About Golf Clubs

There is lots of talk about golf clubs which can improve your game, but the person holding the club has a lot to do with it as well, believe me.

They do say that more business is conducted on the golf course than in the board room, and take a look over any golf course on a bright sunny day and you’ll see them, groups of men in funny trousers carrying their bags full of clubs (or having somebody else do it for them, if they don’t have a trolley), groups of women running off before the last couple of holes to do the school run, - where does the time go? – yes, love it or hate it there are millions of golf lovers the world over. Mark Twain once described golf as "a good walk spoilt" but that doesn’t put off the sheer fanatics who are in constant search of the perfect swing.

Does the Club Make the Golfer?

So what difference does a club make? It has been estimated that the club only actually comes into contact with the ball for 450 millionths of a second for the really good professional golfers. Wow, what on earth can happen in such a minute amount of time which can make all the differences between watching your ball veer off into the bushes or a hole in one? Surely there can’t be that much difference?

Different Types of Golf Clubs

The reason that most people have a whole bag full of clubs, (often dressed with knitted hats or stockings – they’re a funny bunch these golfers) is that they use different clubs for different parts of the course, although three is probably quite sufficient for the amateur, the rest is all show!

• Woods – you’ll spot these even with a hat on because they are the longest clubs in the golf bag, made of wood and designed to send the ball sailing for hundreds of yards with a single swing from the tee. That’s the theory anyway, if hundreds of yards are a bit ambitious keep on practicing.
• Irons – these come in a much greater variety than the woods, and are numbered so that you know which is which. The irons with a low number are designed to send the ball almost as far as you can with a wood, and the higher numbers are wedges which are designed to send the ball upwards and onwards, a shorter distance but jumping out of a bunker, for example, if you find yourself beached on the way to the green.
• Putters – you must have played on a putting green at some part of your youth, it’s almost the law! Anyway, putters are designed to send the ball rolling into the hole from a short distance away on the green, and aim to keep the golfers hand steady while they take aim.

Just as there have been advances in tennis rackets, swimming suits (ooops, a bit controversial) and running shoes, golf clubs are being continually developed to make that all important difference between landing on the green or in the undergrowth. The professionals do say that a good golf club can make a world of difference, but even with the best club in the world, a bad golfer could still end up in the rough.