Golf club terms in plain words

The terms

Units on this site: loft, lie and face angle are in degrees; club length is in inches; shaft weight is in grams; moment of inertia is in gram-centimetres squared; prices are in US dollars and carry the date they were read.

• Forgiveness: how much a shot keeps its distance and direction when the ball is struck away from the middle of the face. A forgiving club loses less on a miss. It is a property of the whole head design, not one number.
• Sweet spot: the small area of the face where a strike loses nothing. Makers enlarge the effective sweet spot with weight placed around the edges of the head.
• Offset: how far the leading edge of the face sits behind the front of the shaft (the hosel). More offset gives the face a fraction longer to square up through impact, which helps golfers who slice, and it moves weight back for a higher launch. Measured in millimetres or fractions of an inch; makers often describe it as low, moderate or high instead.
• Sole width: the width of the bottom of the club head from front to back. A wide sole lowers the centre of gravity, helps the club skid rather than dig on a heavy strike, and is the visual signature of a game improvement iron.
• Moment of inertia (MOI): the head's resistance to twisting when the ball is struck off centre, in gram-centimetres squared. Higher means the face twists less on a heel or toe strike, so the shot stays straighter and longer. Makers publish it for some drivers and putters, rarely for irons.
• Centre of gravity (CG): the balance point of the head. A low, deep centre of gravity launches the ball higher and helps it fly straighter; game improvement heads move it low and back with heavy tungsten and light face material.
• Loft: the angle of the face measured from vertical, in degrees. Lower loft means a longer, lower flight. Modern game improvement 7-irons run 26 to 30 degrees, players irons closer to 33; two 7-irons with different lofts are not the same club, which is why the tables list the 7-iron loft.
• Lie angle: the angle between the shaft and the ground when the sole rests flat, in degrees. Fitters adjust it so the sole sits level for a golfer's height and posture.
• Shaft flex: how much a shaft bends under load. Stock flexes are L (ladies), A (senior, also called lite or amateur), R (regular), S (stiff) and X (extra stiff). A slower swing generally loads a softer flex better; the flex a maker lists as stock tells you who the club is built for.
• Senior flex: the A flex, softer than regular, usually paired with a lighter graphite shaft. It suits swing speeds roughly under 85 miles per hour with a driver, whatever the golfer's age.
• Swing speed: how fast the club head is moving at impact, in miles per hour. It is the honest way to choose a flex; age is only a proxy for it.
• Handicap: the number of strokes over par a golfer typically plays to. A 25 handicap shoots around 97 on a par 72; makers state a handicap range for many sets, and the tables show it when they do.
• Game improvement iron: a maker's category for a mid-size, wide-sole, cavity-back iron built to forgive mishits and launch the ball high, aimed roughly at 10 to 25 handicaps.
• Super game improvement iron: the widest-sole, highest-offset, most oversized category, aimed at high handicaps, beginners and slower swings. Some makers call it max forgiveness or high launch (HL).
• Players distance iron: a compact-looking iron with a hollow or thick-faced body that keeps most of a game improvement iron's distance and forgiveness in a smaller head, aimed at mid handicaps.
• Cavity back: an iron with the weight hollowed out of the back of the head and pushed to the perimeter, which raises moment of inertia. Almost every forgiving iron is a cavity back or a hollow body.
• Hollow body: an iron built like a small wood, with an empty chamber behind a thin face, so the face flexes for speed while the perimeter weighting keeps the forgiveness.
• Hybrid: a club shaped between an iron and a fairway wood, with a wide sole and a low, deep centre of gravity, sold as a replacement for hard-to-hit long irons (typically the 3, 4 and 5).
• Fairway wood: a wood with a shallower, smaller head than a driver, hit from the fairway or the tee; the 3-wood and 5-wood are the common ones.
• Draw bias: weight placed toward the heel of a driver or fairway so the face closes more easily through impact, reducing a slice.
• Mallet putter: a putter with a large, deep head that pushes weight away from the face, raising moment of inertia so an off-centre putt stays closer to its line. Blade putters are the slim traditional shape.
• Zero-torque putter: a putter built so the shaft axis runs through the head's balance point, so the face does not want to open or close during the stroke. Sold as forgiving for golfers who struggle to keep the face square.
• Set makeup (set composition): which clubs come in a set. Stock iron sets are usually 5-iron to pitching wedge with an approach or gap wedge; complete sets add a driver, woods or hybrids, a sand wedge, a putter and a bag.
• Complete set (boxed set): every club and a bag sold as one product for one price, aimed at beginners, seniors and women. Typically ten to sixteen pieces, counting the bag and covers.
• Pre-owned: used clubs sold and graded by a shop, often at a large discount on the current model. Makers such as Callaway and TaylorMade run their own pre-owned stores.
• MSRP (list price): the price the maker publishes for the product. The current price is what the maker's page shows on the day it was read, which can be lower during a sale.
• Per-club pricing: some makers (Titleist, Srixon, XXIO, PXG) price irons one club at a time rather than as a set. The tables show those sets at seven times the per-club price, the same seven-club makeup the set-priced makers quote, and say so beside the figure.