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Drive Away Golf Kit Cleanser

Call me old-fashioned, but a damp towel attached to my golf bag and a basin of soapy water with a stiff brush have always been my answer to dirt on the golf course. I've been reassured by seeing Steve Williams apply the same method to more illustrious kit than mine.

So why would I want "the world's first bespoke golf accessory cleaning solution", especially when said solution comes in a 150ml bottle at £9.99 a time?

The answer, according to Stefan Cegielski, Managing Director of Primus Products 2005 Ltd, is because Drive Away Golf Kit Cleanser is both more effective at removing grease and dirt and has exceptional bactericidal properties. Since he was confident enough of his product to give me a bottle to try at the recent London Golf Show, I set aside my scepticism and duly tested it.

Drive Away comes in a lightweight, plastic, pump-action spray bottle. It also comes from Wales, so not unsurprisingly it is being endorsed by Ryder Cup Captain Ian Woosnam. Even though he is no doubt being well paid, Woosie is famously down-to-earth, so I must confess to being favourably impressed that he would put his name on this product.

Drive Away is recommended for cleaning everything from your balls, clubs, grips, shoes, bag and trolley right up to your golf cap and clothing, and although I still find it profligate to use almost 7 pence worth of product (a couple of sprays, about one millilitre?) to wipe my golf ball, it was undeniably whiter and shinier than with mere soap and water after emerging from the ball washer by the tee.

For my irons, I tried to be devious. I cleaned one with soap, water and brush, finishing off with a soft cloth, and cleaned another with Drive Away, letting it dry on its own. I submitted the two to my family to see if they would spot a difference. Unanimously they chose the Drive Away club as being much shinier, therefore presumably cleaner.

I tried it on my grips. My clubs are fairly new and the grips are not worn yet, but again there was a noticeable inprovement in the tackiness of the feel after Drive Away, definitely superior to soap and water.

I don't use a trolley, but no doubt it would do a good job on that too, although I don't know if I'd really care how much more the wheels gleam. Then again, I do wash my car and use a chammy leather on it afterwards... It did do an excellent job of removing scuff marks and grass stains off my golf bag, certainly with much greater ease than had I tried soapy water and elbow grease. And I didn't have any soiled clothing (how do you get grass stains on your golf cap, unless you're given to throwing it high in the air every time you hole a putt?) to test, but I'll take their word for it, based on its performance elswhere.

But it was the shoes which sold me on it. You know how hard it always is to get the last traces of dirt out of the creases that form in the uppers? A few squirts of Drive Away did the trick, coaxing the annoying gunge out with no need for a brush. Impressive. And there's more, but at this point readers of a sensitive nature should please look away.

Do your golf shoes smell, to the point where you can't even leave them in the kitchen to dry after cleaning, because it puts people off their food? Well, owning up time, mine do, or rather, did.

Drive Away not only cleans, it kills germs, and germs create odour. I sprayed the inside of one shoe fairly liberally and left the other in its natural, highly offensive state. The next morning - the things I do in the name of science - I plunged my nose inside and inhaled deeply from each shoe. The treated shoe, though not yet completely odourless, was a mere shadow of its former self, down to about 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. The untreated shoe... well, let's just say I won't be doing that experiment again in a hurry.

The slogan for Drive Away - and the name of their website (see below) - is "Clean Up Your Game". Being somewhat mean, I don't think I will be using it on my golf balls or clubfaces too often, but for my grips and definitely for my shoes, both outside and in, I'm a convert. It's expensive, but to borrow a phrase from a rather different product, it does what it says on the tin.

And proves that the old Yorkshire idiom also applies to Woosie's Welsh washing wizardry: Where there's muck, there's brass.

Clive Carpenter
May 2006

For information about Drive Away, or to purchase online, visit www.cleanupyourgame.com.
The company is also looking for distributors, full details online.