Information About Golf Clubs

Woods are employed by a golfer to hit the ball great distances, with some players having the ability to hit a ball well over 375 yards with one. Woods derive their name from the fact that at one point in time the club heads of all woods were really made of wood, with persimmon wood one of the most popular types used for their construction. In the 1980s, the trend in golf club design saw woods begin to have their club heads made up of various metal alloys, with steel and titanium alloys used the most for this purpose. The clubs are still known as woods just to differentiate them from the irons. Woods are typically used when the ball is teed up on the tee at the beginning of a hole or to drive the ball from a fairway lie of grass if the distance to the hole is still great. The woods are numbered, with the one wood called the driver. This golf club has the least loft to it in regards to the angle of the club as it relates to the vertical plane. Without a club having such an angle, golf balls would simply stay low near the ground when hit and never get high enough in the air when hit to go long distances. The driver can be used by the top professionals and amateurs to hit the ball over 300 yards off the tee on very long holes so that the approach shot to the green is a short one. The shaft on a driver is the longest of any club, allowing the person swinging the club to generate more speed with the club head, which translates into more distance for the ball. The lower woods will not hit the ball as far because they are more lofted and have smaller club faces.

The irons have a flat face that is angled to make the ball go different distances according to which iron a golfer chooses to use. The shafts on irons are shorter than woods and the clubs are numbered one through nine. The lower number an iron is the further it will hit the ball, with the lower numbered clubs propelling the ball with a lower trajectory than the higher ones. The one iron can hit the ball farther than any other iron, but most golfers have such a difficult time using this particular club that they opt not to carry it in their golf bag. The two iron also is a hard club to control which means a typical golfer will have a three iron as the lowest numbered iron. In general, a golfer will hit each iron 10 to 15 yards shorter than the one before it. The three irons would be used for example if a golfer had a shot of around 190 yards to the hole. A shorter shot of perhaps 140 yards would require a golfer to select an eight iron. The loft increases on each iron as the numbers get higher, with those irons that have the greatest loft also being called wedges. There are various wedges, some with a loft as high as 65 degrees. Wedges are employed when the ball is just a short distance from the green but circumstances call for the ball to be hit high and land gently on the green or to be pitched onto the putting surface so the ball can roll near the hole. Putters are used to roll the ball into the hole and come in many different shapes and sizes. Some have large club heads and long shafts while others may have smaller club heads and shafts. Since no club is used more than the putter during a round of golf, it is important that the golfer chooses one that she feels comfortable using.

The rules of golf state that a golfer can have no more than 14 golf clubs in his bag. This means that a golfer will want to have at his disposal the clubs that give him a chance to hit the largest assortment of shots possible. While a player can mix and match clubs so that she has whatever ones in her bag that she desires, a typical golf set will come with a driver, a three and five wood, irons numbered three through nine and a putter. In addition, the set will have a pitching wedge and a sand wedge, which are specialty clubs used to hit the ball out of high grass, sand traps and short distances.