golf equipment

Golf is played with golf clubs of various types. There are four major categories of clubs, known as woods, hybrids, irons, and putters. Wedges resemble irons and may also be counted among these. A golfer is allowed to carry up to fourteen clubs during a round.

While it is possible to play a range of different shots using only one club, modifying only the speed and direction of swing, this is not a particularly successful technique. It is much easier to keep the swing as constant as possible and achieve different lengths and characteristics of ball flight using a different club for each shot. Tour Series Complete Set $26999 » Tour Series Complete Set. To facilitate the choice of a club for any particular situation, all irons (and many woods and wedges) come in sets of similar clubs graded by loft (see below), shaft length, and weight. Clubs are numbered for identification with the smallest numbers indicating the lower lofts (a 5 iron has less loft than a 6 iron).

Various clubs are designed with the face having differing loft (the angle between a vertical plane and the clubface when the club is at rest). It is loft that makes a golf ball leave the ground on an ascending trajectory, not an upward direction of swing: with the exception of the tee shot, the club actually hits the ball in a horizontal or slightly downward motion. The impact of the clubface compresses the ball.