Picking The Right Club When Playing Golf

A complete set of golf clubs comprises of 14 separate golf clubs each with its own unique properties best suited for playing varied strokes as demanded by different situations. Anyone playing golf is therefore faced with the prospect of determining which of the 14 clubs to use for each stroke depending on the situation at hand.

It is no easy task and the ability to match the appropriate club for a particular shot is more than half the secret behind an expert golfer. Once you acquire the knack of picking the correct club for a particular stroke, your game will continue to improve. There are different situations that call for the judicious use of the most appropriate golf club for best results; and let us analyze some of them to examine how you would choose the most appropriate club to handle such diverse situations:

The distance the ball has to be driven is a main consideration in determining which club is to be used for that shot. You can stack your clubs in the order of their hitting power for convenience of picking up the correct one for the required range. When you are still in the par-five or par-six zones close to the starting end of the course you will need the services of your long-range clubs such as drivers or the Fairway woods. This is a situation where you have to put all the muscle in your arms to come up with a mighty high-speed swing to place the ball as faraway as possible.  As you gradually close in on the target, what you need is not a club with much hitting power, but one with a higher degree of accuracy. That is when you should pick your Irons and Wedges to home in from close range.

The direction and the blowing strength of the wind should come into the reckoning to make an appropriate mental allowance when choosing the correct club to play with. If the blowing is fairly hard in the same direction as you are hitting the ball, you may choose a club to slightly slacken the hitting power and let the wind assist in taking the ball to its intended destination. Conversely, if the bowing is towards you; which is in the direction opposite to the flight of the ball, use a club to give it extra momentum to overcome the friction caused by the wind. You have to be pretty smart to pick the correct club in situations with much wind interference; and that can come only with experience. As a beginner you should not be unduly worried at the early stages if your shots do not connect as intended under windy conditions. Give yourself some time to learn to conquer these tricky situations and in the meantime go on playing to the best of your ability with extra intelligence 

There are certain mental adjustments to be made with regard to the club you would use for a particular horizontal distance when faced with different elevations of the course as against what you would use on even level ground. If you are making a shot from a lower split level on the course to a point at a higher elevation, more power is required to carry the ball up so that you may use a club one or two stages higher ranked for its hitting power. The converse is true if you happen to be hitting from a point to a target about 10 feet vertically below you. If you make that shot with the normal club you would use for that identical horizontal distance without making any compensatory adjustments for the incline at which you are targeting the shot, you are very much likely to overshoot your target. When picking up a club for a particular shot, remember to take into consideration the different elevations on the course in addition to the horizontal distance involved.

The terrain of the course too has an impact on your shots. Getting on to a better surface becomes a priority over trying to send the ball to a hole so as to be able to play a better shot. Such situations call for the more liberal use of smaller clubs such as High loft irons instead of using more powerful clubs such as fairway woods or drivers. Although some of these factors may be beyond the proper understanding of a beginner to the game, you will get accustomed to them as you go on playing on golf courses with hostile terrain, different split levels and extraordinary windy conditions.