Understanding Gear

Lofts, shafts, grips and fitting. What the specifications mean before you spend anything on them.

15 guides

Types of Golf Clubs: What Each One Is Actually For

A full bag holds fourteen clubs that mostly look alike and mostly do different jobs. Here is what separates them, and which one belongs in your hands for the shot in front of you.

11 min read

Beginner

Buying Used Golf Clubs: What Is Worth It, What Is Not

Used clubs are the best value in golf and the easiest place to buy the wrong thing. The difference is knowing which clubs age well, which ones are consumable, and what a seller's condition grade is actually promising.

11 min read

Beginner

Golf Grip Size: How to Measure It and What It Changes

Grip size is the cheapest specification in golf to change and the one most golfers have never thought about. It is also the only part of the club you actually touch.

10 min read

Beginner

Golf Iron Lofts: The Chart, and Why It Keeps Moving

The number stamped on an iron used to tell you its loft. It now tells you which shelf the club came off, and two sevens from the same manufacturer can sit five degrees apart.

11 min read

Beginner

How to Check a Used Golf Club Before You Buy It

A used club can look perfect in five photographs and still be the wrong buy. Here is the check that catches what a listing cannot show you, in the order that actually matters.

10 min read

Beginner

How to Regrip Golf Clubs: The Whole Job, Step by Step

Regripping is the one piece of club work an amateur can genuinely do at home. It is also the one with a knife, a heat gun and a flammable solvent in it, which is why the order of operations matters.

11 min read

Beginner

What's in a Golf Bag: The Contents That Earn Their Place

The clubs are the part everyone thinks about and the part that changes least. The other twenty items are where a bag becomes either organised or a rummage on every tee.

11 min read

Intermediate

Blades vs Cavity Back Irons: An Honest Answer

Blades against cavity backs is the argument golf equipment loves most and has needed least for about twenty years. The genuinely difficult decision sits somewhere else entirely.

11 min read

Intermediate

Driver Loft: Why Most Golfers Play Too Little of It

The loft on a driver is the one specification golfers choose with their ego. Nine degrees sounds like a better player's club, and for almost everybody buying one it is the wrong end of the range.

10 min read

Intermediate

Golf Ball Compression: What It Is and Who Publishes It

Compression is the most quoted number in golf balls and one of the least verifiable. Most of the figures in circulation were never issued by the company whose ball they describe.

11 min read

Intermediate

Golf Ball Layers: What 2, 3, 4 and 5 Piece Mean

Every ball on the shelf is a rubber sphere wearing about a tenth of an inch of engineering. That thin skin is where the entire two piece against five piece argument happens.

11 min read

Intermediate

Golf Club Fitting: What Happens, and Is It Worth It?

A fitting is an hour of measurement that decides specifications you will live with for years. Most golfers either skip it entirely or book one before their swing is stable enough to fit.

12 min read

Intermediate

Golf Club Lie Angle: The Spec Nobody Ever Checks

Every golfer knows their shaft flex and most know their lofts. Almost nobody knows their lie angle, which is a shame, because it changes where the ball starts more directly than either of them.

10 min read

Intermediate

Golf Shaft Flex: How to Work Out Which One You Need

Shaft flex is the specification most golfers guess at and the one most likely to be wrong in a club bought online. The letters mean less than they appear to, and the fix is simpler than a fitting appointment.

11 min read

Intermediate

Golf Wedge Lofts: How to Gap the Bottom of Your Bag

Most golfers pick wedges by name and end up with a fourteen degree hole in the middle of their scoring clubs. The fix is arithmetic, and it starts one club higher than people expect.

12 min read