Types Of Golf Clubs And Their Uses

There are five main types of clubs, and although different manufacturers may make their Putter, for example, to look different from others, its purpose is still the same. And so as a beginner you will only need to understand their differences and most importantly the use of each one of them.

Drivers

The driver is one of the standard clubs that every golfer must have on his set regardless of whether he is a beginner or a professional. Among all the clubs in a set, it is the one that hits the farthest distance, and it is also the first club that you use when starting a round. A driver also has the longest shaft, the largest head, and the smallest loft.

In golf, a driver is the designated 1-wood, and its primary function is to hit the tee shots on par-5s and par-4s when the ball is teed up. However, some pros and high skilled golfers will in some cases attempt to play it from the fairway, but this is something that takes many years of practice and experience to achieve. And so beginners should always stick to using it off a tee where it is most useful.

Since the driver has the lowest amount of loft and the longest shaft, it is the most difficult club for golfers to use. But given that it is one of the most important in a set it is vital for an amateur or beginner to practice using it as much as possible as it is critical for the game. If you are having trouble teeing off with the regular drivers, the best idea is to go for something with a higher loft as it is easier to use. You can also use the higher loft ones to transition to the best golf drivers.

Fairway Woods

Once you get the ball to the fairways, your driver cannot help you take it further than that and so you need to change into something smaller. The fairway wood is the club that you will need to make shots from the fairways. Its main differences from the driver are that it has a smaller head and the shaft is also shorter. In overall, the fairway wood looks smaller than the driver, and it does not stand out in your set like the latter.

In addition to the small heads and short shafts, the fairway woods also have metal heads just like the driver. But, in the past, this club would have a wooden hickory or persimmon head, and this is where it gets its name. The fairway offers more accuracy than the driver, but this is at the expense of distance because it offers less driving range. However, if you use it well, you can still get both distance and accuracy.

If you are not sure when to use a fairway wood a simple thing to remember is that it is the club that you should always turn to when you are more than 175 yards from the pin/flag. Also, you should also know that it is what you will use after making the first shot with the driver. Most golfers will have a 3-wood that has a loft of between 15 and 18 degrees and also the 5-wood with a loft of between 20 and 22 degrees.

Irons

Irons are what you use when you are less than 200 yards from the green. There are different types of Irons available (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), and they make up most of your golf clubs. It is important to note that the closer you are to the green the higher the best golf Iron that you should use.

Some Irons such as 3 and 4 are harder to hit with than the others, and so beginners, ladies and most people with higher handicaps will often replace them with Woods that have a high loft such as the 7 and 9 wood.

Hybrids

Hybrids are a more recent development in golf clubs because they came into the market about ten years, ago but in the past few years, they have become very popular. A hybrid consists of an iron length shaft and wood head design.

What makes them perfect is that they give you the best of a Wood Club and also the positives of an Iron. They offer a very impressive distance and most players nowadays prefer to replace their 3 and 4 irons and also the 7 and 9 wood with the hybrid clubs.

Wedges

Although you can define wedges in many ways, they are just special types of irons that will help you make a particular shot. The first and probably the most important wedge is the Pitching Wedge (PW), and it comes with a loft of between 46 and 48 degrees. The loft increases by four degrees, and so they often come in 64, 60, 56, 52 and 48.

They are very useful to your game, and so most golfers will have a few of them. You will need them when you are closer to the green, and so their design emphasizes more on shot shaping and shot control.

Putters

Just as the name suggest a putter is a club whose primary purpose is to put the ball in the hole. The best putters will only help you once you get the ball on the green and so on other things such as getting the ball out of the sand traps you have to rely on the other clubs.

A putter comes in various styles such as long, bent, belly, short, heel-toe, mallet, center-hosel and many others.