How to easily prevent and heal golf blisters -

Q: What is the best tape for blisters on hands?

The best tape I’ve ever used is Birdie Wrap . It is waterproof, hypo-allergenic and is very comfortable even during the hottest days on the course. It does not affect your grip on the club at all, and is flexible enough to wear over your knuckles! With a 5 star rating on Amazon, other golfers have agreed that BirdieWrap is the high performance sports tape to use for golf!

Q: How long does it take for golf blisters to heal?

If you properly take care of the blister and put ointment and bandage it, it should only take 3-4 days to heal. DO NOT pop the blister, as this will slow down the healing process and may lead to an infection. If you need to drain the fluid because of pain or discomfort, use a sterilized needle and poke a small hole in the blister. Then put ointment on the blister and bandage it to quicken the healing process.

Is there any worse feeling then leaving the golf course and noticing a slight throbbing in your hand and noticing some irritated skin is on its way to become a blister?

Luckily, the majority of blisters caused by golf can be prevented with a few easy precautions.

To minimize chances of getting a blister, you should:

Wear a Golf Glove
Regrip Worn Down Grips
Grip pressure is not too tight or loose
Proper Grip on Club
Keep Hands Dry
Limit # of Range Balls Hit

6 Easiest Ways to Prevent Hand Blisters from Golfing

Wearing a Golf Glove-

Wearing a golf glove is the easiest way to prevent hand blisters. Make sure you are wearing a golf glove on your lead hand (left hand for righties and vice versa for lefties).

If you are allergic or break out every time you wear a glove, there are hypoallergenic golf gloves for every sort of allergy. Some golfers can’t stand to wear a glove and luckily there are great alternatives to golf gloves that provide just as good as grip.

The lead hand has a majority of the contact with the golf club and will see a majority of the friction throughout the golf swing. Rubbing between the hand and golf grip is the main reason golf blisters occur, and golf gloves help greatly reduce that.

Use high quality golf gloves that are a snug fit. Check out the best golf gloves for each budget and situation to find the right glove for you!

The cheaper golf gloves often have very thin material which can lead to premature tears in the golf glove leaving exposed skin and could result in blisters. There are also several other ways to prolong golf glove life including washing the golf glove when it gets too dirty or sweaty.

Regripping Golf Clubs-

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but most of us wait way too long to regrip our clubs. The grip becomes less tacky over time, causing us to grip the club harder which could lead to eventual blisters.

Even with gripping harder, the grip will still slip in our hands. This leads to shots that are offline due to the club head not staying square through impact and eventually leads to blisters.

According to golf.com, you should regrip your clubs about once a year or every 40 rounds. I’ll usually get a solid 2 years (70-80 rounds) out of my grips before I feel they need regripped. If you feel the club slipping in your swing after 35-40 rounds, get some new grips if you think it’ll benefit your golf game.

Grip Pressure-

To successfully avoid blisters, you need the goldilocks of grip pressures. Too tight of grip pressure will cause unnecessary stress between the fingers and grip while too loose of grip pressure will cause the club to slide around causing excess friction between your hand and the grips.

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being grandma shaking your hand and 10 being a death grip), you want to grip your club at about a 6 or 7. You want to have a decently firm grip on the club, but yet make sure there is no tension in your wrists, arms, and shoulders.

Tension in your arms during the golf swing is an absolute speed killer while too loose of grip will cause the club to move around and you will have little control of the clubface at impact.

Only time you will want to grip the club hard is out of the deep rough. The rough will often try to twist the clubhead and grab the hosel through impact, so it’s important you swing hard and try to keep the clubhead square.

Improper Grip on Club-

If you are gripping the club more directly in your palm than in your fingers, you may be causing excess friction leading to premature glove wear and possible blisters.

Grip the club in your fingers and you will create more power by allowing the wrist to naturally hinge more.

3 Positives from gripping the club in your fingers:

Create more power by allowing wrist to hinge more
Less glove wear due to decrease in friction between palm of glove and grip
Decrease chance of blisters

Keep your Hands Dry-

The most common occurrence for blisters is after a long, rain filled round. The damp skin rubbing against the golf grip creates the perfect storm for blisters on your hands.

To prevent this, try to keep your hands dry with your towel throughout the round. I would cycle through several gloves as well trying to keep them as dry as possible.

