This is one of the most-asked questions from newbies to golf: How far am I supposed to hit each club? What is the golf club distance? Unfortunately, the only completely honest answer is: It depends.

It depends on a lot of factors: the clubs you are using, the balls you are using, the conditions under which you play (hard fairway or soft fairway? windy or calm? humid or dry? etc.), your gender and age, your physical fitness, coordination and athleticism, your swing speed, how solidly you are connecting with the ball. You get the idea. It depends.

It depends, and it varies widely from golfer to golfer. One person’s 5-iron distance is another person’s 3-iron distance is another person’s 7-iron distance. There is no wrong golf club distance, there is only your golf club distance. And knowing your distance is much more important than knowing how far each club is “supposed” to go. Here’s an interesting fact: While PGA pros hit their drives anywhere from 280 yards to 320 yards on average, and LPGA pros hit their drives from 230 to 270 yards on average, most amateurs - according to Golf Digest - average somewhere around 195-205 yards with their drivers.

The moral of that story? Don’t compare yourself with the world’s best players. Although some recreational players do out hit the pros, they are rare and you probably aren’t one of them.

You’ll quickly get an idea of whether you are a “long” hitter or “short” hitter by simply playing golf and comparing yourself to those you play with. There’s no shame in being a short hitter, and being a long hitter doesn’t guarantee anything, and certainly not a lower score.

And of course, hitting the ball far doesn’t matter at all if you can’t also hit it straight.

But you didn’t click on this topic to read all this, did you? You want those yardages, darn it! OK, I’ll give you some yardages, but consider everything you’ve read to this point to be my caveats on this subject.

The yardages listed in the chart below show a range for average amateurs, both male and female. As you’ll see, the ranges are quite large, and represent short hitters, mid hitters and long hitters. (There are, of course, people who hit it longer, just as there are people who hit it shorter.)

There is a greater gap, percentage-wise, between the longer and shorter women than there is between the longer and shorter men because better women players tend to be significantly longer than weaker women players. Especially compared to men. A male player who shoots 110 might be just as long as a guy who shoots 80. That is extremely unlikely in female players, however.

You can also find a handy ‘Golf Club Distance Calculator’ at Deep Rough

A final caveat: You can find charts such as this one on other sites around the Web. And if you do, one thing you’ll notice is that the numbers rarely, if ever, match up. Because golf club distance depends more on the player than on the clubs

Article provided courtsey of About:Golf

What’s up with these new hybrid clubs? Everyone is talking about ‘em these days. Are they really the game saver that all the hype seems to say?

The fact is, clubs like hybrid type clubs have been around a long time. They used to go by names like “baffler” and “rescue clubs” or just plain utility woods. So are they really something new? Well, yes and no.

The hybrid as we know it today was actually developed with the help of Gary McCord, the TV announcer and former PGA pro. He saw his golf buddies back home struggling with their long irons, so he thought maybe something could be done to make them easier to hit. He went to his sponsor, TaylorMade and suggested they come up with something new.

The result was the TaylorMade Rescue. The first of a new breed. So what the heck did they do to make this new club?

Well, it’s called a “hybrid” because it a combination of a wood and an iron. They basically took an iron shaft and and put a new kind of head on it. That head would have features of a wood. Features like a wide sole, low-back center of gravity, and more mass. So what’s so different about that? Why not just get a 5 or 7 wood.

The big difference is that shaft. The loft of a 2 iron and a 5 wood may be about the same…but the shafts are way different.

The shaft length on a 2 iron for an average height player is about 39 inches. The length on a 5 wood is about 42 inches. Hybrids are somewhere in between. A longer club will always go farther because a longer club will produce more clubhead speed. That extra speed will also tend to make the ball go higher. The problem with that extra speed is it can make the club harder to control.

shafts are also thicker than wood shafts. I bet you didn’t realize that. Not a lot (.03 inches), but enough to make the shaft more stable which adds up to a bit more accuracy.

Starting to get confused? Well here’s the bottom line.

Compared to a comparably lofted wood, a hybrid club is:
- more accurate
- won’t go quite as far
- easier to hit because it’s shorter

Compared to the same long iron, a hybrid is:
- easier to hit because the head has more mass and a lower center of gravity
- will make the ball go higher, carry further and land softer
- better out of sand and bad lies

Hopefully that clears up any confusion.

