Types of Golf

There is a vast selection of drivers made for every level of play, so be sure to match your skills and goals with the appropriate club. When it comes to selecting a golf driver, the pertinent question is how to determine the driver you can hit for the longest distance.

Especially that 3-wood. But never fear, with all of the options on the Hot List, this year could be the year you conquer your fairway woods. The fairway woods that earned medals on our Hot List have the technology to help you get it in the air, hit it far and straight.

Beginning golfers sometimes aren't sure which golf clubs do what, or why, but recent innovations have created hybrid clubs that make the sport easier. Beginning golfers sometimes aren't sure which golf clubs do what, or why, but recent innovations have created hybrid clubs that make the sport easier.

Of course, "woods" are now also made of metal, but that's a relatively recent development. Irons have featured metal clubheads (steel, these days) for centuries. The clubheads of irons are thin from front to back, and the clubfaces are grooved to impart spin on the golf ball.

Pitching wedge: The lowest-lofted of the wedges (the one that hits the ball the farthest), pitching wedges (abbreviated PW) are usually included in a set of irons. The PW is considered one of the basic clubs every golfer carries. Sand wedge: Designed specifically to make hitting shots out of bunkers easier. Abbreviated SW.

The woods in a typical golfer's bag will include a driver and one or two fairway woods, most commonly a 3-wood and/or 5-wood. Women and seniors might benefit from adding a 7-wood or 9-wood. The 4-wood is another common wood, and some golfers even carry an 11-wood.

A putter is a club used in the sport of golf to make relatively short and low-speed strokes with the intention of rolling the ball into the hole from a short distance away.

Utility clubs and hybrids are a relatively recent addition to the pantheon of golf clubs, and they are growing in popularity because they are designed to be easier to hit for recreational golfers.

The wedges, whose lofts these days can sometimes cover a near-20-degree range from the mid-40s to the low 60s, should be the most precise clubs you carry. Fortunately, these days they may be the most precisely engineered clubs in the bag.