How to Choose Clubs Based on Your Golf Game

Updated January 20, 2022
Golf clubs on a rack at a golf shop
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    Golf clubs on a rack at a golf shop
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    Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers vai Getty Images / Contributor
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    Getty Image license

What Clubs are in Your Golf Bag?

How do you decide which clubs to put in your bag? It sounds like a silly question but really with all the options of clubs now, you have all types of sand wedges, 64, 62, 60, 58, 56, 54, 52, 50, 48 down to 46, those are all wedges. How do you know which one to put in your bag? You have hybrid clubs to replace the two, three, four, five and even 6-iron now. You have all types of fairway metals and all types of drivers with different lofts. It really depends on where you play your golf, the type of golf course you play and your handicap level.

Club Choices for Higher Handicap Golfers

Let's talk about the higher handicap golfer, someone who does not play too much. I think you should absolutely not use those high lofted wedges, they are way too tough to use and take a tremendous amount of practice. Don't even think about putting a 60 degree wedge in your bag, start at 56 and work down from there. Put a few more hybrids or fairway metals in your bag. They are so much easier to hit and you are going to be hitting more long shots.

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Club Suggestions for Good Golfers

The better player I think would do to have 16 or 17 clubs that you like. Then you interchange those clubs. For example, if you are playing the wind you might go with a lower lofted driver or a driver that you hit lower with a different shaft flex. You can put in an extra long iron, you can put in an extra sand wedge because you might be missing more greens in bad weather conditions. So I like having interchangeable sets. Lots of players on the PGA Tour do that, they have several different clubs that they can put in the golf bag. Phil Mickelson actually played with two different drivers, one that he could draw and one that he could fade, when he won the Masters.

So there are a lot of options now when you choose a golf club. Give it some thought and really try to pick out the clubs that will be most useful to your game.