Golf Club Length: Which Size is Right for You?

• Posted on 11 February 2024
• By Dennis Legg

This article goes into detail about how to choose the right length golf clubs.

One of the most important and also misunderstood components of club fitting is Golf Club Length. You may have always wondered “What size golf clubs do I need?” Hopefully this article can clear up some of the confusion around golf club length to height and give you the knowledge and confidence you need to choose the best length clubs for you.

It’s all about the levers…

The first concept to realize is that the length of a golf club is there literally to just provide some leverage to produce club speed. Leverage is a physics term. The shaft is the Lever and levers multiply power. In golf, the longer the lever, the faster the club head speed. Of course there is eventually a point of diminishing return. I mean imagine swinging a driver that is 20 feet long! In general though, an iron that is longer than standard swings faster than a standard iron. So then why wouldn’t everyone just play longer lengths then!? The answer is that hitting the ball in the center of the club face is the most important thing you can do to play good golf. The further you are away from the ball, the harder it becomes to return the center of the face onto the golf ball. 

You have to compromise…

Engineers and golf nuts in general have been studying club length for decades. Amazingly enough, there has become a strong consensus on what the best length of club that will produce a balance between distance AND control. The industry standard has settled to become 38” for a 5-iron. Each iron in the iron set varies by ½” to produce more or less leverage to help provide proper gapping between clubs. The 6-iron is ½” shorter than the 5-iron and so forth throughout the set. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Example of a length chart for a set of irons

Because of posture issues, a taller person usually will start to have a hard time staying in their posture with their shorter irons, so in general it is easy to say that taller people usually are better off with longer irons. Furthermore, the more physical limitations that a person has in keeping their posture during their swing, the more comfortable they are going to feel with longer irons. Conversely, more flexible, fit golfers with higher swing speeds can actually benefit from slightly shorter clubs. This shorter length can be an exchange of club head speed for accuracy which is a tradeoff that most fast players are more than willing to accept. Figure 2 below is a rough guide to choosing length of irons for various heights.

Figure 2. Typical Iron Lengths for Men or Women Height Variations

In addition to all of the talk about length, it is impossible not to mention that simply adding or subtracting length on an existing club does change the weight and balance of the club. The proper fit for length ideally needs to be matched to the proper club build with considerations to head weights and shaft weights to achieve a good balance and feel to the club. All of the reputable club manufacturers receive instructions in regards to the fit from a professional club fitter and are able to build the set with the proper specs AND the proper weight and balance.

Length Fitting for Drivers is DIFFERENT…

The fit for length on a driver or fairway is NOT in regards to the golfer’s ability to stay in their posture like the iron fit. It is solely a balance between how much leverage the golfer can handle and still maintain a solid strike on the ball. In general, the greater club head speed that a golfer can achieve, the less they NEED length. This is why the average length of drivers on the PGA Tour is 45” verses the average length on the LPGA Tour of 45.75”. Faster players need more control, and are able to give up some leverage in exchange for hitting it straighter. Slower players need more distance, and usually have less dispersion than faster players, so are usually going to opt for a longer shaft as long as they can still strike it solid. Once again, it is crucial to emphasize that the length of the shaft combined with the weight of the shaft, head, and grip, must strike a balance if the golfer is going to be perfectly happy with the performance of their driver.

Does Length Matter on a Putter?

The short answer is “not nearly as much”.  A proper fit for length on a putter gets the golfer’s eyes roughly right over the ball when they take a proper stance with good posture. Shorter players are going to need shorter putters, and in general taller players are going to want longer putters up to a certain point where the length starts to feel uncontrollable. Putters usually range from 32’-33” for women and shorter men, to 34”-35” which is considered about average, to 36” for golfers that need the most length for posture; however, this is the one piece of equipment where length can be massively determined just by what feels natural and good for the golfer. Experimentation is encouraged and will be necessary to settle on a preferred length.

Such a “Lengthy” Discussion…

This article does just scratch the surface of helping you to figure out “What length golf clubs do I need”.  Length is one of many components of a properly fitted golf club, but it surely is an important and well talked about one. Unfortunately, there are a very high percentage of improperly trained club fitters out there in the industry. Golf Warehouse Atlanta fitters have over 30 years of experience fitting clubs. You can rest assured that you are going to receive accurate information in your club fitting in Atlanta. Call us for an appointment today at 770-435-1934. It’s great if you’re local, but we have people from out of town come in for fittings and have us ship their clubs to them once they are built from the manufacturers. It’s worth the extra effort to do it right!