Women's Club Specs
I'm often asked if there is any difference
between men's and women's clubs. What is really being asked is whether there is any
difference in clubs for bigger and stronger players versus smaller and weaker
players. As you'd expect, the answer is yes - there is or should be a difference -
but it has to do more with club 'fitting' than with inherent characteristics of the clubs
themselves. Consider the main components that make up a golf club..the clubhead, the
shaft and the grip.
Clubheads
Clubheads for men's and women's clubs are basically the same. Wood
heads and iron heads weigh the same and they are fastened to the shaft in the same manner.
The golf industry recognized years ago that most women swing the club slower than men so
they sometimes provided heads with slightly greater lofts so that the ball was easier to
get airborne. A driver head for a woman may have a loft of 12 degrees while for a man it
may be 11 degrees but in many cases they are the same.
From a marketing point of view the industry has added some feminine nomenclature like
'Lady Ultra', a lady pro's autograph, or a more colorful engraving to clubs marketed to
women. However, the clubhead itself is the virtually identical to man's clubhead; only the
markings are different. One could remove the heads from ladies clubs and make them into
men's or vice versa. However, few men want to use clubs with pink flowered engraving
any more than women want to use clubs labeled 'black knight cannonball smashers'..
but these are ego issues and have nothing to do with the clubhead component itself.
Shafts
There is usually a club 'fitting' difference in shafts between ladies and men.
Since most women swing slower than men they should use shafts that are more
flexible. When the golf industry sells branded women's clubs they use these more
flexible shafts. But many women now strike the ball distances equal to many men
golfers so the normal women's shafts would therefore have too much flex. Such women should
probably use men's 'Regular' shafts and many do.
As a general statement it is also true that women are smaller and not as strong as men.
For this reason women's store bought clubs are made to feel lighter when swinging (see
swingweight above). The clubs are usually shorter than men's. Luckily, a
club's swingweight varies directly with the length of the club so women's clubs, usually
made 1" shorter than men's, have lower swingweights although the clubhead
weighs the same. So again, if a woman preferred to buy a men's driver but
thought it swung too heavy, the clubfitter would shorten it by 1" , making it
standard women's length, and, guess what -- it would feel much lighter while swinging.
Each 1/2" of length on a club translates to about 3 swingweights so if a woman
was to buy a D3 men's swingweighted driver and have it cut down 1", then then the new
swingweight would be C7 (6 swingweights less), or the usual women's specification.
Likewise a man could buy a women's club, add an inch and 6 swingweights, or about the
men's norm for swingweights.
Grips
Most women have smaller hands than men so the golf industry manufactures grips that are
smaller in outside diameter. One measure of grip size is a point taken at 2" from the
endcap (end of the club). At this point a standard men's grip is .9" in
diameter; a woman's standard grip at this same point is .85". With some
exceptions (there are virtually no standards in the golf equipment business) the inside
diameter (ID) of men's or women's grips is the same. That's because most shafts have the
same diameters on the ends regardless of what the shaft designation is - stiff, flex,
women's. So if a woman bought men's clubs and thought the grips were too fat
she'd simply have the clubs regripped with women's grips - they'd fit and would be
smaller. On the other hand, a woman with larger hands would simply use men's grips.
Summary
There are essentially no differences in women's and men's clubs except in regard to
fitting. Women's clubs are generally lighter, shorter, have smaller grips and have
more flexible shafts. Since club components can be interchanged there is no reason why a
men's set of clubs cannot be made into women's or a women's set converted into men's. It
is simply a matter of buyer preference relative to how much it costs to have a clubmaker
make the conversion.
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