How to Play Better Golf With the FootJoy Men's WeatherSof 2-Pack Golf Glove

It was the third Saturday in July, the kind of morning where the air sits on you before you reach the first tee. The forecast said 93 degrees with humidity you could drink. I was walking my usual eighteen with the same three guys I always play with, and by the fourth hole my left hand was slick enough that I could feel the club turning in my grip on the backswing. I did what most weekend players do. I squeezed harder. Then I yanked a five-iron into the trees on the fifth hole that I had no business hitting anywhere near the woods.

That shot had nothing to do with my swing and everything to do with grip. When a glove gets slick and you react by holding on tighter, your hands tense, your forearms tighten, and the clubface does whatever it wants. The fix was not a lesson and it was not a new driver. It was a glove that actually manages sweat, plus a simple routine for keeping my hands dry through a humid round. After testing a few options through the worst of the summer, the FootJoy Men's WeatherSof 2-Pack Golf Glove is the one that stays in my bag, and this is the exact routine I use with it.

Why Sweat Wrecks Your Grip

Here is what happens on a hot round. Your palms sweat, the moisture soaks into the glove, and the glove starts to slide against the grip instead of holding it. Your body notices the slip and compensates by squeezing harder. That extra tension changes the whole swing. The club gets stuck at the top, the release gets late, and the ball starts leaking right or snapping left. By the back nine, you are not swinging at the ball. You are just trying to hold onto the club.

The usual advice is to keep a towel handy and dry off between shots, and that is part of the answer. But a towel only does so much when the glove itself is already wet. The real fix is a glove built from materials that do not turn into a slippery mess the moment you break a sweat, and a system for swapping it out before it gets there. That is exactly what the WeatherSof is for. And when the glove stays dry, you stop thinking about your hands, which is the whole point.

Step 1: Choose a Glove That Handles Moisture

The WeatherSof is the most popular glove FootJoy makes, and for a simple reason: it does its job in ordinary conditions. The palm is a soft cabretta leather that stays flexible when your hand is sweating, the back of the glove lets air move, and the elastic knit cuff keeps the whole thing snug without cutting off circulation. I have played with cheap synthetic gloves that felt like plastic wrap after two holes, and with premium leather gloves that went soft in the heat and lost their shape. The WeatherSof sits between them, and on a hot day it still feels like a glove on the eighteenth hole.

Fit matters as much as the material. A glove that is too loose lets the club twist inside your hand. One that is too tight cramps your hand by the turn. The WeatherSof fits close across the palm without squeezing, and it stretches slightly as you wear it, so buy for the snug feeling, not the comfortable one. I learned that lesson the hard way with a glove that felt fine in the store and felt like a flipper by the ninth hole.

The honest tradeoff: no glove fixes a bad grip. If you hold the club in your palms instead of your fingers, or you squeeze at the top of the backswing, a new glove will not fix that. What the WeatherSof does is remove the sweat variable so the hands you practiced with are the hands you bring to the course.

Step 2: Rotate Gloves at the Turn

The two-pack is not just a value deal. It is the system. On a humid day, the first glove starts losing its tack somewhere around the eighth or ninth hole. Instead of fighting it, I take it off, lay it across the top of my push cart, and pull on the fresh glove. Thirty seconds at the turn, and the back nine starts with a dry hand.

Let the first glove air out while you play the back nine. By the time the round is over, it is dry enough to go back in its pouch. That rotation does two things at once. It keeps your grip consistent from the first hole to the last, and it makes both gloves last longer, because neither one sits soaked for a full eighteen. One thing I have learned: do not leave the used glove on the cart seat in direct sun. It dries out the leather and makes it stiff. Lay it on the towel or clip it to the cart handle so it dries at its own pace. On the hottest days, I swap again on the fourteenth tee.

Is the rotation necessary every round? No. On a cool October morning, one glove gets me through eighteen without any trouble. But for July and August in New Jersey, I treat the second glove like a spare tire. I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. The two-pack makes that an easy decision.

