These days you don’t need to spend thousands of pounds to get your clubs to help you perform better.

All professional shops are set up to check if your clubs suit you. If the clubs aren’t right for you, the professional will suggest modifying your existing clubs or finding a suitable replacement.

Club Fitting is Important

If the lie (the angle between the sole of the club and the shaft) of your five iron is two degrees out, you could be missing the target by as much as 15 yards. With the correct club and the same swing, you would have hit the target.

The 14-Club Rule

There’s also the question of set makeup – are you using the 14-club rule to your advantage? There are two particular areas where many golfers’ sets could be changed to help improve scoring.

First of all, the sand wedge is a club that many golfers do without. This club is an absolute necessity to help you get out of bunkers.

Another area is fairway woods. The average golfer should have at least four, and maybe five, fairway woods in their bag. Forget the long irons, they’re just too hard to hit consistently well.

Instead, take a lead from senior tour players and lady professionals – shorter drivers than the big hitters on the men’s tour. Annika Sorenstam, the best woman player in the world over the last few years, has a 5 iron as her longest iron. She uses five fairway woods.

Easy to use Woods

Fairway woods are easier to hit out of the rough, as they tend to spread the grass. The narrow blade of the long iron will tend to get tangled up in rough. A fairway wood has a low centre of gravity which will make it easier to get the ball up in the air.