Your set make up is a vital element to playing your best and enjoying the game more. Simply put it is finding a club for every distance gap between your longest club in the bag and your shortest club in the bag. If for instance your driver goes 250 and your shortest wedge goes 100 you have 11 additional clubs in the bag to cover the gaps between 100 and 250 or 13.64 yards per club.

This is done with various lofts and various clubs from irons to hybrids to fairways, depending on your preferences for hitting irons, hybrids or fairways. You must also consider how high you hit each club and if it is designed to roll out when it lands or stop when it lands. Your second longest club, usually a fairway, is used to roll out to get you as close as possible on your second shot on a par 5 so you can get your approach shot close to the pin, or as far down a tight fairway as possible. Other fairways you might want to hit higher so they will stay on a green when they land on one.

Many prefer hybrids to irons because they get them in the air higher and they hold the greens better than irons of equal distance capability. Some swing the longer shafted fairways better. In most cases either can be used.

Here we need to understand how distance and trajectory are accomplished and what the difference is for irons, hybrids and fairways of the same loft. Trajectory is important.  So is loft and swing speed. How fast you swing and how much loft you have on your club is important, but so too is the center of gravity of the head. 

Something most golfers don’t understand is how important the golf ball is for trajectory. The dimple on a golf ball helps the ball remain in the air longer through aerodynamic lift caused by the turbulence created by the dimples as the ball spins. 

The speed of a golfer swing and the angle of the clubface at impace (loft or effective loft) determines how much spin a golfer will generate. Effectively a golfer with a swing speed of around 100 to 105 mph with a driver will not generate enough spin to keep the ball in the air aerodynamically. They have to keep the ball in the air by using more loft to get maximum distance. This is why higher lofted drivers work better for them. 

In addition to spin forces a golfers angle of attack, (hitting down or on the upswing) can influence trajectory and launch angle. A golfer can get a higher launch angle and trajectory by addressing the ball more forward in his stance to get a more upward or positive angle of attack and by teeing the ball higher for this purpose. 

Club design matters too…

In the picture you see three 7 irons, two hybrids and a regular 7 iron. Note that the two hybrids have different lengths from face to back. The head with the most depth probably has a center of gravity farther from the face than the other 2 heads. The iron has the center of gravity closest to the face. They all have the same loft but all will launch a golf shot at different angles. The iron will be lowest and the head with the deepest depth will be the highest. The center of gravity will attempt to line up with the hands at impact to the deeper the center of gravity the more the face will ben forward at impact and give the club a higher effective loft. Thus the 7 hybrid of the same loft as the 7 iron with all else equal will launch the ball higher than the corresponding iron will.

If you are getting older and loosing club speed a fairway of the same loft will launch even higher because the longer shaft will generate a bit more speed and the deeper center gravity will give it a bit more effective (virtual) loft. 

Correct Loft is critical for getting the best trajectory to maximize distance with a driver but higher trajectories are needed with irons so they carry farther and stop on the greens. By selecting the right set of heads for you, you will be able to maximize the effectiveness of your game. Maximizing the effectiveness of the clubs you have in your bag will help you produce better more consistent shots, more accurate shots and score better. Better shots lead to lower scores and lower scores lead to more enjoyment of the game.

Senior Clubs

If you are a senior golfer you will likely get more distance and higher ball flight with a fairway of the same loft as a hybrid or iron club. Many seniors can’t hit lower lofted irons and need hybrids or fairways to replace them to get the needed launch angle and trajectory. 

SENIOR SETS

  • If you are a senior and playing the senior tees at your club and your tee shots carry less then 250 yards (on the fly) you may not need some of the clubs in your bag. For example, your 3 wood. With 15° loft you cannot get your 3 wood in the air very well and you probably hit your 5 wood or even your 7 wood farther than your 3 wood. Especially if you hit your driver on the fly less than 200 yards. Granted that in some areas if you hit your 3 wood and your fairways are hard it might roll as far as the 5 wood, but the 5 wood still will likely carry farther.
  • If the above fits you, read on. Chances are you do not need a full set of clubs either
  • Most golfers above 100 mph swing speed have gap distances between irons of 10 yards to 12 yards or more. As your swing speed decreases your gap distance decrease also. As your speed goes down the gap goes down too and you might find yourself hitting your 6 iron and 7 iron almost the same distance more often than not. If you are a scratch golfer or really good ball striker this isn’t as bad but if you are an average golfer that mishits shots to some degree more often than not the mishit is going to reduce how far you hit the ball too and this will be more likely than not to happen.
  • There is also a point at which when you lose enough swing speed when you get to a certain longer iron you may not hit any of them any longer than the others. You max out at how far you can it the longer clubs. 
  • If you have these symptoms start noting your distances with specific clubs in your bag and what the loft is on each of those clubs. You might be able to take nearly half of them out of your bag.
  • If you are using a set of clubs you have had since you hit the ball considerably farther maybe you need to get a new custom fitted set of clubs adjusted to your swing speed and maybe you can get some of that lost distance back. 
  • With custom fitting you can buy only the clubs you need 90% of the time
  • You can tell me what clubs at what lofts you do  hit good and only buy what you need. 
  • Sign up Here for a custom fitting and get started today on a better game you
  • I can custom design a set of clubs just for your game with only the clubs you need.

