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Best Golf Club [Stick] | Buying Guide : Things to consider while buying a Golf Club [Stick]

Golf is one of the most popular and widely played sports in the world today, and whether you have been playing for years or have never touched a club, buying golf equipment can be a daunting task. This golf club buying guide will help you put together the perfect set for yourself and give you tips to make the process fun and painless.

Golf clubs also play a vital role. I can’t think of too many other sports where there is so much variety of equipment needed to play. For a round of golf you need a driver, irons, fairway woods, wedges and a putter. And then there are hybrid clubs, mixing the best parts of an iron and wood club.

Understand what clubs and other accessories make up a complete set. The rules of golf limit you to carry no more than 14 clubs in your golf bag from putter to driver. That doesn’t mean you absolutely need 14, just that 14 is the maximum allowed. A baseline set that is a good start for any golfer includes the following:

• Driver (9.5 – 13 degrees)
• Fairway Wood (15 – 17 degrees)
• Hybrid (19 – 21 degrees)
• Iron Set (4 – PW, AW or SW)
• Wedge (SW and/or LW)
• Putter (33″, 34″ or 35″ – length is determined by player preference)

Starting with the above clubs as your baseline set, you can then start selecting equipment based on your ability level. Though the clubs above are listed as a baseline, there are an infinite number of possibilities to create a set of clubs. It all depends on your preferences and how well you hit each different club.

Long irons can be replaced with hybrids or woods. Irons can even replace woods. And any number of wedges can be chosen to be put into your bag. These are just a few ways to switch up what is in your bag, but 14 clubs is the limit by rule.

See what you like best or what benefits your game best. The possibilities are endless, but by starting with this basic set you can better determine what is going to be the perfect set for you.

The next part of shopping for clubs can get quite confusing, but we are here to make this process much easier. You need to understand not only the terminology of the components, but how those components translate to your game.

Club Components

Now that you have an idea of what a basic set is, we can delve a little deeper into exactly what you are looking at when trying to buy golf clubs.

There are four major categories of golf clubs: woods, irons, wedges, and putters. All of these club types have several major components that are common to all golf clubs on the market today.

Golf Club Grips

The grip is the soft material at the top of the shaft. It helps the golfer hold onto the golf club, but, equally important, the grip also determines the golfer’s ability to feel how the head impacts the ball. Grips are available in rubber composite and leather; some also feature fiber cords. Test-drive several and go with what feels most comfortable in your hand. New materials and adhesives make replacing a worn-out grip a do-it-yourself project for most people, which wasn’t the case just a few years ago.

Golf Club Shafts

The shaft is a steel tube or graphite cylinder with a standard length of 35 inches to 44 inches. Steel is strong and scratch-resistant; it won’t break easily, offers good swing control and generally costs less than graphite, the alternative material. Graphite weighs less than steel and has more “flex,” meaning the shaft can whip through, imparting more power to golf balls and adding an advantage of several yards over steel. Unfortunately, added flex means decreased control.

High-tech shafts, such as steel-graphite hybrids and titanium, are now available, but golfers are still debating their strengths and weaknesses, although titanium has won accolades for absorbing vibration.

Shaft importance cannot be underestimated; it pulls the club head, giving the head the energy to hit the golf balls down range. Some manufacturers now offer semi-custom golf clubs, with several shaft options available for each head.

To determine correct golf club shaft length, stand up straight with your arms at your sides. Have someone measure the distance from the tip of your middle finger to the ground. This is your base length, which can be adjusted up or down slightly. A longer shaft gives more distance; a shorter shaft gives more control.

Golf Club Heads

The head has a face, which hits the ball. It is flat, but not vertical. The face’s “loft” is the angle back from vertical, defined by the golf club shaft. Lower numbers (2 wood vs. 6 wood) means lower loft angle and a longer shot. It also means less control over the flight and where the ball lands.

The heads of older golf woods or golf irons were denser and smaller than modern heads, giving each golf club a smaller “sweet spot,” the part of the face that should contact the golf ball for the best possible shot.

Modern materials allow greater variety in a club head’s density and size. In tournament golf, the head must be 460 cc or less, although over-the-limit heads can be used in drive contests and sport golf among friends.

Golf Club Hosel

The hosel is important because it connects the clubhead to the shaft. It also determines the lie angle of the club which is the angle between the sole of the club and the shaft.

Certain golf clubs like drivers, fairway woods, and hybrids offer adjustable hosels which allow you to change the loft settings of the club. Irons, wedges, and putters usually do not have adjustable hosels as the clubs are built with preset lie angles suited for that specific golf club.

Depending on your height and your swing you could have your golf clubs adjusted to lie angles that custom fit you best. This is common among professional golfers who may differentiate their club settings from the standard club settings that the average golfer would buy from the store.

Types of Golf Clubs

Driver

A driver is often the most coveted club in the golf bag that players put most of their focus on when buying golf clubs. This is largely due to the distance it can hit a golf ball and the golfer’s ego pushing them to try and hit the ball as far as possible.

