Drivers, Metalwoods

Golf clubs are used in the sport of golf to hit a golf ball. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a clubhead. more...

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There are many specialized designs of club, falling into three general categories: woods, used for long-distance fairway shots; irons, the most versatile class used for a variety of shots, and putters, used mainly on the green to roll the ball into the cup.

An important variation in different clubs is loft, or the angle between the club's face and the vertical plane. It is loft that makes a golf ball leave the tee on an ascending trajectory, not the angle of swing; virtually all swings contact the ball with a horizontal motion. The impact of the club compresses the ball, while grooves on the clubface give the ball backspin (a clockwise spin when viewed from a parallel standpoint to the left of the ball). Together, the compression and backspin create lift. The majority of woods and irons are labelled with a number; higher numbers indicate shorter shafts and higher lofts, which give the ball a higher and shorter trajectory.

While the variation of clubs can differ greatly between golfers, a set used to play a round of golf must have no more than 14 clubs. A full set typically consists of a driver, two fairway woods, a set of irons from 3 to 9, a pitching and/or sand wedge, and a putter. Many players opt to avoid the 3- and 4-irons (which are more difficult to hit) in favor of \"hybrid\" clubs, higher-loft fairway woods and/or extra wedges. Another common variation is to use only odd-numbered irons, replacing the 4, 6 and 8-irons with other clubs.

Club Types

Woods

Woods are the longest and largest clubs in the bag and are mostly used for long shots. The head of a wood is roughly spherical in shape with a slightly bulging clubface and a flattened sole that slides over the ground without digging in during the swing. Originally \"wood\" clubheads were made of wood, hence the name — beech wood or ash prior to the twentieth century, and later persimmon or maple. Modern club heads are usually hollow steel, titanium or composite materials, and are sometimes called \"metalwoods\". The first metalwoods appeared in the late 1970s but did not begin to gain wide acceptance over traditional woods until the early 1990s, when more forgiving \"oversized\" heads were introduced.

The longest and lowest-loft wood, the 1 wood, is called the driver. It has the longest range of any club in a golfer's bag, and with its large head and deep face is designed to hit off the tee. Higher-number woods are generally known as fairway woods and feature a shallower face height which enables players to hit them off the turf. The driver can also be hit from the turf, although modern drivers require a high level of skill to execute such a shot correctly. The most common set of woods is a driver, 3 and 5 wood, though fairway woods of any number from 2 to 9 are produced and preferred by various players.

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