Golf Club Cleaning Tips 101
If there’s a certain item that Mr. Monster cleans the most, it’s my golf clubs. You spend a lot of time pounding out golf balls in the driving range tearing up their cheap range ball covers as well as bombing shots from the grass, dirt, sand, mud and rain. All-in-all, your clubs take a beating.
Basic club head cleaning
If the stains are easily removed by using a soft bristle brush then it’s time for a soaking.
Get a large bucket, place a few small drops of dishwashing liquid in the bucket and fill it with some warm water. Try not to make too many large suds and only fill up the bucket enough to soak the heads and NOT up to the hosel since that may weaken the glue that holds the shaft to the club head.
I then place my iron set (5-GW) in the bucket and leaning the grips to a wall or something to keep them upright. I like leaving the clubs soaked for about 15 minutes. Once the clubs are soaked I then pull one out at a time and place on a plastic sheet or newspaper (to capture water) and use a soft bristle brush and clean out the sole and head of the clubs. Usually the toughest stain are the ones left from the artificial grass from hitting mats.
Once the heads are clean just wipe them dry with a soft towel, and wall-a, you’re done and got a nice sparkling set with only the cost of a few small drops of dishwashing liquid (I use Sun or Ajax myself) and water. No need for special “golf club” cleaning detergents or such. Keep in on the down-low and cheap!
Golf Grip Cleaning
After a while the grips get dirty or you get a used set and don’t know where it’s been so you want to clean that puppy up. The main thing I try to not do is over-hydrate the grips which cleaning with water (makes them brittle faster) or using too much liquid soap (makes them slippery).
Too keep the grips shiny and close to new, I get a nice clean white towel (White lets you see how much dirt and such is still left on the grip but you can use any color you want) and place a few drops of liquid dishwashing soap on it then water it down. Once the towel is wet, then I twist it enough so it’s not soaking wet that it will make the grips soggy as it tends to soak in water.
Proceed with wiping the grips down until the oil, dirt, yucky items are cleaned off then wipe them dry with another non-wet towel. Once they’re nice and dry I like to personally spray them with a couple shots of anti-bacterial/disinfectant spray to make sure they’re clean as can been. After it’s sprayed let it sit for another 10-15 minutes and then wipe down dry. Let the grips dry out for a few hours and you should be left with nice clean grips!
Golf Shaft Cleaning
Here’s another part of the club that once in a while needs some cleaning, you can pretty much use the towel & liquid soap wipe-down as noted in the golf grip cleaning section. Just be careful when cleaning graphite shafts with the towel since if you have one that is coarse it may scratch the shaft. Mainly the times I clean the shaft is when you get a club that still has the retail stick or price tag on it. When the sticker is stuck and won’t peel out completely I bust out the WD-40 spray and let it soak for 15-20 minutes and then use a soft flat-edged item (or fingernail) to slowly scrape the sticker off. Once all the remnants are gone I then proceed with wiping down the area with a wet towel and dry off.
Golf Club Rust Removal
Now here’s a tricky item to remove, rust, since by the time you have it on your golf club head its probably bonded to it pretty good.
On a set of clubs I have that had rust stains on the inside perimeter of the back of the club I initially tried just using soap, water and a bristle brush to use but that didn’t do anything. I then used a generic household cleaning/rust removal liquid and that also didn’t work. I knew I had to break out the big guns. I ended up buying CLR (calcium, lime, rust removal liquid) to try out .
The instructions do say to start off using a small sample of CLR and diluting it with water, but since I wanted the rust gone ASAP I used the full concentration. Since I was targeting rust stains on certain spots of the club I used a Q-Tip to dab the areas affected by rust.
Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 2/6/09 through 2/12/09: 
