How to keep your golf equipment in great shape

Golf equipment can be an expensive investment. But taking the right care of your clubs, bags, and other accessories can help your purchases last through several seasons—and ensure they're worth the cost.

The good news? There’s no real need to make any fancy purchases to keep your equipment in optimal shape. A few simple ideas with items already in your golf bag, plus a few inexpensive suggestions, can do the trick. Just remember: The better you take care of your golf gear, the better off your wallet—and your game—will be.

Keep dirt out of your clubs to get better contact with the ball

If you don’t want to replace your clubs in a year or two, clean the grooves—the lines that go across the face of your clubs—during and after the round.

A fancy $10 scrub brush is fine, but all you really need is a good old-fashioned golf tee. Wedge the point end into the grooves and you will be amazed at how much dirt and grime falls out as you push the tee back and forth. The old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure applies here.

Get the Pride Professional Tee System on Amazon for $5.88

Use a wet towel to keep clubs clean during your round

An old caddie trick is to wet one end of a golf towel before you start a round. That allows you to do a quick cleaning after a particularly messy battle with the turf. Think of it like dabbing water on a ketchup-stained shirt—the water is a good idea right away so the ketchup doesn’t set in, but you still have to wash the shirt afterwards. In that same vein, clean off your clubs mid-round, but also do it before you head to the car.

Get the Callway Cooling Towel from Dick's Sporting Goods for $16.99

Store your clubs properly

Tossing your sticks in your car might be an easy way to save space at home, but be careful. Your driver—the longest club in the bag—can bend easily if it doesn't land the right way. You wouldn’t be the first person to need a new driver after trying to squeeze it into a tiny trunk.

If you do leave your clubs in the car, make sure you don’t crush your golf shoes. A shoe bag isn’t necessary, but it might help avoid them looking like they just came out of a car crusher. Better idea? Find a closet at home where you can stand your clubs upright so they don’t get bent when you use your trunk for, you know, life stuff like groceries.

Get the Eccoo Breathable Golf Shoe Bag from Walmart for $14.42

Take proper care of your golf shoes

This tip might actually save you a few strokes on the course. When too many loose impediments get stuck in your golf spikes, your feet can lose their grip on the turf. The resulting wayward shot could find the rough—or a pond.

One motivation to treat your golf shoes well? Pairs that are taken care of can actually keep you from getting hurt. With the power and speed of some golf swings (even top amateurs can get to more than 100 mph) if your foot flies out from under you mid-swing—well, it wouldn’t be the first time a twisted knee or worse happened on the course.

As for cleaning the shoes themselves, that $7 bag of tees will come in handy yet again to pick out anything that might be stuck. A wooden shoe tree is a great add as well—both for storing for your golf shoes and any other pairs you may own.

Get the 12 Pair Shoe Rack from Wayfair for $33.99

Invest in headcovers

Most sets of clubs will come with their own “hats for bats” but if you picked up a few assorted clubs or lost one, make sure to replace the headcover you left on the 4th tee. Headcovers will keep your clubs from clanging off each other and help avoid structural damage to the clubs themselves. The clubs you depend to cover depends on your preferences—some golfers like to cover their irons, while others go for the putters, which can be the most expensive ones in the bag.

• Get the Ping Patent Drawing Blade Putter Cover from Golf Galaxy for $35
• Get the Callaway Iron Headcover from Golf Galaxy for $39.99

Keep your grips dry

Whether you are playing a round of golf or cleaning your clubs afterwards, make sure you don’t get the grips of the clubs wet. If they become waterlogged, you might have to replace them. That is not only an unnecessary expense, it can be a costly one. There is more than one professional caddie who has heard an earful from a pro when the grips got soaked during a downpour.

Keep your gloves in good shape

After you finish your round and your golf glove is soaking wet from sweat, drop at least three balls inside. This will keep your glove from shrinking. The next time you play, your glove won’t be shriveled up like an old dollar bill. If you don’t, you’ll be paying top dollar for a new glove at the pro shop because you didn’t realize what happened until you were already at the course.

Don’t forget your monthly club cleaning

Depending on how often you play, about once a month fill a bucket with soap and water and scrub down the heads of your clubs. You could splurge for that $10 scrub brush, or you could use an old rag that you have lying around. Look at it as a tune-up that will clear away any particles that might have gotten stuck in the grooves of your clubs.