Let Your Game Choose What Clubs You Play
The game of golf has been played with basically the same set of clubs for over a hundred years. These traditional sets usually include a driver, 3 wood, 5 wood, 10 irons numbered 3 through 9, a pitching wedge, a sand wedge, and a putter. But the typical set of golf clubs doesn't always work for the typical golfer. Modern technology and golf club design innovations have made this the time to take a fresh look at what a good golf club set can and should be. No longer do you need to select your clubs based on the traditional set. It is now much easier, and way more beneficial, to select your golf clubs based on what YOUR GOLF GAME requires.
There are many kinds of shots that can be required while playing the game of golf. Depending on the type of shot, you could require more distance or maybe need to be more accurate. Golf shots are hit from many different places, with various conditions, on the course. Some shots are hit from the tee, some from the short grass of the fairway, and others can sometimes need to be played from some of the most ungodly places like the rough, sand, or dry dirt (hardpan). Every different shots situation can require a different type of club. Based upon your golfing skill, some of these shots may be fairly easy to play, while others could be very difficult, if not near impossible.
Say your next shot requires a 200 yard carry over water to a small green with a tight pin location. Depending on your golfing ability, the club you choose to play and the type of shot you decide to attempt will be different. A beginner level golfer needs all the help and forgiveness they can get, sometimes it can take even more than one shot. Intermediate level golfers will generally need a little less forgiveness, but will still want to play a club they are comfortable with. An advanced golfer will want to attack the pin and will want to play a club with the more subtle characteristics of feel and clubhead response that a beginner can't even begin to imagine. With the traditional set of clubs, golfers of different skills were left with very few choices in how to play this shot. Thankfully, modern golf cub design has enabled all of us to make many more.
So Which Golf Clubs Are The Most Important To Have?
The game of golf requires many different kinds of shots to be made - drives (tee shots), long shots from the fairway or rough, shorter approach shots into the green, pitches, chip shots, blasts from the sand, and of course, putts. There are also plenty of the aptly named "trouble" shots that leave many of us finding out that we don't have the proper club in our bag to play them. The amount of each type of shots varies golfer to golfer and round to round, but by far the most frequent played golf shot is the putt. The average golfer can and often does use the putter more than twice as many times as any other club (sometimes more than all of them combined) in their bag. If a golfer were to post a score of around a 100, an estimated 35% - 40% of the strokes will be from putts on or around the green. Just based on the amount of use it get, the putter is the most important club when it comes to scoring.
The driver is often the next most played club. Most courses have about 14 holes where the driver can be used from the tee. This equates to about 12-20% of your shots, depending on your ability level, and how the hole is set up. The first shot from the tee will often set the tone for how the rest of the hole is played. This makes the driver one of the more important clubs in your bag. Many golfers do not have the proper driver to suit their ability level and / or swing type. Since the drive can make a huge difference in how the rest of the your shots on that hole will play out, it is probably a good idea to get a driver that is going to help you hit consistently good drives.
Many beginner golfers often have a difficult time reaching the greens in the regulation number of strokes. This results in many chip shots or small pitches that need to be made, making the wedges the second most used clubs in your bag. A beginner may typically only hit a handfull of greens in regulation, and that is on a good day!. Because of this, beginners often make a lot of strokes in the 15-20 yards surrounding the green. Having a few different wedges in the bag can help make these shots work for you.
The rest of the strokes played can be spread around among the rest of the clubs. Other than the driver, wedges, and putter, no other club is likely to be played more than a few times. But don't mistake this as meaning these other clubs are not important!
Frequency of use is not the only factor that can define the importance of a club. A golf club (or should we say, how well you play a particular club) also has a lot to do with the effect that club has on your golf game. Several of the clubs in your bag can have the potential to cause you problems (yeah more strokes). These clubs need to be given special attention as well. Generally speaking, the more difficult a club is to hit, the more likely, and likely more often, it could or will cause a disaster. The driver, fairway woods, and long irons are the clubs most likely to send your ball bouncing around in the trees or splashing into the lake. Good bye ball, hello more strokes.
So why is it that these clubs are notorious for wreaking havoc on our golf games? It's no coincidence that these problem clubs are also the longest clubs in the bag. It comes down to physics. The longer the club is, the harder it is to square the clubface at impact. As our golfing abilities improve, the length of the club becomes somewhat less of a factor, and we can begin to take advantage of the distance the longer clubs can offer, without sacrificing quite as much in the accuracy department. But even the pros are prone to let fly an errant shot with the longer clubs, and since most of us are not even close to their skill level, why not help our games now by finding forgiving versions of these problem clubs? With higher lofted drivers, fairway woods, and the new hybrid clubs on todays market, replacing the traditional long clubs with an easier to play club can make a huge difference in your game.
Different skill levels demand different golf clubs. Here are a few ways a set of golf clubs could be configured based upon your ability as a golfer.