irons and woods out one at a time and give the clubface a good scrubbing with the nylon brush. A toothbrush is especially useful for getting into the small nooks and crannies that trap dirt and debris while enabling you to give the clubs a very fine cleaning.
Adding a nylon brush to your bag can give you the option to knock that dirt and grass off while on the course. It can also be very useful at this stage of a deep cleaning.
You want to work the bristles and soapy solution into the cracks and crevices where the dirt and gunk hide and remove as much as possible. Dunking the clubface into the water briefly while scrubbing along the milled grains and contours of the face will help to remove all embedded dirt, grass and whatever else might have made its way in there.
You will notice the soapy solution turning more and more gray as you dunk the brush and clubheads in and out of the water. That is good sign that you are doing a great job and shows just how much your clubs really need a good cleaning.
Once you are confident you have removed as much of the dirt, grass and grime as possible and your clubheads are good and clean, you need to let them dry out. Just a few minutes should do the trick. And then you are ready to really make the clubs and woods shine.
Let the Polish Do Its Thing
Most people fully understand the benefits of cleaning and polishing a car to protect the exterior against rust and corrosion. Your golf clubs are no different, and you need to know how to polish golf iron heads and woods. The metal surfaces are critically important and must be protected against rust and corrosion.
You can do that with a good metal cleaning polish that you rub on and let sit for a few minutes. You want to apply metal polish to all of the metal surfaces on the irons and woods. If you have actual woods, you can leave the metal polish off of the wooden part of the clubhead but still need to apply it to the clubface. Modern drivers with titanium and carbon-fiber heads can handle the metal polish just fine, which helps to reduce the types of polish that you might need.
After you apply a generous amount of polish to the metal surface and allow the polish to react with any remaining grime or corrosion. Then you take your clean rag and give it a very good scrubbing using small circular motions with a terry cloth or an old t-shirt. The polish likely will leave a dirty residue on the rag, which tells you the metal still needs polishing.
You keep applying polish and wiping it off until you no longer see any dirt of grime coming off of the metal and it shines like new. At that point, you are done with that club and need to move on to the next one until you are finished with the entire set.
Get Ready for More Great Rounds of Golf
Once you know how to polish a golf club properly, you can ensure good, clean contact with the ball at the tee, on your approach shots and while putting. That means you get a getter MOI and better control over the ball while ensuring your clubs are capable of playing as well as they did when brand new.
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