Welcome to I Tried It, a GOLF.com series about golf items — apparel, gear, accessories, etc. — that we’ve recently taken out for a spin. We’re here to give our honest, no-frills takes on the latest and greatest golf or golf-adjacent items. So, scroll down to read about what we love about golf’s newest (or new to us) products.
The new Ghost Golf Magnetic Golf Club and Shoe Brush has arrived, and they were kind enough to send me one in each new color (navy, black and grey).
There’s lots of competition in this space, and, quite frankly, I don’t typically get particularly excited by something like a club brush, but I have to say they clearly put some thought into their new offering.
First impressions
When I first unboxed the brushes, I was immediately questioning the decision to add two brush heads. Two brush heads means two things to keep track of, and creates a fault point with the threads of the brush itself. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there is a very clear distinction between the two brush heads, and the way they’ve built the nice large threads is an easy way to keep them from stripping out or creating a fault point in the longevity of the brush.
The hard bristle brush worked very well on dirty clubs, and the soft bristle brush gave me no worry as I cleaned up a pair of my favorite Payntr Eighty Seven SC golf shoes. As far as having two things to keep track of … I can’t say that’s a non-issue, but I would argue that the club brush can probably stay in the garage at home to clean shoes every couple of rounds so the chances of losing the brush head are slim.
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My favorite features
There’s two standout features of the brush: the magnet and the retractable cable. These are your two options for security. Aka, how you make sure you don’t lose the brush. There’s another very popular club brush on the market and I can’t even count how many of them I have lost because the magnet style just doesn’t hold up over time or on a bumpy cart.
I haven’t tested the Ghost brush on a cart at full speed yet, but the magnet is strong enough for me to pick up a golf club with it, and the form factor of the brush is just about the size of the bar of the golf cart where you’re going to attach it, as demonstrated by the picture on the back of the packaging. I’ll talk more about that form factor in a minute.
The best retractable system in the game?
The secondary attachment option is their clip/retractable lanyard. The clip itself is a nice quality metal latch that doesn’t easily bend inward; a problem with other brushes and golf bag accessories on the market including the carabiner that holds my rangefinder case on my bag.
What’s inside the clip though is the real winner. Instead of using a flimsy string or elastic material they’re using a sheathed cable similar to what you would find on a bike lock, or another cable lock. Brilliant. What an easy move for them to make to ensure that the retractable feature isn’t broken after your third round with the new brush. Again, I can’t tell you how many brushes over the years I have thrown out or lost because that flimsy little retractable cable snaps.
Thought into every part
Well done here. This brush isn’t going anywhere. Even the small clip that goes into the actual brush is built up more than others I have seen. It’s impossible to accidentally engage the button too. It snaps into the back of the brush and I couldn’t do anything with my own hands to get it released. I had to grab a tee and use a bit of pressure just to get the brush off the lanyard. Awesome stuff.
Does it actually clean your clubs?
Actually using the brush itself is quite pleasant. The form factor of the brush feels like holding a large pencil, or you can grab the entire brush if you need to use a little bit more force. The water mechanism is easy and I don’t know how I would quantify the amount of water it shoots out, but about two pumps is really all you need. They say there’s about 400 pumps inside the reservoir so it’s going to be a while between refills.
Pro tip: put a drop of soap inside the brush, it’ll work wonders on your clubs and shoes. The replaceable brush heads come off really easy, but aren’t going to come undone unless you want them to, and the same goes for the cap on the water reservoir. Just make sure you put that cap back on after you fill it with water. Been there done that.
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