Do-It-Yourself Golf Clubs

April 11th, 2009 by articles

For amateur golfers, making one’s own set of golf clubs or just that one special club can be a lot of fun, and could help in one’s game.

You may ask why you would ever think of building your own golf clubs. Well, a big reason is that when you buy clubs off the shelf you are stuck with the sizes and fits that are in stock.There may be one size for men, another for the women and another for the children who need junior golf clubs. At 6 ft 2 in, for me buying off the rack can cause my golf game to suffer and cause some annoying back aches because if the clubs are too short. By learning to make your own golf club, you can help your body from back pains and same money at the same time.

You really don’t need much to make your own golf clubs. You just need a head, shaft, grip and some materials to hold it all together.Browsing through the net will give you many great options to buying your components and make clubs that match your game.

Club heads — iron and wood heads are available anywhere. One can buy club heads that resemble popular brands or designs unique to the manufacturer you buy them from. Each vendor offers their own line of clubs.

Shafts - you can buy the same shafts that most of these branded golf club companies use.

Grips – there are many different sizes and types of grips.You can find them in different prices and even get the same ones the pros use..

Ferules — That’s the little plastic piece that goes on the end of the shaft above the club head you’ll find on some clubs. These are purely decorative except on graphite shafts, where they are needed to absorb some of the stresses where the shaft joins the club head.

The beauty of finding the components to make your own club is the fact that you can actually mix and match the components to match your game.

Some of the tools needed are:

Grip tape – two sided tape is needed

Grip tape solvent – very cheap and you can recycle the excess

Epoxy – you will needs an epoxy with a drying time of 2-3 hours

Pipe cutter for cutting steel shafts, a plumbing cutter will work fine

For graphite shaft use a hack saw

Grip cutting knife – one with a hooked blade works nicely

Sandpaper for roughing up shaft tips to epoxy them

Shaft clamp – a thick piece of rubber in a vise works well

Making a golf club consists of measuring and cutting the shaft to length, abrading the tip to make sure the bond to the head is as good as possible. You then push the ferrule over the thin end of the shaft and glue the head to the shaft with an epoxy. Waiting for the epoxy to dry is the worst part of the job… take the newly made golf club to the course and try it out. Once the epoxy has set, you wrap the butt end of the shaft with grip tape (double-sided sticky tape), wet it using one of a wide range of solvents, slide the grip over it and let dry. Now you clean your new golf club, polish the ferrule and end up with something better then you can buy at a store.

So get to your computer, find some great websites and order your components. In no time, you will be able to create your own golf clubs. So, go and have some fun.

Those who play golf know it’s addictive. Building your own clubs can result in a similar addiction, so be warned.