What is a golf towel used for?

A dirty club can ruin a perfect shot. That great swing feels wasted by a bit of mud. A simple, specialized golf towel is the solution you need on the course.

A golf towel is a core tool for maintaining peak performance. Its main jobs are cleaning club faces for clean contact, drying hands and grips for better control, and wiping moisture or dirt from golf balls to ensure a true roll on the green. It’s a non-negotiable accessory.

This small piece of fabric has a huge impact on your game. It’s more than just a towel; it’s a piece of performance equipment. Over my years at TowelTrend, I’ve seen how a quality towel can boost a player’s confidence and consistency. When brands come to us for custom golf towels, they aren’t just buying a logoed accessory. They are investing in a tool that helps their customers play better golf. Let’s look closer at why this simple item is so important.

Why do golfers have towels?

You see every pro on TV with a towel, but why? Is it just for looks? A clean club face can actually be the difference between a great shot and a disaster.

Golfers have towels mainly for performance. They clean dirt from club grooves for better spin, dry hands for a secure hold, and wipe golf balls for a predictable putt. It’s a small item that gives you crucial control over your equipment and your game.

A golf towel serves three critical functions on the course, and each one directly impacts your score. As someone who has manufactured thousands of these towels, I know the design features are there for a reason. It’s all about giving the player more control.

The Three Keys to Better Performance

1. Cleaning Your Clubs: The grooves on your irons and wedges are there to create spin. When those grooves are filled with dirt, grass, or sand, the club face can’t grip the ball properly. You lose spin, which means you lose control over the ball’s flight and stopping power on the green. A good golf towel, especially one with a rougher, waffle-weave texture, scrubs those grooves clean in seconds. This ensures you get the maximum performance from every club in your bag.

2. Drying Your Hands and Grips: Any moisture can ruin a golf shot. Whether it’s rain, morning dew, or sweat on a hot day, a wet grip can cause your hands to slip during the swing. This leads to an inconsistent strike and a loss of power. I once played in a humid corporate event, and the people without absorbent towels were struggling all day. A highly absorbent microfiber towel keeps your hands and your rubber grips bone-dry, giving you the confidence to make a full, committed swing every time.

3. Wiping Your Golf Ball: A clean golf ball flies straighter and rolls truer. A small clump of mud or a blade of grass stuck to your ball can throw its balance off, causing it to curve in the air or wobble offline during a putt. Wiping your ball clean before every tee shot and especially before every putt is a simple habit that eliminates a key variable and helps you make a more predictable stroke.

What’s the difference between a golf towel and a normal towel?

Can’t you just grab a kitchen towel and use that? Using the wrong towel is frustrating. It doesn’t clean well and often just smears dirt around, making things worse.

A golf towel differs from a normal towel in its design, material, and features. Golf towels are often made of highly absorbent microfiber, have a scrubbing texture, and include a grommet and clip for easy attachment to a bag. They are built for utility on the course.

When we get requests from brands new to the golf market, this is one of the first things I explain. A golf towel is a purpose-built tool, not just a random piece of cloth. Its design comes from understanding what golfers need during a round. A kitchen towel simply can’t do the same job effectively. The differences come down to a few key areas that we focus on during manufacturing.

Here’s a simple breakdown:

Feature	Golf Towel	Normal Bath/Kitchen Towel
Material	Microfiber or waffle-weave cotton	Standard terry cloth cotton
Purpose	High absorbency, traps dirt	Absorbency, general drying
Design	Long, narrow (e.g., tri-fold)	Large, rectangular
Attachment	Metal grommet & carabiner clip	None
Texture	Often has a rough, scrubbing weave	Soft, plush

The material is the biggest factor. Microfiber is a synthetic material with ultra-fine fibers that excel at trapping dirt particles instead of just pushing them around. This is why it cleans club grooves so well. A standard cotton towel gets soaked quickly and can leave lint behind. We also often design our golf towels with a specific waffle weave. This texture creates pockets that are perfect for scrubbing away stubborn mud while also being very absorbent. The built-in clip is a non-negotiable feature. It allows the towel to be a functional part of your gear, always within reach. A normal towel has no convenient way to be carried.

Where do you put a golf towel?

You have the perfect towel, but where should it go? A dangling towel gets caught and dirty. Tucking it away makes it hard to reach when you really need it.

Most golfers attach their towel to their golf bag using the built-in grommet and a carabiner clip. This keeps it accessible but off the ground. Other common spots include draping it over clubs or looping it through an alignment stick for quick access during play.

The right placement keeps your towel handy without it becoming a nuisance. There isn’t one single "correct" answer, but the design of the towel often suggests the best use. When my team and I design a towel, we consider its size and how it will hang from a modern golf bag. Here are the most common methods I see on the course.

Clipping it to the Bag

This is the standard for a reason. Almost every golf bag has a dedicated ring or loop near the top for accessories. Using the towel’s carabiner clip here is the intended method.

• Pros: Secure and always available. It won’t fall off.
• Cons: If the towel is too long for the bag, it can drag on the ground, especially on a push cart, picking up more dirt and moisture.

Draping Over Your Clubs

Some players prefer to drape their towel over their clubs, right in the main compartment of the bag.

• Pros: Extremely fast access. No unclipping needed.
• Cons: It can easily fall off when you pull a club or when the bag is on a moving golf cart. It can also trap moisture around your club heads if it’s wet.

Looping Through Alignment Sticks

This is a clever trick I’ve seen more and more. You slide an alignment stick through the grommet of the towel so it hangs alongside them.

• Pros: Keeps the towel high off the ground and easy to grab.
• Cons: Can be a little more work to get on and off the stick.

Ultimately, placement is personal preference. But a well-designed tri-fold towel is made to be clipped on, hanging neatly and ready for action.

How to use a towel for golf swing?

You think a towel is just for cleaning? Many top players use a simple towel drill to fix their swing flaws. But it can feel awkward if you don’t know the technique.

A golf towel can be a powerful training aid. The most common drill is tucking a towel under both armpits. This forces you to keep your arms connected to your torso during the swing, promoting a better body turn and preventing a disconnected, "all-arms" swing.

This might be my favorite "secret" use for a golf towel. It turns a simple accessory into a swing coach. At TowelTrend, some of our clients who run golf academies order specific towels just for this purpose—not too thick, not too thin. The goal of the drill is to improve "connection," a key principle for a consistent and powerful swing. When your arms swing independently from your body’s rotation, you lose power and control. This drill fixes that.

The Connected Swing: Step-by-Step Towel Drill

1. The Setup: Take a standard golf towel. A tri-fold one works perfectly. Place it across your upper chest and tuck each end securely under your armpits. Your upper arms should hold it firmly against your body.

2. The Feeling: The goal is to make practice swings without letting the towel fall. To do this, your arms must stay "connected" to your chest.

3. The Backswing: Start your backswing. You must rotate your torso and arms together as a single unit. If you lift your arms up on their own, away from your body, the towel will immediately drop. This gives you instant feedback that you’ve become disconnected.

4. The Downswing: The same feeling applies on the way down. You have to rotate your body through the shot to keep the towel in place. This prevents an "over-the-top" move, where the arms and club are thrown outward, which is a major cause of a slice.

This drill ingrains the feeling of a body-led swing. It trains your bigger muscles to do the work, leading to more consistency, more power, and better ball-striking.

Conclusion

A golf towel is more than an accessory; it’s a vital tool for performance on the course and for practice. Keeping your gear clean and your swing connected helps you play better.