Having a good set of golf clubs helps players of all ages and perhaps has the greatest impact on beginners. A standard set of golf clubs includes a putter, irons and woods. The United States Golf Association (USGA) allows for up to 14 golf clubs in any given golf bag. A typical golf bag will likely have three woods, seven irons, 2 wedges and a putter.

A long-shafted club, the driver has a full head and almost always from the tee box. To achieve maximum distance, the club head does not have much lift to it. The fairway woods have club heads that are slightly more lofted than the driver, and are used for long shots when the ball is lying on the ground. Brand name drivers can cost between $200 and $400. Fairway woods normally retail from $150 to $300. And clone golf clubs can provide similar performance for a deeply reduced fee.

Golf irons are the essence of a set of golf clubs. Two thirds of the shots in a normal round of golf will utilize an iron. Irons are used to hit the golf ball off the ground from distances of 125 yards to 225 yards. Each iron is assigned a number based upon the loft angle of the club head. The 9-iron has the most loft, and is used to hit short, high shots. A 3-iron has very little loft, and is used to hit low, long shorts.

A pitching wedge is normally included in the purchase of a set of irons. In addition, two other typical wedges include a sand wedge and a lob wedge. These golf clubs are used for short, controlled shots in and around the putting green.

The top two kinds of irons available are forged and cavity-backed. Forged irons are precision clubs that can give experienced golfers a greater ability to shape their shots. Cavity-back irons are considered to be more forgiving, with a larger sweet spot and primarily for golfers who want to focus on hitting straight shots. A set of 10 irons can range in price from as little as $250, to as much as $1,500. As with drivers, you can save money and see similar results with clone golf clubs.

As the old cliché goes, you drive for show and putt for dough. This could be more accurate. The putter is used on or close to the green and its purpose is to roll the ball to the hole. The design and options of putters have exploded over the past five years. While most golfers use a more traditional short shafted putter, long shafted or belly putters have also become a viable option today. Putt-putt style putters or blades can be purchased for as little as $20 but you can also easily spend over $300 for designer putters.

By: Michael Kosmala
Michael Kosmala is not a golf professional but an average joe with a great love for golf. Take the next step to a lifetime of enjoyment of golf - http://www.yourgolffix.com/golfsecretsletter.html.

It's a truism to say that you drive for show, but putt for dough. Whether you can perform a tour-worthy 28 putts a round, or putt way over par, the putter is your most used club. We will help you choose the right putter for your game, with guidelines on weighting, feel and alignment so you can choose a design that suits your style - and your purse.

Mallets v Blades

Putters fall into the categories of blade, 'heel-and-toe' and mallet. Purists claim that even a cheap and cheerful blade forces a more consistent stroke, but many golfers - both pros and amateurs - now favour the larger sweet spot and high MOI (moment of inertia), which creates the resistance to twisting that you find on mallets.

Blade
Heel and Toe
Mallet

They help us all to hole more putts with less-than-perfect strikes, as the deeper body also physically pulls the centre of gravity back from the face, encouraging golfers to develop an upward stroke for path-hugging topspin, and reducing the destructive 'bounce and skid' that can characterise the early stages of a putt.

Mallets really are all the rage as their deep bodies offer the most scope for the bold alignment features that have transformed the market. We used to be satisfied with tiny notches, dots or small arrows to point us in the right direction, but today's graphics include colourful stripes, long perpendicular sight lines, and even golf-ball sized circles that encourage us to line up the ball with the hole itself.

The Feel Factor and Insert Technology

Feel is vital when buying a putter, with a whole range of distinctive face inserts offering a slightly different sound and feel at impact. Heavier weights, such as tungsten and brass, are recommended for slower greens, whilst lighter alternatives such as aluminium reduce the total weight, which is of benefit on slicker surfaces. Many of the latest putters favour the soft feel of copper, aluminium or synthetic inserts, which offer a more controlled strike on today's manicured greens. Meanwhile, their lightness enhances a putter's perimeter weighting for extra stability.

The quest for perfection has brought us some amazingly exotic inserts, including gold-plate, platinum, and even 12-carat industrial diamond! As well as the more usual tungsten, nickel, copper and aluminium, of course. All are naturally reflected in the price, but generally you do get what you pay for.

Expensive putters tend to feature more accurately engineered weighting, more precisely milled (i.e. flatter) faces, and of course more sumptuous headcovers to protect that precious insert. Computerised milling of head from solid blocks of metal, especially, offers a high-precision alternative to forgings and castings, whose feel can be compromised when the hosel is welded to the head. Look out also for other features ranging from perfect face balancing (for golfers with 'square to square' strokes), premium grips (like the excellent Winn range) and belly or broomhandle shaft options for those seeking a more mechanical action.

