Best Golf Gloves 2026: 17 Tested & Ranked By PGA Pro

I bought 17 golf gloves in a single shop visit. One of them turned out to be for my right hand (the wrong hand), I did think the guy in the shop looked at me weirdly… It now sits on my desk as a small reminder to read packaging more carefully.

After that small mishap, testing did get back on track, so here are the results for the best golf gloves we could find on the market. Use the finder below to go straight to your match, or scroll through the full reviews.

As you’ll see from the score in the table below. There were a lot of highly rated golf gloves…and then one or two we felt golfers should avoid, these are listed in ‘also test’ near the end of the article.

Srixon Cabretta Premium — Best Overall

The Srixon Cabretta Premium quietly does everything right. The palm is the story — the seams are so subtle you forget you’re wearing a glove, and the grip is effortless and secure. It’s a fraction less tacky than the very tackiest premium leathers, but you’d never notice on the course. Fit runs slightly slim through the fingers, which suits narrower hands (mine included) without ever feeling restrictive.

What earns it best overall is durability — and I’m speaking from real use, not first impressions. My previous Srixon Cabretta stayed soft and supple far longer than most leather gloves manage, never went crusty, and never wore through. For premium cabretta, that longevity is rare, and it’s exactly what tips this one ahead of the pack.

Golf Insider verdict: Elite feel and grip with durability we can genuinely vouch for — the complete package without the top-tier price. Narrower hands will love the fit; if you’ve got broad hands or sweat heavily through gloves, look at the Wilson Staff Model or the all-weather picks below.

Titleist Players Flex — Best Feel

If feel is your priority, this is the one. The Players Flex was one of my two gamers when I competed as a professional, and slipping it back on reminded me exactly why. The palm leather is among the finest in the whole test — thin, supple and tactile — and the fit is engineered to vanish: small Lycra panels at the knuckles let it flex while the rest hugs the hand. On the club you stop noticing you’re wearing a glove at all, which is the gold standard. The grip is superb, and the retro black-and-white detailing is genuinely beautiful — it ties for the top looks score in the test.

The flip side of that thin, premium leather is durability. It’s built to feel incredible, not to survive months of range sessions, so if you play and practise heavily it’ll wear sooner than a synthetic. My tip: pair it with a cheap all-weather glove for the range and save this one for rounds — it’ll last far longer where it counts. The fit is also properly snug and slim, so broad hands should size up or look elsewhere.

Golf Insider verdict: The best-feeling glove in the test, and a genuine tour-grade option for your best golf. Buy it if feel is non-negotiable and you’ve got medium-to-slim hands — just don’t expect a thin premium leather to outlast a synthetic.

Wilson Staff Model — Best Value

Wilson have a long history of making seriously good kit at prices that don’t punish you, and the Staff Model is the clearest example in this test. It looks and feels like a glove costing far more — soft, mid-thin leather with an immediate suppleness that sits among the very best here. On the hand it’s snug, sleek and secure, with a small strip of Lycra across the knuckles so it moulds to your shape without any bagginess. The grip is superb with no caveats, and the minimalist retro look is one of the nicest in the whole lineup.

The one trade-off is breathability. It’s wrapped fully in leather with no vents or synthetic panels, so it won’t keep you as cool as a hybrid on a hot day, and the super-snug cut leans towards slim-to-medium hands. Neither is a dealbreaker — they’re simply the price of that pure-leather feel.

Golf Insider verdict: The best value in the test by a distance — tour-level feel, grip and looks for the kind of money you’d spend on a mid-tier glove. If you want premium quality without the premium price, and you don’t have especially broad hands, you can buy this with full confidence.

Callaway Weather Spann — Best All-Weather

The Weather Spann is the surprise of the test. It’s mostly synthetic with small leather patches on the palm and thumb, so I came in with measured expectations — and it blew past them. This is comfortably the best-feeling weather glove we tested, and it isn’t close. The material is noticeably thinner and more refined than rival all-weather gloves, it fits remarkably snug from the first wear, and on the club you get that barely-there feeling normally reserved for top premium leather. Grip is excellent, and the ventilation on both sides makes it a genuine hybrid rather than a synthetic with a token leather patch.

Crucially for an all-weather glove, it’s also built to last — durability is one of its strongest scores. The only nits are sportier looks than the classic leather options and a touch of clumsy stitching on the palm pad that you’ll never feel mid-swing. The fit is very snug, so broad hands should size up.

Golf Insider verdict: The weather glove to beat — premium feel, strong grip and real durability in a build that shrugs off the elements. If you play whatever the forecast and don’t want to trade away feel to do it, this is your glove.

UA Glide ISO-Chill Pro — Most Breathable

If your hands run hot, this is the glove built for you. The ISO-Chill Pro sets itself apart before you even put it on — far more ventilation, considerably more stretch across the back, and a noticeably lighter feel than anything else in the test. The cooling effect is real: your hand genuinely feels less hot through a round. The palm is still cabretta leather, so the grip and feel where it matters stay solid, but everything around it is built for airflow and movement.

The trade-off is feel and looks. With all that Lycra and ventilation it reads as a technical sports glove rather than a premium leather one, and coming straight off a cabretta glove the difference is stark. That’s less a criticism than a different brief — this glove is doing a specific job, and it does it better than anything else here.

Golf Insider verdict: The answer for hot rounds and sweaty palms — genuine cooling, real stretch, and a leather palm that keeps the grip honest. If you play in warm climates or simply overheat in a normal glove, this is the pick. Feel purists playing in mild conditions will be happier with one of the leather options above.

