Every golf towel is one of three fabrics, and suppliers rarely explain the trade because explaining it means admitting the expensive one is not always right.

Cotton terry: the familiar one

Soft, heavy, absorbent in absolute terms, and what most people picture when they hear ‘towel’. It is gentle on club finishes and pleasant to handle.

Its problem is drying. A soaked terry towel is still damp the next morning, and a damp towel in a bag stays damp. It also holds grit in the pile, which is the opposite of what you want against a driver crown.

Cotton waffle: the club standard

The honeycomb weave creates more surface area per gram than terry, so it absorbs more for its weight, and the open structure releases water fast — dry overnight rather than damp for days.

It also takes embroidery better than any other option, because the raised waffle gives stitching a structure to sit against. For a club towel with a crest on it, this is almost always the right answer.

Microfiber: the technical one

Split synthetic fibres pull water and grit up into the pile rather than pushing it around. It holds several times its weight in water, wrings out nearly dry, and dries in a fraction of the time of any cotton.

It is also the only fabric that takes full-colour sublimation. The trade-offs are hand feel — it is a synthetic and feels like one — and that it should never see fabric softener, which coats the fibres and destroys the absorbency.

Which one for which buyer

Club and society bag towels: waffle cotton, embroidered. Pro shop retail: waffle and microfiber side by side, because players are split. Resort and premium: plush microfiber or 500gsm caddy cotton. Sponsor and championship panels: sublimated microfiber, no alternative.

Corporate tee gifts: waffle, because it is the one recipients keep using, and the cost sits in the right place.

The mistakes we see most

Ordering terry because it feels best in the showroom, then hearing about damp bags all season. Ordering microfiber for a traditional club whose members wanted cotton. And ordering cotton with a photographic design on it, which simply cannot be produced.

All three are avoidable in a two-minute conversation, which is why we have it before quoting rather than after.

Care, briefly

Cotton: warm wash, tumble low, and it will keep improving for a season. Microfiber: warm wash, no fabric softener, no high heat. Softener is the single most common way a good microfiber towel gets ruined, and it is worth printing on the care label.