Winter Storage Risks for Golf Clubs: Grips, Rust and Theft

Winter storage does real damage to golf clubs, but not evenly. A club fitter who sees the aftermath every spring says some parts of a set are far more vulnerable than others.

Which part of a golf club is most at risk in winter?

Derek Murray, a master club fitter and founder of UK fitting business ForeGolf, says grips take the earliest hit. The rubber and compound materials used in grips break down quickly in cold, damp conditions, leaving them harder and less tacky by spring.

Iron shafts carry a less visible risk. The inside of a shaft tip is typically untreated and uncoated, so rust can begin forming there during damp storage without any outward sign. Murray calls it a stealth breaker, since the corrosion builds where a golfer cannot see it until the shaft eventually snaps at the tip.

Rust can take hold inside an iron shaft long before there is any sign of it on the outside.

Does cold weather cause rust or loosen clubheads?

Surface rust and spot corrosion on clubheads and shafts are common after a damp winter, especially if course chemicals or moisture were left on the clubs before storage. Murray notes that modern equipment, with more carbon fiber and multi-material construction, holds up worse in fluctuating temperatures than older, simpler designs.

Clubheads coming loose from their shafts is less of a concern. Epoxy, the two-part adhesive bonding head to shaft, is engineered to withstand vibration and torque, and quality epoxy is not typically affected by cold storage. Murray says that failure mode usually traces back to a cheaper adhesive rather than winter conditions.

Is it safe to leave clubs in a car over winter?

Beyond the damp, a car offers another risk entirely: theft. According to claims data from UK insurer Golf Care covering July 2025 through July 2026, 55% of equipment theft claims involved clubs stolen from a vehicle.

The fix for both problems is the same. Store clubs indoors or in an insulated garage rather than a car boot or unheated shed, and give grips a clean before putting a set away for the season. When clubs come back out in spring, a quick check of the grips, ferrules, shafts and clubheads will catch most winter damage before it causes a bigger problem.