Equipment

To glove or not to glove?

Published

3 years ago

Aug 29, 2020

It is one of golf’s timeless debates—do you need to wear a golf glove?

For many players, it is a make or break piece of equipment, while for others it’s embraced as a fashion accessory as much as a necessity.

One of the best examples of a glove or gloves offering a performance advantage is with rain gloves. Anyone that has traveled to Ireland or Scotland to play golf will attest, not having a pair of rain gloves while trying to play golf in a deluge would be like trying to play golf in bowling shoes—sure it’s “possible,” but the likelihood of success is greatly diminished.

Considering the price for high-quality rain gear, rain gloves pale in comparison and are worth every penny.

Most players on the PGA Tour use a glove with a few exceptions—the modern one being Lucas Glover (I don’t think we need to spell out the irony of that) and the always loveable Freddy Couples. A more historic player well known for beating golf balls and never wearing a glove is Moe Norman—as the Moe stories go, and there are a lot out there, after a certain time he would cut the calluses off the pad in his left hand when they would get too hard and start to bug him.

Factors in selection

The decision to use a glove also relies a lot on a player’s choice of grip. Cord grips are rough and designed to offer maximum traction and all-weather performance, but depending on how often someone plays or hits balls, they can be quite uncomfortable. Now, on the other end of the spectrum are multi-layer grips made with a rubber core and wrapped in some manner with a tacky polyurethane outer layer for soft traction and comfort. For more fairweather golfers, these are the grip of choice, and also provide extra shock absorption on mishits.

It would be negligent not to also point out that one of the most popular grips of the last decade— the MMC from Golf Pride—offers a firm corded top portion for under the glove hand, and a softer lower portion for the bare one, it is the best of both worlds.

So many to choose from

Now when it comes to gloves, the sky is the limit as far as options go, everyone from Costco and its Kirkland Signature brand all the way to luxury designers offer golf gloves. The most premium gloves use thin high-quality leather which is extremely supple and is designed to feel like you are hardly wearing one at all.

Other options like the Claw from Caddy Daddy are designed for both traction and durability and are constructed from synthetic materials designed to outlive the traditional leather glove, they can even be cleaned in a washing machine—for everyone, no, but for many, this is the golden ticket.

When it comes to wearing a glove, I’m solidly on the fence—my hands don’t sweat, and I play just enough golf to keep them blister-free, but for some reason, I enjoy the custom of carrying one around in my back pocket. If it is really humid, then the glove goes on, when it’s cold, I will often wear it too, but for some reason, there is just something about playing fresh cord grips without a glove that I can’t get out of my head.

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Ryan Barath

Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

11 Comments

Bob Pegram

Aug 31, 2020 at 11:29 pm

I used to use full cord grips, but they tore up my hands. I have never used a glove. When I was a beginner a round of golf and a glove cost about the same. I round of golf did my game more good than a glove. I now use mid size rubber grips. My hands usually don’t sweat. I suppose I should get some sort of rain glove before the rainy season arrives since the rubber grips are smoother than the Lamkin Crossline grips I used to use. They wouldn’t slip unless it was raining hard and they got very wet.

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Mike

Aug 31, 2020 at 10:46 am

I do not wear a glove and the only reason why is it definitely helps me to reduce my grip pressure and just swing. When i wear a glove I seem to grip the club tighter and that creates problems on the course. If i have a blister or cut, I just use some medical tape or no skin to protect during the round.

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Bas Kooij

Aug 31, 2020 at 3:43 am

I only wear gloves on the driving range to prevent blisters. I will occasionally use one with the driver, but usually I don’t wear one on the course.

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Dave

Aug 30, 2020 at 4:52 pm

Think about this: 98% of pro golfers wear a thin, white, leather glove on their top hand gripping the club. Being different can be cool and can work, but when an overwhelming majority of the world’s best are doing the exact same thing, its probably for good reason. Wear a glove

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- Tim
  
  Aug 31, 2020 at 10:43 am
  
  Let me guess – you also buy the exact same equipment setups that the Pros use as well? Just because the Pro’s where one does not mean others should wear one. Do what is RIGHT for YOUR game not just because a Pro is wearing one.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Matt Smith
    
    Aug 31, 2020 at 2:16 pm
    
    That’s not the same thing. Wearing a glove isn’t like choosing between which driver brand, its like choosing to wear shoes or go barefoot
    
    Reply Report comment
Rob

Aug 30, 2020 at 1:18 pm

I wear a glove for tee shots and occasionally full approach’s. My hands sweat a lot and I can destroy I high quality leather glove in a few rounds. That’s partly why I pretty much only wear it for tee shots. When my hands start sweating badly I have a better grip with no glove than a wet leather one. I like cord grips and don’t find them too rough on my hands at all.

