How To Find The Perfect 14-Club Line-Up

Finding the right equipment is a big part of the puzzle when it comes to playing as well as you can and maximising your enjoyment of the game. The possible combinations of clubs, shafts, balls and total bag set-ups are infinite, so it’s important to have a clear plan when looking to build the best 14-club set for your game.

A lot depends on the profile of golfer you are and the courses and conditions you tend to play. Ultimately, you want a set of clubs that maximises your strengths, helps to improve your weaknesses and enables you to hit the shots you need.

To discover what you need to be aware of and how best to compile your perfect set of clubs, we visited PXG Master Fitter, Will Crozier, at the wonderful PXG London South facility. He took us through the brand's custom fitting process and explained what you can learn to help you build your perfect set.

Choosing Your Irons

The head model is the most important thing, and the shaft is a very close second. It’s important to like the look of the clubhead. Larger head profiles, like the PXG Black Ops, typically provide the most help and forgiveness, but not everyone likes looking down at that, so you have to find the right balance for you. PXG also has a mid-profile option, the GEN8 and a more blade-like model, the 0317.

The further you can hit your irons the better, but accuracy is the most important thing. If you’ve got a number to hit on the course, you want to know you’ve got a club that will deliver. You want a tight dispersion from left-to-right, but also between your long and short shots. Ideally, the irons you hit the furthest will also deliver consistency and tight dispersion. But if they don’t, it’s a good idea to give up a bit of distance to make sure you have enough accuracy.

In terms of performance, you should be looking at how they launch the ball – the angle, direction, ball speed and spin. Generally speaking, spin is your friend, so you want as much as possible. The more you hit down on it, the more loft you will likely need to get the ball launching well.

Smash factor is also extremely valuable as that tells you how efficiently you’re converting your clubhead speed into ball speed. The closer to 1.5 the better. Driver and woods will always give you a slightly higher smash factor than your irons.

The lie angle of the club can also be adjusted to make sure the sole is horizontal as it moves through the turf. If the heel or toe of the club is lower through the impact area, it will hit the turf first and also dig deeper, which affects how the club behaves at impact.

There’s so much technology and variety in shafts these days, that it’s not as simple as saying I swing it fast so I need a stiff shaft, or I’m a slower swinger so I need a softer shaft. The location of the kick point, how the tip performs, and weight all have a huge impact on how you deliver the clubhead, so it definitely pays to have an experienced fitter who knows what different shafts can do and can help identify the best combination for you and your clubs.

You’re looking for 10 to 12-yard increments in carry through the irons. The longest iron you carry will be determined by the longest club you can hit well enough to still get that increase in carry distance while also hitting consistently and accurately enough and with a high enough flight to confidently use for an approach shot on the course.

Dialling In Your Scoring Clubs

Once you know what your irons are, it’s relatively straightforward to identify where to go with the wedge set-up. You’re looking for a similar shaft that gives you a bit more stability, and you might need a small adjustment to the swing weight.

The number of wedges you carry will depend on what you do at the top end of the bag. It’s a question of where you’ll get the most benefit. Will your scoring improve by having an extra club like another fairway wood or hybrid, or another wedge? If you’re comfortable hitting a lot of different shots with one or two wedges, or you don’t actually use your wedges that much, that could free you up for another club at the top of the bag.

On the flip side, if you aren’t going to gain anything from another longer club but you’re a longer hitter who has a lot of wedges into greens or would really benefit from more scrambling options around the greens then an extra wedge is the answer.

Then the specific lofts you have should give you consistent gapping from your pitching wedge in your irons set down. Not all pitching wedges are the same loft, so if you have a stronger one that carries the ball a long way you might need an extra wedge to tighten up your gapping.

If you carry three or four specialist wedges, like the PXG Sugar Daddy III model, you can have tighter distances and those clubs themselves can be a bit more specific to certain types of shots if that helps you. But if you only have two wedges, you need to take those larger distance gaps into account and they both need to be playable from a variety of lies and situations.

The bounce and grind you want on the clubhead is relative to how you hit the ball and the type of turf you play on. As a rule of thumb, if you’re steep into the ball, take big divots and play on softer ground, you’ll likely benefit from more bounce.

Conversely, if you’re shallow, don’t take much divot and play on tighter, firmer turf then less bounce can help. You need to think about bunker play, as well. Most golfers have one wedge that they prefer to hit out of sand, and you want a bit more bounce from the club you’re most likely to use.