Putter Shafts

The other thing to consider is the shaft length. Most will opt for a standard putter length, but long putters can benefit some golfers. Broomhandle and belly-putters, pioneered by 2002 European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance among others during the late 1980s and early 1990s, are tucked under the chin or into the belly. They are swung in a pendulum fashion, and crucially make demands on a different set of small muscles and nerves - and have revived the careers of several Tour players who have suffered from the yips.

By: Jonty Driver
Greatvaluegolf.co.uk - Golf Putters

The hybrid golf club is also referred to as a utility club and is a relatively recent addition to the variety of golf clubs golfers can choose from. They are growing in popularity because they are designed to be easier to hit for recreational golfers. In fact, they are easier to hit for all golfers and most touring pros now carry hybrid golf clubs in their bags.

Hybrid golf clubs are a category of club that combines elements of both woods and irons into their design. This combination adds up to having technical features that aid in getting the ball airborne, that dampen the effects of miss hits, and many other pluses.

Most hybrid golf clubs are designed to replace long irons (2, 3, 4, and sometimes 5 irons) in a golfer’s bag. When you hear it said that hybrid golf clubs are easier to hit, this is almost always meant in comparison to the long irons that these hybrids replace.

So why are hybrid golf clubs advantageous over regular irons?
A normal iron doesn’t have much of a back on it. You can make an iron that has perimeter weighting but you can’t have it further back unless it has a bigger back side. You can’t move much weight back into the air? Therefore, to make an iron easier to hit manufacturers have started to “fatten” the back of them. So hybrid golf clubs that look more like an iron have what seems to be a bulge on back of them. This is just moving the weight further back on the iron. Now they can have weight along the outside of the club and further back.

On the other hand, manufacturers who have made their Hybrid Golf Clubs look more like a fairway wood have been able to move the weight back a little more since the club is larger. Not large enough to be the size of a harder to hit fairway wood but large enough to do the trick. Hybrid golf clubs also have a lower center of gravity. If you move the center of gravity down then the ball gets up in the air easier. It helps increase the launch angle of the ball without having to increase the actual loft of the club. This may not be visible but the result is. If you have a three iron that is 20 degrees and a hybrid golf club that is the same loft, but has the weight further back (perimeter weighted) and the center of gravity lower then the club will launch the ball higher. That is why it is important to realize that when making a purchase of a hybrid golf club that the lofts are not directly comparable to the club you are replacing. There are some players who swear by hybrid golf clubs and others who think they are just junk. But the simple fact is that a hybrid golf club is easier to get into the air, down the fairway and onto the green.

By: Kong Yang
Kong Yang, the golf master. Known the 'Game Dominator' who's golf games change since he used the hybird golf club. But not only that, for years he searched and searched for golf guides and any information to improve his golfing games. Soon to realize, all the books shared all the same informations. But theres only one guide that also helped him. You can go to this site: http://www.golfproof.com.

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The new rage for 2007 is square headed drivers. Every manufacturer is scrambling to release their version of the square head. But is it really "hip to be square"? or is this just another marketing gimmick promising everyone straighter drives on the golf course.

To really know, you need to understand moment of inertia or MOI as the golf industry calls it. MOI is a property of physics that indicates the relative difference in how easy or difficult it will be to set any object in motion about a defined axis of rotation. That was for all you physics majors. Now for the rest of us golfers, MOI is the term applied to a clubhead's resistance to twisting when the ball is struck. For example, your swing is a little off and you hit the ball on the toe of the clubhead. A clubhead with a higher MOI will twist less as a result of the mis-hit, creating a better chance that the ball will still go where you intended and with less loss of distance.

So how to the manufacturers increase MOI? The simple answers is perimeter weighting. The key to increasing MOI is relocating as much weight as possible as far away from the clubhead's center of gravity. The new square shape has allowed manufacturers to create extreme weighting in the corners of the clubhead, outside the weighting zone of a traditional driver. This has increased the MOI, thus creating a driver more forgiving and overall provides for longer straighter drives.

As most manufacturers are launching these new club head with price tags of over $400, TourGolfClubs has introduced a line of square head golf clubs that rival the top name brands in features and performance but at a quarter of the price. TourGolfClubs golf equipments is made with similar materials and technology as the comparable name brand. Brands like Callaway, Nike, Titleist, and Ping. We provide you the performance of the name brand golf clubs, but offer you a better value.

By: David Laible
President & CEO of http://www.tourgolfclubs.com.

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