The 3 clubs that completely transformed my wife’s golf game

If there are two things most recreational golfers struggle with, it’s getting the most distance possible from their swing speed and stopping the ball faster on approach shots. This is a bigger issue for golfers on the lower end of the club head speed spectrum and even more so for women, who are disproportionately less likely to get fit.

Now whether going through a club fitting is an option or not, there are still some very important details you should consider if you are a golfer in the moderate swing speed category. Using my wife’s golf game as a benchmark and with almost a full season as a sample size, these are the top clubs that helped my wife gain distance, gain trajectory, and have more fun on the course.

A lighter driver

As recently explained when Callaway’s Paradym Star series was launched, the simple physics that applies to cars, and airplanes apply to golf clubs too: if you can retain energy while reducing weight, an object will travel faster and a lighter weight club means increased distance for players looking to gain yardage.

In my wife’s case, the driver that gave her what she was looking for on the course was a Titleist TSR1, which offers a traditional look, but in a lighter and higher launching profile. The TRS1 is one of the few lightweight driver options on the market that offers a fully adjustable hosel to further help dial in the right launch and spin window.

Titleist TSR1 Custom Driver

$599

Moderate swing speed, meet maximum performance. Titleist TSR1 Driver’s incredible lightweight configuration and enhanced aerodynamics make it easier to generate more speed. The new Multi-Plateau Variable Face Thickness design optimizes ball speed across the entire face. Benefits Maximized Launch & Distance Exceptional Forgiveness Features Ultra-Lightweight Configuration Multi-Plateau Variable Face Thickness Design Improved Aerodynamics Aerospace Grade Titanium SureFit Adjustability

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For golfers who want to forgo an adjustable hosel in favor of an even lighter club, one the lightest driver setups on the market belongs to the XXIO Prime line that offers some incredibly lightweight clubs that are also draw-biased to give more forgiveness too.

XXIO Prime Royal Edition Women’s Driver

$1199.99

Crafted exclusively for experienced golfers who seek the gold standard in luxury golf clubs, XXIO Prime Royal Edition Ladies features exclusive materials and women-specific performance features that accentuate your swing with a remarkable ease and remarkable ultralight feel. REBOUND FRAME Rebound Frame is an alternating pattern of stiff and flexible zones within every XXIO Prime Royal Edition Ladies club that focuses more of your impact energy into the golf ball. It increases ball speed and distance on every strike. On the Woods, four alternating layers of stiff and flexible zones plus a new Super-TIX® 51AF Titanium Flat Cup Face expand the High COR area of each club face, maximizing power, ball speed, and distance. On the Irons, a soft/rigid structure combines a flex zone in the lower body with a rigid zone in the rear of the body for enhanced energy transfer in the lower half of the face. SUPER-TIX® 51AF TITANIUM FACE Each Driver and Iron face is made of Super-TIX® 51AF Titanium, an incredibly strong yet lightweight alloy for thinner faces that increase face flex and ball speed on all your shots. LIGHTWEIGHT CLUBHEAD WITH HIGH MOI New XXIO Prime Royal Edition Ladies Drivers, Fairway Woods, and Hybrids boast both a lighter clubhead and increased MOI—a remarkable achievement. A lighter club adds ease and comfort to your swing, while a higher MOI adds extreme forgiveness. The High-MOI clubhead also enlarges the High COR area to produce straighter, more powerful distance, even on off-center shots. ACTIVWING ActivWing makes you more consistent by stabilizing XXIO Prime Royal Edition Ladies Woods for better alignment at impact. By manipulating airflow with its airfoil shape—similar to those utilized by aircraft— ActivWing reduces clubhead bounce in the first half of your downswing. Just before impact, the airfoil generates lift, raising your clubhead and tightening your swing pattern for more sweet spot strikes. WEIGHT PLUS Our proprietary Weight Plus Technology places extra weight at the butt end of the shaft to stabilize the club path for faster, more consistent swings. Concentrating more weight toward the grip reduces the amount of force required to lift the clubhead and guide it to an ideal top-of-swing position. The weight then helps create a more powerful downswing and a squarer face at impact. SP-1200KL SHAFT New, premium quality SP-1200KL graphite shafts on all Drivers, Fairway Woods, Hybrids, and Irons are constructed with high performance carbon fiber and advanced resin matrix. This formula results in extremely thin and lightweight graphite shafts with a cutting-edge combination of strength and flexibility DRAW BIAS BULGE DESIGN This face curvature on XXIO Prime Royal Edition Ladies Woods is open near the toe and slightly closed at the heel, utilizing the gear effect to produce a desirable right-to-left shot shape. Whether you strike the ball high, low, off the toe or heel, the face imparts spin for straighter shots that carry farther

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High lofted hybrids

Distance is one thing, but approaching greens with more height and stopping power is key to avoiding hazards, hitting more greens, and creating the opportunity to lower scores, and one of the best ways to do that is with higher lofted hybrids.

Gear

The reason hybrids are so efficient at creating higher launch and more spin is thanks to their wider soles and shallower face profiles that help push the center of gravity lower in the heads and away from the faces. This combination also helps to increase forgiveness and with longer shafts compared to similarly lofted irons (but less length than a fairway wood), hybrids are easier to hit more consistently.

Titleist TSR1 Custom Hybrid

$299

Bring more speed and stability to your hybrid game. For moderate swing speed players, TSR1 Hybrids feature a larger profile head and an optimized, lightweight design that increases inertia without increasing swing weight. Benefits Maximized Launch & Distance Exceptional Forgiveness Enhanced Stability Confidence-Inspiring Size & Shape Features Optimized Lightweight Configuration SureFit Adjustability

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Again, bringing this back to the clubs that helped my wife’s game the most, the Titleist TSR1 hybrids and their larger profile have helped bridge the gap between her fairway woods and irons and with the adjustable hosel, the lie angles were adjusted to help reduce dispersion.

Irons built for distance and height

In most cases, moderate-swing-speed golfers benefit from wider sole irons with a deeper center of gravity, but there can be many exceptions to this rule.

Like a lot of golfers with a more moderate swing speed, my wife has a shallow angle of attack, and irons with a wider sole can result in shots that are hit thin because the club has a harder time entering the turf. This is how she ended up playing with a set of TB-5s from Fourteen Golf, which offer a slightly thinner sole compared to a lot of irons, but a much longer blade length to still create forgiveness.

Fourteen Golf TB-5 Forged Custom Irons

$199.99

Both feel and forgiveness from the Theater Blade designThe cavity step in the back face is removed which allows the face thickness to flow naturally in the curved shape of a theater creating an optimal center of gravity and a reduction in vibrations transmitted to the hands. The soft feel is further enhanced by the use of soft material S20C mild steel. This fulfills the need of golfers for an optimally balanced iron featuring both feel and forgiveness.

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Although they look a lot like a blade, they perform like a much larger cavity back and when paired with an ultra-lightweight iron shaft to match her swing speed and tempo, the combination of forgiving iron head and shaft has helped her hit the ball higher and also given her more confidence that she’s not going to skull / thin approach shots over the green when faced with a shot from shorter grass in the fairway.

This is a perfect example of how one size doesn’t always fit all and how it can be important to look outside of product categories to potentially find something that is going to be the ideal fit.

Last but not least, it is important to consider the golf ball. It’s the only piece of equipment used for every shot, and making sure it’s optimized for approach play, trajectory, and distance is critical for any golfer who needs help with their game, regardless of club head speed range.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2023? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.