How to Care for Golf Gloves

A quality golf glove is your only direct connection to the club, but they can wear out surprisingly fast. Learning how to properly clean, dry, and store your glove doesn't just save you money, it gives you a better, more consistent feel on every single shot. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step process to extend the life of your golf gloves and keep them performing like new.

Why Glove Care Matters (More Than You Think)

Too often, golfers treat their gloves as disposable items. We'll spend hours working on our swing but stuff a sweaty, bunched-up glove into our bag pocket at the end of the round. Thinking like a coach, I can tell you this is a missed opportunity. Your glove is a piece of performance equipment, just like your driver or your putter. A clean, supple glove offers:

• Better Grip and Feel: A glove caked with dirt, sweat, and oil becomes slick and stiff. This makes you grip the club tighter, which creates tension in your hands and arms, killing your feel and ruining your swing sequence. A well-maintained glove stays soft and tacky, allowing you to hold the club with light, confident pressure.
• Increased Durability: The salts and acids from sweat break down the delicate Cabretta leather. Proper cleaning and drying remove these harmful residues, preventing the leather from becoming brittle and tearing. A glove you care for can easily last twice as long as one you neglect.
• More Consistency: When your connection to the club remains constant, your swing becomes more repeatable. Using a fresh-feeling glove for every round eliminates a variable and helps build confidence so you can focus on your shot, not whether the club is about to slip.

Taking a few moments after each round to care for your glove is a small detail that pays big dividends. It’s a habit that separates the serious player from the casual one.

The Biggest Mistakes Golfers Make With Their Gloves

Before we get into the right way to care for your gloves, let's look at the most common ways they get ruined. Chances are, you’re making at least one of these mistakes:

• The Bag-Stuffer: This is the number one glove-killer. After the 18th hole, you pull your glove off and crumple it into a ball, shoving it into a side pocket of your golf bag. It sits there, marinating in sweat, until your next round. When you pull it out, it's stiff, crusty, and misshapen.
• The Dashboard Dryer: Trying to speed-dry a glove by leaving it on your car’s dashboard is a terrible idea. The intense direct heat from the sun fries the leather, making it hard and brittle. It’s like leaving a leather shoe out in the desert sun – it shrinks, cracks, and becomes useless. The same goes for leaving it on a heater or using a hairdryer.
• Using it For Everything: Your golf glove is made for one thing: swinging a golf club. It's not for pulling a push cart, cleaning mud off your ball, raking a bunker, or carrying your bag. Use your bare hand for those tasks to prevent unnecessary wear, tear, and dirt from getting on the glove.
• Yanking it Off Improperly: Constantly pulling your glove off by the wrist cuff stretches the elastic and the delicate leather around the palm. This leads to a loose fit, which causes rubbing and premature holes.

The Simple But Smart Way to Put On and Take Off Your Glove

This might seem basic, but doing it correctly makes a huge difference. Think about it like a fine dress shoe versus an old sneaker. You have to treat it with a little care.

Putting It On: Start by working your four fingers in, then your thumb. Gently wiggle them down into place. Finally, smooth the palm and backing down over your hand before securing the Velcro tab. Don’t just jam your hand in there.

Taking It Off: Here's the most important part. Do not grab the palm or wrist and pull. Instead, undo the Velcro tab. Then, gently loosen each finger one by one, starting with the pinky and working your way across to the index finger. Once all fingers are loose, the glove will slide off easily without any stretching.

Cleaning Your Golf Gloves: A Step-by-Step Guide

Cleaning a glove can be intimidating. Golfers are often afraid they’ll ruin it, so they just don't do it. But cleaning a glove is easy if you follow the right process. Note that this method is primarily for genuine Cabretta leather gloves, the most common type.

When should you clean your glove?

Don’t overdo it. You don’t need to wash a leather glove after every single round. Over-washing can strip the natural oils from the leather. A good rule of thumb is to wash it when you see visible dirt buildup or when the palm starts to feel slick and stiff. For most players, this might be every 5-10 rounds, depending on how much you sweat and the conditions you play in.

What you'll need:

• Lukewarm water (not hot)
• A mild soap (baby shampoo or gentle dish soap works great)
• A clean, soft towel

Avoid harsh laundry detergents or any cleaners with bleach. These chemicals are too aggressive and will destroy the leather.

