Guides / Lost club or head cover

Left a golf club or head cover on the course? How to get it back

Wedges and putters are left beside greens. Head covers are left on tee boxes. It happens because you carry an extra club to the green "just in case", or pull a head cover off on the tee and then talk your way down the fairway.

Where lost clubs usually turn up

• The fringe or collar of a green. A chipping club laid down while you putt, by far the most common.
• Leaning on a bunker rake or flagstick holder.
• Tee boxes. Head covers, and the driver's head cover in particular.
• The cart barn. Clubs left in the cart's rear basket or on the floor.

What to do

1. Count your clubs as soon as you notice. Work out which one is missing and when you last used it. That tells you the hole.
2. Call the pro shop and ask them to tell the marshal and the groups behind. Give the club, brand and loft, and anything distinctive about the grip or head cover.
3. Check the lost and found that evening and again the next day. Groups behind you often hand clubs in at the end of their round.
4. Mark your gear for next time. Your name on the shaft (under the grip label) or on a sticker inside the head cover gets clubs returned.

Stop leaving them behind

• Lay the spare club next to the flagstick on the side toward the next tee, so you walk past it on your way off.
• Head cover straight into the bag pocket, never on the ground or the cart seat.
• Count to 14 at the turn and at 18. Using the same order every time makes a gap easy to see.
• Tag the items you lose most. A small Bluetooth tag on your head covers and an alert app warn you when you walk off without one.

Related: left your rangefinder on the cart? and rangefinder trackers for Android.