FootJoy RainGrip — Best for Sweaty Hands & Rain

I’ve had a FootJoy RainGrip in my bag for about fourteen years, so this isn’t a first-impressions verdict. But don’t worry I grabbed a new one for this testing. If you play in bad weather, this is the number one glove you need — full stop. The synthetic grip material is genuinely unique: it gets better as it gets wet, not worse, and the confidence that gives you when conditions turn nasty is hard to overstate. FootJoy have also sharpened the latest version — it’s thinner with a nicer feel, and a redesigned, stretchier back means it stays light rather than going soggy and heavy when soaked.

Here’s the part most golfers miss, though: this isn’t only a rain glove. If you suffer from sweaty hands — the kind that turn a leather glove hard and crusty after a few holes — wear a RainGrip full time and the problem disappears. It handles moisture from any source. The fit runs snugger than a standard FootJoy (deliberately — the material expands when wet), and it’ll wear a little faster than leather in the dry, but for the job it does, that’s a trade worth making.

Golf Insider verdict: A specialist that solves a real problem better than anything else in this test. Its scores reflect dry-weather use — in the wet, and for heavy sweaters, it’s in a class of its own. If you play through British weather or fight a sweaty grip, this belongs in your bag right alongside your fair-weather glove.

Wilson Feel Plus — Best Budget

We finish the picks in budget territory, and the Feel Plus is one of the nicer surprises of the test. Wilson bill it as having a leather palm for improved feel, but be realistic — the leather content is token at best. That’s not the story. The story is a genuinely good synthetic: it grips with real confidence (not the vague, qualified grip you get from most cheap gloves), the slim, slightly short cut gives it a neater and less boxy look than most budget all-weathers, and the feel is better than the price has any right to deliver.

It also scores well exactly where a budget glove needs to — durability and value are its two highest marks — so it’s the kind of dependable, no-guilt glove you can throw in the bag for any conditions. The only real knocks are the obvious ones at this price: it can’t touch the premium leathers for pure feel or looks, and there’s a slight odd smell out of the packet that clears quickly.

Golf Insider verdict: The best budget glove in the test — good grip, a smart slim fit and feel that punches above its price. If you want something dependable for everyday rounds and practice without spending much, this is the one to reach for.

Also tested

We bought a lot of golf gloves and tested 17 gloves in this guide. The seven above each earned a category, but several of the rest are excellent gloves that simply ran into tough competition — a couple, the Ping Tour and FootJoy StaSof in particular, score high enough to have won an award in a smaller test. Here’s how the remaining ten stacked up, ranked by overall score, with a quick verdict and a link to check each.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I wear a golf glove?

Having a thin, soft surface between your hand and the golf club allows you to hold the club with less pressure. This reduces the tension in your Hands and Forearms and allows you to make a more relaxed golf swing.

What golf gloves do tour pros use?

Almost always premium leather, often the flagship model from whoever sponsors them. The other key difference is frequency — tour players can change gloves every few holes if they want to, so durability is barely a consideration for them. In our test, the Titleist Players Flex, FootJoy StaSof and Ping Tour are the three closest to what you’d see in a tour bag.

Cabretta leather or synthetic — which should I choose?

Leather is still the gold standard for feel and grip: nothing else quite replicates that tactile, barely-there sensation on the club. The trade-off is that it degrades faster with heavy use, doesn’t perform well in the wet, and can feel warm on hot days. Synthetic and hybrid gloves are more durable, often cheaper, and cope much better with weather and sweat. The sweet spot for many golfers is a leather for dry rounds and a good all-weather synthetic in the bag for when conditions change.

Also, if you like to beat balls on the range, you can opt for an all weather for practice and a leather for play.

How often should you replace a golf glove?

This really depends on how much you play, practice and sweat…a leather glove used once or twice a week will typically last a month or two before grip and feel start to go. Synthetic all-weather gloves generally last longer, sometimes twice as long, because the material is tougher and deals better with getting rid of moisture.

How should a golf glove fit?

Snug, with no bagginess or bunching — especially across the knuckles and down the fingers. The glove should feel almost too tight when new; it’ll break in slightly with use. If there’s excess material bunching over the knuckles or slack at the fingertips, go a size down. Worth knowing: several gloves in our test run slim through the fingers, which is noted in the spec pills on each review above.

Can you use a normal glove in the rain?

A leather glove loses grip the moment it gets wet, and the wetter it gets, the worse it performs. An all-weather synthetic will cope reasonably well in light rain. But if you play regularly in the wet, a dedicated rain glove is worth having. The FootJoy RainGrip’s grip actually improves as it soaks through, which sounds counterintuitive but is very real – it’s been in my bag for fourteen years and I’d never want to play in the rain without one!

What hand should you wear a golf glove on?

Right-handed players should wear a glove on their Left Hand. Left-handed golfers should wear a golf glove on their Right Hand. The reason is that this hand has far more surface area in contact with the golf grip. The trail hand (non-gloved hand) has far less contact with the golf glove and does not benefit in the same way.

However, some golfers do prefer to wear golf gloves on both hands.

Why do I wear holes in my golf glove?

You’re not going to like me here. It’s very easy to blame poor golf glove design when we wear holes into golf gloves, however this is a sign of a poor golf grip.

Most commonly, golfers wear a hole into the pad of their palm on the opposite side to their thumb. This is a sure sign of a weak golf grip, and someone who struggles with a fade/slice. If this sounds like you, check out this post on how to build a proper golf grip. Also, I put together this post on the best golf drivers to stop a slice.

Another common wear on golf gloves is at the tips of your thumb and index finger. Again, this is down to a poor golf grip., where the thumb does not apply enough pressure to the grip as you reach the top of your golf swing. Check out the link above for more details.

Happy golfing – Will @ Golf Insider