With so many golfers returning to the game in 2020 as golf proved to be COVID-friendly, so many are looking at their sets this year wondering if they’re still the right clubs for them.

Kyle Gordon, Golf Town’s Master Club Fitter, says one thing that men could be looking at while they are thinking about how to put a new set together is the bags of the stars of the LPGA Tour.

“It’s a speed thing,” says Kyle, Golf Town’s National Training Manager and a PGA of Canada Class ‘A’ professional.

Right now, the average driver swing speed of a golfer on the PGA Tour is 113 mph, while an LPGA Tour golfers’ average is 94 mph. That number is probably something more golfers are used to seeing, but that doesn’t mean that men should be using golf clubs especially made for women. Most clubs are actually gender neutral, with clubheads used by golfers on the LPGA Tour basically the same as their PGA Tour counterparts.

The difference is in the bag set up, and the shafts.

On the PGA Tour the average peak height is 30 yards high for every club – from pitching wedge to driver. On the LPGA Tour it drops closer to 25 yards high for every club just because they, generally, swing the club slower. If a golfer is swinging slower, that’s a big driving force for why there are a lot less 4 irons in the bags of the LPGA Tour golfers, for example, because they can’t hit and hold a green with that club but a hybrid could.

“We are definitely seeing more hybrid sales, because there are more fittings happening and we’re having consultations. I’m basing recommendations for the longest iron in the bag off how high they hit it,” says Kyle. “If they’re a low-ball player then it gives me a barometer – either this guy can hit a 4-iron, or he can’t. If you’re a low trajectory player and barely hitting peak height with, say, a 7-iron, it’s very challenging for you to hit a 3- or 4-iron.

“You can have it in your bag, but you’re not going to hold a green.”

Kyle says a ‘stigma’ is most definitely being dropped around how many hybrids or high-lofted woods are now being used by average golfers. There are anomalies on the LPGA Tour like Lexi Thompson or Brooke Henderson who hit it as far as some of the men on the PGA Tour, but it’s more common to see an extra fairway wood or hybrid in the bags of LPGA Tour golfers.

Frankly, the game is hard enough. Hitting clubs like that make things easier.

Multi-time LPGA Tour winner Brittany Lincicome told GOLF.com. “But if they knew how much easier their life would be, especially out of the rough … so much easier than trying to hit those 4- and 5-irons.

“I feel like, why make it harder on yourself? The blades look so beautiful and everything, but like, you have to hit it so pure every time,” Lincicome said. “And most amateur golfers are not pros; they don’t play as much as we do. So, if you’re just a weekend warrior, why make it that much harder on yourself?”

So, as you look to fill out your bag with new gear, getting fit is absolutely key. And while you’re doing some pre-fit research, take a look into the bags of some of the best on the LPGA Tour – because the golf ball doesn’t care about gender or age.