So which ones to buy?

Today’s hybrid clubs are actually quite varied. In addition to a choice of lofts, you can also get different sole widths and face heights. You can get lengths that are longer than standard irons and shorter or just as long as woods. In short, some hybrids offered are more like fairway woods and some are more like irons.

Just remember the basic rules of club design…the lower and farther back the center of gravity, the higher the ball will tend to fly. The longer the shaft the farther the ball will go but that extra length may make it harder to control. Remember to make your selection based on what your game needs not the manufacturers hype.

Price ranges for brands are in the $150 to $250 range. You can find custom clone versions for under $50

Give those hybrids a try. They’re bound to help your game.

For over a hundred years golf has been played with basically the same set of clubs. The traditional set includes 3 woods (1, 3, 5), 11 irons (2-9, PW, SW) and a putter. Does this configuration work for everyone. No way! It’s time to take a brand new look at what a golf club set can and should be. Instead of selecting clubs based on “tradition”, why not select clubs based on what YOUR golf game requires. Playing the game of golf requires many kinds of shots. Sometimes a shot requires distance and sometimes accuracy. Some shots we hit from a tee, some from short grass and sometimes from ungodly places like rough, sand and dry dirt (hardpan).

Each situation requires a different club. Based on our abilities, some shots will be relatively easy and some will be very difficult. If the shot requires a 200 yard carry over water to a tight pin on a small green, the right club for a beginner, intermediate or advanced golfer will be different. The beginner will need all the help and forgiveness possible (they might even need 2 shots). The intermediate may need a little less forgiveness but still wants to be comfortable with their club. The advanced player may want more subtle characteristics of feel and clubhead response that a beginner can’t even imagine. In the past all three were left with only a few choices. Thankfully today there are many more.

Which Clubs Are Most Important

As mentioned, golf requires several kinds of shots - drives, long approach shots, short approach shots, pitches, chips, sand shots, putts and a variety of so-called trouble shots. By far the most frequent shot is a putt. For an average golfer, the putter is used more than twice as much as any other club. If a golfer shoots a score of 100, 35%- 40% of those strokes will be putts. So based on shear numbers, the putter is the most important club.

For most golfers, the driver is used the next most often-a possible 14 times from the tee, or roughly 12-20% of the time depending on ability level and hole requirements. That first shot from the tee sets the tone for the hole. That makes it a very important club. A good drive makes the rest of the shots on that hole easier. A bad drive means …well trouble.

For beginners who have a hard time hitting the green in a regulation number of strokes, the wedges may be the second most used category of clubs. On a good day a beginner may hit 1-4 greens. So they spend a lot of strokes chipping up to the green (15-20). The remaining strokes in a round are spread among the rest of the set. It is likely that no one club will be used more than a few times.

So in terms of frequency of use, the putter, driver and wedges are clearly used the most frequently with the rest of the clubs bringing up the rear. On the other hand, the importance of a club has a lot to do with it’s effect on our games. A club that has the potential to cause problems (strokes) must be given added weight. The more difficult a club is to hit the more likely that it may cause disaster. The driver, the long irons, and fairway woods are the most likely culprits to cause that errant shot that never is heard from again. Good bye ball. It’s no coincidence that these problem clubs are also the longest clubs in the set. We can all agree that the longer the club, the harder to hit.

As our abilities improve we can begin to take advantage of what the longer clubs offer (distance) but to help our games now, finding forgiving versions of these clubs is a priority. Thankfully, we have many new possibilities with higher lofted drivers, fairway woods and the new hybrid clubs. Let’s take a look at how a set for a beginner, intermediate and an advanced golfer could be configured.

Beginner Set Profile

As a beginner you have a hard time making consistent contact with the ball. Contact on the heel and toe of the club is common as well as topped and fat shots (hitting the top of the ball or hitting the ground first). You just plain have a problem hitting the ball with the center of the clubface. Your swing speed is slow due to inexperience with proper swing mechanics (although you younger, athletic beginners may be the exception). For you women and juniors, clubhead speed is slow due to lack of strength. This causes difficulty getting the ball up in the air as well as lack of distance.

