Special Situations

• Clubs for women.
• Clubs for children.
• Drivers.
• Wedges.
• Putters.
• Clone clubs.

Clubs For Women

You should fit a female golfer for clubs exactly as you should a male. Because of statistical averages in the population:

• The clubs will probably turn out to be shorter, not because of gender but because the golfer is smaller.

• The shafts will probably turn out to be softer, not because of gender but because lower strength means less shaft bend.

• The grips will probably turn out to be smaller, not because of gender but because the golfer is smaller.

That said, let us admit that if you make a lot of clubs for women, you will encounter parameters that are seldom faced for men. The bottom quartile of women in height or swing speed require a design that the average clubmaker will never encounter for an adult male. Let's explore the significant tweaks you'll have to deal with in these cases.

Clubheads

When this page was first composed in the 1990s, "women's" clubheads in the catalogs were identical to the "men's" clubheads except for cosmetics, with few exceptions. Today, some companies are tailoring clubhead specs for women. Hardly all of them, and not a big difference, but something substantive is happening. Hireko among the component companies adds a couple of degrees of loft to their women's line of irons. The last catalog I had from Tom Wishon Golf Technology (which is now gone; Tom retired) had a radically different set makeup as well as different specs. In looking through Callaway's iron specs, I notice that one of their women's models has higher loft than the comparable men's set -- but another is exactly the same. Let's look at what is likely to be different in the specs a typical or smaller-than-typical woman would need.

 

• Weight. Don't worry about looking for a lighter head. The probable shorter length of the club will get you down to the lower swingweight or MOI, in the vicinity of what you need.
• Loft. If the golfer has a slow swing, a little extra loft will be helpful to get the ball off the deck. A golfer with a normal or strong swing doesn't need this feature, and shouldn't get it. And this is the substantive spec that some companies (not all, and not all models) are adjusting for women's clubs.
• Lie. On average, women are shorter than men. If the golfer is short but has a strong swing, she may do better with longer clubs. If you remember the section on length and lie, this means a flatter lie. Some "women's" clubheads come in a flatter lie for this reason.
• Cosmetics, like color choice and paint fill in the grooves. If your golfer cares about this, it limits her choice of clubhead. But most women I know who play golf want clubs that perform. If they can get beyond the label of a "man's" clubhead, it gives them a much bigger choice. (When my wife played, her clubs had heads that were nominally "men's", and it never bothered her. They were the right heads for her.)

So if you fit a lot of women, look for the companies that offer clubs with higher than normal lofts and perhaps flatter than normal lie angles. By the same token, you should probably be familiar with these same models in case you need to fit a short male golfer or a senior whose swing lacks punch.

Shafts

Fit the shaft to the swing and size of the golfer, not to the gender. But on average, women have slower, lower-acceleration swings than men. This calls for a shaft with a lot more flex, raising an interesting problem. On average, the clubs will have to be shorter, which tends to stiffen them up. The Dynacraft-Apollo study showed that most "L" flex shafts, when cut an inch shorter than standard (i.e.- when cut to the "standard women's" length), were actually stiffer than an "A" flex shaft at standard length. So be sure to allow for the shorter shaft when choosing and trimming the shaft for someone with a slow swing and a short stature. There are quite a few really soft "L" flex graphite shafts. You can still buy the True Temper steel "Release" model, but it may be nearing the end of its market life; I have recently (2017) seen sales on it that suggest "closeout".

Grips

On average, women have smaller hands than men. The so-called "women's grips" are smaller in diameter than the nominal "men's grips". But don't hesitate to use them for a man with small hands as well.

The grip diameter is a very significant aspect of the "feel" of a club. Rather than making assumptions based on gender, fit every golfer for the right grip for him or her. (For example, my wife takes an instant like or dislike to a club based on grip diameter. That's a prerequisite for her; once that's right, she's willing to evaluate the rest of the club.)

Set Makeup

Don't be afraid to suggest a completely different set makeup from the traditional "men's" set. (For that matter, don't be afraid to suggest it for the men, too. Back to that in a moment.)

