Knowing your Clubs

Woods
Woods are used to hit long shots. If a golf hole is 450 yards from tee to green, most golfers use a wood to hit off the tee. A wood is a hollow-bodied large headed golf club. Use your woods when you are 175 yards or more away from the green.

The Driver (also called the 1 wood) has the lowest loft of any golf club. Loft is the angle of the club face that controls trajectory and affects distance. A driver has a loft between 7 and 12 degrees. Experienced golfers have traditionally favored lower lofted drivers (less than 10 degrees of loft), which require much more skill to hit than higher lofted drivers.

Irons
Irons are generally used when you are less than 200 yards away from the green. The closer you are to the green, the higher the iron you will use. A standard set of irons consists of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 irons and the Pitching Wedge (PW). The 3 and 4 irons are harder to hit than the higher number irons. Many golfers, especially ladies, seniors and higher handicap golfers, are changing to a modified standard golf set that replaces the 3 and 4 iron with higher lofted woods like the 7 and 9 woods. We think this is a sensible trend and one that a beginning golfer should consider. Higher lofted woods, like the 7 and 9 wood are easier to hit than a 3 or 4 iron and result in comparable distances.

Wedges
Wedges are really just specialty irons. The first wedge is the Pitching Wedge (PW), which is usually about 48 degrees in loft. Wedges generally increase in 4 degree loft amounts. So wedges commonly come in 48, 52, 56, 60 and 64 degree lofts. We manufacture a very special wedge called the Last Wedge — which has a 68 degree loft. The PW is the highest lofted iron in a standard set and lowest loft of the wedges. Following the PW with higher lofts are the Approach Wedge (AW), Sand Wedge (SW), the Lob Wedge (LW), the High-Lob Wedge and, finally, our Pinemeadow Last Wedge at 68 degrees.

Wedges are extremely useful to your game and most golfers have a few of them. Wedges are generally designed as "blade clubs" because you are close enough to the green that the game improvement design elements (discussed below) are less important. The need for increased shot control and shot shaping, which blade design encourages, becomes the more important technology for a good wedge design.

Putters
A putter is a golf club with a special purpose: getting the ball into the hole. After you have slammed your drive 250 yards right into the middle of the fairway, hit your second shot 175 yards into the sand trap, and then wedged out onto the green, it is time to "putt for dough." The putter is used on the green and there are many style of putters: short, belly, long, bent, center-hosel, heel-toe, mallet, and so on. At Pinemeadow Golf, we provide you a huge selection of putters and we have a good reason for it, which we explain next.

The Psychology of What You Carry in Your Golf Bag
After decades of experience in the golf club manufacturing business, building millions of clubs for huge numbers of happy customers, we have noticed one thing. Most golfers have as their minimum arsenal one set of irons, multiple wedges, several drivers and a variety of putters. This is because your foursome all gets together at the tee where you use your driver. The pressure is high to perform well. Hopefully you end up in the fairway, spread out all over the golf course.