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- JT
  
  Aug 31, 2020 at 5:54 am
  
  I have the same issue with leather gloves in general that I ruin them in a couple of rounds or sessions at the range. I found that wearing rain gloves (the FJ one) as a regular glove paired with cord grips works amazingly well. On all shots including the short game!
  
  Reply Report comment
Acemandrake

Aug 30, 2020 at 11:11 am

I never understood the occasional glove wearer. The glove/no glove feels are different.

Also, it’s difficult to go back to no glove after using one for an extended period.

I just wear a glove all the time.

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Nack Jicklaus

Aug 30, 2020 at 7:59 am

I played Lamkin full cord grips with no glove in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. For some reason I switched grips and have never played gloveless again. Might have to go back to the old Lamkin cords now and play gloveless again just for fun…

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Rich

Aug 29, 2020 at 1:57 pm

Glove or no glove? Glove. Bionic Performance. Best glove ever.

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Whats in the Bag

Lydia Ko WITB 2023 (September)

Published

7 hours ago

Sep 27, 2023

GolfWRX Staff

Lydia Ko what’s in the bag accurate as of the the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana GT 50 S

3-wood: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana PD 60 S

5-wood: Ping G430 Max (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana GT 60 S

Hybrid: Ping G430 (22 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD HY 65 S

Irons: Titleist T200 (5), ProtoConcept CO5 (6-9)
Shafts: AeroTech SteelFiber fc 70

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (46-10F, 48-10F @49, 54-10F, 58-08F @59)
Shafts: AeroTech SteelFiber fc 70 (46), AeroTech SteelFiber fc 80 (48-58)

Putter: Scotty Cameron TG6

Grips: Iomic

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

More photos of Lydia Ko’s WITB in the forums.

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Equipment

Spotted: Amy Yang’s T.P. Mills Fleetwood putter

Published

11 hours ago

Sep 27, 2023

Brian Knudson

This week, we spotted Amy Yang with a rare putter in her bag at the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. The putter was made by legendary putter maker T.P. Mills and the head shape is called “Fleetwood.” If you are not familiar with T.P. Mills, the company was founded in 1963 by Truett P. Mills, Sr. who wanted to make a better putter than what was available. His original putters were crafted with basic hand tools in his garage out of of carbon steel. His son David is now crafting the handmade putters after many years learning and working with his father. The company still offers the classic Softtail, Huey, Ming, 8802, and many more putters from his shop in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Fleetwood is considered heel-shafted and has a wide flange that blurs the line between blade and mallet. Amy’s Fleetwood features a single sightline on the wide flange and some “snow” stamping on the top of the bumpers. Those bumpers flare up at the toe and heel, pushing weight to the outside for added stability and a balanced feel throughout the stroke. The large back cavity has some snow stamping above “My Wand” text that is stamped and filled with white paint. The topline looks slightly rounded for a softer look and blends in nicely with the width of the putter. A half-shaft offset flow neck is welded to the head while the face features a shallow milling pattern and unique “Mills” stamping near the heel.

The “Super Bullet” sole contains a large oval cavity where material is removed to dial in the desired head weight of the putter. This main cavity is in combination with two additional round cavities out at the toe and heel area. Yang’s Fleetwood is milled from Swiss-German stainless steel, as that is what is stamped into the center of the sole.

A traditional chrome steel shaft is installed and the putter is finished off with a Rosemark 1.52 MFS (microfiber silicone) putter grip in a white and teal.

Check out the rest of our photos from the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship (LPGA)

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Equipment

Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (9/27/23): National Custom Works wedges (Don White hand ground)

Published

13 hours ago

Sep 27, 2023

Gianni Magliocco

At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a set of National Custom Works wedges (Don White hand ground).

From the seller (@cronejt): “Wedges: 50, 54, 60. Wedge heads. Don White Hand Ground. Raw finish, rust can be removed if desired. Highly Custom 1 of 1 stamping. Paid $1200 ($400 per head) for the heads alone. Took same time as iron set 1. Club build was done by Mike at TXG in Toronto. Asking $1000.”

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: National Custom Works wedges (Don White hand ground)

This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules