The gear you use to hit a golf ball is called a golf club. But sticking with just that name would be like calling every tool in a toolbox a hammer. While technically true, it misses the whole point. This guide will walk you through the different families of golf clubs, what each one is designed to do, and how knowing the difference can give you the confidence to hit better shots.
Yes, it's a golf club. That's the simple answer. You stand over the ball, you take your stance, and you swing the golf club to hit the ball. Easy enough. But if you look in any golfer's bag, you won't see one club - you'll see up to 14 of them. Each one looks slightly different, feels different, and has a very specific job.
Think of them less as a single piece of "gear" and more as a specialized set of tools. You have clubs designed for pure power and distance, others for unbelievable precision, and one hyper-specialized tool just for gently rolling the ball into the hole. Understanding this "kit" is the first real step to moving from simply hitting a ball to actually playing golf.
Every golf club you'll encounter falls into one of three major categories: woods, irons, or putters. Learning to recognize them and what they do is fundamental to choosing the right tool for the job.
Woods are the big guns in your golf bag. Ironically, they are no longer made of wood - they're now typically crafted from steel, titanium, or carbon composites - but the name has stuck. Their main purpose is to send the golf ball a very long way, either from the tee box at the start of a hole or from the fairway for your second shot on a long hole.
If woods are for raw power, irons are for precision and control. These are the clubs you'll use for most of your shots from the fairway as you approach the green. They have smaller, blade-like heads made of metal and are numbered to indicate their loft and the distance they hit.
Here’s the simple rule for irons: the lower the number, the less loft, and the farther the ball will go.
Wedges are a super-important sub-category of irons. They have the most loft of any club, making them essential for your short game around the greens.
Finally, we have the most specialized club in the bag: the putter. This is the only club designed to be used on the green. Its purpose is not to get the ball airborne but to roll it smoothly and accurately toward the hole.
Putters have a flat face with very little loft (usually 2-4 degrees) and come in a vast array of shapes and sizes. The two main styles are "blade" putters, which are thinner and traditional-looking, and "mallet" putters, which have larger, more stable heads. The choice between them is purely personal preference. You use it more than any other club, so finding one that feels good to you is essential.
Now that you know the families, how do they all combine? The Rules of Golf state that you can carry a maximum of 14 clubs in your bag for a round. What a golfer chooses to put in their bag says a lot about their game and strategy. A typical 14-club setup for an amateur might look something like this:
This adds up to 11 clubs. You have three more to add! You could include another hybrid (like a 4-hybrid), a longer iron like a 5-iron, or another wedge like a Lob Wedge (LW). This setup gives a player a tool for almost any distance or situation they might face on the course, from a 250-yard drive to a 3-foot putt.
While their functions differ, every golf club is built from the same three primary components:
So, the equipment you use to hit a ball in golf is a family of tools called golf clubs. Each class of club - woods, irons, and putters - has a specific role, and learning those roles is your first step toward making smarter decisions and playing with a clear plan on the course.
Knowing the purpose of each club is step one, but having the confidence to choose the right one on the course is the real game-changer. That's where Caddie AI comes in. It provides instant club recommendations based on your situation, acting like an expert caddie in your pocket so you can feel clear and committed over every shot.
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