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

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Gary McCord is a PGA Champions Tour player and celebrity golf instructor. He’s best known for the knowledgeable perspective, refreshing humor, and irreverent wit he has shown as a golf commentator for CBS for nearly 25 years.

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