As beginner you may also have trouble getting the clubhead back to the ball in a square position. Your clubhead generally approaches the ball from outside of the target line (out-to-in) and at a steep angle. That usually means your typical shot shape is a slice - a shot that curves right. You often feel that it’s difficult to get the ball up in the air. This can be due to your slow swing speed or just from poor contact. Beginners tend to want to help the ball up by scooping under the ball, so you frequently hit fat shots particularly with your irons. You haven’t learned that hitting down on the ball makes it go up. This is also caused by that out-to-in, steep swing path. In the sand you are clueless. You don’t understand yet that to get out of the sand you don’t hit the ball, you hit the sand and the ball rides out on the sand.

The Beginners Ideal Set

The ideal set for a beginner would be one that takes into account these swing issues. Maximum forgiveness is the goal. To help with inconsistent contact an oversized clubhead will help. An oversized club has a larger hitting area so there will be fewer mishits. For irons, perimeter weighting will help make those mishits go a little straighter. Shots off the heel and toe will be more solid. A wide sole will slide through the turf easier and get the ball up higher. Slightly shorter clubs will make accurate club-ball contact a better possibility.

To help with that out-to-in swing path, an offset clubhead will get the clubface back to the ball a little later. That means the clubface will be more square to the target and not open. This will also keep the hands a little bit in front of the clubhead which will help with those fat shots. For long shots from the fairway or rough a beginner wants to choose woods and hybrid clubs with the most loft possible and a low center of gravity. More loft means it will be easier to get the ball in the air and it should go a little farther. It will also create more backspin which will counteract the side spin of shots and keep them from curving as much. The result is shots should be a little bit straighter.

A beginner’s driver should have a larger head (over 430cc) to increase the size of the hitting area. Additional loft (12-15 degrees) will get the ball in the air. Added loft once again will increase backspin and make those left to right curves less pronounced. Putting is something that, with practice, could be better. It doesn’t take great athletic ability to be a decent putter. It’s still hard for a beginner to judge distances so 3 putts are still common. Alignment is an issue because you haven’t learned that you want to keep your head directly over the ball. Contact can still be inconsistent.

Beginner Set Configuration

So what is a good club set configuration for a beginner? To begin with, a beginner does not need as many clubs. You are allowed 14 clubs but a beginner needs no more than 10-12 clubs. Why make the game more confusing? A new golfer will find that they hit many of their longer clubs the same distance (especially women and seniors). Only when they get down to their 7-PW will they begin to hit clubs different distances.

Super Game Improvement irons are the choice for maximum forgiveness. SGI clubs will offer maximum perimeter weighting, larger offset, a wide sole, and low center of gravity. Club choices can be 6 iron through pitching wedge or 6-sand wedge. The sand wedge selection should offer extra “bounce.” Bounce is the feature on the sole of the club that helps it easily glide through sand or rough. The first clubs to leave out are the long irons (3, 4). Your iron set should start with the 5 or 6 iron and go up to the sand wedge (SW). For longer shots use lofted woods (5, 7, 9) and hybrid clubs (3, 4, 5). You may find you still hit them all about the same distance, so if you can experiment, test them all to see which ones feel the best. Leave the ones that you don’t hit well in the bag or at home.

The right set also depends on swing speed. Swing speeds between, 65-80 mph (women, juniors and some seniors) will need more woods and hybrid clubs and generally more loft to help get the ball up in the air. Average male swing speeds of 80-90 mph can begin to add a few more irons (5-6) but you still want to use hybrids and lofted woods instead of long irons. Woods are always easier to hit for beginners. Their larger heads and flat soles compared to irons create more confidence. Slightly shortened versions of 3, 5, and 7 woods (-.5″) are highly recommended for all beginners regardless of swing speed. The driver should have a 440-460 cc titanium head. The new large headed drivers are easier to hit even though still the longest club in the bag. Make sure you have extra loft to increase accuracy and distance.

If you find you still have problems hitting it accurately, try choking up an inch or so. For a putter, you want one of the new large headed mallet putters. These new putters have greater MOI (they don’t twist on mishits) and their alignment aids make short putts much easier. Set configuration - Woods (1, 5, 7), Hybrids (4, 5), Irons (Super Game Improvement) (6-SW), Putter (Mallet)

Intermediate Set Profile

As an intermediate, you are beginning to make consistent contact with the ball. Your irons are more accurate and going the expected distances so you are hitting more greens (3-6 per round). Your club head speed is going up, along with more consistent center of the face contact, so you’re starting to get more distance with all your clubs. You still need help around the greens but now you know how to hit down on the ball so you can begin to try some additional wedges.