Step 3: Dry Your Hands and Your Grip Before Every Shot

This is the habit that did more for my grip than any piece of equipment, including the glove. I keep a small towel clipped to the handle of my push cart. Before every shot, I wipe my left hand, wipe the grip of the club, and only then pull the glove back on. It takes five seconds. I used to think stopping to dry off would slow down the group. The opposite is true. My group would rather watch me take five seconds with a towel than watch me hit two balls out of the woods after a slick grip sent one sideways. That trade is worth it every single time.

I also wipe the glove itself. Sweat collects on the palm of the glove, not just on your skin. A quick pass with the towel keeps the leather from getting slick, and it keeps the glove from getting stiff over time. It sounds small, and it is small. But small habits are what keep a round from coming apart in the heat.

If you play from a cart instead of walking, the same routine works. Clip the towel to the cart frame, or tuck it under your leg where you can reach it without hunting. The goal is to make drying automatic, the same way you check your yardage. You should not be thinking about your hands at address. You should be thinking about the shot.

Step 4: Lighten Your Grip Pressure

When the club starts to slip, the natural reaction is to squeeze harder. I know because I do it. The problem is that a death grip kills the release, tightens your shoulders, and usually sends the ball left for a right-handed player. On a hot day, the answer is not more pressure. It is a glove you trust enough to hold the club at a four or five out of ten.

The WeatherSof makes a light grip easier to trust because the tack is there. When the palm is dry and the glove fits, you do not need to choke the club to feel secure. My mental image on the first tee is holding a tube of toothpaste with the cap off. That level of pressure is plenty, and it lets the club do what it is designed to do.

Try it on the range first. Hit ten shots with a deliberately light grip and watch what happens to your ball flight. Most players find the ball starts going straighter because the club is finally free to release through impact. A light grip also helps your rhythm. When your hands are tight, your swing gets short and quick. When they are relaxed, the club feels heavier at the top and the transition smooths out. You can feel the difference in one swing. Ten minutes on the range with a light grip carries straight into a Saturday round. The glove is not the whole story, but a glove that stays dry makes a light grip feel safe instead of scary.

Step 5: Store and Care for the Glove So It Keeps Its Grip

A glove thrown into the bottom of a golf bag comes out damp, wrinkled, and stretched. I keep mine in the pouch the WeatherSof comes in, or clipped to the outside of the bag where air can reach it. The pouch is a small thing, but it keeps the glove from rubbing against the rest of the stuff in the bag, which wears out the leather faster than the golf itself does. After a sweaty round, I let the glove dry overnight before putting it away. That one habit has roughly doubled how long my gloves last.

Do not machine wash a golf glove. Do not stretch it over a club to dry it. Just let it air dry flat, and it keeps its shape. When the palm starts to lose its tack, or the Velcro stops holding, that is the sign to start a fresh one from the pack. A worn glove is a liability, not a bargain.

One last note. Murphy, our yellow Lab, inspected the glove when I left it on the bench. One sniff, one lick, and he walked off. Apparently the WeatherSof tastes like leather and nothing else. I will take that as an endorsement.

What Else Helps

A good glove gets you most of the way, but a few other habits make the system complete. Keep a real golf towel, not a kitchen rag, clipped where you can reach it. Clean your club grips every few weeks with warm water and a soft brush, because clean grips matter as much as a clean glove. And if you play in actual rain, keep a pair of rain gloves in the bag. They are a different tool for a different day, and they are cheap insurance. None of it takes more than five minutes, and all of it works together.

The other piece of the puzzle is glove rotation over the season. I go through about three two-packs a year. I write the month I opened them on the pouch with a marker, so I know when they are getting old. It is a small system, but it means I am never standing on the first tee with a glove that has already given up.

None of this is about shooting par. I am a 58-year-old 14 handicap who walks nine holes twice a week and plays eighteen on Saturdays with the same three buddies. The goal is to take the sweat out of the equation so the swing I actually have shows up on the course. The glove and the routine do that. Everything else is between me and the fairway. That is the whole goal, and it is a reasonable one for a weekend golfer.

Switching to a fresh glove at the turn on a humid day is worth two or three shots a round to me, and I do not get those shots for free.