The main reason for wearing a golf glove is grip.
Your glove is tackier than your bare hand, and it is this tackiness that prevents your club grip from rotating when you strike the ball.
This is especially noticeable in hot or wet weather.
Sweaty hands have been the downfall of many a good round so make sure your glove is up to par.
When you buy a new glove the first thing to do is make sure it fits.
A loose golf glove will do you no favours. The glove is the connection between your hand and the golf grip so it has to be perfect.
Not every golfer will wear a glove for the full round.
You will often take off your glove for putting or short chip shots to get a better feel of the club. This action along with sweating hands is the main cause of wear and tear in golf gloves if not done properly.
Removing your glove during shots can actually help make it last longer because you are essentially airing it out between shots.
You really start to notice this when you take your glove out of the bag on the first tee and it feels dry and a bit ‘crunchy’.
This is a sure sign that you need to upgrade your glove.
The lifespan of a golf glove can be as short as a few rounds, depending on a few things:
Type of glove – Is it leather or an all-weather glove. Leather gloves are fantastic in the right conditions, but get them wet or sweaty on a very warm day and they tend to lose some of their quality features fairly quickly.
Get them wet when you are using a ball washer and they may as well go back in the bag.
Conditions – As mentioned above, weather conditions have a lot to do with the lifespan of your golf glove.
Playing in wet weather (it’s Ireland remember, so this is going to happen a lot) will take a toll on your gloves. When your golf glove gets wet make sure to change it out for a spare one and dry it thoroughly when you get home.
A few days later put it back on your hand to stretch it out again.
Find great deals on golf gloves in our online shop.
Change your golf glove
Ideally, you should be changing your golf glove after every few rounds but that is not for everybody…
Realistically when a glove becomes worn – A hole in one of the fingertips – it needs to be replaced. When the gripping properties of the glove start to wear off and it becomes shiny it also needs to go.
With a leather glove, it will become dirty and hard over time from sweaty hands.
This is a sure sign that the life of your glove has ended and it’s time for an upgrade.
Wearing of the palm of the glove is also a sign it needs to go.
Having a quality grip as the interface between you and your clubs is really important and it takes long enough to get the swing right.
Don’t let a damaged glove be the reason you drop shots.
When you change your golf glove a few things need to happen. Some people will break it in a bit by wearing it at home or over a few practice holes.
Different golfers have different plans when it comes to their golf gloves and it depends on the level you play at. Take Tiger Woods for instance – may have as many as 16 golf gloves in his bag and always uses a new one at the start of a round. That’s great but realistically this is not going to be the case for the majority of golfers.
When you hit the course you want to be ready for that round of a lifetime and having a decent swing, clubs in your bag you are comfortable with, that have decent grips, and feel right in your hands, along with a good quality golf glove that fits perfectly is all you can do to help yourself – How you hit the golf ball is up to you but we can help there as well.
Golf Glove Care
One quick tip you can use to prolong the life of your golf gloves during the golf season is that when you remove them make sure to slip them off from the fingertips as opposed to just pulling from the open end of the glove.
This will avoid any unnecessary stretching or the potential to rip the glove apart.
If it gets wet then make sure to dry it out completely and wear it a few times a few days later to stretch it out to its normal size again.
You can get shrinkage on gloves that keep getting wet over time and this causes loss of grip and they are uncomfortable to wear.
When the glove goes back into your bag try and use a separate compartment for storage and don’t just bung it in with your golf tees and balls. This will help prolong the life of your glove.
A leather golf glove is very different from an all-weather glove in terms of care. When a leather glove gets wet or sweaty it tends to get slimy.
This is a sure sign that you need to switch it out for a spare – even for the rest of that round and dry it properly.
Your Grip can cause wear
One thing that is often overlooked when it comes to wear and tear on your golf glove is your grip on the golf club.
Having an incorrect grip will cause wear on certain pressure points on the glove and the best way to combat this is to book in for a lesson and we will fix this.
You often see golfers with a hole in the palm of their gloves or the side of the thumb. This is due to incorrect grip on the golf club grip and causes unnecessary wear.
The right glove for every golfer
The best way to figure out if you have the right gloves is fit.
Is it snug right to your finger tips and around your hand, without being too tight. If you are unsure then talk to us in the pro shop and we will get you set up with the right fitting golf gloves so when you next hit the course for a few holes or the driving range for a practice you will be ready to go.