You’d also like more options from 100 yards and in. You realize that your short game is where you can take a lot of strokes off your score. Your drives are still inconsistent. Your distance could be better but accuracy may still be more of a problem. That great round is often ruined by those 2 or 3 drives into big trouble. You still don’t hit those long irons very well (maybe you never will) but given a good lie you can crank that 5 iron out there every once in a while. You’d like more distance and consistency for those longer approach shots (180-220 yards).

Those long par 4s are still hard to reach. You still fight that slice but now it’s often more of a fade. Sometimes when you really get through the ball it can even move right to left - a wee draw. You’re starting to feel like you know where the ball is going. The Ideal Set The ideal set for the intermediate golfer would start with Game Improvement irons. You still need forgiveness but you’d also like a little more feel and control. If you tend to hit your irons well you might be ready to consider a regular 4 iron otherwise stay with your hybrid 4.

For your distance clubs add a little less loft on those fairway woods and hybrids to maximize distance. You might be ready to drop your 5 hybrid and replace it with a 3 hybrid. Your driver is still oversized with about 10-12 degrees of loft to maximize distance and accuracy. Shaft selections may be the most important component. You want a shaft that matches your swing speed and ball flight requirements. Perhaps a draw bias to help get the drive moving a little more right to left.

Your wedges can be reconfigured. A gap wedge or a lob wedge are possibly good additions. If three wedges are your choice you may want to distribute the lofts from your PW to your LW (46, 52, 58 degrees). You may want wedges with less bounce so you can hit them off of tighter lies. For a putter an intermediate may have already settled on what works for them, but if you are ready to try something new, one of the new MOI maxed mallets would be a good choice. Set configuration - Woods (1, 4, 5) Hybrids (3, 4) Irons (Game Improvement) (5-PW, SW, LW), Putter.

Advanced Set Profile

Your game is strong but ready for fine tuning. It’s about the details for you. You hit most shots pretty solid. Now you want to be able to work the ball and control trajectory better. You hit 8-10 greens in regulation but to hit more you’ll need clubs you can really feel. Your drives are consistent but a little extra distance wouldn’t hurt. Those par 5s are starting to be reachable in 2 especially if you only had just a bit more distance. Your long irons are sometimes strong but still inconsistent. Those 200-230 yard shots to the green can still be a challenge. From 100 yards in you are very strong. You just need to fine tune those wedges and get the most short game options possible. 

The Ideal Set 

The ideal set for an advanced player would start with some Players Irons. These clubs have less perimeter weighting and a thinner topline. They have minimal offset and a more traditional look. They are easy to move the ball right to left and left to right. You can really feel the ball and tell where it’s going. Driver would have a little less loft (9-10 degrees).

Make sure the shaft is correct for your swing speed and ball flight. The trial and error process may be required to get the shaft that feels just right to you. Fairway woods and long irons are the critical clubs to make those long par 4s and par 5 reachable. You may want to find that perfect 3 wood for the par 5s and that 2 hybrid for high soft-landings on those long par 4s. This may also take some trial and error and certainly a solid club fitting. Your wedge options are where the details start to really count. Finding the right combination of loft, feel and bounce to fit your requirements is the name of the game.

Much depends on what loft you have on your pitching wedge. You want 5-6 degrees between clubs up from there. For an advanced player, custom fitting of shafts and club lofts to your game requirements becomes much more important. You want to make sure you can cover every 10-15 yards down from your longest club. You also want to be able to control trajectory for whatever shot requirements pop up - high and soft for small or hard greens and low and boring for wind and knock downs. Set configuration - Woods (1, 3, 5) Hybrids (3) Irons (Players) (4-PW, SW, LW), Putter.

For over a hundred years golf has been played with basically the same set of clubs. The traditional set includes 3 woods (1, 3, 5), 11 irons (2-9, PW, SW) and a putter. Does this configuration work for everyone. No way! It’s time to take a brand new look at what a golf club set can and should be. Instead of selecting clubs based on “tradition”, why not select clubs based on what YOUR golf game requires. Playing the game of golf requires many kinds of shots. Sometimes a shot requires distance and sometimes accuracy. Some shots we hit from a tee, some from short grass and sometimes from ungodly places like rough, sand and dry dirt (hardpan).

