Intermediate Golf Clubs

After you've spent a good while on the course whittling away at your handicap, there comes a time when you need to update your equipment. Whilst the 'old faithful' clubs may have a special place in your heart, they may not be able to help your game get to that all-important next level. However, making sure that you get the right clubs to help your progression is not always as simple as paying a few extra pounds.

Evolving Golf Technology

Top brands like TaylorMade, Callaway, Nike and Titleist produce some of the most technologically advanced golf clubs available on the market. Innovative design has paved the way for clubs that turn a good golfer into a great golfer. Specialist golf clubs are now designed to take into account a players golfing style; for example there are a number of drivers specifically designed for players with a tendency to hook or draw the ball off of the tee. But the very top clubs come at high prices and making a significant outlay is no guarantee of golfing success.

Getting To Grips With Your Game

Understanding your swing, it's strengths as well as weaknesses, will help you better pinpoint your ideal intermediate level golf clubs. Needless to say brashly blundering into a purchase and ending up with something that is at complete odds with your golfing style is not going to help your game a great deal.

To the untrained eye golf clubs may appear the same, but each one boasts many subtle differences when compared with others in the range. Special weightings on a club can allow a player to draw the ball, marginally different gradients on a driver club head can alter the loft achieved and putters come in all shapes and sizes to aid power and accuracy. Therefore taking time to understand the subtle differences is essential in order to get a set of clubs that will best suit your playing style.

Hybrid Golf Clubs

If you only possess a basic set of clubs i.e. irons, putter, driver, fairway wood and maybe a pitching wedge, you may want to branch out and try a different club to help expand your game. The hybrid wood is a relatively new phenomenon in golfing world. This utility club blends the functionality of a number of clubs in your golf bag, most notably the fairway wood and long irons.

The hybrid wood itself comes in two distinctive shapes, one very similar to a standard long iron club and another more akin to a wood. The behaviour of both forms of the hybrid club is largely similar; although the 'iron-like' club is possibly preferable in the extremely heavy rough due to its more slender shape. The hybrid doesn't carry quite the same distance as a standard fairway wood, but it benefits from having a shorter handle, enabling the golfer to swing it much like a standard iron shot. As with irons, the hybrid clubs offer a variety of club head trajectories, offering a whole range of options to better suit your course requirements.

Often also referred to as a rescue club, the hybrid wood is a useful club to have in your bag when you fall foul of a shallow bunker or rough on the periphery of the green. In these conditions the rescue element of the club really comes to the fore. Due to its design the hybrid club is able to punch the ball at a low trajectory with a good deal of backspin. The generation of backspin prevents you from topping the ball and having it run right through the green; of course this is also useful for longer shots where you want the ball to plug with little run on.

Understanding Technical Nuances

Whilst updating your golf bag, whether it is a few choice clubs or a complete overhaul, creating the right blend of clubs to better help your game is vital. Whether you're buying a steel shafted set of irons or a graphite driver, there are many subtle nuances to look out for. Take for example the increased 'Moment of Inertia' (MOI) that many golfing manufacturers incorporated into their designs. MOI allows for greater smoothness and accuracy in shots, it is generated through different shaping of the golf club, in irons this is ordinarily created through slimmer sculpted club heads; the result of which is less vibration on impact leading to a more controlled stroke.

Other manufacturers have different gizmos and designs to help maximise game play, for example Mizuno use a HEMI COG system. This particular system utilises a special tungsten weighting to enhance ball control. Callaway have something similar for steel shaft irons such as the Callaway Big Bertha CWS Irons, which is called Royal Precision Microtaper Technology. In essence these design enhancements are all based on similar principles; but taking the time to understand these details could well make the difference between getting another run-of-the-mill set of clubs and the clubs that will have you playing like a pro.