Four Key Tips To Help You Play Your Best Golf This Winter

For many of you reading this, golf is much harder to play at this time of year.

Although daylight hours are shorter and the weather is less predictable during winter, there are still many reasons to go out and play golf.

To keep your game in check, you can keep your regular Saturday morning game with friends on the go or sneak out for a quick nine holes before it gets dark. Most golf clubs will still run a program of competitions throughout the winter to keep your competitive juices flowing.

Winter is traditionally also when golfers knuckle down to implement swing changes, looking to improve and be ready for the next season’s assault on club and regional competitions. This can involve golfers spending time on the driving range and the course to measure the effectiveness of any changes.

The golf course’s characteristics will likely play differently during winter. The rough will likely be less penal, and the greens will be slower and bumpier if you get to play on the normal greens (some courses will revert to winter greens to protect the main putting surfaces during the winter).

We also need to make dispensations because the golf ball travels less far in colder air and has less runout when it lands.

We’ve put together some useful ideas to help you get the most out of playing golf this winter, and we’ll focus on the following areas:

• Golf Club Maintenance
• Club Changes In The Bag
• Storing Your Clubs During The Winter Months
• Maintaining The Rest Of Your Golf Gear

Golf Club Maintenance

In reality, we should look after our golf clubs all year round. However, there are times in the summer, if it’s particularly dry when we might go a couple of rounds before giving our clubs some attention.

Winter brings challenges that require us to be more diligent about maintaining our clubs, and the first place to look is the grooves.

If we play on golf courses that are prone to getting waterlogged, our grooves can pick up a lot of dirt. The build-up of dirt in the grooves makes it impossible to get consistent spin on shots, making it difficult to predict how the ball will react when it hits the ground.

After each round, find the time to clean your grooves. You can place the heads in a bucket of warm, soapy water to remove excess mud and dirt that can build up on the face and loosen dirt within the grooves.

After fifteen minutes, remove each club and use a brush to clean the grooves before drying the head off. You can use an old toothbrush to get into cavities, where the smaller head can reach difficult spots.

It also doesn’t hurt to have a groove-cleaning brush in your golf bag. You can use it during your round to ensure maximum control of your shots.

Golf grips can also come in for a hard time if you play during the winter.

If your clubs get wet during your round, take a dry towel and rub your grips to remove excess moisture once you have finished. Then, find a warm, dry space and let them dry out naturally.

If you have played a lot of golf during the summer, you might want to consider replacing your grips before you embark on a full winter golf schedule.

Having spare, clean towels is a useful addition to your golf bag. It’s counter-productive to use a towel that is covered in mud to wipe away mud and dirt on our clubfaces, so being able to switch towels on your golf bag can be helpful.

Club Changes In The Bag

Winter doesn’t require switching out every club in our bag from what we’ve used in the summer months. However, there are two key areas where some changes need to be made.

If you have been using a driving iron over the summer as the ultimate fairway finder, you will have enjoyed a combination of good carry distance while maximising the rollout on the ball from dry and fast fairways.

Slipping into winter with less favourable weather conditions can prevent us from taking advantage of the maximum runout on the fairways if they are playing heavier and wetter or if the green staff has been doing maintenance work.

Opting for an equivalent lofted hybrid or fairway wood can give us the same total distance as the driving iron, albeit that distance is achieved more through carry. If we are playing less frequently, using a hybrid or lofted fairway wood also might be a little more forgiving on off-centre hits.

Switching some of our wedges at the bottom end of the bag might also be an advantage for winter golf.

If you use wedges with lower bounce angles that help you nip the ball off tighter turf during the summer months, you may find that as winter comes in and the course softens up, that low bounce might make turf/ball interaction a little more demanding. This is due to the sharper leading edge, which can dig in a little more in the softer ground, making it easier to chunk pitch and chip shots.

Opting for a wedge with a little more bounce can restore the quality of strike and help you continue to play pitch and chip shots to your liking.

