Luke is an avid weekend-warrior golfer from the East Coast who plays golf more than he cares to admit.
In the game of golf, the type of club you select is everything. Some golf clubs are more beginner-friendly than others, which can make easing into the game simpler. You may just score a birdie or even an eagle. What are the different golf clubs out there?
The types of golf clubs are as follows:
- Putters
- Wedges
- Irons
- Woods
- Hybrids
If you’re not sure what these golf club styles are, don’t worry. Ahead, we’ll go type by type, explaining each in greater detail, so make sure you keep reading!
The 5 Types of Golf Clubs
Let’s dive into what are the different golf clubs and why at Our Golf Clubs, we find it necessary to detail each. Spoiler: it’s not enough to have a fast golf ball speed or even attempt a stress-free golf swing (if it exists) if you don’t understand the basics of golf!
Putters
The first golf club style is a putter. You won’t start with a putter, as it’s typically reserved for making that final shot into the hole. The shot, by the way, should be short-distance rather than longer-distance. Although golfers don’t use the putter all that often, it’s a club that’s considered indispensable by many.
Putters feature a long clubhead, which is the head that you use to strike the ball. Although it depends on the style, it’s not unheard of for putters to feature dual striking faces. If so, these will both be symmetrical and identical.
Our Recommended Putters For Experts & Beginners
The clubhead of a putter will also be lower to the ground and flat. Putters might have exclusive features such as positional guides, angular grips, and bent shafts. The design of a putter is such that when you launch your ball, it has less topspin bounce. The impact will be good and you’ll get great glide and easy strokes.
The loft of a putter’s striking face is between 5 and 6 inches, which allows you to remove the ball from a depression with ease so it bounces less. The angular cross-section grip makes handling this club comfortable. With its bent shaft, the putter is plenty stable. The shaft is often positioned by the clubhead for better accuracy as well.
Wedges
We’ll talk more about irons in the next section, but for now, know that wedges are an iron subset. Like with a putter, you won’t use a wedge for every type of golfing situation, but only when you’re looking to lob the ball into the hole from a relatively short distance. If you’re stuck in a bind just outside of the green or even on it, you’ll also want a wedge.
If you decide to play with a wedge, you have your pick of wedge subtypes, including lob, sand, gap, and pitching wedges. Here’s an overview of those four wedge styles.
Lob Wedges
The lob wedge features a roughly 60-degree loft, so out of all the clubs in your bag, the lob wedge would be the highest. When your ball gets stuck in a depression or rough, you can use a lob wedge to recover it and send the ball towards the green.
If you don’t want your ball to have rolling distance after you strike it, a lob wedge comes in handy. So too is that the case if your carry angle isn’t very long or you need to launch a ball pretty far.
Sand Wedges
A wedge club with a slightly lower degree of loft (around 56 degrees) is the sand wedge. Unlike a lob wedge, you may be able to launch a ball even higher when hitting it with a sand wedge. As the name would suggest, you should use a sand wedge if your ball is stuck in a sand bunker or another sandy area.
You do get more bounce with a sand wedge, typically around 10 degrees. The combination of the bounce angle with the loft and the high mass of a sand wedge is adept at helping your ball escape even harder-packed sand as well as the soft stuff.
Outside of sand, you can also rely on a sand wedge if your ball is stuck in the mud or when the ground is soggy and wet. Just don’t use a sand wedge when golfing on harder ground, as the club’s leading edge can rise and affect your shot.
Gap Wedges
A good in-between option when a sand wedge nor pitching wedge is appropriate is the gap wedge. It has a loft of 52 degrees with some bounce, anywhere from 5 to 8 degrees. You can send your ball flying 90 to 110 yards with a good, full swing when using a gap wedge.
The bounce angle is something you really have to familiarize yourself with when playing golf with a gap wedge. If your wedge has a higher degree of bounce, then playing in tight or firm areas will reduce performance but shooting in tall grass and softer areas will make your performance better. By reducing bounce, the opposite becomes true.
Pitching Wedges
The last type of wedge is probably the best known, and that’s the pitching wedge. It has a lower loft compared to the other wedges, 48 degrees or so. It also bounces the least. If you have a moderate-distance shot planned, meaning you want the ball to travel 100 yards, maybe 125 yards, then a pitching wedge is a smart choice.
Of all the wedges, you may use this one the most often, as you can even make shorter-distance shots that are 30 to 70 yards using a pitching wedge if you’re precise with it. You can also pull your ball out of a sand bunker with a pitching wedge provided that the ball hasn’t sunk too far into the sand.
Our Recommendation Golf Wedge Collection
Irons
We can’t talk about wedges without a discussion of irons, so we’ll dive into these next. Irons are numbered between 0 and 12, with 3 to 9 the most common selections. Higher numbers increase the loft while lower numbers have an equally low loft.
If yours is a 1 iron, it’s known as a driving iron. The low surface area of the clubhead face makes hitting with one of these clubs difficult without lots of experience. Those irons labeled 2 through 4 are long irons. Their lengthy shaft and low loft lend this club adeptness at hitting balls between 180 and 260 yards. However, their launch angles are quite low.
Irons that are 5 to 7 are mid-irons that can hit 130 to 210 yards while irons that are 8 to 9 are short-irons. These irons have short shafts and a high center of mass in the clubhead.
Irons have a decently small clubhead, especially when compared to woods (keep reading to learn about these clubs) and a short shaft. The iron clubhead is quite durable and features angles throughout the face and a big, flat shape.
If you’re on a short-distance teeing ground, you’d use an iron. That’s also true if your ball gets stuck in shallow water, sand bunkers, and other hazards. Golfers also like irons for shooting from the rough or fairway when nearing the green.
Best Selling & Reviewed Iron Sets:
Of all the golf clubs, irons are the ones you’ll see most frequently. Remember that wedges are irons too, so that explains their commonality.
Most irons have a muscle back, meaning the clubhead is forged solid iron. Since the iron envelopes the clubhead, its center of mass is high. That reduces rotation resistance from the clubhead to get a great sweet spot.
However, muscle-backed irons are harder to shoot straight, especially if you’re inexperienced. This is where cavity-backed irons come into play, which are also known as perimeter-weighted clubs. They feature investment casting which is a thin but hard metal.
The rear clubhead cavity causes the center of mass to be lower so that your ball’s launch angle is usually higher. The sweet spot is even larger with a cavity-backed iron.
Woods
The fourth type of golf club is woods, which feature a sizable clubhead and a narrow but lengthy shaft. If you’re looking for distance with your golf club, a wood club is a great style to choose. The reason this golf club type is called woods is that it was once made from persimmon or other hardwoods. Today, carbon fiber and titanium construction have become the norm, but the name lives on.
The best fairway finders & woods:
Like irons are numbered, so too are wood drivers. If yours is a 1-wood, it’s lightweight and lengthy with a low loft. You also get the most distance. A 2-wood increases the loft thanks to the increased depth of the clubhead face, but you don’t have quite as much distance to work with. That’s why most golfers will choose a 3-woods club instead.
Hybrids
The last type of golf club is the hybrid, which combines elements of woods and irons into one club. Their heads are made of titanium or hollow steel with a shallow clubhead face and a flat sole. They feel like an iron and have a similar weight and length.
Here are the hybrid club sets
every golfer needs to have in their bag:
Concluding on what are the different golf clubs
There you have it, five types of golf clubs you’ll certainly use at one point or another as you get into golf. When you choose a golf club appropriate to your situation, you’ll feel like more of a pro in no time.