Each situation requires a different club. Based on our abilities, some shots will be relatively easy and some will be very difficult. If the shot requires a 200 yard carry over water to a tight pin on a small green, the right club for a beginner, intermediate or advanced golfer will be different. The beginner will need all the help and forgiveness possible (they might even need 2 shots). The intermediate may need a little less forgiveness but still wants to be comfortable with their club. The advanced player may want more subtle characteristics of feel and clubhead response that a beginner can’t even imagine. In the past all three were left with only a few choices. Thankfully today there are many more.

Which Clubs Are Most Important
As mentioned, golf requires several kinds of shots - drives, long approach shots, short approach shots, pitches, chips, sand shots, putts and a variety of so-called trouble shots. By far the most frequent shot is a putt. For an average golfer, the putter is used more than twice as much as any other club. If a golfer shoots a score of 100, 35%- 40% of those strokes will be putts. So based on shear numbers, the putter is the most important club.

For most golfers, the driver is used the next most often-a possible 14 times from the tee, or roughly 12-20% of the time depending on ability level and hole requirements. That first shot from the tee sets the tone for the hole. That makes it a very important club. A good drive makes the rest of the shots on that hole easier. A bad drive means …well trouble.

For beginners who have a hard time hitting the green in a regulation number of strokes, the wedges may be the second most used category of clubs. On a good day a beginner may hit 1-4 greens. So they spend a lot of strokes chipping up to the green (15-20). The remaining strokes in a round are spread among the rest of the set. It is likely that no one club will be used more than a few times.

So in terms of frequency of use, the putter, driver and wedges are clearly used the most frequently with the rest of the clubs bringing up the rear. On the other hand, the importance of a club has a lot to do with it’s effect on our games. A club that has the potential to cause problems (strokes) must be given added weight. The more difficult a club is to hit the more likely that it may cause disaster. The driver, the long irons, and fairway woods are the most likely culprits to cause that errant shot that never is heard from again. Good bye ball. It’s no coincidence that these problem clubs are also the longest clubs in the set. We can all agree that the longer the club, the harder to hit.

As our abilities improve we can begin to take advantage of what the longer clubs offer (distance) but to help our games now, finding forgiving versions of these clubs is a priority. Thankfully, we have many new possibilities with higher lofted drivers, fairway woods and the new hybrid clubs. Let’s take a look at how a set for a beginner, intermediate and an advanced golfer could be configured.

Beginner Set Profile

As a beginner you have a hard time making consistent contact with the ball. Contact on the heel and toe of the club is common as well as topped and fat shots (hitting the top of the ball or hitting the ground first). You just plain have a problem hitting the ball with the center of the clubface. Your swing speed is slow due to inexperience with proper swing mechanics (although you younger, athletic beginners may be the exception). For you women and juniors, clubhead speed is slow due to lack of strength. This causes difficulty getting the ball up in the air as well as lack of distance.

As beginner you may also have trouble getting the clubhead back to the ball in a square position. Your clubhead generally approaches the ball from outside of the target line (out-to-in) and at a steep angle. That usually means your typical shot shape is a slice - a shot that curves right. You often feel that it’s difficult to get the ball up in the air. This can be due to your slow swing speed or just from poor contact. Beginners tend to want to help the ball up by scooping under the ball, so you frequently hit fat shots particularly with your irons. You haven’t learned that hitting down on the ball makes it go up. This is also caused by that out-to-in, steep swing path. In the sand you are clueless. You don’t understand yet that to get out of the sand you don’t hit the ball, you hit the sand and the ball rides out on the sand.

The Beginners Ideal Set

The ideal set for a beginner would be one that takes into account these swing issues. Maximum forgiveness is the goal. To help with inconsistent contact an oversized clubhead will help. An oversized club has a larger hitting area so there will be fewer mishits. For irons, perimeter weighting will help make those mishits go a little straighter. Shots off the heel and toe will be more solid. A wide sole will slide through the turf easier and get the ball up higher. Slightly shorter clubs will make accurate club-ball contact a better possibility.

To help with that out-to-in swing path, an offset clubhead will get the clubface back to the ball a little later. That means the clubface will be more square to the target and not open. This will also keep the hands a little bit in front of the clubhead which will help with those fat shots. For long shots from the fairway or rough a beginner wants to choose woods and hybrid clubs with the most loft possible and a low center of gravity. More loft means it will be easier to get the ball in the air and it should go a little farther. It will also create more backspin which will counteract the side spin of shots and keep them from curving as much. The result is shots should be a little bit straighter.

