Golf Clubs For Dummies
Golf clubs look identical to people who do not know how to play the game. Every golf club is made from three parts. A rod, called a shaft, has a club head attached to one end and a grip at the other. Club head shapes determine how far and at what angle the ball will be propelled. With practice, a golf player will intuitively select the right club for each shot.
Most sets of golf clubs contain fourteen clubs, three or four of which are called woods, one putter, one to three wedges and as many as eight irons. In addition to being in four categories, clubs are marked with numbers that designate how far the ball can generally be hit. The number is a measurement of the the loft, or how sharply upward that the ball is projected away from the ground. A lower number indicates that the ball will travel father than a club with a higher number.
The majority of the varieties of golf clubs will propel golf balls into the air as well as forward. A putter, the club used most often in golf, is an exception to this rule. It moves the ball along the ground with a rolling motion. Most putters are similar with shafts approximately three feet long, but there is some variation in size. The club heads on putters are either blades or mallets with flat bottoms.
A club known as a wood will send a golf ball farther than any other. With practice, a player should be able to send the ball over 200 feet. While the clubs originally were made with hickory or persimmon wood heads, modern woods are made with steel or alloy metals. Other woods are made from hollow carbon fiber and titanium. The shape of the head is round with a planar surface along the bottom, giving it the ability to easily move parallel to the ground. Woods have the lowest loft of the varieties of clubs. The low loft and flat bottom make it the best choice for shooting the ball a long distance. A 1-wood has the lowest loft and is able to propel more than any other woods, giving it the name of “driver”. A club with a higher loft is more practical when golfing in the fairway or on a tee.
The clubs known as irons originally had club heads have from iron, but modern golf clubs use steel because of its additional strength. These clubs have a moderate amount of loft. They are appropriate for shooting the ball under two hundred feet. 1-iron and 2-iron are harder for inexperienced players to use, so are not generally included in a standard selection of golf clubs. Most sets will have irons starting with 3 and go as high as 9, with higher lofts and less distance.
Wedge clubs are primarily used for propelling the ball upwards rather than forward. Their loft is higher than the other clubs, making them ideal for removing the ball from obstacles such as tall grass or sand. Even a wedge with a low loft will only move the ball a maximum of a hundred or so feet forward. A standard golf set includes the pitching wedge, a club that has a 46 to 51 degree loft. The loft wedge has a marginally higher loft, generally topping out around 51 degrees. The gap wedge has the greatest lost and can reach as high as 64 degrees.
Centuries ago, there was no standardization to golf clubs, but the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) now have strictly regulated requirements for golf clubs. As styles and newer materials are introduced, rules may be adapted in order to keep competition fair. Guidelines for which clubs are allowed change as newer materials become available for golf club construction. In order to ensure that your clubs will be considered acceptable, never forget to check the most latest guidelines before purchasing golf clubs.