Once Arlene and Michelle announced that golf courses could reopen on Thursday 1st April, I hauled my golf bag into the utility room and started preparing for my return to the fairways.  I was pleasantly surprised to find £12.71 in change, a pristine €10 note and a multi-pack of Snickers, along with the usual debris of broken tees, dodgy balls I’d found in the rough (obviously when I was helping my friends locate their balls!!!), sun cream and tissues.

I must confess that I don’t wash my clubs after every round, so I had to use warm soapy water and lots of elbow grease to give my clubs a thorough cleaning.  It’s worth the effort –  a gleaming set of clubs in the bag is a beautiful sight and of course there are clear performance advantages too especially when it comes to removing dirt from grooves.  Today’s Golfer carried out an experiment with a 7 iron, and found that dirty grooves cut back spin in half.  You can read the whole article here:

Read the “Dirty Golf Clubs” Test by Today’s Golfer.

If you’re interested in learning the best way to wash your clubs you can watch Golf Monthly’s Michael Harris demonstrating – but I must warn you – this video is over 7 minutes long!  I’ll post it at the bottom of this blog.  A much better idea is to phone Dungannon Golf Shop’s Alastair Fleming on 078 5222 7191 and book your clubs in for an MOT – he’s offering this service free to all members of Dungannon Golf Club – see below for details:

Here’s the video I mentioned…  I was surprised that he’s washing his golf gear in the bathroom… but I did some research and discovered that he was on a golf trip in Portugal and so this is actually his hotel room!