Does Putting Chapstick On A Driver Help The Ball Go Straight?

Golf has very strict rules on what is acceptable and what not both in competition and even in recreational golf. However, these rules are understandably more strict when playing On the PGA tour than at your local golf course with a group of friends. Cheating however is not accepted at any level. The key is to define what is cheating and what is innovation, and here we take a look at if the old trick of putting chapstick on a driver face to see if it actually helps your ball go straighter.

Applying Chapstick, lip balm or Vaseline to the face of a golf driver will reduce the friction between the club and the golf ball at the point of impact. This helps prevent side spin and the risk of slicing the ball, and backspin, which may, depending on the launch angle, improve driving distance as well.

We will also explain why it may help and if it is considered cheating and if it is unacceptable both in professional and recreational golf to try this technique, and some times when it would be acceptable.

So don’t steal that strawberry flavour chapstick from your kids just yet, wait until at least until you know when you should try this!

Does Chapstick on a Driver Face Work?

Truthfully, it would be a pretty rubbish golf hack if it didn’t. all evidence, both from our spit and sawdust test on our local course, from more professional tests on YouTube ( we link to that below) and even from tales from golf professionals which we also link to putting chapstick or other gel like liquids (not glue of course….) do help to reduce both back and side spin when hitting a golf ball with a driver.

Anecdotally, not with our test but we are average golfers at best, people have reported it also helps them with achieving greater distance on their drives as well. We got straighter rather than longer, although some of this may be to greater confidence when hitting from the tee and therefore more power being used.

Why Does Chapstick on a Driver Work?

The main aim of any substance, although in a proper field test by Golf Digest (more here) Chapstick and Lip balm edged out the competition of cooking oil spray and vaseline, is to reduce the friction between the club face and the balm when being hit at 160 or so miles an hour, or for mere mortals like us just 100 miles an hour.

The reduction in friction has two effects on the golf balls movement in flight.

• It reduces the backspin of the ball, which in theory at least will help increase the length of the drive as the ball will not ride so high in the air, or come to such an abrupt stop when landing. Although whether this loss in back swing in of benefit or a hindrance to distance will depend on your launch numbers. the lower angle hitters may not benefit while those who have a higher launch angle may.

• Secondly, and more importantly for average golfers, it also reduces side spin. Side spin it what causes the ball to slice or go off centre and chapstick or lip balm can reduce this friction enough to create significant advantages.

Being able to control the direction of your drive is an immense benefit and this reduction in friction is a great help. it reduces the chance of hooking the ball and gives a higher chance of hitting the fairway with more regularity.

However, all of this comes with a large caveat, work it may do, allowed it isn’t. At least if you are playing competitions or for money.

You may get a longer and straighter drive but the other players may use their drivers to hit something other than the ball if they catch you.

We look at the rules and etiquette if trying chapstick on a driver in the sections below. Though you can take it from us, it is considered cheating more on this on the link!

Are You Allowed to Use Lip Balm or Chap Stick on a Driver?

As you probably already know the answer to this is a resounding no if you are playing in ranked, competitive or for money. it is cheating and no amount of discussion will change that.

Work it may do, allowed it isn’t!

One Stop Golfing

that’s not to say it doesn’t happen, in fact even professionals admit to bending the rules on occasions (and probably more than one occasion) as admitted by Gary McCord who owned up to Golf.com, he had once trying vaseline on his driver face in a round for money.

However he double tapped the tub of vaseline and applied too much. So much that although the ball certainly flew straight, it only flew for about 80 yards! All the back spin had been removed!

So I wiped it (with vaseline) again. I get up on the tee and I nail it. And the ball went about 40 yards and then right in the ground. I put so much on it that it took all the spin off.

Gary mcCord

Although we are fairly sure he admitted this after his competitive career as the USGA ( United States Golf Association) States with out naming brand names like Vaseline or chap stick! it just says any substance other than for cleaning is prohibited.

According to USGA Rule 4.1a,

Deliberately Changing Club’s Performance Characteristics During
Round…By applying any substance to the clubhead (other than in cleaning it) to affect how it performs in making a stroke

USGA Rule Book ( page 13)

Does Vaseline on a Driver work the same as Lip Balm

In the full field test undertaken by Golf Digest they achieved similar, though very slightly less impressive results, when using vaseline, and after three or four drives its useful ness had reduced. ( we didn’t test when we tried it as bringing out lip balm and a tub of vaseline just seemed a step too far for the wagging tongues of our golf course paterons!)

