Spicing Up the Sticks

As golf season started to approach, I was a little disappointed that I couldn't afford any new clubs this season. But then I came across an article on MyGolfSpy on how to paint your clubs. I figured "Hey, I may not get any new clubs but I could at least give them a fresh look".

After going through this article (and this one on Golf.com) I started picking out what I would use and deciding how I would do it.

There are some conflicting ideas online over what is the best way to go about painting your clubs. For example, the MyGolfSpy article said to use acrylic paint while Golf.com suggests enamel. I ended up going with enamel and it looks pretty good but I'll have to wait until I've put some rounds on them to really evaluate and see how it holds up.

The articles listed above are a great place to start but I thought that I would compile a list of what did and didn't work for me.

#1: Cleaning Materials

Get yourself some acetone. One article had mentioned paint thinner as an option and I had some of that in the shed so I thought I would give that a go. That just turned out to be a waste of time. So, I went and got some acetone which worked great. The store I stopped at was out of acetone in the paint aisle but I was able to get a couple of bottles of 100% acetone nail polish for much less money. I'd suggest starting there.

A needle or two is key. Especially if there are any small, intricate details like these Vokey wedges that you will need to clear out. The articles suggested dipping the clubhead into the acetone while being careful to not go so far as to cover the ferrule, which may cause issues with the epoxy. I'll go one step further and say to make sure that if your clubs have any badges attached with adhesives, like the T100s I was working on, to avoid submerging those as well.

My fiance had a great idea that worked pretty well if you can't dip your club. Take a cotton pad (makeup remover pad), soak it in acetone and place it on the area you want to saturate. From there the needles help to scrape away any stubborn areas while a toothbrush works to clear the area afterwards to get it ready for paint.

#2. Painting Tools

I purchased some needle-tip paint applicators online thinking they would be more useful than a paint brush to get into the recessed numbers and details of the clubs. But it was really only useful for the numbers on the bottom of the irons. For the small details on my driving iron, wedges and putter using a needle dipped in paint was the best option by far. The bottle applicator was too hard to control and resulted in overflow for the small scripting. I found that the needle - while much slower - allowed me to be more accurate with the painting.

Paint and Applicators

#3. Clean-Up

Don't be stingy and watch for fuzz. I cheaped out and bought cotton swaps from Dollarama so I had to be sure I wasn't leaving fuzz stuck in the paint. I also made the mistake of trying to stretch out my use of a swab a little too far and wound up tinting my white paint pink and having to touch it up again. Get some decent materials, don't use the same swab/pad for different colours, and make sure things dry well enough before attempting to clean up.

After painting up my putter, I noticed that I used too much of my translucent paint and the topline just ended up looking black (I am currently redoing the topline after taking this picture). As you can see in the "T" up above on my driving iron, I used a little too much there, and it doesn't look quite as nice as the rest of the scripting. So, if you're using transparent paints, make sure you're balancing your coverage and the thickness of the paint.

So far, after one quick range session, the paint is holding up well. Hopefully, that remains the case for the rest of the season and I don't have to touch up my paint job all season long. In the meantime, let me know if you've ever attempted to customize your clubs and how it worked out!