How to pick the perfect fitting golf glove?

Hello fellow golfers!

Here’s a little blog post I’ve put together for our friends new to golf or for those still feeling a little unfitted. We’ll cover why it’s important to wear a golf glove, synthetic vs leather golf gloves, which hand to buy and how to pick the right size.

Why wear a golf glove?

Not only can your golf glove make an accessory statement to your golfing outfit, like our Eighteen Eves gloves, but it also serves a practical purpose to improving your game, and protecting your hands. 

When you wear a golf glove it provides friction with your club grip. As you can imagine, a club flying out of your hands and hitting your fellow player on the head is not a good thing (unless you are trying to wipe out your competition). A strong grip is the essential foundation to your swing setup.

You will also notice those nasty little calluses over time that form just under the bottom of your fingers and top of your palm. I still get them occasionally, but find wearing a glove definitely helps reduce calluses and provides overall comfort throughout my game. 

Bonus hint! In your post game shower, grab a pumice and lightly run it over the affected areas. I use Heros, it’s $3 from your local chemist and works wonders. Finish off with your favourite hand cream.

Which hand do I buy?

When you purchase your golf glove, you’ll have the option to purchase a left hand, right hand or some brands will offer pairs like our Eighteen Eves gloves. If you are:

Right handed - purchase a left

Left handed - purchase a right

Sounds counter-intuitive? As a right hander the dominant part of your grip is with your left hand and the opposite goes for left handers. This is why you need a glove for your opposite hand. Some golfers prefer to wear a pair and is certainly something you may consider to provide extra protection while making a fashion statement on the fairways! 

Synthetic vs leather golf gloves?

Most gloves are made from synthetic or leather fabric. You will come across the term “cabretta leather” which is leather made from sheep’s skin and is ultra fine providing a ‘second skin’ feeling. They both have pros and cons and it will usually come down to your personal preference with what fabric you choose. 

Here’s some general thoughts to consider:

Leather

Here’s what one of our customers sent us two year later after they purchased their Eighteen Eves glove. 

“I just want to share some photos of my Eighteen Eves glove that I bought over two years ago. It has been used at least twice a week (and probably hit more shots than most women) and is just now beginning to show signs of wear. I'm off to your shop to buy a new one! They are fabulous!

Eighteen Eves Customer “ 

Synthetic

Some brands, such as our Eighteen Eves gloves have a Lycra backing which provides a little more flexibility. Some of our customers with arthritis have written to us to say they are easier to take on and off.

How do I pick the right size? 

It’s important that the glove is snug as you don’t want to the glove to be moving when you swing your club as this will cause grip slippage. You also don't want the glove to be too small that you can’t form your grip properly. We suggest to our customers at glove fitting days, to try the glove on and check the finger length of the golf glove more or less matches your finger length. If the rest of the glove is tight and made from leather, that’s OK as they will stretch pretty quickly after a couple of holes. 

Most brands will offer S - L, some will offer S/M and M/L. Our, Eighteen Eves gloves come in sizes XS - XL, offering a very tailored fit for all hands sizes including women golfers who may have had to buy men’s gloves in the past. 

If you are ordering online, measure your hand from the bottom of your palm to the top of you middle finger and refer to the sizing chart provided.

We also recommend you check the website’s return and exchange policy in case you need to swap the size. 

I hope this blog post has demystified the task of shopping for your new golf glove. Using a glove will help with a sticky grip while protecting your hands. 

Whether you decide to use synthetic or leather, make sure you allow for a snug grip (leather will stretch more) and look for the right length in your fingers as a starting point. 

Thank you for reading my blog post, we’d love to know your thoughts via the comments section below and please subscribe for more golf fashion related articles.

Happy Golfing xoxo

Nicci Pawlowski

Eighteen Eves founder