Playing Golf Without a Glove

Have you ever pulled up to the golf course ready to play 18 holes, you removed your clubs from the car and put your shoes on and off you go.  

The first tee, you’re taking your practice swings and stretching and then you go to look for your glove and it’s nowhere to be found.

Playing golf without a glove is not a good idea unless you want blisters to develop on your thumb and palm. Blisters can develop as soon as the third hole but they may not start to hurt until the 9th hole.

By the time 18 comes around you might not be playing for a few weeks after that round so those blisters can heal.

Check out the golf glove below from amazon, can’t go wrong a little color!

Benefits Of Playing Golf Without A Glove

One good thing about not using a golf glove is you don’t have to spend money on a golf glove.  

Golf gloves can wear out pretty fast and if you are playing 3 or 4 times per week then you might need to replace your glove every couple of weeks to a month.  

That’s about the only thing I can think of that would benefit you, is it worth it?  Maybe, depends on the individual I guess.

Did You Forget Your Golf Glove?

I forgot my golf glove a few times when I was a kid, I don’t know how that happened either. 

Maybe I was always taking my clubs in the backyard to swing. Or maybe to the park and I just left my glove somewhere on the ground.  

I lost a lot of things when I was a kid. I would then go to the course and realize my dang glove was missing.

Very frustrating, especially when you are pumped to play golf and now you have to suffer through a round.

Tips on how to always remember your glove:

1. When you’re done with your round and you just shook the player’s hands that you were playing with, toss it in the bag immediately. Don’t put it in your pocket, don’t hold it in your hand until you get to your car, toss it right in the bag! Simple yet effective.  Nowadays, newer golf bags have velcro spots for your gloves, this makes it really easy to notice if it’s missing.
2. Keep a spare glove on hand (no pun intended) but if you hide a glove on the side of your bag then you will probably forget about it.  If you ever get in the situation where you need a glove, you can desperately go searching through your bag and find the nice little surprise that you left yourself.

If you keep a spare glove on hand than you never know if you will need it in the middle of your round.  

What if you develop a hole in your glove and it starts to rub on the skin, this could give you a blister.  

If you prepared for that moment then it’s an easy swap, just go digging in the golf bag.

Should You Play Golf Without A Glove?

No, because there’s no point.  Why would you want to sacrifice your hand like that?  

Ask a playing partner if you can borrow a glove or just run to the pro shop and buy one. 

When do you NOT need a glove?

• Putting – You don’t need a glove for putting, although, there are people that putt with a glove on, it’s certainly not needed.

• Chipping –  This is up to the individual, I feel like I’m holding an entirely different club if I try chipping without my glove.  I guess that’s how the guys that putt with their glove on feel too.

• Driving Range – I would say, if you’re practicing at the range and you forget your glove then that’s not that big of a deal.  You might develop blisters but at least you can stop and take breaks for as long as you need.

• Warming up – If you’re taking practice swings in your backyard before your round because you want to get loose, a glove isn’t necessary

Why would you want to play golf without a glove?

Maybe you want calluses to develop on your hand so you can eventually never use a glove ever again.  

Don’t do this, don’t be that guy who doesn’t want to spend the money on something that’s so necessary to enjoying the game.  

If you forget your glove, go buy a new one from the clubhouse.

A little story of when I played without my glove

Once upon a time in a land that was so green and so large that it seemed like it stretched for yards and yards.  

There was a man who forgot to bring his glove to a round of golf, but that didn’t matter because he was playing with impatient friends and none of them wanted to wait for him to buy a new glove.  

To keep a long and boring story short, I played the entire 18 holes without a glove and it wasn’t fun.  

I’m not a complainer by nature so I didn’t curse, yell or get too upset but it was always on my mind while swinging the club.  

One thing I learned to do during the round was to loosen up my grip a bit, this helped with some of the pain as the blisters showed up.  

By the end of the round, I ended up with a blister on my palm and a blister on my thumb. It didn’t keep me from playing again the next week.  

So, playing golf without a glove isn’t a good idea in my opinion for the reason above.  

If you forget, lose or overuse your glove and you need a new one, just give yourself plenty of time to replace it.