set which are used from the tee box and, if on a long hole, possibly for the second or even third shot. The biggest wood, known as the driver or one wood, is often made of hollow titanium with feather-light shafts. The length of the woods has been increasing in recent decades, and a typical driver with a graphite shaft is now long. The woods may also have very large heads, up to in volume (the maximum allowed by the USGA in sanctioned events; drivers with even larger club-head volumes are available for long-drive competitions and informal games). The shafts range from senior to extra-stiff depending upon each player’s preference. Iron Irons are clubs with a solid, all-metal head featuring a flat angled face, and a shorter shaft and more upright lie angle than a wood, for ease of access. Irons are designed for a variety of shots from all over the course, from the tee box on short or dog-legged holes, to the fairway or rough on approach to the green, to tricky situations like punching through or lobbing over trees, getting out of hazards, or hitting from tight lies requiring a compact swing. Most of the irons have a number from 1 to 9 (the numbers in most common use are from 3 to 9), corresponding to their relative loft angle within a matched set. Irons are typically grouped according to their intended distance (which also roughly corresponds to their shaft length and thus their difficulty to hit the ball); in the numbered irons, there are long irons (2–4), medium irons (5–7), and short irons (8–9), with progressively higher loft angles, shorter shafts, and heavier club heads. As with woods, ’irons’ get their name because they were originally made from forged iron. Modern irons are investment-cast out of steel alloys, which allows for better-engineered ‘cavity-back’ designs that have lower centers of mass and higher moments of inertia, making the club easier to hit and giving better distance than older forged ’muscle-back’ designs. Forged irons with less perimeter weighting are still seen, especially in sets targeting low-handicap and scratch golfers, because this less forgiving design allows a skilled golfer to intentionally hit a curved shot (a ’fade’ or ’draw’), to follow the contour of the fairway or ’bend’ a shot around an obstacle. Wedge Wedges are a subclass of irons with greater loft than the numbered irons (generally starting