A beginner’s driver should have a larger head (over 430cc) to increase the size of the hitting area. Additional loft (12-15 degrees) will get the ball in the air. Added loft once again will increase backspin and make those left to right curves less pronounced. Putting is something that, with practice, could be better. It doesn’t take great athletic ability to be a decent putter. It’s still hard for a beginner to judge distances so 3 putts are still common. Alignment is an issue because you haven’t learned that you want to keep your head directly over the ball. Contact can still be inconsistent.

Beginner Set Configuration

So what is a good club set configuration for a beginner? To begin with, a beginner does not need as many clubs. You are allowed 14 clubs but a beginner needs no more than 10-12 clubs. Why make the game more confusing? A new golfer will find that they hit many of their longer clubs the same distance (especially women and seniors). Only when they get down to their 7-PW will they begin to hit clubs different distances.

Super Game Improvement irons are the choice for maximum forgiveness. SGI clubs will offer maximum perimeter weighting, larger offset, a wide sole, and low center of gravity. Club choices can be 6 iron through pitching wedge or 6-sand wedge. The sand wedge selection should offer extra “bounce.” Bounce is the feature on the sole of the club that helps it easily glide through sand or rough. The first clubs to leave out are the long irons (3, 4). Your iron set should start with the 5 or 6 iron and go up to the sand wedge (SW). For longer shots use lofted woods (5, 7, 9) and hybrid clubs (3, 4, 5). You may find you still hit them all about the same distance, so if you can experiment, test them all to see which ones feel the best. Leave the ones that you don’t hit well in the bag or at home.

The right set also depends on swing speed. Swing speeds between, 65-80 mph (women, juniors and some seniors) will need more woods and hybrid clubs and generally more loft to help get the ball up in the air. Average male swing speeds of 80-90 mph can begin to add a few more irons (5-6) but you still want to use hybrids and lofted woods instead of long irons. Woods are always easier to hit for beginners. Their larger heads and flat soles compared to irons create more confidence. Slightly shortened versions of 3, 5, and 7 woods (-.5″) are highly recommended for all beginners regardless of swing speed. The driver should have a 440-460 cc titanium head. The new large headed drivers are easier to hit even though still the longest club in the bag. Make sure you have extra loft to increase accuracy and distance.

If you find you still have problems hitting it accurately, try choking up an inch or so. For a putter, you want one of the new large headed mallet putters. These new putters have greater MOI (they don’t twist on mishits) and their alignment aids make short putts much easier. Set configuration - Woods (1, 5, 7), Hybrids (4, 5), Irons (Super Game Improvement) (6-SW), Putter (Mallet)

Intermediate Set Profile

As an intermediate, you are beginning to make consistent contact with the ball. Your irons are more accurate and going the expected distances so you are hitting more greens (3-6 per round). Your club head speed is going up, along with more consistent center of the face contact, so you’re starting to get more distance with all your clubs. You still need help around the greens but now you know how to hit down on the ball so you can begin to try some additional wedges.

You’d also like more options from 100 yards and in. You realize that your short game is where you can take a lot of strokes off your score. Your drives are still inconsistent. Your distance could be better but accuracy may still be more of a problem. That great round is often ruined by those 2 or 3 drives into big trouble. You still don’t hit those long irons very well (maybe you never will) but given a good lie you can crank that 5 iron out there every once in a while. You’d like more distance and consistency for those longer approach shots (180-220 yards).

Those long par 4s are still hard to reach. You still fight that slice but now it’s often more of a fade. Sometimes when you really get through the ball it can even move right to left - a wee draw. You’re starting to feel like you know where the ball is going. The Ideal Set The ideal set for the intermediate golfer would start with Game Improvement irons. You still need forgiveness but you’d also like a little more feel and control. If you tend to hit your irons well you might be ready to consider a regular 4 iron otherwise stay with your hybrid 4.

For your distance clubs add a little less loft on those fairway woods and hybrids to maximize distance. You might be ready to drop your 5 hybrid and replace it with a 3 hybrid. Your driver is still oversized with about 10-12 degrees of loft to maximize distance and accuracy. Shaft selections may be the most important component. You want a shaft that matches your swing speed and ball flight requirements. Perhaps a draw bias to help get the drive moving a little more right to left.

