While the biggest difference between two golf clubs is the head, a lot more goes in to the design of a good golf club that can help a golfer improve his game. Part of that research and design means finding a club's sweet spot. A club's "sweet spot" marks the middle of the club face -- the ideal place to hit the ball. This article will go through the different clubs and discuss the mechanics behind golf club design:
Woods have the largest heads of any golf club, and it is that bulbous head that helps Tiger Woods send the ball whizzing towards the green with a single shot. He's using his driver, which is the largest wood. These large clubs are designed to send the ball sailing 300 yards or more with a single swing. For beginning golfers though, that single swing is sometimes precluded by several misses. Wood shafts are considerably longer than the shafts of most other clubs. This length increases the power that can be transferred to the ball, but it also makes it less likely that the ball will meet the the quarter-sized sweet spot in the middle of the club face. When an off-center hit occurs, the head of the club tends to twist, pointing the face in an unintended direction, and sending the ball the wrong way.
A golf club designer has to balance a number of factors. A heavy golf club head best resists twisting and therefore suffers the least from a less-than-perfect swing. However, a golfer can generally swing a club with a lighter head at a greater speed, which generates more energy to be transferred to the ball and so sends the ball a greater distance. Over the past 100 or so years, golf club designers have attempted to strike a balance between light and heavy clubs. The large head of a driver and the combination of metals like steel, titanium and bronze that go into various drivers, are all attempts to balance stability with light weight. The shape of the driver head allows designers to move the weight in the head to points that enhance stability. Thee points vary by each brand of club and often stand out as one of the unique selling factors marketed by manufacturers when claiming superiority for their clubs. The driver head shape also allows the head to glide over grass and ground rather than digging into the turf.
Irons, however, are designed to provide a greater variety of shots than woods. While woods tend to be optimal for long and very long shots, the shots made using irons range from 200 yards or more (2 irons), down to 40 yards or less in the case of the various wedges. Club designers are challenged with the same issues in irons as they are with woods, but their shorter shafts and the less exaggerated swings with which they are used have led to different solutions for different types of players.
Only 25 years ago, most manufacturer's irons looked much the same -- a blade-shaped head with most of the weight concentrated low and in the center of the club. This club design provided more emphasis for shots in which the ball was hit with the club's sweet spot. The heads of these clubs were steel, and most likely shaped by forging -- hammering hot metal under great pressure. When a golfer hit the ball off-center with these clubs, there was very little in the club's design to prevent it from twisting and delivering a disappointing shot.
Since then, designers have developed clubs that have almost the same weight as the older golf clubs but have figured out how to distribute that weight around the perimeter of the club, making the head far more resistant to off-center twisting and therefore much more forgiving for golfers who swing off line by a few millimeters. In addition, modern metal alloys have allowed for larger iron heads, which increases the size of the "sweet spot," thereby increasing the possibility of good results with a less-than-perfect swing.
Finally, let's discuss the putter. Putters have a relatively simple job: to strike the golf ball with a face perpendicular to the path of a gentle swing and cause the ball to roll along the ground until it falls into a hole. Easy, right? Twisting is still a concern with off-center hits, but a putter is specifically designed to transfer significantly less energy to the ball than either irons or woods. But for this simple job, golf club manufacturers have designed a huge array of shapes for the heads of putters -- blocks, blades, short, long, thick, thin, etc., and the various patterns of lines found on the faces.
Now that you have a better understanding of what goes in to making a good club, make sure to take a look at what you're playing with the next time you're on the links. It might make more of a difference than you think.
About the Author:
Gary Gold has been playing golf for 26 years on some of the world's best courses. A retired management consultant, he now offers advice to golfers via his website: http://www.golfclbs.com. Visit him there for more tips on everything related to golf clubs.