Which club should I use?

When you’re new to golf, the array of golf clubs available can be bewildering. Why all these clubs? What are they used for? Do I really need that many? I’ll try to answer these in order.

There is such a wide variety of clubs because of the wide variety of situations your golf ball can get into. It may be on a tee, on a green, on the fairway, in a bunker, in the area around the green, on dirt, in brush, by a tree, etc. There are different clubs for different situations. You may already be familiar with them:

Drivers: Used for driving the ball off the tee when you need to have it go a long distance
Fairway Woods: Also used for long distance, sometimes off the tee when the hole is not long enough to require a driver, also used on the fairway when the ball still has a long distance to go.
Hybrids: Used as an option for both fairway woods and irons.
Irons: Used to hit ball a variety of distances on the fairway. The lower the number of the iron, the longer distance it is used for.
Wedges: Typically used to get yourself out of a touch situation, or to chip or lob a ball a short distance to the green.
Putters: Used on the green.

There is lots of advice out there on when to use which club. Generally, this advice goes something like, “Use XXX club when your ball is YYY-ZZZ yards from the hole.” The problem with that advice is that we all have different ranges for our clubs. The distance I can hit a 7-iron is certainly different than the distance Tiger Woods can hit one, and likely different than the distance you can hit one. So the best way to determine which club YOU should use in any given situation is to figure out what your specific distances/capabilities are for each club. To do this, go to a driving range and hit several balls with each club, Write down the distance each ball goes. Do this several times. After a couple of weeks you will have a lot of data for each club. Now, you can construct a chart like the following (the club list you use may be different than the one I have specified below):

1. Driver:           ___ to ___ yards
2. 3-Wood:        ___ to ___ yards
3. 5-Wood:        ___ to ___ yards
4. 4-Hybrid       ___ to ___ yards
5. 7-Iron            ___ to ___ yards
6. 9-Iron            ___ to ___ yards
7. P-Wedge       ___ to ___ yards
8. S-Wedge       ___ to ___ yards

Now, in order for this to be somewhat accurate, you have to take averages from your “good shots.” If you top a ball and it goes 5 yards out, don’t count it. You’ll have to do some subjective analysis about what is typical yardage for you with that club. Likewise, if you hit an unusually long shot with a sand wedge, I wouldn’t count it in my average range – it’s not likely you’ll hit it that distance often, so not likely you’ll choose it for that distance.

Once you have this information, make a little card with your personalized distance chart on one side and the list of club situations I posted above on the other side. Laminate it, punch a hole in it, and use a golf towel hook to hang it on your bag as a handy reference tool you can use to determine which club to use in which situation when you are out on the course.

As to whether or not you need all of these clubs, as a beginner, probably not. Especially if you are playing on 9-hole par 3 golf courses. Many of the clubs are best used by professionals and probably won’t make much difference in your game until you achieve more experience with them. Also, it is useful to work with a smaller set until you get well used to each one of their capabilities and how they work for you. When I first started playing, I purchased three clubs: a 4-Hybrid, a Sand Wedge, and a Putter. Since then, I have added (one at a time) a Driver, a 5-Wood, a 7-iron, and a Pitching Wedge. This set of seven clubs has proven more than adequate for my level of play – and it’s a lot easier to carry. I just carry them around in a lightweight bag that is sometimes called a “Sunday” bag or a “Carry” bag. You can see examples of these in my Golfer Newbies Store.

Note that tournament regulations specify a maximum of 14 clubs in your bag. Pros will own more clubs than this, and choose which clubs they want depending on the course they are playing on. Generally, though, both pros and amateurs develop “favorite ” clubs – ones they tend to hit better than others for one reason or another. Once that happens, you may find you carry even fewer clubs over time.

I’d enjoy getting comments on your experiences with and preferences for your clubs.