As a golfer most of us have been guilty of pulling out a wedge, ignoring the caking of mud and grass across the club face. As you stare down what feels like that perfect struck golf shot you see the ball high five the flag as is soars well beyond the range of birdie. Contemplating what you did wrong to deserve such a bad break, you slam your mud wedge back in your bag and go on about your round.
So now that we have that bad shot behind us, let’s reflect on what actually happened that led to your misbehaving golf ball. Firstly, a golf ball needs to be spinning in order to generate lift that propels it through the air. Too much spin will lead to a ball rising higher and falling shorter, while a shot with too low of spin will knuckle out farther and very be inconsistent. The latter happened in the example shot above, which lead to a shot that soared past the target (a.k.a “a flyer”). It is true that many different variables can help change the spin dynamics of a struck golf ball, (grass height, course conditions, wind, etc…) but having clean grooves is the only variable that you can consistently control shot after shot. Had the grooves been clean in the example shot, we would be staring down a birdie right now instead of searching the internet for this blog post!
With spin being such an important factor in making your irons launch, it is equally important to make the golf ball stop. Research has shown that dirty groves can lower the spin rate of an iron over 1200 RPM’s (which is a whole lot). That means not only is your “flyer” airmailing the target, it’s going to release and bounce even further. When trying to hit shots consistently, the shorter and higher lofted your irons get, the more the grooves play an important role the execution of that shot. Oddly enough, it also seems that those irons are the ones that often get neglected when it comes to cleaning the grooves.
So now that you know the dirty truth about why to keep golf clubs clean, there is probably no better place to put a shameless plug. The Grooveit brush is the most convenient, and easiest to use brush on the market today. Features like the one finger pump water dispenser, heavy duty nylon bristles, and magnetic quick release latch, help make dirty grooves a thing of the past….check out the Grooveit brush by clicking here!