Iron headcovers - yay or nay?

[Pleasedwith3putts]

I have used the coverupz covers for years now. I take them off in the time it takes me to walk from the bag to the ball and stick it in my pocket. I probably save a few seconds in actually pulling the club as the large numbers on the covers are easier to spot than the small numbers on the sole.

 

You need to clean the club before putting the cover back but I'm guessing most of us would do that anyway. So all I now have to do is remove the cover from my pocket, place it on the clubhead and snap the Velcro back in place. If I'm walking I clean the club and put the cover back on while I'm walking to the next shot.

 

It's an easy routine that takes no time but It's personal choice.

[Z1ggy16]

I used iron head covers for like... 1 round and found them super annoying and easy to lose. Now that I own super gorgeous forged Miuras... I'm considering putting them back on again. For one... Bag chatter when I walk drives me insane. Some like it and find it charming, to me it's like listening to a faucet drip over and over again. With really soft metal I do worry about getting unnecessary wear on the edge of the clubs from chatter.

 

The only down side is that putting covers on doesn't allow you (or others I guess) take in the beauty of your irons throughout your round.

[SwingBlues]

Well, keep the thieves eyes away too. Nothing like a shiny "steal me" Miura, PXG etc. I don't even use OEM driver head covers either...

[Pwood28]

I've got a few thoughts on iron covers

 

1) Unlike drivers, your irons are going to be hit from some unruly places (if your game is anything like mine). Bunkers, bushes, natural areas, etc. You are bound to find hard objects in those area at some point. Depending on the turf you play on, the sole show wear even if you're always swinging from the fairway.

 

2) Iron covers make sense if you're unsure if you're going to keep an iron set. Regardless of how cool worn irons looks, used iron buyers typically want the wear coming from them, not the guy before them.

 

3) The first scratch is always painful, so I have sympathy for guys that want to protect their brand new irons, but the only better looking than a brand new iron is a well worn iron.

 

4) If you still must cover your irons, you better be fast with the covers. I have a buddy who uses irons covers and he is always fumbling around with them, looking for where he put it, etc. Drives me nuts on the days we take a cart together.

 

To each his own...IMHO from a superficial standpoint, they make a golf bag look awful and are a pain in the a** to keep track of.

[Big Ben]

I respect your options Pwood but mine are none of those things. See my earlier post. BB

[Pwood28]

I respect your options Pwood but mine are none of those things. See my earlier post. BB

 

That's fair, I think we did agree on using them until your are sure about keeping a particular set of iron in your bag. I also agree with your posts about people that are slow will always be slow, but in my experience, adding one more step to their process makes them even slower. It's like Chinese water torture, it's the last drop that breaks you.

 

In the end, if you play a normal pace, I don't care what you do with your clubs. If we're playing in under 4 hours (slow for some, but reasonable in SoCal) you can read them a bed time story before tucking them back into bed for all I care! Like I said, to each his own!

[Big Ben]

Agreed! Slow is NO

[Pleasedwith3putts]

 

4) If you still must cover your irons, you better be fast with the covers. I have a buddy who uses irons covers and he is always fumbling around with them, looking for where he put it, etc. Drives me nuts on the days we take a cart together.

 

 

Tell him to put it in his pocket! It's easier than a fairway wood cover that is too big to go in a pocket and can get tossed on the ground.

[Oh Hi Carl]

Always use them on my forged clubs. Always go in back pocket. No reason they should slow anything down.

[SwingBlues]

You could argue using a iron cover, its going to take a whole bunch of time to pull the iron cover off, dump it, and then try to find the cover and put it back on.

 

The exact same thing can be said of laser, pull it out, turn it on, scan the green to find the target, shoot it. then shoot it again cause you don't believe it.

 

I don't buy it, that the iron cover adds more time. Nor does using a laser.

 

But at the end of the day, when I do sell my irons, the back and top is PRISTINE. Sure, the sole has the scratches etc but that's a given. All the dings and clatter marks on the back of the head especially the when it's really nice like a Ping Anser, or some classic Forged iron - takes away the value.

 

C'mon, every one of us scan the BST pages and we know, that bag clatter on the irons DO detract and lower the value of the irons. So why don't you protect your irons?

