Irons
Meet the Iron Clubs
The sun is shinning, there is a cool breeze on your face and you’re on the golf course for the first time. You’ve got your golf bag and there are clubs in it, but you don’t know what they are. You have no idea which one to pull out on a par three non the less which one to use now. Not to worry this guide will tell you everything you need to know. It’s time for you to meet the clubs.
Meet the Putter. There are two things you’ll need to know. The putter is most used club in golf and there are more varieties of the putter than any other club. In general putters have three basic styles. The clubheads are a traditional blade, a mallet clubhead, or a heel-toe clubhead. There are also three different lengths. There is the standard or normal putter, the belly putter and the broomhandle or long putter. Choosing the right putter is a very personal undergoing. There is actually no right putter but rather simply what is right for you. Generally the putter is used on the putting green but from time to time golfers may use their putters a few yards off the green if the turf is low.
Meet the Iron. There are two distinctive features of an iron. They have thin clubheads and grooved faces. For those more accomplished players a blade or muscleback style may be in order. However for you beginners and recreational dabblers the cavity back style will be the best choice. The difference in the two styles is in the name. The blade style has a full back on the rear of the clubhead and the cavity back style has a somewhat hollowed out rear. The hollowed out feature creates perimeter weighting, which will be helpful until you get your swing.
Now then let’s talk about the different types of irons. Each iron is identified by a PW or a number stamped on the sole of the club. A typical iron set will include a 3-PW through a pitching wedge for a total of eight clubs. As the numbers increase so does the loft. As the loft increases the distance your ball will travel decreases. For example a 5-iron will travel higher, more loft, and a 3-iron will travel farther because it has less loft. The difference in yardage is generally somewhere between 10-15 yards. Again this means that a 3-iron will go 10-15 yards longer than the 4-iron and so on through the pitch wedge.
Now you need to know which iron to use in any given situation. This is a function of learning in time how far you hit with each club. Trajectory is a huge factor. For instance, you need to hit the ball over a tree and you would use one of the high-lofted clubs such as the 5-iron vs. the 3-iron. Learning how far and how high you hit using each club is the key to learning which club you’ll need to use and when. But with practice and a lot of patients you’ll be hitting the green in no time.