What 'More Club' or 'Taking More Club' Means in Golf

On the golf course, you'll sometimes hear the term "more club," perhaps in expressions such as "you need more club" or "I'm taking one more club this time." What those terms all mean is that the golfer needs or is going to switch to a golf club that produces more distance.

Needing "more club" means needing a golf club that hits the ball farther. For example, you're on the fairway with 150 yards into the green. So you pull out your 8-iron, because you think you can get an 8-iron to the green. But perhaps your caddie, your friend who is playing with you, your instructor, or maybe just the little voice in your head suggests, "don't you need a little more club?"

What they are suggesting is that your 8-iron won't reach the green on that 150-yard approach shot, and that you better switch to your 7-iron — or, if you've really badly misjudged how far you can hit it, perhaps even your 6-iron. But the crux is, your 8-iron is judged not enough club to get there.

And, by the way, asking "is that enough club?" is another way to ask, "do you need more club?" And the opposite of "more club" is "less club."

One thing about "more club" that can be confusing to newbies is that taking more club means reaching for a club with a lower number: replacing the 8-iron with the 7-iron as in the example above, for instance. The clubs in our bags are numbered, from "1" for the longest-hitting (driver) to "9" for the shortest hitting numbered club, the 9-iron. (Even shorter-hitting wedges, such as the pitching wedge or sand wedge, typically aren't numbered like the rest of the clubs.)

If you switch from a 5-wood to a 3-wood, you've taken more club. If you need a 5-hybrid instead of a 6-hybrid, that's more club. If you should have hit a 7-iron when you actually came up short with an 8-iron, you needed more club.

More definitions:

• Explaining 'the turn' and 'making the turn'
• Laying three, lie four: What those golf terms mean
• Definition of a member's bounce