Industry Breakdown Segment:
Reinvigorate Your Clubs with a Little Care
By Kiel Christianson,
Senior Writer
Etobicoke, ONT -- There are two types of golfers: Those who want new clubs, and those who don't. The throngs of golfers in the first group are actively, perhaps obsessively, searching for the "magic wand," that one club (or entire set) that will knock six strokes off their games the first time out. The lucky few in the latter group are for the most part satisfied with their equipment. No matter which type you are, the best chance you have of playing up to your potential is to take care of your clubs.
Scot Baran, proprietor of Swingin' Round Again Golf Shop in Etobicoke, Ontario (635 The Queensway - just minutes west of downtown Toronto, telephone number 416-259-7227), and club refurbisher extraordinaire, offers the following advice. First, scrub your irons and metal woods after every two rounds. Carry a towel whenever you play to wipe the faces clean. When it comes time for the deluxe wash, soak irons and metal woods (but NOT wood woods) in a bucket of warm water and dish soap for a few minutes. Then take a fingernail brush, stiff toothbrush, or similar fiber brush, and scrub the dirt out of the grooves. As Scot says, "Grooves packed full of dirt aren't really 'grooves' anymore."
But don't think that you're done already - you're only half the way to reinvigorated clubs. Dump the dirty water and refill your bucket with more soapy water. Toss in a quarter cup vinegar, a couple tablespoons of salt, and a couple tablespoons of lemon juice - eye of is newt optional, advises Scot. Now comes the kicker: Stick your GRIPS in the mix for ten minutes or so (unless you have leather grips, in which case never mind).
You see, the acid in palm sweat actually melts the outer surface of rubber grips, giving them that glassy, shellacked feel. Soaking them in this solution breaks down the hard, slippery outer shell. To complete the reinvigoration process, Scot recommends taking 120-240 grit sandpaper or emery cloth and WET-sanding your grips all around and up and down. After you've dried them with a nice fluffy towel, they will feel brand new. According to Scot, a decent set of grips can last seven or eight years if you care for them in this way.
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Scot has a couple more tips for keeping your clubs in tip-top shape. First, don't keep your clubs in the trunk of your car in hot weather. When the mercury rises, it gets awfully hot in there, and the epoxy bonding the club heads to the shafts could crystallize. Trust me when I say that its no fun when you make a nice swing, make good contact, and then see the club head fly nearly as far as the ball. Second, never hit balls off of the rubber tees ("nipples") found on indoor/outdoor driving range mats if you have graphite shafts. Scot warns that the resistance of the rubber tees (even the soft ones) can cause shearing damage to the structure of the graphite.
Now we turn to the golfers who have finally grown wise to the cloying seductions of the Jezebel that is the golf equipment industry, and realize that just about any half way decent set of clubs will perform for us, as long as our swing is consistent and the clubs fit our swing. Many of us have an old set of clubs that we love - we love the look and the feel, yet wonder if perhaps a tweak or two might improve their performance just a bit. For those of us in this situation, we need to consult a skilled club fitter. Scot likes to remind his customers that, "Our clubs are always talking to us, and the ball flight is the language that they speak."
A good club fitter can help "fine-tune" your clubs to your swing. From loft to lie angle, to shaft flex to grip size, Scot says that with even a cursory check of twelve basic club features, he can determine how well a player's clubs fit his or her swing. And if you've got an old set that you always played well with but which have fallen into disrepair, Scot (or your local club fitter/repairer) can refinish those classic persimmon woods or blade irons so that they look better than they did decades ago when you bought them. Best of all, refinishing generally costs much less than a whole new set.
Finally, should all maintenance fail, and all hope for reviving those ancient sticks crumble in a pile of rust on your basement floor, you may want to shop around for some new tools. But don't let the slick infomercials on The Golf Channel fool you - no one should buy a club without swinging it first. And you should talk to a skilled club fitter when you buy new clubs in order to find the ones that best suit you. (HINT: The part-timer at the local discount golf outlet probably doesn't know anymore about golf than you do.)
Maybe the clubs that feel best to you will be a relatively inexpensive used set bent to fit your upright swing plane. Or perhaps they will be a one-of-a-kind set of irons that were custom-made for a certain Spanish pro with the initials "SB" (which you will actually be able to waggle for yourself at Swingin' Round Golf, if you hurry). Whatever the case, your local club fitter can help you find and maintain a set of clubs that should last you a lifetime.
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