Your wedges can be reconfigured. A gap wedge or a lob wedge are possibly good additions. If three wedges are your choice you may want to distribute the lofts from your PW to your LW (46, 52, 58 degrees). You may want wedges with less bounce so you can hit them off of tighter lies. For a putter an intermediate may have already settled on what works for them, but if you are ready to try something new, one of the new MOI maxed mallets would be a good choice. Set configuration - Woods (1, 4, 5) Hybrids (3, 4) Irons (Game Improvement) (5-PW, SW, LW), Putter.

Advanced Set Profile

Your game is strong but ready for fine tuning. It’s about the details for you. You hit most shots pretty solid. Now you want to be able to work the ball and control trajectory better. You hit 8-10 greens in regulation but to hit more you’ll need clubs you can really feel. Your drives are consistent but a little extra distance wouldn’t hurt. Those par 5s are starting to be reachable in 2 especially if you only had just a bit more distance. Your long irons are sometimes strong but still inconsistent. Those 200-230 yard shots to the green can still be a challenge. From 100 yards in you are very strong. You just need to fine tune those wedges and get the most short game options possible. 

The Ideal Set 

The ideal set for an advanced player would start with some Players Irons. These clubs have less perimeter weighting and a thinner topline. They have minimal offset and a more traditional look. They are easy to move the ball right to left and left to right. You can really feel the ball and tell where it’s going. Driver would have a little less loft (9-10 degrees).

Make sure the shaft is correct for your swing speed and ball flight. The trial and error process may be required to get the shaft that feels just right to you. Fairway woods and long irons are the critical clubs to make those long par 4s and par 5 reachable. You may want to find that perfect 3 wood for the par 5s and that 2 hybrid for high soft-landings on those long par 4s. This may also take some trial and error and certainly a solid club fitting. Your wedge options are where the details start to really count. Finding the right combination of loft, feel and bounce to fit your requirements is the name of the game.

Much depends on what loft you have on your pitching wedge. You want 5-6 degrees between clubs up from there. For an advanced player, custom fitting of shafts and club lofts to your game requirements becomes much more important. You want to make sure you can cover every 10-15 yards down from your longest club. You also want to be able to control trajectory for whatever shot requirements pop up - high and soft for small or hard greens and low and boring for wind and knock downs. Set configuration - Woods (1, 3, 5) Hybrids (3) Irons (Players) (4-PW, SW, LW), Putter.

If you’ve been following the evolution of iron technology in the last few years you know that there has been some new classification of irons based on their forgiveness. Golf Digest, in it’s latest Hot List club evaluations, divided irons into three categories; Super Game Improvement, Game Improvement and Players clubs.

Here’s how they categorized some of the more popular clubs.

In the Super Game Improvement category you’ll find the Callaway Big Bertha irons, the Ping G5, and the TaylorMade RAC HT.

In the Game Improvement category you’ll find the Ping G5, the Callaway X-18, and the Nike Slingshot.

In the Players category Golf Digest has the Mizuno MP-60, the Cleveland CG2, and the Callaway X-Tour.

So what features make a club Super Game Improvement versus Game Improvement for example? And how do those features translate into forgiveness?

A golfer who needs maximum forgiveness wants clubs that still go straight and far when he hits the ball on someplace other than the center of the face. Moving weight to the perimeter of a club face makes these mishits more solid. Perimeter weighting also increases the moment of inertia (MOI) which means the club head will be more resistent to twisting on mishits. The more weight that is moved, the more forgiving the club will be, and the more super the game improvement.

If the center of gravity of the club is low and far back from the face, the ball will have a tendency to fly higher. This helps folks with slow swing speeds or golfers who have a hard time getting the ball up in the air. The farther and lower the CG, the more game improvement.

An offset hosel moves the leading edge of the club farther back from the shaft. This helps average golfers square the clubface at impact and not hit shots that leak to the right. The degree of offset determines it’s forgiveness and its improvement category.

So to summarize, Super Game Improvement clubs feature extra-wide soles to help prevent digging, thick top lines to inspire confidence at address, tons of perimeter weighting to mitigate mishits and lots of offset to keep the clubface square and a low-back center of gravity to help get the ball up. Less of each of these features moves the club to a lower game improvement category.

