Woods

The woods in a typical golfer's bag will include a driver and one or two fairway woods, most commonly a 3-wood and/or 5-wood. Women and seniors might benefit from adding a 7-wood or 9-wood. The 4-wood is another common wood, and some golfers even carry an 11-wood.

Woods feature deep (from front to back) club heads that are made of metal, usually steel or a titanium alloy. They are called "woods" because the club heads used to be made of wood. Metals came into broad use in the 1980s, and "fairway woods" are now sometimes called "fairway metals."

Beginners might want to consider carrying some extra fairway woods (5-wood, 7-wood and 9-wood, for example) in place of the long irons (2-, 3-, 4- and even 5-irons). As a general rule, fairway woods are easier to hit than long irons for most beginners and recreational golfers.

Drivers and fairway woods are intended to strike the ball either on the upswing (in the case of the driver) or at the bottom of the swing (in the case of fairway woods). For that reason, the ball is placed forward in the stance when using a wood.

Distances with each club will vary from player to player; there is no "right" distance, there is only your distance, and you'll learn those distances as you start playing. Typically, a driver will go 20 yards or so farther than a 3-wood, which will go about 20 yards farther than a 5-wood. A 5-wood is roughly equivalent to a 2-iron in distance; a 7-wood to a 4-iron.

Beginners often overestimate how far they are "supposed" to hit each club because they watch the professionals blasting 300-yard drives. No matter what the commercial says, you are not Tiger Woods! Pro players are in a different universe; do not compare yourself to them.