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If you’re a beginner golfer, it may seem intimidating to peer into that bag of miscellaneous clubs. What do they all mean? What do the numbers on the end represent? When you get down into the details of the various club types, you’ll discover that it’s relatively easy to understand.
To start, you can split the club groups into four types of clubs, which symbolize the various functions you’ll use them for — your driver, irons, wedges and putter.
Woods
Woods have the largest clubheads — they’re those bulky, large clubs that are poking out of your golf bag — sometimes protected with a headcover. The shafts of these clubs are hollow so that they’re easier to swing. The lightweight feel allows you to gain a high swing speed and pound the ball for hundreds of yards.
Your woods are your most powerful clubs, meaning (if you hit them right) that they’ll give you the most distance. You’ll hit these clubs off the tee box or when you’re far from the green on the fairway.
The name “woods” is derived from the olden times in golf when these clubs were actually made from wood. Today, most drivers are made from steel or titanium.
There are two main types of woods — the driver and fairway woods.
Driver
The largest club in your bag – the driver. This club gives you the most distance out of all your clubs, so you’ll likely be using it on par 4 and par 5s. It has a wide clubhead which allows you to have a better chance of making contact with the ball.
When you’re swinging a driver quickly, it’s essential you have that larger surface area to strike the golf ball. The driver has the shallowest angle of all of your clubs, ranging anywhere between 8 and 12 degrees.
Your driver will also likely be the most expensive club in your bag. Innovative designs have created drivers that allow you to hit the ball farther and straighter than ever before. Choose the right one and you could sufficiently improve your game.
Fairway Woods
These clubs are smaller than your driver but still have a relatively large clubhead. Fairway woods are great for short par 4s or if you have a tee shot that went a few feet past the tee box. You’ll see three main types of fairway woods — 3-woods, 5-woods and 7-woods.
Irons
Your irons make up the majority of your golf bag and offer the most versatility. You can use them off the tee or in a bunker. These clubs have flatter, more angled heads to give the ball more loft. They also have grooves that help grip the ball and give it spin. Irons are labeled with numbers usually ranging from 3 to 9. Most golfers will carry irons 5-9.
Irons can be split up into three groups — long irons, mid irons and short irons. At one end of the spectrum, you have your nine iron, with the most loft of all the irons, usually used for shots around 150 yards.
At the other end, you can have anything as steep as a one-iron. Typically, those shorter irons are harder to hit. In the middle, you have — you guessed it — the mid-irons. Most people will use these irons for shots under 200 yards.
Irons also come in two types — cavity backs and blades. There are a couple of key differences between each:
- Blades: When designers first start making golf clubs, “blades” was the norm for irons. Blades refer to the heads of irons, which are generally thin and difficult to hit.
- Cavity Backs: Over the years, people have found ways to manufacture golf clubs to make them cheaply and also easier to hit on the course. This gave birth to cavity backs — the thicker, more weighted irons that most amateur golfers use during their rounds.
While cavity backs are easier to hit, blades offer better feedback to the golfer and also more control over their shot. Most pros use blades.
Hybrids
Hybrids are the product of two club types combined — woods and irons. The hybrids, also known as replacement or utility clubs, are often used as an easier solution to those harder-to-hit shorter irons. Hybrids are numbered just like irons but have a fatter, thicker head at the end — hence why they’re easier to hit.
Hybrids are also the newest type of club, coming into the mainstream in the early 2000s. Even pros use hybrids, so don’t feel bad about using a “replacement” club just because it’s easier to hit. When it comes to golf, most of us need all the help we can get.
Wedges
If you get within 130 yards, you’ll probably be looking to use a wedge. Wedges are clubs with lower lofts, allowing you to pop the ball high into the air and land on a dot — hopefully on the green. Wedges gradually lower in steepness as you go down the list, from pitching wedge to lob wedge.
Pitching Wedge
Of all the wedges, the pitching wedge gives you the most distance. You can use these clubs on approach shots or around the greens.
Gap Wedge
The gap wedge can be used on approach shots for yardages that are in between a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. They solve that common issue of deliberating between yardages. When you’re unsure, grab your gap wedge and take a confident, full swing.
Sand Wedge
The sand wedge, as its name implies, is great out of bunkers. Its extra loft allows you to dig through the sand, pop the ball up and land it softly on the green. You can also use your sand wedge on the fairway or rough, usually for anything less than 100 yards.
Lob Wedge
Lob wedges have the most loft and are excellent if you ever find yourself in very deep rough. They’re also great for “flop” shots — those shots that fly high into the air and land precisely on a spot on the green.
Putter
The last type of club is your putter. You’ll use these on the greens, fringers, or, if you have a clear runway, on some trim fairways.
- Blade putters: This is the original version of the putter, with a thin blade at the end of the shaft. Some players still enjoy this simplistic version of the club.
- Weighted Putters: The next evolution of the putter was the weighted putter, offering a bit more weight to the club and giving the player an even, balanced stroke that creates firmer contact with the golf ball.
- Mallett Putters: These putters offer even more weight than the original weighted putter, with a larger piece on the back that can be used for helpful alignment.