I have found that by keeping your clubs/towel underneath an umbrella as much as possible and using 2-3 gloves greatly reduces your chance of getting a pesky blister on your hand during those rain filled rounds.

Limiting the amount of Golf Balls hit on the driving range-

You will get blisters if you hit hundreds and hundreds of range balls a day. If all the above tips do not work and blisters still pop up, it may be time to decrease the amount of range balls hit in a practice session.

If possible, split your range sessions up to avoid constant pressure on your fingers. Maybe hit a quarter of a bucket with full shots, hit the next quarter hitting pitch shots, then back to full swings.

Honestly, the best thing you could do for your golf game is to avoid the large bucket of balls and go for the small bucket instead! Spend that extra time dialing in your short game to lower your handicap.

Those missed 3-6 footers add up quickly, and getting better at those is the quickest way to lower your handicap by a few strokes.

Easiest Way to Heal Hand Blisters from Golfing

Apply Ointment, Cover Blister In Bandage and take a few days off Golf

American Academy of Dermatologists recommend the following steps to heal a blister.

Cover the blister – Loosely cover the blister with a bandage.
Use padding – Use padding beneath the bandage to protect blisters in pressure areas such as your hands or bottom of your feet.
Avoid popping blisters – Popping blisters may lead to infection and prolong the healing process. If the blister is large or painful enough, you may want to drain the blister to reduce discomfort. To do so, sterilize a small needle with rubbing alcohol. Then carefully pierce blister with the needle, slowly draining some of the fluid.
Keep Blister Clean and Covered – Once the blister has drained, wash area with soap and water. Apply petroleum jelly and do not remove excess skin from the blister, this will protect the raw skin underneath as it heals.

How to Golf with Blisters on your Hands

There are several effective ways to golf with blisters as pain free as possible while allowing it to heal. You want to make sure that the blister is not getting infected if you do decide to golf while allowing it to heal.

Bandage underneath Athletic Tape – My go to is to put a bandaid over the blister followed by athletic tape over the bandaid. This is simple and seems to work well, I haven’t noticed any decrease in feel or performance while staying pain free.
Moleskin– Many golfers swear by putting moleskin padding over blisters. This works best for closed blisters only.
New Skin Liquid Bandage or Super Glue- For open blisters, put New Skin or Super Glue on followed by athletic tape. This simple 2 step process will seal up the blister and allow you golf pain free with little limitation to your golf swing.

FAQ:

Do PGA Golfers get Blisters?

Yes, golfers such as Tiger Woods use athletic tape on finger(s) to avoid getting annoying blisters after hundreds and hundreds of swings throughout the day.

What is the best tape for blisters on hands?

The best tape I’ve ever used is Birdie Wrap. It is waterproof, hypo-allergenic and is very comfortable even during the hottest days on the course. It does not affect your grip on the club at all, and is flexible enough to wear over your knuckles!

With a 5 star rating on Amazon, other golfers have agreed that BirdieWrap is the high performance sports tape to use for golf!

What home remedies clear up blisters?

A few home remedies for blisters includes rubbing the area with any of the following: tea tree oil, coconut oil, aloe vera, or green tea with a bandage covering the blister.

These home remedies are natural anti inflammatories and will keep the skin hydrated allowing it to heal faster.

Do golf gloves cause blisters?

Golf gloves rarely cause blisters. However, they can be the root cause if the glove is either loose fitting or extremely damp from rain or sweat.

A loose fitting glove will slip on the club grip creating friction between the glove and the hand. This could possibly lead to blisters.

A damp glove could also cause blisters due to the damp glove constantly rubbing against the damp skin on every swing.

How long does it take for golf blisters to heal?

If you properly take care of the blister and put ointment and bandage it, it should only take 3-4 days to heal.

DO NOT pop the blister, as this will slow down the healing process and may lead to an infection.

If you need to drain the fluid because of pain or discomfort, use a sterilized needle and poke a small hole in the blister. Then put ointment on the blister and bandage it to quicken the healing process.

How do I prevent blisters from getting worse?

The main thing is to put ointment on it and have a loose bandage on it. I would avoid using it for strenuous activity like golfing or lifting heavy objects for a few days.

If it’s properly bandaged, kept clean, and not put under any stress, the blister should heal itself in anywhere from 4-8 days.