As written by Tom Wishon about set makeup

Tom was here in Columbus for the annual Association of Golf Clubfitting Professionals conference.


Everyone who plays this game with even a speck of passion knows that to play your best, you have to play SMART golf.  To most golfers, smart golf is all about course management; knowing when to “go for it” or when to hit the conservative shot. 

But playing smart golf isn’t always about studying each hole to know which club to hit when, where to aim it and when to take a chance to play the lower percentage shot.  It’s also about what complement of clubs you choose to play, something in the world of custom clubfitting which is called being custom fit with the right “Set Makeup.” 

Remember, the Rules of Golf say you can only carry 14 clubs.  Fortunately they don’t tell you WHICH 14 clubs you can put in your golf bag.  That’s where smart golfers who avail themselves of professional custom clubfitting can gain a lot of game improvement assistance to give themselves a little better shot in their battle against bogeys.

Set Makeup starts with a couple of common sense principles. . .

  • Make it a goal to not put any club in your bag that you cannot hit acceptably well and in play less than 75% of the time.
  • Make sure each of the 13 tee to green clubs hits the ball a distinctively different distance with reasonably even gaps in distance between.

Now, for more specifics.  What makes any club hard to hit solid, on-center and in play 75% or more of the time?  Please remember this old and true statement about golf clubs; “the longer the length, the lower  the loft, the heavier the weight and the stiffer the shaft, the harder the club will be to hit.”  And really respect points #1 and 2 in this credo. . . . .

Driver:  The driver is the lightest club in your bag.  But it is also the longest and typically has the lowest loft.  If you’re not at the 75%+ level with your driver, go get custom fit for a shorter length driver and second, go with a little more loft.  If you do, you’ll be knocking at the door of that >75% level for good shots and better misses sooner than you think.

Fairway Woods:  Smart golf says the main purpose of the fairway woods is to be your next longest hitting clubs after the driver.  If you are not at the 75% level with your fairway woods, go shorter in length and do not keep trying to hit the low loft of the 3-wood.  Use more loft for your lowest loft wood, like a 4 or 5-wood to become your second longest hitting wood after the driver. 

Long and Middle Irons:  It’s great that the golf industry has given us three different options here to find that >75% hitting success level?  But first, throw out your conventional 3-iron, 4-iron and yes, for many of you, your 5-iron as well.  For some of you, add the 6-iron to that list as well.  The much lower lofts of modern iron sets has made the 3, 4, 5 and even the 6-iron very difficult for the majority of golfers to hit consistently well.  Next, figure out what high lofted woods or hybrids the same distance as if you could perfectly hit that conventional 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-iron, and go with that as your lower loft iron replacement clubs.

Short Irons:  We’ll hope since these are the shortest and most lofted of the full swing clubs, you are not in a conundrum of less than 75% success with these clubs.  If so, you might want to think about changing away from swingweight matching of your irons to MOI matching as well as going with 3/8” increments between each iron instead of the usual half-inch.  A whole lot of golfers have reported an improvement in accuracy and consistency with their MOI matched sets. And many golfers like the comfort over the ball and through impact that the slightly longer lengths of the short irons brought about by 3/8” increments affords.  

Wedges:  The key to the right wedge set makeup is to first pick the complement of wedges to match best with the type of grass where you play along with the green and bunker design of your golf course.  The smaller, faster, firmer, higher and more undulating the greens on your course, the more wedges you might want to use.  In addition, choose the sole width and sole bounce angle that best matches the grass and sand conditions on your course.  Longer grass, more moist lush turf, fluffier, loose sand = more bounce sole angle and/or a wider sole.  Thin grass, hardpan, tight packed heavy sand = more narrow sole and or less bounce sole angle.