How-To Guides
Everything you need to start play well and make smart equipment decisions — written for real beginners and improving golfers.
Non-Conforming Golf Clubs, Balls and Devices: The Legality Register
Almost nothing sold in a pro shop is non-conforming as it sits on the shelf. Golfers get penalised for legal equipment used illegally: slope left switched on, a driver built past 46 inches for a competition running the length rule, wedges from 2008 in an event running the groove condition. This register gives the numeric limit for each category, the rule it comes from, and what a breach costs.
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Golf Rangefinder Comparison: Slope Lock-Out, Pin-Seek Priority and Tournament Legality
Choose a golf laser on how its slope function switches off, not on its glass. An external locking switch or a removable faceplate shows a committee the device is legal from three feet away; a menu toggle shows them nothing. Second priority is pin-seek behaviour, because a unit that reads the tree line behind the green is worse than no device.
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Rangefinder or GPS? A Shot-by-Shot Decision Tree for Golf Distances
Laser for a flag you can see, GPS for everything you cannot. The laser gives one exact number to a visible target; GPS gives front, middle, back and hazard carries without line of sight. In a counting round a third question decides it: which device can prove its slope function is off?
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Golf Club Distance Chart: Carry and Total Yardage by Swing Speed and Handicap
At a 90 mph driver swing speed, expect roughly 205 yards of driver carry, 130 with a 7-iron and 99 with a pitching wedge. Every other club follows from that one number. The chart below gives carry and total for fourteen clubs across five swing-speed bands, plus a gap column that flags where your set has a hole in it.
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Golf Ball Compression Chart: What Your Swing Speed Can Actually Load
Under about 95 mph of driver speed, a ball rated 70 or lower will feel and behave correctly; over 105 mph, look at 90 and above. Compression governs feel and how the ball loads, not distance, which is decided by cover and construction. The chart below lists the major models with compression, cover, spin profile, conforming status and exposure to the 2028 and 2030 rollback.
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Golf Shaft Flex Chart: Speed, Tempo and the CPM Numbers Behind L, A, R, S and X
Under 84 mph of driver speed, start at Senior/A. From 84 to 100 mph, Regular. From 101 to 113, Stiff. Above that, X. Then adjust one step firmer if your transition is aggressive and one softer if it is smooth. The letters are not standardised between brands, so the chart below also gives CPM, weight and torque ranges so you can compare two shafts that both say 'S'.
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What Driver Loft Should You Use? A Loft Grid Indexed to Swing Speed and Attack Angle
Clubhead speed sets the range and attack angle picks the number inside it. Two golfers at 95 mph need roughly 13° of static loft if they hit 5° down and about 10.5° if they hit 5° up, which is a three-degree spread no speed-only chart can see. The grid below gives both, plus the hosel setting that reaches your number from a stock head and the conformance limits the head has to stay inside afterwards.
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Golf Club Size Chart by Height: Wrist-to-Floor Sizing, and the 46-Inch Ceiling
Height alone gets you within about an inch; wrist-to-floor is the measurement fitters actually use, and the relationship between the two is what sets lie angle. The grid below crosses both. At the long end there is a second problem retail never mentions: a driver built to plus one and a half inches is legal under the Equipment Rules and illegal in any competition running Model Local Rule G-10.
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Wedge Gapping Chart: Loft Setups That Close the Yardage Hole Below Pitching Wedge
A strong-lofted set with a 43° pitching wedge and an old 52-56-60 wedge trio leaves a 27-yard hole in the scoring range, and that is a scoring problem, not a fitting preference. The chart below shows four setups side by side with loft, bounce, carry and the resulting gap. The second table covers the variable that reopens the gap over time — groove wear — and clears up which part of it is actually a rules issue.
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Golf Grip Size Chart: Hand Measurement to Undersize, Standard, Midsize or Jumbo
Measure from your wrist crease to the tip of your middle finger: under 7.25 in is undersize, 7.25 to 8 is standard, 8 to 9.25 is midsize and above that is jumbo. The chart below converts that into installed diameter, grip weight and the swing-weight change that comes with it. Going standard to midsize takes roughly three swing-weight points off every club in the bag, which is why the set can feel dead afterwards.
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Golf Handicap Chart: Index to Course Handicap for Every Slope Rating
Course Handicap is your Handicap Index multiplied by the slope rating divided by 113, plus the course rating minus par, rounded to the nearest whole number. An 18.0 index plays as 18 off a slope of 113, 14 off 85 and 25 off 155. The chart below turns that arithmetic into a lookup, and the tables underneath show how the index was built, which eight of your last twenty rounds count, and what the competition allowance does to the number before you tee off.
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Launch Monitor Comparison: Which Numbers Are Measured and Which Are Guessed
Every launch monitor on the market derives carry distance from a flight model, and most of the cheaper ones derive clubhead data and spin as well. The real buying question is which metrics the sensor physically measures and how much room it needs to do it — a radar unit typically wants around eight feet behind the ball plus eight to thirteen feet of flight in front, while a camera unit sits a foot to the side and needs almost nothing. That difference is what rules most units out of a garage.
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