[Tom034]

I like the look of my irons, so why hide them :)

[byrne092]

I think it just depends on if it bothers you to take them on and off. I had them on for a couple weeks because they came with the set i bought. It became cumbersome and I took them off for good.

[zebra2955]

My iron covers have lanyards that attach 2 covers to one another, so I don't have to worry about where it is,. It also does not take that long to put it on and/or take it off.

 

I call BS on that

[gigjam78]

Nay nay nay if you really don’t like the guy cleaning your clubs then by all means cover them all I remember when you had two covers at the most

[ponti33602]

I use them just in case I want an easier resale down the road. If you are very methodical and regimented they do not need to add time to your round.

[SwingBlues]

The OGIO Silencer bag really works to stop the bag clatter since it does have 14 slots & zero head movement when the club is properly inserted into the the bag... jus sayin

[GSDriver]

The OGIO Silencer bag really works to stop the bag clatter since it does have 14 slots & zero head movement when the club is properly inserted into the the bag... jus sayin

 

Silencer doesn't appear on Ogio's website, so get them while they're hot....or use covers.

[TM_HOYER]

Not just Nay, Hellz Nay!

[SwingBlues]

The OGIO Silencer bag really works to stop the bag clatter since it does have 14 slots & zero head movement when the club is properly inserted into the the bag... jus sayin

 

Silencer doesn't appear on Ogio's website, so get them while they're hot....or use covers.

 

Callaway's revamping the whole bag line. The Silencer is not in the initial rollout -but- Harry claims they love this bag and it will re-released soon (there was a thread here, I think in the Tour/Pre-Release forum). Frankly, I'll believe it when I see it. So if you want a Silencer bag, grab'em now...

[JollyGrnGiant86]

I have used iron head covers for years (typically the neoprene ones). I can honestly say that they do not slow down golf in the slightest. By the time I walk to my ball the cover is in my pocket. When I walk back to the cart, I wipe off the club while others are hitting and put it back in my bag. If it happens to be a wedge and I am near the green, then I merely put the cover on and wipe it off whenever we are on the next tee box.

 

It literally does not even add .5 seconds to my round so I have no idea what people are talking about; unless the people they are playing with are slow in general. Additionally, when I purchase clubs, specifically irons, I expect to get 8+ years out of them and so I do take pride in the overall condition. At home the covers are taken off and I clean my clubs after each round. If it was raining while out, I merely throw the covers in the dryer on fluff for next time.

 

I use covers for mental purposes and it helps to control my OCD. The walking to my ball, but having to take the cover off helps me not think about anything else. Additionally, the focusing on the cover at times in my round helps me maintain a positive mindset and not focus on my bad shots. I do not think I have ever slammed a club or sworn once on a golf course since starting in 2002 (aside from the time that my playing partner hit me in the ankle with one of the worst shots imaginable).

 

What slows play down is multiple practice swings, people thinking they hit as far as tour players, players not watching where their ball goes, players who refuse to believe that their ball is out of play, players that sit in the cart as their partner hits a shot, then after they hit, drives the 30 feet to the left and does their entire warmup routine, players thinking they are tour level putters and taking over 30 seconds to knock in a 1 foot putt. That is what really slows play down, surely not a person using a head cover on their irons.

 

With that being said, I appreciate those who do not use them as well. There are many reasons not to use them, but I respect both sides equally. Will I stop using them in life? Maybe, but I do not envision myself getting away from Mizuno forged in life, and I do think they help me a lot to maintain a cool head when playing so, more than likely not. Do what makes you happy, not what makes other's happy (unless of course they are buying you the clubs :derisive:).

[flip flappy]

Nope on the iron headcovers. Only played with two people in my life who use them. One is my 80 year old uncle and the other is a guy that just took up the game.

[shotmark]

If you want them to be like new when you trade them in - yes.

 

If you want to use them as golf clubs, practice, achieve a score, use them as they were intended as work horses then - No

[ORT]

As a former looper I have to go no. Nothing worse than walking up to the bag rack and seeing iron covers on the clubs; you know your in for a long round....

[amitchell894]

Used to have them, but don't anymore. Some people like to judge others based on stuff like this. Don't let that be the basis for your decision. Unless, of course, you want to be judged... if that's the case, NO COVERS!

