Club Arrangement

Sometimes you watch a movie and you get some fellows who after having their meals just throw all the trash into the sink and so on. In the same vein, I am sure you will also find some golfers who when they opened their golf bag, you would have thought he had just came back from Iraq from a Tour of Duty.

I would normally clean my clubs during the weekends if I have recently played them because I wanted them to look and feel clean. Normally a damped cloth is all that is needed but if you played on wet days or even during dry days there are times where dirt, grime, mud and sand can get trapped in the grooves especially in the irons and wedges.

All you need to do is to use an used toothbrush and a little water to brush through the grooves to loosen all impediments. Some of you may ask: "What brand toothbrush should I use?" Okay, any brand after all they are used toothbrush. I know some people are more brand conscious where only Oral-B or whatever can do. Well, let's get long in the tooth.

This can affect your game especially if you could spin the ball in the short game. By cleaning, you will also find out or notice any chips, damage, breakage or cracks to your clubs and so on. You will also realise that you haven't been using certain clubs for awhile. The necessity for cleaning is also because they may use all kinds of chemicals on the golf course so when you hit the dirt, place your clubs on the ground, etc. they come into possible contact with chemicals.

This may lead to greater wear and tear to your equipment plus possible contact with you up close - when they get into your eyes, nostrils or mouth and even skin. Please ensure that when you do, just do not wash it at the hosel. You don't want your club head to be sliding and slipping off suddenly some day like a damp squid.

Well, always remember to wash your hands before you pee since you must have been picking up your ball from the green or the tin cup so many times that chemicals meant for the grass to grow fast may be transmitted to your organ in unintended ways and you may end up with a swollen member or worse, become a beanstalk that Jack climbed.

Is There A Proper Or Logical Way to Arrange Your Clubs?

If there were a proper or logical way to arrange your golf clubs in the bag, what would be the best way? It depends whether you are using a caddy, walking and pulling your own trolley or riding in a golf cart. Some folks just throw their clubs back into their bag or into the nearest slot. This can sometimes make it difficult for them to find where no. 9 or no. 7 was last placed and when one club is missing they will never know quickly because it must be in one of the slots right? Wrong! They won't know!

Okay, now look at my bag and see how I arranged my clubs and after I have explained to you the reasons, may be you would say: "Hey, how come I never thought of that!"

Are you ready? Okay here goes. Firstly, forget those cumbersome skeletons that prop up your clubs by gripping them. This is more difficult to retrieve and slot back and boy are they bulky. Do not have one without partition or just four slots and try not to have one where there is no partition below and only from the top as this will cause the clubs to entangle at the bottom.

Take a close look at your golf bag and you will realize there is a higher and lower side. Group your clubs such that the longer ones like driver, wood, hybrid are on one end (the higher end) and the shorter irons on the lower side. One thing for sure is that you shorter irons are better protected in this way and the other reason is that the shorter irons will not be banging into the shaft of the longer clubs. You can see that my driver is protected by the bodyguards of hybrids that has covers.

Then the irons are arranged from the longer irons to the shorter ones on the sides with the shortest being the wedges and the putter in the middle or at the front. It is very clear and easy to see, retrieve, slot back and know if any is missing in action. Yes, I put the covers on the irons too to prevent them banging into the other shafts. Like I said there is no rule to say what you have to do. To each his own but I hope you like my idea or concur with my logic or just continue in the same old way you have been doing since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Golf as in life, play as it lies.