Golf Club Information: Discount Golf Club Store

What you need to know about your new golf clubs.

What golf clubs do I need? What is a golf driver and why do I need one? How much driver loft should I have? What are fairway woods and utility woods and which should I carry? What are golf irons? What are hybrid golf clubs? What types of wedges are there? What is a putter for? What are some other golf club specifications?

What golf clubs do I need?
The Rules of Golf put limits on club designs, but the goal of club makers is to create golf clubs within those limits that maximize the physics of the golfer's swing while allowing for a range of swing error to provide an accurate, long, yet forgiving shot. The better your swing, the less forgiving club you require. A standard set of golf clubs consists of three woods (driver, 3, and 5), nine irons (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, pitching wedge - PW), and a putter. Most golfers also choose to carry a sand wedge (SW). The rules of golf allow you to carry fourteen clubs in your bag, so many golfers add another iron or a specialty wood.

Driver - The Driver has the lowest loft of any golf club. Loft is the angle of the club face that controls trajectory and affects distance. A driver has a loft between 7° and 12°. 

How much loft do I need for my Driver?
During the mid to late 1990's, the average loft on the PGA Tour was around 7°. However, those were difficult shots for the pros to make and the ball flight from such a low loft created lots of spin. The experts in ball flight analysis showed that the longest golf drives are achieved with a high launch angle combined with low spin.

So the professionals are increasingly moving to larger headed higher lofted drivers. They get more carry with less shot error. Just like you should do! Most PGA pros now carry drivers with lofts of 8. 5° to 10° or more. Non-pros should probably play drivers with lifts 10° or higher. So our recommendation is follow the advice of the PGA pros and increase the loft of your driver.

Fairway Woods - Woods (generally made of steel) are long-distance clubs, meant to drive the ball a great distance down the fairway towards the hole. They generally have a large head and a long shaft for maximum club speed.

Most golfers also carry 3 and 5 woods in their bag. A 3 wood has a loft between 15° and 18°, and a 5 wood has a loft between 20° and 22°. The higher the golf club number, the higher the loft. In addition, the higher the golf club number, the shorter the club. A 3 wood is generally 1/2" shorter than a Driver and so on with each successive club.

The 3 wood and 5 wood are commonly referred to as fairway woods, because they are most often used during the second shot of play, when you are supposed to be in the fairway of the golf hole (as opposed to in the woods!). All higher lofted woods (7, 9, 11, and so on) are commonly referred to as utility woods.

Irons - Irons are generally used when you are less than 180 yards away from the green. The closer you are to the green, the higher the iron you will use. A standard set of irons consists of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 irons and a pitching wedge - PW. The 3 and 4 irons are harder to hit than the higher number irons. Many golfers, especially ladies, seniors and higher handicap golfers, are changing to a modified standard golf set that replaces the 3 and 4 iron with higher lofted woods like the 7 and 9 woods. We think this is something that a beginning golfer should consider. Higher lofted woods, like the 7 and 9 wood are easier to hit than a 3 or 4 iron and result in comparable distances.

Hybrid Golf Clubs - A hybrid club is a new class of golf club whose name comes from genetics to denote a mixture of two different species with desirable characteristics of both, and the term here has been generalized; a hybrid club combines the advantages of an iron and a wood.

For many players, long irons are difficult to hit even with modern clubfaces, due to the low trajectory and very small face of the low-loft clubhead.  Players have tended to avoid these clubs in favor of fairway woods, but such woods, having longer shafts, have a different swing mechanic that is sometimes difficult to master.  The long shaft of a fairway wood also requires lots of room to swing, making it unsuitable for "punching" out from underneath trees, and a wood clubface is designed to skim over instead of cutting into taller grass, which makes it undesirable for shots from the rough.  The answer to this dilemma for many players is to replace the 2-4 irons with hybrids. 

Wedge - Wedges are really just specialty irons. The pitching wedge - PW is usually about 48° in loft, and generally increase in 4° loft amounts. So wedges commonly come in 48°, 52°, 56°, 60° and 64° lofts. The PW is the highest lofted iron in a standard set and lowest loft of the wedges. Following the PW with higher lofts are the approach wedge (AW) or gap wedge (GW), sand wedge (SW), and lob wedge (LW).

Putter - A putter is a golf club used to get the ball into the hole when you reach the green. A good putt to save a par or bogey makes up for a missed shot from the tee or fairway.   Drive for show, putt for dough!