How to remove stickers and sticker residue from golf clubs and shafts

There are few greater feelings than bringing home a new golf club. It’s still shiny and the grip is tacky. The club face is blemish-free. Yes, it’s just a golf club, but it provides hope and promise for your game. The missing piece? Maybe.

Now here comes the frustrating part: taking those annoying, pesky, no-good stickers off the shaft so you can actually use your new toy. Heck, it’s easier to snag a tee time at Pine Valley than it is to take those stickers off cleanly. At least that’s what I always thought. Until now.

How to remove stickers and sticker residue from golf shafts and clubs

I recently bought a couple of new wedges and, like a kid with a new toy, couldn’t wait to rip the tags off. So I got to work, picking at those troublesome stickers at the bottom of the shaft near the hosel. It was a tedious process since there was an additional sticker added with a discounted price. (At least there wasn’t one on the sole of the club, which is also annoying.) I peeled the stickers off and picked at the sticky residue that remained, but I made little progress. I gave up and set the club down in the corner of my office. A problem for another day.

Weeks passed, and finally, I decided to tackle this issue, so I went to Google to search for answers. Golfers aren’t short on ideas on this topic: heat gun, hair dryer, elbow grease, and even peanut butter. (I tried the latter years ago; it worked OK, but it wasn’t perfect. Also, it’s weird.)

But there was one common suggestion I had never tried: Goo Gone.

Goo Gone Original Liquid – 8 Ounce and Sticker Lifter

$10.98

Safely Restore Your Surfaces – The surface-safe formula removes the goo without harming your surface. Formulated with citrus cleaning agents and a pleasant citrus scent.

Shop here

Goo Gone, I learned, is a goo and adhesive remover. It’s also inexpensive, available at local hardware stores and can be shipped to your door via Amazon or Walmart. I ordered mine and it arrived a couple of days later. Goo Gone’s website says it’s safe to use on golf clubs but says it should not be used on rubber, so just be careful around the grips. (You should read the label for instructions, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. You can also go to Goo Gone’s site and see a list of objects it’s safe to use on.)

I put a small amount on a damp cloth and then started rubbing it over the area with the stickers. In less than a minute, it was gone. Eureka! I made a final pass with a dry paper towel to clean everything up. That’s it. The only downside? It’s a cleaning product, so there’s a little bit of an orangy-cleaning scent that comes with it, but it didn’t bother me.

After my mini experiment, I polled a couple of co-workers to see what they use. One prefers a hair dryer applied to the sticker, and about 20 seconds later it’s easy to pull off. He then removes the final residue with rubbing alcohol. Another prefers a heat gun and then some grip solvent to get rid of anything left behind. Those are good options, but like in golf, there’s more than one way to make a par. As for me, I’m making sure Goo Gone is always stocked in this household.

Have another option that works for you? Email the author at Joshua.berhow@golf.com.