Got a can of WD-40 in the garage and eyeing your slick, grimy golf grips? It’s a tempting thought. That iconic blue and yellow can is a handyman's best friend, famous for fixing squeaks, loosening bolts, and driving out moisture. So, it makes sense to wonder if it can work its wonders on your tired grips. This article gets straight to the point, explaining exactly why you should keep that can far away from your golf clubs, what the proper method for cleaning them is, and how to know when a simple cleaning just won’t cut it.
Let's cut right to the chase: using WD-40 to clean or "rejuvenate" your golf grips is a decidedly bad idea. While it might seem like a quick fix, you'll almost certainly do more harm than good, and the reason lies in understanding what WD-40 actually is and what your golf grips are made of.
WD-40 is not a cleaner in the traditional sense. Its name stands for "Water Displacement, 40th formula." It's primarily a solvent-based, water-displacing spray and penetrating oil. Its job is to get into tiny crevices, break down rust and grease, and leave behind a thin lubricating film to protect metal parts from moisture.
Golf grips, on the other hand, are typically made from proprietary rubber compounds, synthetic polymers, or sometimes cord-infused rubber designed to be soft, tacky, and durable. These materials are engineered to create friction between your hands and the club handle. They are porous on a microscopic level to help wick away moisture and provide that essential tackiness you need for a confident hold.
Here’s what happens when you introduce WD-40 to this equation:
Think of it this way: you wouldn't use sandpaper to wash your car or dish soap to condition leather shoes. WD-40 is simply the wrong tool for this specific job.
The good news is that restoring the natural tackiness of your grips is incredibly simple and requires items you likely already have at home. The grime on your grips comes from sweat, sunscreen, dirt, and oils from your hands. Removing this layer of buildup is what brings back that fresh-out-of-the-box feel. You aren't adding a substance to make them tacky, you're removing the gunk that's covering up the existing tackiness.
This process takes less than 15 minutes and can make a massive difference in how your clubs feel.
If you're using a bucket, fill it with a couple of inches of warm water. Lay one of your towels on the ground or on a workbench to catch any drips and to place your clubs on after they’re cleaned.
Add a few drops of the mild dish soap to your warm water and swish it around to create some suds. You don’t need a lot of soap, too much will just require more rinsing.
One club at a time, dip just the grip into the soapy water. Avoid submerging the ferrule (the small plastic ring where the shaft meets the clubhead if cleaning woods or hybrids). Holding the club with the head pointing up, dip your brush in the water and begin scrubbing the grip. Use gentle, circular motions, making sure to apy extra attention on any textured areas or patterns where dirt loves to hide. You should see the grime and suds start to turn a light shade of brown or gray. That's a good sign!
This is a an important step. Rinse the grip under a gentle stream of warm running water. Crucially, hold the club with the grip facing up and the clubhead below it. This lets the water run down the grip and away from the shaft, preventing any water from getting down inside the shaft, which can lead to rust and unpleasant odors over time.
Using your second, clean towel, thoroughly dry the grip. Give it a good, firm wipe-down. Once you've done this for all your clubs, stand them up - grips facing up - in a corner with good air circulation to let them air dry completely overnight. Don't put your headcovers back on until the grips are 100% dry.
This depends on how often you play and your body chemistry. A good rule of thumb for an avid golfer is to give your grips a deep clean once a month. For more casual players, a few times per season should suffice. Of course, if you play in hot, humid conditions or find your hands sweat a lot, more frequent cleanings will be beneficial. Regular cleaning not only improves performance but also extends the life of your grips.
You might have seen an old forum post or a YouTube comment suggesting that you can use WD-40 as a solvent for sliding on new grips. While technically a solvent is needed to activate the double-sided grip tape, using WD-40 for this purpose is again a very poor choice.
Proper grip solvent is designed to create a slippery surface for a short period and then evaporate completely, leaving zero residue. This allows the adhesive from the tape to bond securely with the inside of the new grip. WD-40, because of its petroleum-based lubricants, will not fully evaporate. It can leave behind a slick residue between the tape and the grip, which might cause your grips to twist or slip over time - a huge problem during your swing. It can also degrade the new grip from the inside out. Stick to dedicated golf grip solvent or pure mineral spirits for this job, they're inexpensive and formulated to do the job correctly and safely.
Sometimes, no amount of cleaning can save a grip that's simply worn out. Cleaning can remove grime, but it can’t rebuild worn-down rubber. So, how do you know when it’s time to stop scrubbing and start replacing?
Look for these tell-tale signs:
Playing with worn grips is a big disadvantage. It forces you to unconsciously apply more hand pressure to keep control of the club, which introduces tension, limits your feel, and ruins your tempo. Most experts recommend regripping your clubs once a year or every 40-50 rounds. It's one of the most cost-effective ways to make your old clubs feel brand new and restore your confidence.
To sum it up, while that blue and yellow can of WD-40 is a hero in the garage, it's a villain for your golf grips. It will chemically damage the rubber and leave behind a slippery film. Proper cleaning with just mild soap and water is the fastest and best way to restore tackiness, but knowing when to replace old, worn-out grips is just as important for maintaining feel and performance.
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