Ever watch a PGA Tour broadcast and wonder exactly what's in Scottie Scheffler's or Rory McIlroy's bag? You're not alone. Figuring out what clubs the best players in the world use is a common starting point for golfers looking to get a little better. This guide will walk you through the types of clubs pros use, why they choose them, and, most importantly, what that means for your game and a smarter way to pick your own equipment.
The first thing to understand is that there's no "standard issue" set of clubs for a professional golfer. If you walked the range at a PGA Tour event, you would see a wide variety of brands, models, and specifications. A Tour player's bag is a highly personalized, custom-built toolkit designed to fit their unique swing and playing style perfectly. Just like a master carpenter wouldn't use the same hammer for every single job, a pro golfer doesn't use a one-size-fits-all set of clubs.
Their choices are influenced by two major factors:
Let’s break down the general types of equipment you’ll find in a professional's bag and explain the thinking behind their selections. This will give you a better framework for thinking about your own clubs.
When you hear a Tour pro smash a drive, you're hearing the result of maximizing physics. Their primary goal with a driver is to find the perfect blend of high launch and low spin. This combination creates a powerful, piercing ball flight that maximizes both distance and rollout.
This is where the difference between amateur-friendly equipment and a professional's tools becomes most obvious. The majority of elite players use "blade" or "muscle back" irons. Look at them from behind and you won't see a hollowed-out cavity, you’ll see a solid piece of forged steel.
Your typical amateur iron has a "cavity back" design. Weight is moved to the perimeter of the clubhead, which stabilizes the face on off-center hits. If you miss the sweet spot, the ball will still fly relatively straight and lose less distance. This is an amazing technology for making golf more enjoyable for the masses!
Blades, on the other hand, concentrate a lot of their mass directly behind the sweet spot. The reasons pros prefer them are:
It's worth noting that not every pro uses a full set of blades anymore. You'll often see "combo sets" where a player might use blades in their scoring clubs (8-iron to Pitching Wedge) but switch to a more forgiving cavity-back or "players distance" model in their long irons (like a 4 or 5-iron). This gives them a little help with getting the ball in the air from longer distances.
The Lesson for You: Be honest with yourself. While blades look beautiful, only a tiny fraction of golfers have the ball-striking consistency to benefit from them. A modern cavity-back or players-distance iron offers an incredible combination of distance, feel, and the forgiveness that you need to shoot lower scores.
Watch a pro from 120 yards and in, and you're watching an artist at work. Their wedges are their paintbrushes. While you might just have a pitching wedge and a sand wedge, pros typically carry three or four wedges with very specific lofts to cover precise yardage gaps.
A common setup is something like:
Beyond loft, the most important customization is the grind. The grind refers to the shaping of the sole of the wedge. Different grinds help the club interact with the turf in different ways. A player who sweeps the ball on firm ground will use a different grind than a player who has a steep attack angle on soft courses. This is hyper-personalization that allows them to hit all sorts of shots - from high, soft flop shots to low, skipping spinners.
The Lesson for You: Don't neglect your wedges! Figure out your yardage gaps and find wedges to fill them. More importantly, talk to a fitter or coach about what kind of bounce and grind is best for your swing and your home course conditions. This can dramatically improve your chipping and bunker play.
There's no other club where personal preference is more dominant. A putter just has to feel right and look good to a player's eye. Sponsorships can be a little looser here, and this is where you'll see the most equipment variety on Tour.
Players typically fall into one of two camps:
The Lesson for You: Forget what Tiger or Scottie uses. Go to a golf store and try a bunch of different styles. Get a feel for blade vs. mallet and see which one lines up with your natural stroke and helps you start the ball on your intended line most consistently.
The short answer is: probably not. P-laying the exact same equipment as a PGA Tour player won't automatically make you a better golfer, and in many cases, it could actually make the game harder for you.
Think of it like getting into a Formula 1 car to drive to the grocery store. It's a high-performance machine built for a professional with a very specific skill set. For your journey, a comfortable sedan with power steering and an automatic transmission is going to be a much better (and more enjoyable) choice.
Instead of trying to copy a pro's bag, take lessons from their process:
The clubs that PGA Tour players use are fascinating pieces of individually tailored sporting equipment, honed to perfection for the best athletes in the sport. Instead of just copying their setup, the real takeaway is to appreciate the level of detail and personalization they put into their choices and apply that same thinking to your own bag.
While you may not have access to a tour van, I believe every golfer deserves access to top-tier strategic advice. When writing Caddie AI, the goal was to put that kind of on-demand golf expert right in your pocket. If you're on the course debating between two clubs or need a smart plan for playing a tough hole, you can get a clear recommendation in seconds, helping you commit to every shot with the same confidence as a pro.
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