List of Different Types of Golf Clubs and Their Uses

Table of Contents

Do you want to be a pro golfer? Are you, someone who is an amateur in the game of golf but you want to be a master of the game someday?

Well, to make your dream true you must have a clear understanding of the different types of golf clubs and their uses, isn’t it? Yes, of course, so today, I am going to tell you everything about different types of golf clubs and when to use them?

A typical bag of the golf clubs can have a maximum of 14 clubs that means a player is not allowed to carry more than 14 clubs in his bag.

You can have any combination of the golf clubs depending on your personal choice but their number must not exceed 14. However, there are no such restrictions on the minimum number of clubs.

Related Post: Best golf clubs for high handicappers

Now, let’s understand what are the 14 clubs in a golf bag and their uses

What are the Different Types of Golf Clubs?

Traditionally, a golf bag contains 4 major types of golf clubs, these are— woods, hybrids irons, and putter. Wedges come under the category of irons with more loft.

Each of these clubs has a different design and use. For instance, the longer the club is, the farther the ball will travel but less is the height. On the other hand, the shorter the club is, the higher the ball will go up in the air but less is the distance covered.

Here are different types of golf clubs:-

Woods
Hybrids
Irons and
Putter

Related Post: Best Golf Clubs For Women

PARTS OF A GOLF CLUB

To develop a thorough understanding of the golf clubs and their uses, the first step is to know about the different parts of a club which serve as the bases of differentiation among different clubs. Starting from the top to bottom a golf club has the following major parts:-

Grip: The Grip of a golf club Handel or cylindrical area from where you hold the club. Perfect gripping of the club is extremely important to hit a powerful shot.
Shaft: The Shaft of a golf club is the metallic pipe-like structure which is attached to the clubhead. The shaft could be made of steel or graphite.
Hosel/neck: The hosel of a golf club is the cavity or the hole through which the shaft is attached to the clubhead.
Clubhead: The clubhead of a golf club is the last part of a club. The clubhead is the only part of a club which comes in direct contact with the ball. The rear of a clubhead could either be a cavity or a plane metallic blade.

Related Post: 05 Best Golf Clubs for Beginners in 2020

Two Important Angles

Apart from the parts, there are two important angles which are the deciding factors in picking the appropriate club to play your shots. These are:

Loft

The loft of a club is the angle between the shaft and the clubhead. As the loft increases the ball will go higher but covers less distance. Conversely, on diminishing the loft you can increase the distance covered and decrease the height of the flight.

Related Post: 05 Best Golf Clubs for The Money

Bounce

The Bounce of a club is the angle between the sole of the club and the ground. An increase in bounce leads to higher flight and decreases the distance cover by a ball.

Related Post: Golf Club Length Guide

Golf Clubs and When to Use them

1. Woods

Design: The first and the longest club which you may keep in your bag is the wood. Obviously, nowadays, they are not made of wood but back in the past, they were made of persimmon wood that’s how they got their name.

The first manufacturer who made the wood of steel was Taylormade Golf in 1979. Presently, the woods are made of titanium or alloy of steel with other metals. But we still call them wood to resemble their shape and built

Woods have the longest shaft and the largest head among all the other golf clubs. Woods can be further categorised into two types:

(i) 1-Wood or driver

(ii) 3-Wood or fairway wood.

Using Wood

The long shaft and the large head of woods make them the most powerful clubs. 1-Wood or driver has the longest shaft and the largest clubhead.

The driver can hit the ball farthest, about 250 yards but this wood has the least loft which makes it difficult to hit a ball. Especially, beginners take quite some time to get used to playing with this club.

3-Wood or fairway wood has got some loft which helps the golfer to hit the ball easily. 3-Wood can hit the ball up to 200 yards. In case, you are a beginner in golf, may get more distance in striking a ball by the fairway wood than the driver.

2. IRON

Design: The next club in the bag is iron. The clubs got their name as irons Irons because they are made of forged iron. Irons have a lofted face with either blade or cavity at the rear side. Iron comes in number starting from 1 to 9.

1-, 2- and 3- are called long irons, 4-, 5-, and 6- irons are called middle irons while 7-, 8-, and 9- irons are called short irons. The loft of irons are more than the woods but less than the wedges. Ping irons come with color dots on the clubhead and are customized according to your need.

Using Iron

Irons are used for hitting the ball from 150 to 200 yards. Since they got more loft than the woods they will allow you to gain height as well. You can play a variety of shots using irons such as pitch, tee, and fairway shots. They are the most versatile clubs that you can have.

3. Hybrids

As the name suggests, hybrids in golf are the combination of a Fairwood and an Iron. Golf equipment manufacturers came up with the golf club having the qualities of woods as well as irons. Their clubhead looks like wood from the back which gives it power and the face is like irons that help in making contact with the ball.

4. Wedge

Design: Wedges in golf have the heaviest clubhead broadest loft and the shortest shaft among all the golf clubs. There are four kinds of wedges in a golf bag these are— the pitching wedge’s loft is about 47° to 50°, the gap wedge’s loft is about 50° to 53°, the sand wedge’s loft 54° to 58° and the lob wedge’s loft is 58° to 64°.

The shaft of a pitching wedge is the longest while that of a lob wedge is the shortest. Wedges also got some degrees of bounce which varies from 2° to 14°.

Using Wedge

Wedges are used to play chips, pitch, and bunker shots. You can even use a pitching wedge to hit a ball up to 125 yards. A gap wedge is made to bridge the difference between pitching and sand wedge.

By sand wedge, you can escape your ball from sand or the bunker. Lob wedge has the maximum loft and is used to rescue the ball from the bunker and/or long grass

5. Putter

Design: The last kind of club is the putter. A putter’s loft cannot exceed 10 degrees. The length of a standard putter is about 34 to 35 inches. The clubhead of the putter could either be a blade or mallet.

Some putters also have the groves on their faces to reduce the chances of skidding. Putters have some exceptional features which the other clubs don’t have such as two striking faces, bent shafts, non-circular grips. The different kinds of the putter are— belly putter, broomstick putter.

Using Putter

Putters are the most used clubs. You will use them when the ball is near the hole and you just roll the ball over the grass to go towards the hole.

How Can You Instantly Select a Golf Club Explained Through a Table

Golf Club	Distance	Loft	Use
Wood	250-200 yards	15° approx	To hit a long-distance shot
Hybrid	150-200 yards	15° to 20°	To hit long-distance shots with ease
Iron	150-200 yards	20° to 40°	To hit mid-range shot along with hight
Wedge	40 to 125 yards	47° to 64°	To hit chip, pitch and bunker shots
Putter	2-3 yards	5° to 10°	To roll the ball towards the hole

For more detail check Video: What’s in a Set of Golf Clubs

For More Info and Latest Review Keep Visiting Golferarena.com.