Low profile and oversize

How to optimize both designs The answer, says Tom Stites, a member of Golf Digest's Technical Advisory Staff, lies in how each club is used. Low-profile woods, with their smaller heads and lower center of gravities, are best when the ball lies on the ground, while oversize drivers, with their larger faces, are best when the ball is teed up. "Typically, the hottest spot on the face of a driver is just above the center, so reason suggests that the bigger the center, the higher that hot spot is going to be," he says. "When you eliminate the height of the clubface[hitting the driver off the ground], you eliminate the ability to hit that spot." There is a danger with going too big, however, because the wider the clubface gets, the harder it is to square the face at impact.

Chippers Life on the fringe "I think you're wasting a club," says Golf Digest Schools instructor Tim Mahoney. "You should just turn a 7- or 8- iron into a chipper." Still, chippers are useful clubs for many and come in different shapes and lofts. MacGregor's chipper has 27 degrees of loft. Ping's Chipo chipping iron has the length of a 9-iron and the loft of a 5-iron. Spalding offers a 7-iron-loft fringe wedge in some of its women's sets. Chippers are carried widely by off-course shops and typically cost between $20 and $90.