Slick, shiny golf grips are costing you more than just confidence, they’re forcing you to squeeze the club tighter, creating tension that silently ruins your swing. Restoring the tackiness and feel to your grips is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to improve how you connect with the club. This guide provides a simple, step-by-step process to bring your old grips back to life, explaining which methods to use for different grip materials and which popular hacks to avoid.
Your grip is your only connection to the golf club. When that connection is poor, everything else in your swing has to compensate. Think about it: when a grip feels slick, your instinctive reaction is to clench your hands, forearms, and shoulders. This tension is a swing-killer. It restricts the free-flowing, rotational motion we want in the backswing and chokes off power on the way down.
A fresh, tacky grip inspires confidence. It allows you to hold the club with a lighter, more relaxed pressure. This freedom from tension helps you:
Rejuvenating your grips isn't just a maintenance chore, it’s a direct investment in your performance on the course.
Before you start scrubbing, it's important to know if your grips can be saved. Not all aging grips are candidates for rejuvenation. Here’s how to tell the difference between a grip that's just dirty and one that's officially retired.
Signs Your Grips Can Be Rejuvenated:
Signs Your Grips Need to Be Replaced:
You don't need a professional workshop to do this. Most of what you need is likely already under your kitchen sink. Keeping it simple is the best approach.
This process takes just a few minutes per club and the difference in feel is instant. Follow these steps for standard rubber or compound grips.
Fill your bucket or sink with enough warm water to submerge the grip of one club. Add a few squirts of mild dish soap and swish it around to create a sudsy solution.
One club at a time, dip just the grip end into the water. If your clubs have a hole at butt-end of the grip, try not to let too much water seep inside the shaft. Pull the grip out and dip your soft-bristled brush into the soapy water. Scrub the entire grip using firm but gentle pressure and small, circular motions. Pay extra attention to the areas where your hands and thumbs sit, as this is where the most oil and dirt accumulate.
This might be the most important step. Rinse the grip under a steady stream of warm water, rotating the club to wash away all the soap residue. If you leave any soap behind, it will dry into a slick film, defeating the entire purpose of cleaning. You'll know it's fully rinsed when the water runs clear and the grip no longer feels soapy.
Use your first towel to vigorously dry the grip. Wring out as much water as possible. Then, grab your second, dry towel and give it a final wipe-down. Once you're done, the grip should immediately feel much tackier than it did before you started.
Even after thorough towel drying, a little moisture can remain. Stand the clubs upright in your golf bag or lean them against a wall in a well-ventilated area for a few hours (or overnight) to air dry completely before you play. Do not expose them to direct heat like a hairdryer, which can damage the rubber.
Not all grips are created equal. Using the wrong technique on a specific material can do more harm than good. Here's a quick guide for handling different popular grip types.
Examples: Golf Pride Tour Velvet, Lamkin Crossline
These are the workhorses of the grip world and are the most durable. The soap-and-water method described above is perfectly suited for them. They respond incredibly well to a good scrubbing.
Examples: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord, MultiCompound
You can use the same soap-and-water method on cord grips, but with one small adjustment: be a little gentler with the brush. Scrubbing too aggressively can fray the cotton cords woven into the rubber, which can make them feel fuzzy and less effective at wicking away moisture.
Examples: Winn Dri-Tac, SuperStroke Traxion
These grips are known for their ultra-soft, tacky, and cushioned feel. However, that softness comes from a more porous polymer material, which can be damaged by aggressive cleaning. For these, use less soap and a less aggressive approach. A damp cloth with a tiny bit of soap is often all you need. Don’t submerge them, and use gentle wiping motions rather than vigorous scrubbing.
This is a totally different process.
Do NOT use soap and water on genuine leather grips. Water will dry out the leather, causing it to crack and ose its natural texture. To rejuvenate leather, use a專用 leather cleaner followed by a proper leather conditioner. This process will gently lift the dirt while restoring the essential oils that keep the leather supple and tacky.
The internet is full of quick-fix suggestions for restoring grips. Most of them are bad ideas that will shorten the lifespan of your equipment.
Bringing your golf grips back to life is a simple and rewarding task that instantly improves your connection to the club. Regular cleaning not only saves you money on re-gripping but also gives you the confidence to hold the club with light, tension-free pressure, which is a building block for a more powerful and consistent golf swing.
Now that your equipment feels brand new, you can focus on making smarter decisions on the course. While I can help you with your technique and equipment, for real-time strategy on the course - like what club to hit from a tough lie or the best way to play a tricky par 5 - I recommend trying Caddie AI. Our app delivers instant, pro-level advice right when you need it, helping you take guesswork out of your game so you can play with more confidence and enjoy an expert opinion in your pocket.
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