There are a lot of different clubs for one of the oldest open-air sports in the world. You don't have to be a professional to know the 3 big classes or types of clubs. Probably haven't even played golf. As an outsider, it certainly doesn't make much sense to say that you have 14 clubs in your bag. But there is a reason for that.
The 3 types of clubs
Basically, golfers distinguish between 3 types of clubs. The best known club is also known to non-golfers from minigolf courses. The
putter. With the putter you almost always only play on the green to finally pocket the ball. It is the scalpel of the
golfer - for the filigree work.
The second group are the irons. Often murder instrument in the Hollywood - strips, they are on the course an indispensable strength. We usually
have 6 or more of the irons in our golf bags. But why so many?
Length matters
We have so many irons in our pockets because we have to make a fundamental distinction here again. First of all, we have the normal iron clubs
for almost every situation on the golf course. They are often numbered from 1 to 9. The higher the number, the less long you hit the ball with
this club. But there's even more to it.
The iron 1 is also known as driving iron. Not to be confused with the driver, but more about it. It is very rare or even not to be found in the
golf bag of an amateur. Even professionals only have it at certain tournaments.
You can say something similar about irons 2 and 3. In contrast, irons 4 - 9 are available in almost every racquet set.
Special - Iron
Everyone knows pictures of the golf course and on really every golf course they are available - the bunkers. And exactly for this special
situation and others there are more irons - the so-called wedges. Every golfer, professional or amateur, has at least one wedge in his equipment.
The Sand Wegde is, as the name suggests, the bank for the bunker. It is characterized by its construction, not to dig too deep into
the sand and at the same time to give a lot of control over the ball. It is very short compared to the length of the remaining irons. The sand wedge
can also be used for the infamous short game around the green. If you want a controlled chip of about 40 meters before the green on that one or a rescue
shot from the high grown lawn from the edge back on the fairway, the sand wedge is also a means of choice.
There is also the Pitching Wedge, the Lob, Approach and Gap Wedge. All of them are used for the short game around the goal of the course
- the hole. It is said that if you control the way, you are very well positioned in the short game. Furthermore, it means that you decide tournaments
with the short game.
How the irons and paths affect the length and the trajectory of the ball is explained in more detail here. [LIIIINNNKKKK]
Woods?
We simply say woods to the third and last group of thugs. Actually, that's not quite correct, because the clubs are actually made of graphite or metal -
but they used to be made of wood and the name has become so accepted to this day.
The best known wood is probably the Driver. With the Driver you make, if you control it, right meters. As a rule, it is the club with
the longest range in the bag and is therefore only used from the tee.
That's why there are other types of wood, which are also called hybrids/rescue irons or fairway woods. These woods have a smaller head than the driver
and therefore a smaller striking surface and are shorter in shaft, but they are perfectly suited to make a good meter from the fairway.
What is the Loft?
The loft of a club is the degree of inclination of the club surface. The higher the loft of the club, the less far (but the higher)
the ball flight curve becomes.
A Lob Wedge is the club with the highest loft and the putter the club with the lowest loft.
Loft is measured in degrees and is divided as follows:
46° (Pitching Wedge)
50° (Gap Wedge or Approach Wedge)
54°, 56°, 58° (sand wedge)
60°, 62°, 64° (Lob Wedge)
For iron, the usual loft specifications are as follows:
Iron 3: 21°.
Iron 4: 24°.
Iron 5: 27°.
Iron 6: 30°.
Iron 7: 34°.
Iron 8: 38°.
Iron 9: 42°.
Pitching wedge (PW): 46°.
For the woods one can say that the loft is distributed between 7° and 19°.