[Onespeed24]

Wow... I was searching the web for new head covers to replace the worn Club Glove neoprene covers that I've been using for several years now when I came across this thread. Some of the opinions and other comments being spewed about this topic is just downright ridiculous.

 

First, no way does pulling off an iron cover and shoving it in your pocket take more than 1 second per occurrence, and it usually happens as you're walking to the ball to set up for a shot, so it actually adds no additional time to a round at all. A lot of players at my club use them and never once has that been the cause of slow play. As has been stated previously, there are way bigger issues going on causing slow play. If you cannot manage to get a cover on/off with relative ease without causing a big ordeal then you're probably not coordinated enough to swing a golf club in the first place.

 

Second, if you pre-judge a players ability by whether they use iron head covers or not, you'd be in for a rude awakening if you ever played any sort of tournament or competitive golf outside of your generic Saturday round playing greenies. That's just a narrow-minded opinion based on nothing but a baseless preconceived notion. In no way do head covers = hack. By that logic, all players without head covers would = scratch golfers or better, and we know that is not the case at all. Just a silly idea all the way around. On second thought, I hope anyone I play in match play thinks that when they see my bag, that makes it that much better when we're signing scorecards at the end of the round. Heck, I may put a "rental" tag on my bag for the same reason.

 

Third, the sound of clanking irons is the single most annoying noise I've ever heard on a golf course... and that includes chainsaws, wood-chippers, low-flying aircraft, and the second most-annoying noise... music. I walk 95% of the time and nothing ruins a nice early morning tee time, birds just beginning to chirp, sun up just enough to see your ball land in the fairway, and then as your foursome is leaving the tee box... clank, clank, clank, clank. Seriously, it drives me nuts and makes me want to snap the heads off of the offending irons. The sound doesn't match the setting at all.

 

Fourth, yes irons are made of steel and by design are used to strike the ball and the ground, and those are necessary to their purpose, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be protected from unnecessary wear and tear when not in use. Heck, leave your driver and woods uncovered all the time too, they serve the same purpose after all. Guys claim they love the look of bag chatter and all that, right up until the time they try to sell or trade their clubs in, then they feel almost cheated because their two year old forged irons are now worth about 10% of their original cost.

 

Fifth, if you're that concerned with other people seeing what kind of clubs you're using, trust me, they already know, because its probably on your hat... and your shirt... and your towel... and your bag. If not, just go ahead and show them your 7 iron at the beginning of the round, and then let them know what club you're using at each distance, just so there is no confusion. Last time I remember giving two rats ***** what clubs someone else was using was... well, never.

 

Sixth, the idea that they cause moisture damage or get dirt and grit in them causing more wear and tear is unfounded. If you take care of your equipment and wipe your clubs down after each shot that would never be an issue. If you're a slob then maybe, but then you probably wouldn't be using head covers anyways, so it wouldn't matter. I had neoprene covers on forged Mizunos for 3 years and beyond the normal face wear you'd be hard-pressed to find any other signs of wear, and certainly none caused by using head covers.

 

Lastly, if you come to golfwrx to ask for opinions on something like this you're just asking for trouble and will never get a straight answer either way, so just go with what you want to do and what you think is right and forget about all these other "opinions". I at least wanted to dispel some of the myths being propagated in this thread just in case.

[zebra2955]

Wow... I was searching the web for new head covers to replace the worn Club Glove neoprene covers that I've been using for several years now when I came across this thread. Some of the opinions and other comments being spewed about this topic is just downright ridiculous.

 

First, no way does pulling off an iron cover and shoving it in your pocket take more than 1 second per occurrence, and it usually happens as you're walking to the ball to set up for a shot, so it actually adds no additional time to a round at all. A lot of players at my club use them and never once has that been the cause of slow play. As has been stated previously, there are way bigger issues going on causing slow play. If you cannot manage to get a cover on/off with relative ease without causing a big ordeal then you're probably not coordinated enough to swing a golf club in the first place.