Fairways, hybrids and driving irons

Having been through the process above, you should now know what the longest iron you’re comfortable using and hit well is. Whether that’s a 3 or 4-iron, or a 5 or 6-iron will impact how many clubs you have at the top end of the bag and exactly what they are – hybrids, fairway woods and driving irons are all options.

The next club needs to carry at least 10 to 12-yards further than your longest iron with the launch and flight that you want.

Deciding which style of club you want comes down to solving your problem shots and giving you the shots you need for the way you play the game. Fairway woods will give you the most spin and highest flight, driving irons deliver the least spin and lowest flight, and hybrids sit in the middle. Woods and hybrids are easier to hit, better out the rough and will land quicker on greens, but driving irons offer a penetrating flight that is great in the wind and can be a valuable asset off the tee.

When it comes to your 3-wood, it’s worth thinking about how you want to use it. If it’s more of a substitute for driver off the tee you can look for faster ball speeds and take teeing it up into account. If you’re more likely to hit it off the deck and into greens you need a model that’s easier to launch, more forgiving, has a higher flight and stops a bit quicker.

PXG has three different models - the Lightning, the GEN6 and the Black Ops - all designed to offer a different blend of performance benefits. Running through these with your fitter will be key.

Driver Selection Process

This is the club where distance is the most important factor, but you still need to have enough accuracy that you keep the ball in play, and you want to reduce the negative impact of your bad shots - this is where a model with 10k forgiveness comes in. There isn’t a specific optimum number you’re looking for in terms of launch angle, spin and flight apex, because the ideal combination of these will vary for each player. You want to see long carry and total distances, allied to as little sidespin as possible for a straighter flight, and minimal drop-off in distance and accuracy on off-center hits.

A larger footprint, like from the PXG Lightning Max 10K+ driver will tend to give you more forgiveness because the weight can be moved further back from the clubface, but won’t suit everyone’s eye. If more weight and the center of gravity is closer to the face that will produce faster ball speeds but less spin and forgiveness - a good example of this is the PXG Lightning Tour model.

It’s a bit of a trade-off between pure power and forgiveness. Better players and faster swingers tend to err more towards the forward CG, whereas players who struggle with the driver or swing a bit slower will benefit from the weight being further back. Different players will benefit from different technologies, that's why PXG has a second driver family that's well worth testing called Black Ops.

The fantastic levels of adjustability in many drivers means things like loft, lie and weight distribution can be tinkered with to really hone your launch conditions and straighten your ball flight. The shaft will also make a difference and a good fitter will help you identify a head and shaft that can work in unison to improve your driving.

Understanding Putter Design

The putter is a club we tend to get fitted for less than most of the others, but it’s actually the one that would see the most benefit from a fitting. Using the technology available to properly measure your stroke and having an experienced fitter who can use that information to help you identify the right flatstick from the various models in a putter range like PXG's can reap huge rewards.

This is the club that it’s the most important to love the look of. Most golfers have a preference when it comes to head shape, colours, alignment aids etc. All of these factors influence the performance of the putter, but they also affect how you see it and feel about it.

It’s obviously very possible to completely change what you putt with, but you usually have those preferences for a reason, so it makes sense to start with what you like and know.

Like drivers, the bigger the head the more forgiveness you’re likely to have. Zero torque putters offer a bit more stability and forgiveness than blades, but the feel can be quite different with the smaller heads offering more feedback. There’s also more room for alignment aids on mallets.

Your stroke and how you deliver the putter is important – whether you have a strong arc or keep the face straight on the way back and through – and certain hosel styles and head weightings will suit some strokes more than others. Placing more weight in the putter is a big benefit for most golfers because it stabilises the head and gives you more feel and control. Added weight also helps to slow your stroke down and improve your tempo, which is a big help for the majority of players who are a bit too quick with the short stick.

Matching Your Ball To Your Game

You use the ball for every shot you hit so it can make a big difference to your scoring. It’s about finding the most help for your game.

If you’re struggling for distance, then a ball that flies further will help you even if it doesn’t give you as much spin or feel around the greens. Likewise, if you already hit it far enough but you can see you’re dropping shots because you’re not as sharp as you could be around the greens, then a ball that has more spin and control with your wedges is worth sacrificing a little yardage for.

You should also think about the amount of spin in the long game. For most handicap players, more spin is beneficial to help boost the flight on your driver and longer clubs and increase your stopping power going into greens. The final piece of the puzzle is the feel, whether you like it firmer, softer or somewhere in between.

Of course, a good fitter will not forget about discussing your golf ball choice as this impacts how well the 14-club line-up you've selected performs out on the course.