What Is the Shortest Golf Club?

The shortest club in your bag is the putter. Followed closely by your wedges, these clubs are specifically designed for control and precision, not power or distance. This guide will walk you through not only which clubs are the shortest, but more importantly, why they are short and how to use their design to your advantage and shoot lower scores.

The Absolute Shortest Golf Club: The Putter

When we look at a standard set of 14 golf clubs, the putter stands out as the shortest of them all. While lengths can be customized, a typical off-the-shelf putter measures between 32 and 35 inches. This is a deliberate design feature, and understanding the reasoning behind it is the first step to becoming a more confident putter. The entire purpose of the putter is to provide pinpoint accuracy from a short distance - your success depends on control, not speed.

The shorter shaft serves a couple of important functions:

• Promotes a Proper Setup: The length encourages you to get your eyes directly over the golf ball at address. This viewpoint is a massive advantage for aiming. When your eyes are over the target line, it's far easier to see the path you want the ball to roll on, making it simpler to start your putt on the right line.
• Encourages a Pendulum Stroke: A shorter shaft makes it more comfortable to use your shoulders to rock the putter back and through, creating a smooth pendulum motion. This is the foundation of a consistent putting stroke. Longer clubs can tempt players to become "wristy," using the small muscles in their hands to control the club, which leads to inconsistent distance and direction. The putter's length helps minimize that temptation.
• Enhances Feel and Feedback: Being physically closer to the ball with a shorter shaft gives you a better feel for the strike. You can more easily sense the difference between a center-face strike and a mishit off the toe or heel, providing instant feedback that helps you improve over time.

So while it might not deliver a towering 300-yard drive, the putter's short stature is its biggest strength, giving you the control needed to turn three shots into two - or even one - on the green.

The Shortest Full-Swing Clubs: Your Scoring Wedges

Moving away from the specialized putting stroke, the shortest clubs you'll use for a full swing are your wedges. This family of clubs typically includes the pitching wedge (PW), gap wedge (GW or AW), sand wedge (SW), and lob wedge (LW). Just like the putter, their design is all about control. A standard pitching wedge is usually around 35.5 to 36 inches long, with the other wedges being slightly a bit shorter as loft increases.

These clubs are your scoring tools. You rely on them for approach shots, pitches, and chips - shots where hitting your number and controlling the ball's spin are far more important than raw distance. The short shaft length is built to help you with that mission.

Why Wedges Are Short

Think about a typical wedge shot: you're 90 yards out and need the ball to fly a specific distance, land softly on the green, and stop near the pin. A long shaft would generate excess speed, making distance control a difficult task. The shorter length of a wedge shaft gives you several advantages:

1. Superior Control: A shorter club is simply easier to swing and control. It's more forgiving on off-center hits and allows you to "pinpoint" your target with confidence. It behaves more like an extension of your finely-tuned hands and arms rather than a long, whippy lever.
2. Better Accuracy: Because you're standing closer to the ball, it's easier to hit the sweet spot. Consistent contact is what leads to predictable distances, which is the heart of a great wedge game.
3. Optimized Swing Plane: The shorter shaft creates a more upright or steeper swing plane. This angle of attack helps you make a descending blow on the ball - striking the ball first, then the turf. This is essential for creating the spin that makes the ball check up on the green.

A Coach's Guide: How to Use Your Shortest Clubs

Knowing which clubs are the shortest is one thing, kowing how to coach yourself to use them properly is what lowers your handicap. Here's some friendly advice for mastering your shortest clubs.

Making Friends With Your Putter

Don't just grab it and go. Use its design intentionally.

• Step 1: Check Your Eye Position. Take your normal putting stance. Hold a second golf ball in your hand and position it on the bridge of your nose, directly between your eyes. Let the ball drop straight down. Where did it land? Ideally, it should land directly on top of your golf ball or just slightly inside the target line. The putter's short length makes this setup position comfortable, take advantage of it.
• Step 2: Rock from the Shoulders. With your solid setup, focus on your shoulders forming a triangle with your arms and hands. Your goal is to rock that triangle back and forth as a single unit, letting your shoulders be the engine. Try tucking the butt-end of the putter against your lead forearm during practice strokes to get the feeling of a one-piece motion. This prevents your wrists from breaking down and causing pushes or pulls.