A driver comes in loft degree options between 9 and 13 with most club manufacturers producing a 9, 10.5, and 12 degree options.

However, you can check to see if they’ll produce the driver in 8 degree or 13 degree options as well if one suits your game better than the standard three loft options.

Drivers can hit the ball 200-350 yards on average which is important for longer golf holes like par 5’s and long par 4’s. But they are also one of the most difficult golf clubs in the bag to hit which means picking out one that is also forgiving.

Drivers are built with steel and graphite shafts and the clubhead is produced most often in aluminum or alloy materials. Carbon fiber is also occasionally used as a driver’s clubhead material since it’s lighter weight.

You’ll also notice that drivers have larger club heads giving them a bigger sweet spot to make contact with the golf ball. You can choose between head sizes but the standard size of drivers these days is 460cc (cubic centimeters) which is the maximum allowed by the USGA currently.

Swing speed is fastest with the driver due to the shaft length and design of the club. Most golfers range between 80-120 mph swing speed with their driver. An average player with a 95 mph swing speed may hit the ball 230-240 yards, for example.

Fairway Woods

In the old days of golf, fairway woods were actually constructed of wood. Today you’ll find most are actually “fairway metals” due to the stainless steel, aluminum, and other alloys that are used to construct them but still commonly referred to as “fairway woods”.

Fairway woods have different loft options and you can choose to have multiple woods in your club set if it helps you cover the distance gaps needed in your golf game.

The 3 wood is a 13 degree club loft, the 5 wood is a 15 degree loft, and the 7 wood is a 17 degree loft. An easy way to remember this is to just ad a “1” in front of it for the degrees loft.

Beginner golfers tend to perform better with a wood as opposed to their driver so it’s pretty common to carry a 3 wood in your bag for tee shots in addition to using it for fairway shots on long par 4’s and par 5’s.

After the 3 wood, you may choose to have a 7 wood to cover the next distance gap between a 3 wood and a hybrid (19-21 degree loft) or 4 iron. For example, on long par 3’s that stretch 200 yards, a hyrbid or 7 wood could be used if it’s easier to hit than trying to hit a 4 iron 200 yards.

Hybrids

Hybrid clubs are important to bridge the gap between your woods and your shorter irons, if you struggle to hit longer irons.

Most beginner’s don’t make the best contact with a 3 or 4 iron and therefore struggle to get much distance with it. These long irons are also tough to keep straight for most beginner players with slices and hooks being the most common shot tendency.

Replacing the 3 and 4 irons with hybrids can ease playability and make your swing more forgiving on off-center golf shots.

Irons

Irons are important for scoring well in golf. Golf course’s design most greens to be quite small and with various ridges and slopes. This makes it tough for a golf ball to stay on the green if you hit a line drive with a wood or driver, for example.

Instead, irons are designed to hit the golf ball with high trajectory so it lands on the green at a steep downward angle which keeps the ball from rolling far. In golf terms, we refer to this as a “soft landing.”

Irons are able to hold the ball on greens by producing lots of backspin on the golf ball thanks to the grooves on the club face. If backspin is over done, your golf ball can also spin back off the front of the green since most greens slope from back to front but this is a more common problem for professional golfers who generate higher spin rates than the average player.

Most iron sets come standard with the 4-iron, 5-iron, 6-iron, 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron, and Pitching Wedge. Additionally, they may have a Gap Wedge or Approach Wedge as part of the 8 club iron set. Some iron sets substitute a 3-iron in replace of the G or A Wedge.

Most iron sets come with either steel or graphite shafts. For beginners, women, and senior golfers who tend to have slower swing speeds, a graphite set of irons is recommended to help you launch the ball better.

The clubhead on the iron is often cavity backed to allow more forgiveness for beginner golfers but more skilled golfers can opt for blades or other head designs. The clubhead is also much thinner and smaller as compared to woods and drivers which helps improve your accuracy.

The lofts increase as the number on the iron increases. For example, your 9 iron has more loft than your 4 iron which means the 9 iron will hit the ball higher than the 4-iron and also be easier to control shot shape than the 4-iron.

But for this improved control and accuracy, the 9-iron gives up distance which is why having a complete set can cover you over a wide range of distances you’ll face on the golf course.

There are also a few basic types of irons that you should be aware of when shopping for iron sets. These are Cavity Back, Cavity Muscle Back and Muscle Back (known as a Blade). Each of these iron types is designed to fit a particular skill level. Below is general information based on iron types:

• Max Game Improvement Irons – This iron type is a Cavity Back, so-called because of the large “cavity” or hollow portion in the back of the clubhead. The sole and toplines are enlarged on Max Game Improvement irons compared to blades or other iron head designs meant for more skilled players. The combination of the cavity back and the larger sole and topeline help to make the clubs more forgiving and easier to hit. Beginning golfers or those with higher handicaps (25+) would benefit from this iron type.
• Game Improvement Irons – There are different grades of cavity back, with the larger cavities being easier to hit and the smaller cavities being less forgiving. Game Improvement Irons have this smaller cavity back, but the sole and toplines are thinner and more compact. These irons fit a wide range of skill levels (5-25 handicap) and are the most popular sets.
• Player’s Irons – Player’s irons are generally a Cavity Muscle Back (CMB) or Muscle Back (MB). They are also known as a “blade”. These types of irons are used by professionals and other highly-skilled golfers, even though many professionals are now switching over to cavity backs. Blades have a flat back with no cavity, making them less forgiving. Though they are harder to hit, when hit properly, they produce a better feeling than a cavity back.

