Clean everything, grooves included

Wash the heads in warm water with a drop of dish soap and a soft brush. Work the grooves individually — a season of compacted dirt sits in them, and it stays there all winter if you let it, holding moisture against the face. Clean the shafts with a damp cloth, and wash the grips the same way we recommend in season: warm water, a drop of soap, a soft brush, rinse, and dry thoroughly. Then let everything dry completely — overnight, not ten minutes — before anything goes into a bag or headcover. Most winter damage isn't caused by cold. It's caused by clubs put away damp.

Store them indoors — not the garage, not the trunk

The trunk rule you've heard from us about summer applies year-round, and an unheated garage is the winter version of the same mistake. The problems aren't exotic: grips harden and lose tack through months of cold and temperature swings; condensation from freeze-and-thaw cycles puts moisture where you can't see it, including under grips; and steel shafts can develop rust under the grip that announces itself years later as a shaft snapping at the hands. A corner of a basement, a closet, anywhere that stays dry and roughly room temperature beats the garage every time. Store the bag upright if you can, clubs dry, headcovers dry — a damp headcover sealed over a putter for five months is a rust kit.

Do the damage check now, not in April

Run through the set while you still have a workshop's season ahead of you:

- Grip each club and twist. Any movement, or a ferrule that's crept up the shaft leaving a gap, means a bond is failing — cheap to fix now, a lost head on the third tee in May if it isn't.

- Shake each club next to your ear. A rattle is loose epoxy or a tip weight moving inside the shaft.

- Look down each shaft for dings and score lines, especially near the hosel — that's where shafts fail.

- Check the putter grip for the flat spot your hands have worn in, and the putter head for bag chatter dings.


Findings from this list are exactly the jobs a repair shop wants in February, not the first sunny weekend of April when every golfer in Ottawa has the same idea at the same time.

Grips: judge them in the spring, honestly

A grip that felt fine in September may not survive the winter — compounds harden with age and cold storage speeds it. In April, do the thumb test: if the surface feels smooth, shiny or hard instead of tacky, or you find yourself thinking about holding on during the swing, they're done. Our standing advice is a re-grip roughly once a year or every 40 rounds for a regular player — and installation is $5 per grip at Golf Logics when the grips are purchased here, so a spring re-grip is the cheapest tune-up in the game. Winter is also the smart time to buy them: bring the set in during the quiet months and there's no lineup at all. (Well. Fewer lineups in the winter.)

Golf Logics | 17 hours ago

Putting Your Clubs Away for Winter: An Ottawa Golfer's Checklist

Ottawa golf season doesn't end — it's taken from us, usually sometime in November, occasionally by snow in October. Before your clubs go into storage for five months, thirty minutes of care decides whether you open the bag in April to the set you put away, or to hardened grips, surface rust and a putter that looks like it wintered outdoors. Here's the checklist we work through in the shop, in order.

Book the spring check before the spring rush

Lofts and lies drift through a season of impacts, range mats and travel. The start of a season is the right time to have them measured — our gauges read to a tenth of a degree — and adjusted back to spec, along with any repairs from your winter checklist and a fresh set of grips if the thumb test failed them. One visit in March or April and the set starts the year exactly as it should.


Until then: clean them, dry them, bring them inside. Your April self says thanks.


Winter work is welcome work at the Repair Centre — 1292 Wellington Street West, Ottawa. Walk-ins welcome during shop hours (Mon–Thu 9–5, Fri 9–4, Sat 10–2, Sun 10–1), free parking behind the building, 613-514-0113. Fitting Studio questions: 233 Armstrong Street, by appointment only — book a fitting online or call 613-514-0288.

Better Fit. Better Equipment. Better Golf.

Golf Logics

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