F-O-R-E Friday - The Dirty Truth About Your Clubs

0:00If you've ever asked yourself how can I get the swing and the golf game that I've always imagined without trying every tip, every training aid, watching every video after video on social media, then this podcast is for you. Welcome. I'm Daniel Guest and welcome to the Imagine Golf Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Imagine Golf and PXG. Good afternoon, Imagination. This is Daniel Guest and welcome to another edition of four, Friday, for just a little bit right lately. I am, I got my new clubs, if you're listening to the podcast, you know, I got my new clubs and I am hitting them just a little bit longer, which is never a bad thing, but I'm having a little bit of a challenge with my distances and I am pushing them a little bit right

1:01of late. I played down in St. Petersburg or St. Pete, yeah, St. Pete, Florida and last week and yeah, that's it. I did beat my son though, so that's always positive. So today's edition is the four Friday edition where we give you a tip, a tool, a benefit, a strategy, really anything that you can do and put into practice today, right here, right now, without changing your swing, without really changing a whole lot to be very candid. And we do, and by the way, probably lower your score, right? And we do that in four minutes or less starting now. And look, this episode actually cracks me up, man, because it's so simple, it's stupid. And the title is the dirty truth about your clubs, right? And if you're expecting some, you know, S.O. Tara kind of back, you know, scientific

2:06kind of, you know, oh, you know, did you know that, you know, this model club, it's nothing like that, right? There's no secrets, right? But simply, you've got to clean your clubs, you have to clean your clubs, all right? If you're not going to clean your clubs, then you're going to get what you get and what you're going to get is simple. You're going to get absolute inconsistency, right? There was no doubt about it, right? You are not going to hit anything the same, no two shots are going to be the same, right? And if I, if I would have started this episode or let's us back up, if I would have said to you, hey, look, man, what if I told you that you could instantly improve your consistency, tighten your dispersion patterns, stop the ball faster on the greens, right? And hit the ball way more consistent, right? Without changing a single thing in your golf swing, how much would you have paid for something

3:09like that? Or would, let's forget that. As you've been interested, I know you would have, all right? So here is the facts, right? And by the way, this is no secret and this isn't even subjective. It's not debatable, right? These are absolute facts, right? Because we've all been there. You finished a long, you know, round, you know, in the Northeast here, you know, in the middle of the season, you know, you're looking at probably five hours on a public course, right? Maybe five and a half at some of these courses, right? You're tired, you throw your bag in the trunk of the car, and you don't even look at it until the next time that you even probably get to the first tee, right? If you're not practicing. And even if you're practicing some, you don't even take a look at, you know, the club said if you would, right? But for the amateur golfer, right, and the only thing I say for the amateur golfer, because for pros, this is not even an issue for God's sake, right? And for the amateur golfer, playing with dirty clubs, look, it isn't just a bad look,

4:13a look, it's actively destroying your scorecard. So what I thought we'd do today is just take a factual approach, let's, let's look at the science, trust the science, all right? The grooves on your golf clubs, right? Especially the grooves on your short irons and your wedges are designed to channel away moisture, dirt, grass, grass is actually moisture as well, so that the flat metal of the face, right, will make direct contact with the urethane cover of a golf ball. That is the science behind a golf club and golf ball interaction. And this friction, right, that is created by that interaction, creates spin, right? Well, look, when your grooves are packed with dried mud, grass, mulch, whatever, right? The green from the mats on the driving range, you know, you've hit so many balls and you

5:15hit the mats so many times, there's like a build up of green almost like plastic on the face of the golf club, right? When you have that, the ball, that one's you lose friction, but the ball literally slides up the face of the club face, right? And here's a statistical reality, robot testing using launch monitors, right? And science likes track man, has shown that just a simple wedge with dirty grooves and they define dirty grooves by about 20% of the club is dirty, can lose up to 50 to 60% of its spin rate compared to a clean club, right? Not compared to a new club where it's almost 70%, but compared to a clean club. So you're going to lose a minimum of 50, right? Probably somewhere between 50 and 60% of the spin on your lower clubs.

6:16So let me put that in perspective, but we'll blow your mind. Let's say you hit a 56 degree wedge, right? And if you hit a normal, clean, well struck, 56 degree wedge, right? That club will spin around, I don't know, let's call it 8,000 to be conservative, right? Maybe 8,500 for most of us, right? And the RPMs, the spin is that that's simple, the ball spinning RPM-wise revolutions per minute. You probably know that, right? When a ball spins at 8,500 RPMs, that spin or that ball is going to hit a green, take a hop, maybe a short hop after that, but it's going to stop, right? If you hit the exact same shot with a wedge with just 20% full of dirt or whatever, right? Your spin rate can plummet to below 4,000, right? So what does that mean, right?

7:18Especially to an amateur's game? Well, at 4,000, there is no chance on the planet that ball is going to stay, right? It's not going to stick. It's going to hit the green and it's going to roll out an extra 15 to 30 feet. So instead of having like this 10 foot pot, right, maybe for birdie, right? You are chipping from the rough, right, on the back or the side of a green, right? Just when you say that out loud, you're like, hey, man, I should probably clean my clubs then, right? Right? The other thing, and that's just spin. The other thing that people forget is that there is another mist that you get with dirty clubs. I call it like the dreaded flyer. Like we all know what a flyer lie is, right? Especially when you go down south where the grasses are thicker and stuff, the ball, and tougher, the ball sits up on the grass, right? Not so much in the northeast here, but definitely in the south. If that ball of almost three quarters of the ball is above the grass, that's a flyer

8:23lie. It's like hitting a ball off of a tee, for God's sake, right? So the dreaded flyer lie is just, it's not even the lie per se, but because the ball slides up the face instead of gripping on the face, it is just that. It's like a flyer lie. It flies higher with less drag, and here's what happens. Suddenly, your 150 yard, you know, seven iron flies 165, right? When you didn't want it to go 165, and it sales right over the pin and into a hazard, right? Or, you know, down the back of a green, right? So you didn't miss hit the club, right? You just couldn't make the club do what you wanted to do, okay? And then the last thing that we talked about in the opening, if you would, is the inconsistency. Amateurs in general, when I say amateurs, double digit handicapers, you guys already struggle with consistent distances. Even if you played with brand new clubs every single round, you would struggle hitting

9:23consistent shots and consistent distances. But if your club face on multiple clubs has varying levels of dirt, grime, whatever you want to call it, and especially from shot to shot to shot because you're not cleaning them. If you have dirty clubs to start, I know you're not cleaning them in a round. It's physically impossible to know how far the ball will go. Even if you hit a dead center in a perfect swing, it'll be different every time. So it's a, it's, this is probably the easiest fix you could ever of any of our four-minute Fridays, right? The easiest fix or maintenance, if you would, in all of sports. So Daniel, what do you suggest? Well, two things. On the golf course, keep a towel on your bag, okay? And wet, like, I always wet like half the towel. So get a bottle of water, dip it in some ice, whatever you got, whatever there's liquid

10:23around, right? Dip it. I've dipped towels in creeks, I dipped them in lakes. I poured a beer on a towel, I've done everything to get a wet towel, all right? But if you wet half the towel, right, before around, and you keep the other half dry, and then after every single shot, all you simply do is give your club face a quip, quick wipe with the wet side, right? And then simply dry with the dry side, you are good to go, right? And this is assuming that you already have clean clubs going in. There's all kinds of brush devices that they have as well. There's brushes that are like nylon on one side and like a wire brush on the other. And then they even have like a, almost like a spike on the end. And I have one of those, right? And I have it with this, like, a clip on, it clips onto one of the, like, carabiner's almost on my bag. And it's got a pull device, like I could pull out the string and it retracts, retractable

11:26string. And then when I'm done with the round, I just tuck it right in my bag, right? If you need one of those, get one of those, right? Like 10 bucks, right? It'll be the cheapest thing that you ever did to lower your scores, right? And then after the round, if you're at the club, country club, and you're one of those guys that doesn't want to tip $3 or $5 to have your clubs cleaned by the guy, I get that, right? And after the round, get those clubs, the heads, right? And in a bucket of warm water, if you had to, right? Or what I do is I just run them under the sink, my wife loves it, right? I take all my, I take them, my bag up to the kitchen, I run it underneath this, I run them back. I run the clubs underneath the sink, it's a whole ordeal. And I just clean them up. And they look spotless, right? You don't have to do anything crazy, right? Just soap and water. I like using a nylon brush, right? If for some reason, one of my wedges got really gumped up because I'm really striking the

12:28ground's hard or, or it could be a million reasons, right? Then I use like a Scotch guard, like the back of a sponge, right? And I just scrub it, right, rinse, and it's done. It's really that easy. It takes less time, right? Then, then drink it a beer, a post-round, right? It really does. And I promise you, it'll save you strokes on your next round and definitely on your handicap. So clean, give yourself some time, clean your clubs and know that clean grooves mean a predictable spin and predictable spin means predictable lower scores, all right? That's all you need to know for four minute Friday, right? And thanks for listening, right? I appreciate everything you guys do for Imagine Golf. And here's to getting you the swing and the game that you've always imagined. All right, then that's today's podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Hit the follow button wherever you get your podcast and be sure to check out our site,

13:30ImagineGolf.com. Check out our YouTube page, Add Imagine Golf, and around all the social media platforms I'm the same at Imagine Golf. And here's to getting you the swing and the game that you've always imagined. Hey, Daniel here. Look, let's be honest. We all have that one golfer in our, what are two, golfer in our lives who is one bad round away from rowing a club, snapping a shaft, or even worse than yet, buy a new club for a bad golf game, or maybe even that golfer is you. This holiday season, stop guessing and start getting better. Right now at Imagine Golf, we're offering up to 20% off all golf lessons and gift cards through the end of the year. Whether it's a single tune up or a full season transformation, give the gift of lower scores and more fun on the course this year, because at the end of the day, a better swing lasts

14:31way longer and a better game than just a box of balls. Visit ImagineGolf.com today and grab your gift cards and save. Imagine golf, because golf just doesn't have to be that hard.