 

Second, if you pre-judge a players ability by whether they use iron head covers or not, you'd be in for a rude awakening if you ever played any sort of tournament or competitive golf outside of your generic Saturday round playing greenies. That's just a narrow-minded opinion based on nothing but a baseless preconceived notion. In no way do head covers = hack. By that logic, all players without head covers would = scratch golfers or better, and we know that is not the case at all. Just a silly idea all the way around. On second thought, I hope anyone I play in match play thinks that when they see my bag, that makes it that much better when we're signing scorecards at the end of the round. Heck, I may put a "rental" tag on my bag for the same reason.

 

Third, the sound of clanking irons is the single most annoying noise I've ever heard on a golf course... and that includes chainsaws, wood-chippers, low-flying aircraft, and the second most-annoying noise... music. I walk 95% of the time and nothing ruins a nice early morning tee time, birds just beginning to chirp, sun up just enough to see your ball land in the fairway, and then as your foursome is leaving the tee box... clank, clank, clank, clank. Seriously, it drives me nuts and makes me want to snap the heads off of the offending irons. The sound doesn't match the setting at all.

 

Fourth, yes irons are made of steel and by design are used to strike the ball and the ground, and those are necessary to their purpose, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be protected from unnecessary wear and tear when not in use. Heck, leave your driver and woods uncovered all the time too, they serve the same purpose after all. Guys claim they love the look of bag chatter and all that, right up until the time they try to sell or trade their clubs in, then they feel almost cheated because their two year old forged irons are now worth about 10% of their original cost.

 

Fifth, if you're that concerned with other people seeing what kind of clubs you're using, trust me, they already know, because its probably on your hat... and your shirt... and your towel... and your bag. If not, just go ahead and show them your 7 iron at the beginning of the round, and then let them know what club you're using at each distance, just so there is no confusion. Last time I remember giving two rats ***** what clubs someone else was using was... well, never.

 

Sixth, the idea that they cause moisture damage or get dirt and grit in them causing more wear and tear is unfounded. If you take care of your equipment and wipe your clubs down after each shot that would never be an issue. If you're a slob then maybe, but then you probably wouldn't be using head covers anyways, so it wouldn't matter. I had neoprene covers on forged Mizunos for 3 years and beyond the normal face wear you'd be hard-pressed to find any other signs of wear, and certainly none caused by using head covers.

 

Lastly, if you come to golfwrx to ask for opinions on something like this you're just asking for trouble and will never get a straight answer either way, so just go with what you want to do and what you think is right and forget about all these other "opinions". I at least wanted to dispel some of the myths being propagated in this thread just in case.

 

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

What he said

[payerasjl]

I have a set but i only use them when i travel and check my bag. Lil protection from the baggage handlers never hurt (on top of stiff arm). But i would never take them to the course with me as its a hasstle and my clubs are tools not jewels (except my putter:) )

[SwingBlues]

Bravo OneSpeed! I just looked at a set of irons on WRX BST, full of bag clatter... might as well give your iron set away...

[dubbelbogey]

To each their own, but my preference is an unequivocal no.

 

- I very much like the sound of the rhythmic clatter of clubs on my back. It's part of what I consider good golf ambiance. I associate certain sounds with feeling "right" about a given sport. For skiing, it's clicking my boots into the bindings. For hockey, it was banging my stick on the boards before I took the ice. For golf, it's that clatter as I walk from the car to the first tee, and then down the course. These sounds put me in the mood. (Then again, what do I know, I also don't mind music on the course at all, which I know pisses some people off to no end.)

 

- I don't give a crap about chatter marks on my clubs.

 

- I lose enough of my regular clubhead covers (putter cover, driver cover) that trying to track another dozen or so is just a ridiculous notion. Sure, my problem, totally. But there's no way I'm going to exacerbate this issue.

 

But, I don't care one bit if you use them. Happy to have you in my group. Everybody needs to enjoy this sport in their own way. Just don't be that guy I played with several years ago that went ballistic twice in one round because he left his neoprene iron cover on some previous hole. At that point, your problem just became mine.

[hybrid25]

 

Sixth, the idea that they cause moisture damage or get dirt and grit in them causing more wear and tear is unfounded. If you take care of your equipment and wipe your clubs down after each shot that would never be an issue.

If you wipe down your clubs after every shot you're probably holding up the rest of the course causing slow play. As far as head covers are concerned, I could care less if someone uses them or not, just as long as it doesn't interfere with other golfers such as slow play would do.