Dialing in Your Wedges

These are your scoring clubs, so treat them with the respect they deserve. Many players make the mistake of using the same swing for their wedges as they do for their driver. That's a mistake.

• Step 1: Get the Ball Position Right. For a standard full wedge shot, place the ball in the middle of your stance. Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart - or even a little narrower - for stability and control. This centered ball position encourages you to strike down on the ball, compressing it and creating that beautiful, high-spinning flight.
• Step 2: Favor Your Front Foot. Set up with about 55-60% of your weight on your lead foot. Maintain this pressure on the front foot throughout the swing. This simple setup key helps you complete your body turn and prevents you from hanging back and "scooping" the ball up, which often results in thin or fat shots.
• Step 3: Swing with Your Body, Not Your Arms. The biggest fault I see with short clubs is an "arms-only" swing. Your wedges are short, so it's tempting to get jerky. Instead, focus on turning your torso. Your backswing should feel like you're turning your chest away from the target, and your downswing is simply an unwinding of that turn through impact. Your arms will follow your body's lead. This body-driven rotation is the source of repeatable distance control.

The All-Important Role of Club Length in Your Bag

As you move from the shortest clubs (wedges) to the longest (driver), you'll notice a consistent pattern. As the clubs get longer, the loft gets lower. This relationship is at the core of set building and course management.

• Length, Speed, and Distance: A longer club equates to a wider swing arc. Think of it like a medieval catapult - a longer arm produces more speed at the end. Your driver, being the longest club, generates the highest clubhead speed, and therefore the greatest distance. Your wedgesthe shortest clube generatet the least.
• Length, Loft, and Control: Conversely, shorter shafts provide more control. It’s easier to manage a short stick than a long one. This control is paired with higher loft to produce shots that fly high, land steeply, and stop quickly. This trade-off is fundamental: you sacrifice distance for control as you go from driver down to wedge.
• Length and Swing Plane: Every club in your bag requires a slightly different swing plane simply due to its length. A short wedge will naturally create a more vertical, "up-and-down" swing plane. A long driver creates a much flatter, "around-the-body" swing. Understanding this is important, it means a single swing feel may not apply to all 13 full-swing clubs. Your body must adapt to the tool it's holding.

The Special Case: What About "Chippers"?

You might have seen an unusual club in a playing partner's bag called a "chipper." Technically, a chipper can sometimes be the shortest club in the set. Often built to the same length as a putter (around 33-35 inches), it features the loft of a 7- or 8-iron. Its purpose is to take the guesswork out of chipping for golfers who struggle to make clean contact with their wedges around the green.

The idea is simple: use your putting stroke to hit a short chip shot. The putter-like length enforces a simple, repeatable motion, while the loft gets the ball airborne briefly before it begins to roll like a putt. While not a conventional choice in a 14-club setup for most golfers, it absolutely qualifies as one of the shortest clubs you might encounter on the course - and for some players, it’s a brilliant tool to build confidence around the greens.

Final Thoughts

To put it simply, your putter is universally the shortest club in the bag, followed closely by your collection of high-lofted wedges. This isn't an accident, it's smart design that gives you more control and accuracy where you need it most. By learning to use these clubs as they were intended, focusing on setup and body rotation, you can turn your shortest clubs into your biggest assets on the scorecard.

Of course, knowing what to do is only half the picture. Executing it under pressure is the real challenge. When you're standing over a tricky lie in the rough or facing a tough decision on the course, personalized advice can make all the difference. For those moments, you can analyze your shot in real-time with Caddie AI. Just snap a photo of your ball's lie, and you'll get instant, expert guidance on how to play the shot. It's like having a personal coach right in your pocket, taking the guesswork out of your game so you can play with more confidence from any spot on the course.