Outside those two areas, you don’t need to change anything else in your bag, especially if you have been custom-fitted for your clubs.

If you haven’t been custom-fitted for your clubs, consider seeking out the advice of a professional fitter if, for any reason, you are struggling with the performance of your clubs during the winter months.

Storing Your Clubs During The Winter Months

Winter can take its toll on your clubs, so investing time and effort into finding a secure dry space to store them is worthwhile.

If you’re lucky enough, you might have a locker where you often keep your clubs. This is fine for the summer months, but lockers aren’t the ideal storage areas if you have been caught out in the rain and your clubs and bag are saturated.

The boot of the car is also not a suitable storage space if your clubs and bag get soaked out on the course.

Ideally, you need a warm, dry space where you can take out all your clubs, rub them down with a dry towel, and then leave them out to dry thoroughly.

Having a suitable space to dry out your golf bag is also essential. There’s no point in putting dry golf clubs back into a golf bag that is still damp.

While we are on the subject of drying your golf bag properly, make sure all the pockets have been emptied as well.

For added protection, you can put an old sheet on the ground where you place your clubs and bag to dry off so it can soak up the moisture without damaging the surface beneath. This might be useful if you use a spare room in the house.

If you are particularly proud of the condition of your car and want to keep it pristine, you can also put an old sheet in the boot for use if your golf bag gets wet or dirty after your round of golf.

Maintaining The Rest Of Your Golf Gear

Winter is always a time when we need to add additional layers of clothing to keep us warm and keep the rain out.

Waterproofs feature materials such as Gore-Tex and are used when the weather gets really bad on the course. Gore-Tex is a membrane material that is one hundred per cent waterproof but doesn’t absorb moisture, making your waterproofs heavy and leaving you unable to swing the golf club effectively.

However, its effectiveness can become impaired over time if you don’t dry off your waterproofs properly after a particularly wet experience out on the course.

Similar to drying your clubs and golf bag, take the time to lay out or hang your waterproofs up so they can dry out properly.

You should regularly wash your waterproofs to remove mud or other dirt, which can also prevent the Gore-Tex membrane from working efficiently.

Golf gloves can also be destroyed very quickly if they get wet and are left scrunched up in a ball in your golf bag.

When drying the rest of your equipment, place your golf gloves on a surface where they can dry. You can stretch the glove to normal size so the fingers and thumb can dry out properly.

Winter also presents an opportunity to invest in weatherproof golf gloves if you want to protect your best cabretta leather gloves for spring and summer use.

Your golf bag’s makeup will be different for winter use.

Finding room in your golf bag to carry mittens or additional layers of clothing will be necessary. Before leaving for the course, take the time to ensure you have everything you need for your golf bag without adding considerable weight if you still like to carry your clubs.

Playing golf in winter can still be beneficial for your game. It allows you the opportunity to have your regular game with your friends or to work on improving your swing or course strategy.

Taking some extra time to properly prepare your golf bag for your round means you are covered for unpredictable weather.

Ensuring you have a suitable space to dry your golf clubs, bag, shoes, and waterproofs will go a long way toward guaranteeing they are fully ready for use the next time you go and play.

You don’t need to drastically change the clubs you use for winter golf. Your key areas of focus should be alternatives to driving irons and low-bouncing wedges, which can become less useful in the different winter conditions you’ll face.

If you have any concerns about the performance of your golf clubs moving into winter, now is an opportune moment to book a fitting session.

Working with a professional independent fitter such as Nine By Nine Golf, we can analyse your equipment’s performance and make recommendations on improvements to help you get the most out of it.

You can book yourself in for a tailored fitting session where we can focus on one area of your game, such as suitable alternatives to driving irons or viable wedge options for optimal ball/turf contact.

Alternatively, you can browse our extensive range of fully customisable golf clubs and order directly from the Nine by Nine Golf website. Our technicians will build your new club or clubs in-house.

We hope you get the chance to enjoy some good winter golf this year. We'd be happy to assist you with any questions about your existing clubs or the custom-fitting experience.