The sheer variety of golf clubs you need can be overwhelming.
Once you have all the clubs you need and you hit the links, how do you know which club to use for each shot? The following table gives you a quick guide to the kinds of clubs in your bag and the shots you take with them.
| Club |
What It’s For |
| Driver |
Teeing off — and very occasionally hitting from a
good lie in the fairway |
| Hybrid club |
Getting shots of 150+ yards airborne |
| 2- to 9-iron |
Hitting toward the green, usually from 120–190 yards away
— use low-numbered irons for longer shots, high-numbered
irons for shorter shots |
| Wedges |
Hitting short, high shots from near the green or from sand
bunkers |
| Putter |
Rolling the ball into the hole after it’s on the green
(or occasionally from just off the green) |
To figure out which golf club to use for a specific shot, you need to know the average distance you hit a ball with each golf club in your set. Then, you simply choose the golf club that fits the distance you need to hit.
The best way to find out is to hit about 50 balls with each club. Eliminate the longest five and the shortest five, and then figure out the middle of the remaining group. That’s your average yardage.
This table shows how far the average golfer generally hits with each club when he or she makes solid contact.
When you start to play this game, you probably won’t attain these yardages — but while you practice, you can get closer to these numbers.
Which Club Should You Use?
| Club |
Men’s Average Distance |
Women’s Average Distance |
| Driver |
230 yards |
200 yards |
| 3-wood |
210 yards |
180 yards |
| 2-iron |
190 yards |
Not recommended; 4-wood or hybrid = 170 yards |
| 3-iron |
180 yards |
Not recommended; 5-wood or hybrid = 160 yards |
| 4-iron |
170 yards |
150 yards (consider a hybrid, instead) |
| 5-iron |
160 yards |
140 yards |
| 6-iron |
150 yards |
130 yards |
| 7-iron |
140 yards |
120 yards |
| 8-iron |
130 yards |
110 yards |
| 9-iron |
120 yards |
100 yards |
| Pitching wedge |
110 yards |
90 yards |
| Sand wedge |
90 yards |
80 yards |
| Lob wedge |
65 yards |
60 yards |
