The Complete Handbook of Golf Club Headcovers

Chapter 1: Understanding Golf Club Headcovers

Chapter 1: Understanding Golf Club Headcovers

A golf club headcover is a protective sleeve or fitted enclosure placed over the head of a club, and in many cases over the upper portion of the shaft, to prevent damage during transport, storage, and handling. The object is simple, but its role is not trivial. A bag full of clubs is roughly waist-high and rides in a car trunk, a cart basket, or the back of a pickup, bouncing against other clubs, a metal frame, or a rain hood. Without a headcover, the thin paint on a driver's crown scratches easily, a putter face can pick up dings, and a graphite shaft can suffer a nick that later becomes a crack. Headcovers are the primary, and in most cases the only, line of defense between a club's most vulnerable surfaces and the hard objects they will inevitably contact.

Every club in a standard set does not need a headcover, but most golfers have at least one. The most common and universally supplied cover is for the driver. Most drivers sold at retail include a matching headcover in the box. Fairway woods also typically ship with covers, as do hybrids. Irons and wedges almost never come with headcovers, and putters are split: a putter bought off the rack rarely has one, but a premium putter or a putter purchased second-hand might. This split exists because of the physical layout of a golf bag. The top of a