Golf club

Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety of shots; hybrids that combine design elements of woods and irons are becoming increasingly popular; putters are used mainly on the green to roll the ball into the hole.

Woods are long-distance clubs, meant to drive the ball a great distance down the fairway towards the hole.

Contemporary woods commonly feature a graphite shaft paired with a predominantly hollow head made of titanium, composite materials, or steel.

The length of the woods has been increasing in recent decades, and a typical driver with a graphite shaft is now 45.5 inches (1,160 mm) long.

Irons are designed for a variety of shots from all over the course, from the tee box on short or dog-legged holes, to the fairway or rough on approach to the green, to tricky situations like punching through or lobbing over trees, getting out of hazards, or hitting from tight lies requiring a compact swing.

Modern irons are investment-cast out of steel alloys, which allows for better-engineered "cavity-back" designs that have lower centers of mass and higher moments of inertia, making the club easier to hit and giving better distance than older forged "muscle-back" designs.

Forged irons with less perimeter weighting are still seen, especially in sets targeting low-handicap and scratch golfers, because this less forgiving design allows a skilled golfer to intentionally hit a curved shot (a "fade" or "draw"), to follow the contour of the fairway or "bend" a shot around an obstacle.

The club head of a hybrid has a wood-inspired, slightly convex face, and is typically hollow like modern metal woods to allow for high impulse on impact and faster swing speeds.

Putters are a special class of clubs with a loft not exceeding ten degrees, designed primarily to roll the ball along the grass, generally from a point on the putting green toward the hole.

Contrary to popular belief, putters do have a loft (often 5° from truly perpendicular at impact) that helps to lift the ball from any indentation it has made.

Putters are the only class of club allowed to have certain features, such as two striking faces, non-circular grip cross-sections, bent shafts or hosels, and appendages designed primarily to aid players' aim.

is the chipper, a club designed to feel like a putter but with a more lofted face, used with a putting motion to lift the ball out of the higher grass of the rough and fringe and drop it on the green, where it will then roll like a putt.

Despite the strength of hickory, the long-nose club of the mid nineteenth century was still prone to breaking at the top of the back swing.

The club heads were often made from woods including apple, pear, dogwood, and beech in the early times until persimmon became the main material.

Golf clubs have been improved and the shafts are now made of steel, titanium, other types of metals or carbon fiber.

The shaft is a tapered tube made of metal (usually steel) or carbon fiber composite (referred to as graphite).

Some companies also offer a "stiff-regular" or "firm" flex for players whose club speed falls in the upper range of a Regular shaft (90–100 mph (140–160 km/h)), allowing golfers and club makers to fine-tune the flex for a stronger amateur-level player.

Clubs with an outer "wrap" of leather or leather-like synthetic still typically have a "sleeve" form underneath to add diameter to the grip and give it its basic profile.

The putter may have any cross section that is symmetrical along the length of the grip through at least one plane; "shield" profiles with a flat top and curved underside are common.

[citation needed] Re-gripping used to require toxic, flammable solvents to soften and activate the adhesive, and a vise to hold the club steady while the grip was forced on.

The newest replacement kits, however, use double-sided tape with a water-activated adhesive that is slippery when first activated, allowing easier installation.

Some chippers (a club similar in appearance to a double-sided putter but having a loft of 35–45 degrees) have two faces, but are not legal.

[6]Page 127 of the USGA rules of golf states:[7] A putter is a club with a loft not exceeding ten degrees designed primarily for use on the putting green.

To this, players typically add two of the following: Women's club sets are similar in overall makeup, but typically have higher lofts and shorter, more flexible shafts in retail sets to accommodate the average female player's height and swing speed.

The player can supplement the gaps in distance with either higher-numbered woods such as the 5 and even the 7-wood, or may replace the long irons with equivalently-numbered hybrid clubs.

The combination allows for higher launch angles on the long-distance clubs, which gives better distance with slower swing speeds.

Many recently developed woods have a marked "trampoline effect" (a large deformation of the face upon impact followed by a quick restoration to original dimensions, acting like a slingshot), resulting in very high ball speeds and great lengths of tee shots.

As of 1 January 2008, the USGA and R&A have settled on a regulation that limits the acceptable "trampoline effect" to a coefficient of restitution (COR)—a measurement of the efficiency of the transfer of energy from the club head to the ball—of .830.

[13] According to the USGA, as January 1, 2010, professional golfers on one of the top tours, or those attempting to qualify for one of the three Open Championships (since then four) will need to use new conforming wedges (those without square grooves).

In addition, this regulation includes IGF and USGA-sanctioned regional amateur events as well, as a "condition of competition".