Wedges

Wedges are designed for improving your scoring as you get close to the green. They are created with higher loft that produces more accuracy and higher spin to help you get more control over the golf balls distance.

Bounce is another factor to consider when picking out wedges in your club set. It’s measured via the angle from the leading edge of the wedge’s club face and the bottom of the sole. The higher this angle is, the more bounce the wedge has and easier it is for the wedge to bounce off of the ground (as opposed to digging into the ground).

To help your chip shot produce consistent results, bounce can help the wedge continue moving forward in your swing after contacting the ground so that no jabby or jerky movement occurs, causing the ball distance to be inconsistent.

There are also many different kinds of wedges to choose from. The most common of these are the gap wedge, the sand wedge, and the lob wedge.

• The gap wedge (also known as an approach wedge) bridges the gap of distance between the pitching wedge and the sand wedge that can commonly be an awkward distance to attempt to hit without this club. This club allows for more distance than the other wedges but excellent accuracy as well.
• The sand wedge, debatably the most common wedge, is used for most sand bunker shots as well as many chips around the green in which you would like to get the ball up in the air and spin it once it hits the green. Though not a particularly long distance club, the sand wedge can be a very useful tool.
• The lob wedge is the last of the most common wedges and is used for short distance shots that will travel very high and spin a lot. This club provides the golfer with the ability to manipulate the ball around the greens with shots that stop quickly or high shots that spin back to the hole.
• A commonly asked question about wedges is: “Where does the pitching wedge go in the wedge category?” The truth is that the pitching wedge is generally placed in the iron category because it is usually sold with an iron set and not separately like many wedges are. Therefore the pitching wedge is not generally discussed among the other wedges, despite its name.

The gap wedge “bridges the gap” between your pitching wedge and your sand/lob wedges. According to LeaderBoard Golf, the gap wedge has 50 degrees of loft to help with shots from 90-120 yards as well as bump and run style chip shots around greens.

Lob wedges can vary from 54-64 degree loft. Phil Mickelson is famous for carrying a 64 degree lob wedge to hit high arcing flop shots out of sand bunkers and around greens.

Assuming you have a driver, wood, 8 irons in your iron set, and a putter, this puts you at 11 clubs total leaving 3 more club slots which could be 3 different wedges (54, 58, and 62 degrees loft). Short game makes up a large percentage of your strokes so having a good combination of wedges can help you pull off a variety of shots around the green.

Putters

Last but not least is the putter which can arguably be your most important golf club in the bag since it actually puts the ball into the hole to end your score for the hole.

There are many different styles of putters so the first step is understanding your putting stroke and matching it with a putter that is designed for your putting stroke type.

For example, if you keep your putting stroke fairly straight back and straight through, you may benefit most from a face-balanced putter according to GolfTec.

However, golfers with arcing putting strokes that open and close during the stroke tend to benefit more from a toe weighted putter. This extra weight in the toe can help them square the face at impact to start the putt on line.

In addition to weight distribution options you also get to choose head design style.

Whatever your experience with golf, an indoor putting green can also be great for improving your short game.

• Blade Putters have a smaller head design and thinner which make them ideal for players who are fairly accurate with putting. Think of the putter you’d use during miniature golf at a putt putt course.
• Mallet Putters are a much larger head design, often in a square block shape but also come with fangs or rounded edges on the back of them. These are ideal for players who need alignment assistance due to the shape and forgiveness on mishits due to the heaviness of the putter head.

What to Look for in a Beginner Set of Golf Clubs?

Golf club sets are composed of 14 clubs which is the maximum legal amount allowed by the USGA. In a beginner golf club set you should look for a good mix of drivers, woods, hybrids, irons, wedges, and a putter.

Most importantly, you want the golf clubs to cover your distance gaps. For example, if you hit your driver 230 yards and you hit your 4 iron 180 yards, then this 50 yard distance gap needs to be covered by the proper mix of fairway woods and hybrids with different lofts.

Here’s an example breakdown:

• Driver (9-13 degree loft)
• Fairway Wood (15-17 degrees loft)
• Hybrid (19-21 degrees loft)
• Iron Set (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 iron)
• Pitching Wedge
• G, S, or A Wedge
• Lob Wedge (54, 56, 58, 60 degree loft)
• Putter

Beginners should also look for drivers with more forgiveness and higher loft angles to help them hit the golf ball higher and farther as well as straighter from the forgiveness factor.