The Cleaning Process:

1. Put the Glove On: This is a simple trick that helps you clean it thoroughly while maintaining its shape. Put the dirty glove on your hand just as you would for a round.
2. Wet the Glove: Run your gloved hand under a steady stream of lukewarm water. Get the entire glove damp, but not completely waterlogged.
3. Apply and Lather Soap: Place a small, pea-sized drop of mild soap into the palm of your gloved hand. Now, wash your hands together just like you normally would. Gently rub your palms together and work the soap over the fingers and back of the glove. Pay a little extra attention to the areas with caked-on dirt or dark spots. Be gentle, you’re not trying to scrub the pattern off.
4. Rinse Thoroughly: Place your gloved hand back under the lukewarm running water. Gently rub it all over to rinse away all the soap suds. This is important - any soap residue left behind will make the leather stiff when it dries.
5. Squeeze, Don’t Wring: Once all the soap is gone, turn off the water. Make a gentle fist and squeeze to push out the excess water. Start at the fingertips and gently squeeze down toward the wrist. Never twist or wring the glove. Wringing will stretch and damage the fine leather fibers and seams.

A Note on Machine Washing

Can you put a golf glove in the washing machine? The short answer is yes, sometimes, but it’s risky for leather. Most synthetic or all-weather gloves can handle a machine wash on a delicate cycle with cold water. However, for a Cabretta leather glove, machine washing can be harsh, stripping away its natural softness even on a gentle cycle. Sticking to hand washing is always the safest and most effective way to care for your premium leather gloves.

Drying Your Glove the Right Way

How you dry your glove is just as important as how you clean it. Improper drying is what causes that crusty, cardboard-like feel.

The Don’ts of Drying

• No Direct Heat: Never put a wet glove on a radiator, in front of a furnace vent, or use a hairdryer.
• No Direct Sunlight: Leaving it on a fence post or your car’s dashboard to "sun dry" will bake the leather rigid.
• No Dryers: Absolutely never put a leather glove in a clothes dryer. The tumbling and high heat will catastrophically shrink and ruin it.

The Do's of Drying (Patience is Key)

1. After gently squeezing out the excess water, take the glove off.
2. Lay it flat on a clean, dry towel. You can fold the towel over and blot it gently to absorb more moisture.
3. Lay the glove on a flat surface to air dry at room temperature. A countertop or dresser works perfectly. Keep it out of direct sunlight.
4. The drying process a will take several hours. Be patient. When it is about 75% dry (still slightly cool and damp to the touch), put the glove back on your hand for a few minutes. Make a fist and flex your fingers. This helps reshape the leather to your hand perfectly as it finishes drying.
5. Consider using a plastic glove shaper. These inexpensive tools help the glove maintain its shape and provide airflow for more even drying.

The Pro Tip: Rotation and Proper Storage

The best way to make your gloves last is to not rely on just one. All serious golfers rotate their gloves.

• Rotate During the Round: On hot, humid days where you're sweating a lot, have a second glove in your bag. Switch them out every few holes. This gives each glove a chance to dry out a bit, preserving the leather and maintaining a great grip throughout the entire round.
• Designate Your Gloves: Have a "practice" glove for the driving range and a few "game day" gloves that you only use on the course. You don't need your best glove for beating range balls.
• Proper Between-Round Storage: Once a glove is completely dry, don't just throw it in your bag. Smooth it out flat and store it in its original sleeve or a ziplock bag. This protects it from ambient moisture and keeps it from getting crumpled. This one small habit makes a world of difference for how your glove feels at the start of your next round.

Final Thoughts

Caring for your equipment highlights a commitment to playing smarter golf. By learning how to clean, dry, and store your glove correctly, you are taking control of a small but significant detail that improves feel, builds confidence, and ultimately saves you money. Think of it as part of your overall strategy for better play.

Just as mastering the details of equipment care leads to better performance, mastering course strategy is the next step to lowering your scores. When you're ready to get clear, intelligent advice on club selection, strategy for tricky holes, or get real-time analysis of a tough lie, our app, Caddie AI, is there to help. We designed it to give every golfer access to expert-level guidance, removing the guesswork so you can swing with total confidence on every shot.