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Are the clubs in your bag actually right? Check for free (no sign-up)

Updated: Nov 3, 2026Contains affiliate links

Some golfers carry two clubs of the 14 that fly the same distance. In the same bag, there's a hole of 20 yards or more with nothing to hit. It's not rare.

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Bottom line

Why overlaps and gaps happen

When I line up set numbers as a gear nerd, the mismatch usually falls into one of two kinds. It isn't a swing problem. It's the order you bought the clubs in. That's all.

Nobody buys 14 clubs at once. A set grows over years. You buy irons, add wedges later, slip in a hybrid. Almost nobody works out the distance step from the previous club each time. What you look at when you buy is usually the price and the reviews.

And the PW loft runs from 41° to 47° depending on the model. That's 6°, a range that would make a different driver. Even with the same "PW", the gap to the next wedge changes completely. I listed the lofts in how many wedges to carry.

Check it yourself in three steps

1. Write down the loft of each club you own (it's on the maker's official site)
2. Use the one club you hit all the time as your baseline (for me, a 7-iron at 160 yards)
3. Look at the distance step between clubs

All you need is paper and the official site. It's a chore, though, so I built a free tool where you just type the numbers in. Your clubs are saved only on your device and never sent anywhere.

Open the Club Gap Checker (free, no sign-up)

Three common patterns: how to compare your set

When you actually run the check, you'll usually land on one of these. Just three.

Distances are calculated with the common rule of thumb of about 3 yards per degree of loft (not measured on this site). If you enter two or more of your own measured distances, the tool recalculates with your numbers.

Woods and hybrids are different. Length and center of gravity change with each club, so loft difference alone doesn't set the distance. The tool lines those up with real numbers only when you enter measured distances.

Turning loft differences into distance: a worked example

One degree of loft changes carry distance by about 3 yards. That's a general rule of thumb, not something this site measured. Using that rule, loft differences turn into distance like this.

Distance gap is the loft gap times 3 yards, my own calculation. The right-hand column is my own line, not an official standard.

Here is a concrete example. The official lofts of the Srixon ZXi5 are 31° for the 7-iron, 35° for the 8, 39° for the 9, 44° for the PW, 50° for the AW and 56° for the SW. My 7-iron goes 160 yards (measured), so I calculate the other clubs from there.

An estimate: my measured 7-iron (160 yards) minus 3 yards per degree of loft. ZXi5 lofts are from the official spec table (released Sep 12, 2026). Actual distance changes with club length and shaft. How many wedges to carry subtracts 10 yards per 4° (2.5 yards per degree). The two just place the estimate differently, and both are numbers meant to be replaced with your own measurements.

Subtracting neighboring clubs in this table gives 12 yards from the 8-iron to the 9, 15 from the 9 to the PW, 18 from the PW to the AW, and 18 from the AW to the SW. The lower the club, the wider the gap to its neighbor. PW lofts differ by model: the ZXi5's PW is 44°, while the ZXi7 in the same series is 46°. If you carry a 52° wedge, a 44° PW leaves an 8° gap (about 24 yards) to it, and a 46° PW leaves 6° (about 18 yards) (my calculation). I wrote up the difference between the two in ZXi5 vs ZXi7.

Building this table with your own clubs is what the diagnostic does. Enter your lofts and at least two measured distances, and it recalculates using your numbers.

What the diagnosis showed with 14 clubs

When I entered the 14 clubs into the diagnosis tool, it found one gap and one overlap. What I noticed is that the steps in distance change not only with loft but also with length.

My mistake was trying to buy another club without lining up the distances first. I decided after lining them up on the screen, so I did not need to buy anything. I now grip down on the 58-degree.

What I hesitated over was the cost; replacing one wedge was an option. I chose to keep the clubs and grip down, so it cost 0 yen. If I chose again, I would line them up first. I recommend this to anyone whose clubs may overlap.

Found a gap in your distances? Think about this before adding a club

If you never hit from the empty distance, you don't need to buy anything. If you only play from 150 yards and in, you can ignore the gap above that.

Finding nothing is the best result. In your place, I'd spend the money for that one club on practice balls. Learning the distances of the clubs you already have will cut your score more. That's how I see it.

About the writer and sources

A golfer who averages a 72 over about 150 rounds a year went through the gear documents one by one.

The figures in this article's tables compare official materials from makers and similar sources, plus general rules of thumb. The on-screen numbers for the 14 clubs are in the box at the top and in the section "What the diagnosis showed with 14 clubs". The update date is November 3, 2026.

FAQ

Related reading

How many wedges to carry
PW lofts for 18 models, and how to think in 4° steps.

How to Choose a Hybrid
Why to choose by loft, not by club number.

Shot Dispersion Notebook (free)
A tool for recording the average and spread of 10 shots, so one shot doesn't decide for you.

Sources for this article

• Club Gap Checker (a free tool on this site)
• What is club loft? Loft by club and typical distances (ALBA)
• How many yards does 1° of iron loft change? (Golf Hitari)

Last updated: Nov 3, 2026

Specs and prices are the figures published on manufacturers' official websites and in press releases, and by media outlets (checked Sep 20, 2026). These are published figures; any numbers from my own hitting or use are given in the article body with their conditions.