No experience 3

In previous posts we've talked about terms and elements of a course; today we'll close this series of entries with a fundamental issue: the clubs. There are 4 types and, as you can imagine, there's a reason for this.

Woods

They are designed for long shots, from tee to fairway and from fairway to green. If you want to recognize them easily just look for the"chubby"ones; they have big rounded clubheads with long shafts. Today they are made of titanium, carbon fiber or metal, but before the 80s the raw material was wood, therefore the name. A golfer usually carries the following woods in the bag: 1 (driver), 3 and 5.

Irons

Different from woods, they have thin clubheads. The distance that the ball travels after being hit with this kind of club is less, therefore the irons are used for approach shots, this is from fairway to green and from tee to green (only in par 3 holes). Some special characteristics are the inclination in relation to the floor (loft), the grooves in the surface that hits the ball, and the shaft, which increases or decreases according to the loft. This way, they are classified in long (1, 2, 3 and 4), mid (5, 6 and 7) and short (8 y 9). Finally, we need to mention the wedges, which get into this category and the difference between them and the irons is that their loft is higher than the 9 iron, it goes from 45º to 64º, and are very useful when you need precision or to get out of the rough or a bunker. In this category we have the pitching wedge (PW), gap wedge (GW), sand wedge (SW), lob wedge (LW) and ultra lob wedge (LW 64º). A bag usually includes: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 irons; sand wedge, pitching wedge and lob wedge.

Hybrids or rescues

They are the new kids on the block; since they combine the advantages of the woods and the irons, they help you out in tricky situations. These clubs can replace the long irons; nevertheless, there are complete sets which substitute all the irons, but the decision is up to the golfer.

Putters

They are designed to make the ball roll instead of fly. Therefore, they are used in the green and it is the club you use to sink the ball in the cup. There are lots of designs and the player needs to try several to decide which is the right one.

With this we've completed golf basics, but as usual, feel free to mail us or follow us on twitter to clear further doubts or give us your comments.