A lot of women on the LPGA Tour have given up longer irons and replaced them with hybrids or lofted woods. The lofted woods are easier to hit with a slower clubhead speed. If the woman wants "macho", point out that Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann won their U.S.Opens with no iron longer than a #5 in their bag. When I realized this, and noted that they hit their clubs about as far as I did -- I don't hit a 200-yd 5-iron like the male touring pros -- I ditched a couple of long irons myself. My own longest iron is a 5-iron; longer than that are hybrids and then woods.

If your customer doesn't have Annika's or Liselotte's ballstriking, and doesn't have an ego problem about that, you can vary the set makeup even more radically. Look again at the section on how distance varies with loft.

• For a 80mph clubhead speed, carry distance is maximized at 16 degrees.
• For a 60mph clubhead speed, carry distance is maximized at 22 degrees.

My wife and I used to play regularly at a course where 80% of the women golfers have clubhead speeds of 60mph or less. When we visit relatives in retirement communities, 100% of the women and over 50% of the men fit that description. They should not be thinking "driver". They should be thinking "tee club", and we should be fitting them for appropriate tee clubs. Plenty of loft, but large-volume heads for forgivingness (the ball IS up on a tee, so a low-profile head isn't called for).

Such clubheads used to exist, in the form of "super-jumbo" 3-woods and 5-woods. These were in the volume range of 200-250cc -- smaller than a modern driver, but still big enough to lend confidence. I've built quite a few:

• Three-woods (15 degrees of loft) at 230cc and more, for those 80mph swings.
• Five-woods at (21 degrees of loft) at 200cc and more, for those 60mph swings.

My wife had one of the latter, and loved it. Actually, she has gone through several of them. A friend or aunt tries it out, and won't give it back; I have to make my wife a new one.

So think in terms of clubs with more loft as an integral part of the set makeup. Don't be afraid to leave out a driver, and even a 3-wood. A light bag is a good thing. Or more wedges for a refined short game may be a stroke saver.

Clubs For Children

Once kids are big enough to be at least within the range of "women's" clubs (say, over 5 feet tall), they grow amazingly quickly and keeping them in properly fitted clubs can be expensive. The way I dealt with it was to be on the lookout for used clubs at garage sale prices. You can't buy these just when you want them, so "stockpile" them. They do show up often enough that you can always have the raw materials for the next set around when they're needed. I don't think I ever spent over $20 for the a set of clubs for my younger son (before work and regripping). I had to pay more for my older son's clubs because, as a left-hander, he required a rarer commodity.

Here's what I did to make them a new set:

• Get a set not too much bigger than they'll need. Unless the kids are at least the size of the average man, get a women's set. The reason is the L-flex shaft; it will seem much stiffer after it's cut to the proper length.
• Actually, getting the flex right will be the biggest challenge. Because the clubs are much shorter than usual, the shafts will stiffen considerably from their nominal flex rating. And because the kids haven't reached full strength nor technique yet, they'll need a softer shaft. So go for the softest shaft you can get, until their size and strength make it worthwhile to adjust the flex.
• Cut it to a length that will allow for a little extra growth, maybe 1/2". This will affect swingweight a little, but the worst that will happen is that they may have to grip down ("choke up", in baseball terms) a little. Kids should have fairly frequent lessons anyway and one purpose is to remind them where to grip the club this season. Another is to remind you when to make them a new set.
• Regrip with a grip that feels comfortable to them. Size matters here, since maintaining a good grip is so essential to a good game. A proper-sized grip will prevent their perfecting bad habits, and replacing a grip is cheap and easy.

  No need to go for an expensive grip, nor one that will last. Size and reasonable comfort are all that will matter.

Most of the big vendors sell sets of heads for younger children. Some are actually lighter and higher-lofter than comparable adult components. Most are made of cheaper materials to keep the cost down (e.g.- zinc alloy for the irons and aluminum alloy for the woods). The theory is that the juniors can't hit the ball as hard, so a weaker material isn't a problem. I admit to no expertise in this area.

Anyway, the rules of thumb seem to be:

• Check their size frequently, to get the length and grip diameter right.
• If you have the opportunity, keep the softest flex you can in the shaft, at least until the child is a teenager and hitting the ball hard enough with a long enough club so you can reasonably adjust the flex.
• Don't over-worry about weight. The shorter clubs will lower the swingweight enough so this isn't a factor.