Choosing the right ball is critical to cutting your golf handicap. A ball impacts your game almost as much as your clubs, so it’s important to choose a ball that’s right for you. Below is a six-step process for selecting the right golf ball.

Standard Selection Approach

With this approach you chose a golf ball going from the tee forward. In other words, you hit balls from the tee and observed their performance characteristics. You based your decisions primarily on control and distance, depending on their preference.

This approach was appropriate when ball-manufacturing technology was simpler. Here were your options.

1. If you wanted the ultimate in control, you chose a three-piece with a balata cover. It offered high-spin rates, soft feel, and good maneuverability, but it lacked durability. I used to recommend this ball in my golf lessons and golf tips for players with low golf handicaps adept at shot making.

2. If you wanted the ultimate in distance, you chose a two-piece ball with a Surlyn cover. This ball would travel far and last a long time. Unfortunately, its lack of spin greatly reduced control, especially around the greens. I used to recommend this ball for players with high golf handicaps who needed distance more than control.

3. If you wanted something in between, you choose a three-piece ball with a Surlyn cover. With this ball, you sacrificed a little control for more distance and durability. This ball worked relatively well.

This process worked well for a long time. But it’s less appropriate for evaluating today’s golf balls, which incorporate the latest advancements in technology.

Breakthroughs in Technology

Ball manufacturing technology saw several breakthroughs in the 1990s and beyond, complicating selection. Multilayer balls, like the Top-Flite Strata, which provide less spin for more distance and a softer cover for better control around the greens, hit the market in 1996, followed by Titleist’s Pro V1—a solid-core, distance ball—in 2000. Nike’s One and Titleist’s Next also debuted in the last 10 years.

While these balls all represented technological breakthroughs, they challenged the standard approach ball selection. Basically, you still chose a ball from the tee going forward based on distance and control

A New Selection Approach

Today, there’s another approach to choosing a ball. This approach is based on going from the green backwards. It’s proving more appropriate for today’s game. Below is a six-step methodology for choosing a ball based on this new approach.

Step 1: Define Your Needs.

First, you need to

(1) assess your game
(2) define your needs
(3) decide what you want and don’t want from a ball.

Defining your needs is crucial to choosing the right ball. Remember not everyone with the same ball-striking ability, golf handicap, and/or swing speed will play the same ball. Ask yourself such questions as “Do I need more distance?”, “Do I need more control with my irons?”

Step 2: Chose Test Balls

Select several balls you want to test. Base your decision on your defined needs. Try selecting balls from each category—multilayered, two-piece, and super soft, low compression—to see how they test. Remember not every manufacturer’s models of the same type ball will react exactly alike.

Step 3: Test from the Fringe

Take the test balls to the fringe of the green. Hit some chip shots and pitch shots, and observe the results. See which balls hit the green and “check” and which hit the green and release. Then, hit some putts and sand-shots. Observe performances. In general, the multilayer balls will feel softer, fly a bit low, and stop or check more on the green than their two-piece counterparts. Super-soft balls will roll the farthest with the least amount of spin after hitting the ground.

Step 4: Test from 100 Yards

Take the balls and move out into the fairway to the 100-yard marker. Test each ball from that point and observe each ball’s checking and releasing characteristics after it hits the green.

strong>Step 5: Test Balls from 150 yards

Now, take your balls out to the 150-yard marker and hit from there. Observe the results. Use the same criteria to evaluate each ball.

Step 6: Test Balls from the Tee

Go to the tee box and hit the balls with your driver. Look for drives that reach their apex or highest point quickly and then level out and carry far down range. What you don’t want to see are drives that start low and then shoot up like a jet plane taking off. Such shots indicate that the driver has added too much spin to the ball, resulting in shorter drives that hook or slice more.

Now, obviously you can’t necessarily go out onto the course to do all this testing. Your local range or practice area will work just fine. Once you’ve completed these steps, you’re ready to choose. Base your decision on the most meaningful combination of performance qualities—meaningful to you, that is. For example, golfers who base their iron play on shots that hit and bite close to where they land will probably prefer a multilayer ball, even if it means sacrificing a little trajectory and distance.

Remember a golf ball impacts your game almost as much as your clubs. If the ball you choose doesn’t feel right after selecting it, try another. Give each ball a fair trail.