An Insight on Women’s Golf Equipment

What is a women’s (or ladies) set of golf clubs?

Let us answer the not so obvious question on what constitutes a woman’s or also called a ladies golf club. There are really two camps that ladies golf clubs fall into. The first is often the way most ladies clubs are manufactured today. They start out as a men’s model but assembled with an L flex shaft at an inch shorter than the men’s version. Lastly, a smaller sized ladies grip is installed. Voila, suddenly it instantly transformed into a ladies golf club. In some cases the club may have a different accent color such as blue, pink, or green to differentiate it from the men’s model.

Set Make Up Comparison

The head weighs for women’s clubs are generally no different from men’s, but they may possess a slightly flatter lie (as discussed in the Lie Fitting chapter) as women are generally shorter. Lastly, there could be fewer numbers of clubs are offered as part of the set. Those may vary from a few as 8 (including a putter) to as many as the fully allotted 14 clubs, but with an addition of a chipper.

Which type of set is best for your customer?

This all depends upon your customer’s skill level. For beginners and slower swinging women golfers, the additional loft throughout the set, as with the dedicated ladies set, will be a godsend and here are the reasons why. Women on average do not possess the strength or the swing speed as their male counterparts. Therefore it is much more difficult to produce enough height and back spin to achieve the distance they truly need.

The other thing to look at is the width of the sole or bottom of the club. Even though many men’s clubs are being introduced with wider and wider soles, almost all sets devoted to women have very wide soles or a high concentration of weight located in the sole. The importance is women on average take more a sweeping motion and will almost assuredly result into the ball being struck lower on the club face. In other words they lack the strength to take a divot. So it was imperative to move the weight lower, not only allow the ball to become airborne, but more importantly to provide a solid feel at impact. This is why a wider sole in general is beneficial as a higher concentration of weight is located there.

As we said earlier, there are fewer options available if you were looking to invest into a dedicated women’s set (possibly none at all if you have a left handed customer).  If you are looking for left-handed or less pastels and gender neutral colors, then you can still pieces together the right mix of clubs from the modified men’s sets with a little homework. For more skilled women or those who possess a higher swing speed will find modified men’s or possibly even men’s clubs (such as those players on the LPGA Tour) to be more than sufficient.

Shafts

Just because you have a female customer in your shop does not necessarily mean they will need an L-flex shaft. There are lady golfers are just as strong as men and would need just as stiff of a shaft as you would fit them with. Secondly, certain women tend to have an all-arm swing or one that does not possess a wrist cock. Shafts that are very flexible might lead to inconsistency or a low ball flight. Bumping up to a senior (or stiffer) flex will help with both control and trajectory. 

For golfers with exceptionally low swing speed, but possess a long, full fluid swing seek out shafts that might be more flexible than normal. You can also soft step as outlined in the Shaft Fitting chapter by trimming less than what the manufacturer recommends for the shaft. In both cases, just make sure the weight feels comfortable to the player.

Grips

Just as we said with shafts, not all women will want or a need ladies golf grip (also referred to as undersized golf grips). If the female customer has long fingers or fingernails or has more of a 10-finger grip rather than an over-lapping grip, they may very well prefer a men’s size or larger. By allowing them to hold onto your various sized demo grips is the best way to check.

Women’s Summary

Fitting for women should really be no different than fitting for men. After all, speed is speed, loft is loft, length is length, lie is lie, etc. Those are all fundamental principles that apply to all golfers. Women come in a wide range of abilities, heights and strengths that may allow them to use the same clubs or specifications as women, while other may need specification that will compensate for their reduced strength and shallow angle of attack.

• Choose which type of set (modified men’s or dedicated women’s) would be best for your customer.
• Include in the set a number of clubs that will create sufficient gapping in distance between each club (such as 10 yards).  This may very well amount to the fewer than the 14 maximum numbers of clubs permitted by the USGA.
• Base the length on their height and athletic ability; you may find some cases where a golfer has good hand-eye coordination can use a slightly longer assembly length than their height would indicate to generate more distance.
• Choose shaft flex and grip size on an individual basis rather than assuming they will automatically need “women’s”
• Look carefully at head types that will address key issues such as a wider sole, higher concentration of weight on the sole or shallow heights that may get the ball more aloft.
• Slower swinging players may need more clubs that require head covers (fairways and hybrids) as they will most likely be playing lower lofted clubs to reach greens in regulation.