After playing your irons for several years, you notice that the grooves are blunt, and the ball is not gripping your clubface the way it once did. How do you resolve this? You may have heard your golf buddies talk about groove sharpeners, which is one way to solve your problem.
Given the skepticism surrounding the product, I have decided to conduct a review that focuses on the question, do groove sharpeners work? In this post, we look at how useful they are and whether or not they are legal.
What Is A Groove Sharpener?
In simple terms, a groove sharpener does exactly what the name suggests. It is a tool that enables you to get in between the grooves to strip layers of metal away, leading to a sharper finish.
How Do I Know If My Grooves Are Blunt?
After playing golf for 27 years, I have endured blunt grooves on many occasions. These days I can see it in the results of my shots. If I am not generating the level of spin I should with a club, I struggle to get the ball to sit quickly.
Another way you can identify if your grooves are blunt is to conduct the fingernail test, which True Spec Golf’s Tim Briand explains in this article.
What Is The Benefit Of A Groove Sharpener?
As our club’s ages, their grooves become blunt, and as a result, our ball does not grip them like before. According to Golfweek’s Patrick Cameron, blunt and dirty grooves lead to less backspin. This makes it more challenging to get our shots to sit quickly on the green.
By stripping metal away from the grooves, you increase their sharpness, which in turn produces a higher level of spin. Golf coach Rick Shiels shows how he managed to generate 600 rpm more spin on average. After using a groove sharpener.
Are Groove Sharpeners Legal?
I have heard stories of amateur golfers reprimanded by playing partners for having a groove sharpener in their bag. Nothing is stopping you from carrying a groove sharpener in your bag.
The reality is that a groove sharpener is perfectly legal. But it is what it does to your irons and wedges that can result in them being deemed non-conforming clubs.
Is It Legal To Sharpen Grooves?
While nothing is stopping you from sharpening the grooves of your club, the end result could lead to your clubs not conforming to the 0.02-inch depth limit prescribed by the USGA and R&A.
The Golf Channel’s Frank Thomas explains that as you remove layers of metal from your grooves, they begin to widen. Reducing the amount of land area between each one.
Can I Sharpen My Own Grooves?
If you own a groove sharpener, you can do it yourself. But I would suggest employing the services of a professional. There is a fine line between your grooves being compliant with USGA regulations or not.
A professional will help you sharpen and improve the grooves on older clubs without widening the grooves, beyond the legal limit. As an amateur, you likely don’t have the level of experience and knowledge to determine how much you should sharpen your grooves.
How Do You Use A Groove Sharpener?
In this video, golf YouTube star Rick Shiels provides an overview of how to sharpen your grooves. For your convenience, I have provided a step-by-step guide below. Once again, I don’t suggest doing this on your own, but if you are the experimental type, this is how you need to go about it.
Step 1 – Clean Your Clubfaces
Before you start sharpening the grooves, you need to clean your clubfaces to remove any build-up of mud and dust. The way I do this is to prepare a bucket of warm water with a tablespoon of detergent. Then I use a scrubbing brush to get in between the grooves.
Step 2 – Heel and Toe Tape
Once your clubfaces are clean and dry, you need to add tape to the heel and toe of the face. These are the parts where no grooves exist. By placing the tape on these areas, you reduce the risk of the groove sharpener scratching the surface.
Step 3 – Sharpen The Grooves
Now that your preparation for sharpening is complete, you can begin the process. Golfweek’s Patrick Cameron recommends applying the tool to each groove at a 45-degree angle. He further says that you should slide the sharpener across the grooves in this position until their surface becomes visible.
Once you can see the original surface of the grooves, hold the sharpener upright and see how deep it goes into the grooves. If it is deeper than 0.02 inches or wider than permitted, your clubs will be deemed illegal.
Our Favorite Groove Sharpener
nU Groove Sharpener
The Nu Groove sharpener by Wedge Guys is our favorite product in this category. The tool is produced in the USA from hardened and treated steel for optimal durability and performance.
The tool includes a 4-inch handle to maximize your grip. While the sharp end has a hardness score of 9 out of 10. Which is as solid as a diamond.
Furthermore, as we would expect from a groove sharpener, it helps to enhance the level of spin your receive from each iron and wedge in your bag. Finally, the tool was designed to conform to USGA regulations. However, if you don’t use the sharpener correctly, you can cause your grooves to no longer be compliant.
If you don’t have the budget to take your clubs to a pro for groove sharpening, you can always acquire a solution from Wedge Guys.
Final Thoughts
At the start of this post, we asked the question do groove sharpeners work? After conducting a review, it is clear that groove sharpeners work by increasing the backspin your gain from your iron and wedge shots.
However, as Rick Shiels demonstrated, the amount of extra spin you get is not sufficient to impact the overall result of your shot. Therefore, they do work, but the risk you run of making your clubs non-conformant is not worth the effort.
If you are curious and would still like to try your hand at sharpening the grooves on some older clubs. Then you can take a look at the nU groove sharpener here.
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Nick is the founder of GolfSpan and an avid golfer. He's not quite a pro but has over 15 years of experience playing and coaching golfers worldwide. His mission is to bring the golfing community a better experience when it comes to choosing the right golf gear and finding the right setup for your game.
