Golf Clubs - Which Are Which?

Throughout the world there must be millions of weekend golfers who play the game they love just once in their hectic and sometimes very tiring week, hoping to find out the secret of this magical but really frustrating pastime. One topic inevitably crops up when we make our weekly pilgrimage around the 18 shrines we call a golf course.

Golf clubs! Now there's a subject I guarantee always comes up on a round of golf. If not on the course, then certainly in the clubhouse afterwards, where we are celebrating perhaps one good shot in a round or drowning our sorrows in a beer glass for yet another waste of a good morning.

Let's examine the clubs further. Firstly, we usually have two or three woods in the 14 permitted clubs we are allowed to carry in the bag (what a strange number). A driver is the biggest of them all - both in head size and club length - and, in theory at least, if used correctly, can and should hit the ball the longest distance. Why oh why can't I hit the ball like that nice Mr Woods just once in my lifetime. Granted he is more talented than I and he practises about 18 hours a day, but it still would be nice just once to hear that crisp click of the ball leaving the club heading in the right direction.

All higher numbered clubs are supposed to do about the same thing, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 irons are also supposed to be hit huge distances yet no matter how often I have had lessons, I can't seem to make a shot from a three iron travel any further than a shot from a five iron.

See what I'm saying about being frustrated! Next, the 6 and 7 irons - or mid irons are used if you are lucky enough to hit a half reasonable shot with a long iron, leaving the ball just a bit too far for an 8 or 9 iron (which are used for play closer to the green) you can then hit the mid-iron in the hope that you will reach the green and give yourself a reasonable chance of sinking a putt.

The sand wedge and pitching wedge are used around the green for particularly close shots that don't quite land on the green or finish up in the sand of a bunker. And finally, while on the smoother surface of the green, you get to use the putter. You have probably seen these implements in all shapes and sizes. Like broomsticks, extra pieces stuck on the handle and all sorts of different club heads.

Let's see what the generalisation is then: all iron clubs vary in degree of angle. If you imagine the one iron as being almost straight, the 2, 3, 4, etc, all have increasing angle on the club head to give you more lift when you hit the ball. Therefore, the sand iron and the pitching wedge would have the greatest angle, thus giving you the most lift from the ground.

If I sound like a text book, I am sorry. I have tried for almost 15 years to find out the secret of which club to use for which shot but I still generally finish up using a five-iron for pretty well everything.