Women's Golf Clubs: How To Find The Right Clubs For Your Game

Women's Golf Clubs: How To Find The Right Clubs For Your Game

When women are considering new golf equipment it is really important that they get it right and buy golf clubs that complement their ability and suit their swing. Here is a guide to give you a better understanding of a golf club’s key components to help you make a purchase decision. Once you have given this a read, we recommend checking out our club specific buyers guides throughout this piece too so you can narrow your focus down even further.

Women's Golf Clubs: How To Find The Right Clubs For Your Game

Shaft

Women generally have slower swing speeds, so are better suited to clubs fitted with a soft flex graphite shaft. This lightweight material enables an effortless swing with increased clubhead speed, and subsequently more distance. Women with faster swing speeds should opt for stronger flex steel-shafted clubs for greater control. Shafts come in different lengths, but as a rule women’s golf clubs are on average almost 2” shorter than men’s clubs. A shaft that is too long will have a negative impact on control and accuracy. 

Clubheads

Clubheads come in a variety of designs and colors, not only to suit a golfer’s ability, but also to offer pleasing and confidence-boosting aesthetics when players address the ball.

Drivers: Women’s drivers generally have a smaller and lighter clubhead than men’s drivers to help generate greater clubhead speed. Modern head shapes allow weights to be positioned for a low, deep centre of gravity to improve MOI, which makes the club ultra forgiving and less prone to twisting at impact. Some of the latest drivers (and fairway woods) have moveable weights to help dial-in a player’s preferred shot shape and trajectory.

Irons: Oversized cavity backed clubheads suit beginners and mid-high handicappers as the wider sole and a low centre of gravity make it easier to get the ball airborne with maximum forgiveness. However, this is at the expense of workability, so better players who strike their irons more consistently will veer towards traditional blade irons, or include a mix of both. 

Hosel

The hosel is the component that connects the shaft to the clubhead and nowadays it is more common for a driver, fairway woods and hybrids to have an adjustable hosel that alters the loft and face angle. This technology allows women who have a tendency to slice or hook the ball, or require a different trajectory to maximise distance, the ability to tinker with the set-up of the club to suit their swing.

Grip

Do not underestimate the importance of having the right size grip. If a grip is too small then you are likely to grip the club too tightly, causing tension to build in your arms and shoulders, which in turn prevents you from generating maximum clubhead speed.

It will also encourage too much hand action, forcing the clubface to close prematurely, resulting in a pulled or hooked shot. A grip that is too large has the opposite effect. With less hand action, this will encourage the clubhead to open at impact and exaggerate a slice. The easiest way to determine the size of your grip is to measure your hands. There are typically only four grip sizes to choose from and the undersized grip that measures less than 7” from the wrist crease is most common for women. 

Loft

Each golf club has a different loft angle. To put simply, a club with a lower loft like a driver, will send the ball on a gentle climb with greater distance, whereas the ball will travel far steeper off the clubface of a pitching wedge.

Driver lofts vary between 8-14 degrees and a loft should be selected based on your clubhead speed. Most women’s drivers are designed with a higher loft between 11-12 degrees or more, to suit slower swing  speeds (90mph and lower) for easy launch. Stronger players that can generate a faster clubhead speed (100mph and above) will suit a driver with a loft of 10 degrees or less. 

Custom Fitting

Above all else and whatever your ability, a custom fitting session is strongly recommended. It is a misconception that the service, which is offered by a number of manufacturers, is just for elite players and professionals. For beginners, custom fitting should be considered as part of the learning process to boost confidence and help maximize potential.