However Vaseline also reduced both backspin and side spin resulting in less height and less sideways ball movement in these tests. As did cooking oil. So it looks like any gel based lubricant or moisturizing type product may do the trick.

Our Results When Trying Chapstick on our Drivers.

Well we will keep it short, just like our drives ( ha!) we tried with lip balm, and we didn’t steal our daughters very berry flavour, we bought one from the 7-11 ( it was strawberry however) just outside the entrance to our course, who had an interestingly and suspiciously large selection it has to be said.

None of use are going to be applying for pro jobs anytime soon, but we range from below average to pretty good. i won’t give exact details of handicaps here as they will lynch me. We play for the love of the game rather than the reducing numbers, however Chapstick on a driver face really REALLY does work.

A par four hole seems like an elusive mystery to most of us, but the ability to drive straight, and the confidence knowing this does work also allows us to unleash more power, with more confidence, and get us closer to the hole much more regularly, although we didn’t get that par we definitely had more chances to do so and our shouts of fore went down dramatically as well.

So while iputting friction reducing substances on drivers may be banned from tournaments, ranking games and money games, we really enjoyed the ball actually going where we aimed rather than sinking feeling as you see it slice its way into the distance.

As a fun factor and a confidence builder we really rate it. Just remember unlike sunscreen, less is more!

Now to explain to my wife why i have strawberry lip balm and vaseline in my golf bag…

When to Use Lip balm and Chapstick on a Driver

Obviously sticking to the rules in a golf competition or in a game for something other than fun is vitally important, or you may find yourself banned or frozen out from your club.

However trying things out on your recreational round is how you get better, and as we describe in our article on involving the family in golf, how you can make things more fun, more rewarding, more fair and more confidence building.

Although there are many ways of doing that that don’t involve lip balm ( which we go into much more detail in that article,) helping less able players hit the ball straight is definitely one of them.

So while training, either yourself or beginner golfers, giving them the boost of a few straight drives might be just the push they need to spend more time playing golf, to the extent that they improve enough to not need these little helping golf hacks.

Nobody is going to enjoy spending time looking for lost balls when they first play and giving that encouragement and making the game more fun will only help them become more interested in golf. Another tip you can try if you are having trouble with your tee shots is to try move down a Tee box color. We have more information on these here in our What do tee Box Colors Mean article.

As we saw on a popular golfing forum about the use of chapstick on drivers.

There are a lot of the rules that should be followed, but are neglected, or ignored, or just not known, but in recreational golf to me, it’s more about just having fun. 

Hackers Paradise

our thoughts exactly.

Conclusion

Rubbing Chapstick, lip balm, vaseline, cooking oil spray and even sunscreen (it has been done) all help to reduce the friction between a ball and the face of the golf club to varying degrees.

This is done by reducing primarily side spin and helping reduce slices and hooks off the tee and therefore a straighter drive and more chance of hitting and staying on the fairway for your second shot. However it also can reduce backspin of the ball, which depending on the launch angle, can also increase the length of your drive.

However although it works it should not be used as a golfing aid in competitions, ranking event, or in games played for money as it gives an unfair advantage. If using it for training or to build confidence on local courses in non competitive games that is entirely up to the player and their group.

However lubing up a golf club with vaseline may give the wrong impression, and applying lip balm to it…well we all love the game, but maybe not quite that much! However the extent of punishment may just be the funny looks from other members rather than official censure from the governing body of golf.

Whether that is worth it for an extra 20 yards, or to stay out of the rough is only a choice you can make!

References

• https://www.metroleague.org/what-does-chapstick-do-on-a-golf-club/
• https://clubhouse.swingu.com/lifestyle/illegal-foreign-substances-hit-drives-straighter-farther-cooking-spray-lip-balm-petroleum-jelly/
• https://www.golfdigest.com/story/cracking-the-code-of-equipments-most-enduring-urban-legends#:~:text=Any%20kind%20of%20grease%20on,depending%20on%20your%20launch%20characteristics.
• https://outofboundsgolf.com/how-do-you-cheat-at-golf/