As someone who works in the golf industry and writes about equipment, but who has also worked as a clubfitter and club builder, I believe there is one part of the vernacular we need to eliminate—the idea of “women’s clubs.”

“Women’s golf clubs” have been around for as long golf clubs have been marketed, and for a period of time, like so many things I’m sure, they had a significant purpose: helping female players find what they needed to hopefully improve their golf games. But in this modern era of club fitting and customization, I think we need to put an end to identifying clubs by sex.

I remember my experience at the Titleist Performance Institute, and one of the first things I was told by my fitter Glenn Mahler was

“I don’t fit clubs based on gender, age, handicap, or physical abilities. I fit clubs for golfers, period—to allow them to achieve their absolute best results”

I believe this is the best way for people to start thinking more about the segments of clubs made for players across the board. Male golfers don’t walk into a big box store and say “I’m looking for men’s clubs,” they say “I’m looking for clubs,” and then they get fit. If a female long drive golfer (yes, I realize it’s a small market segment) walked into most big box stores and asks to try a driver, I’m willing to guess that 90 percent of the time someone is going to give them a very poor fitting club based solely on sex—and that’s wrong.

This is where the custom club fitting industry has been ahead of the curve for a long time. Golfers, regardless of sex, walk in with clubs. They are assessed, and then a fitting begins. I have built enough clubs to know that sex is not a discussion point when building a set. This is also where OEMs need to start figuring out ways to better communicate options instead of just offering some clubs in different color options.

Yes, there are OEMs that make wonderful sets of clubs designed exclusively for women—one of the best is Ping and its G Le series. Ping is currently in the second generation of the series, but the first generation G Le driver even won a major championship thanks to Pernilla Lindberg at the ANA Inspiration. But for some manufacturers, beyond a different shaft and grip options, there really isn’t anything else that makes the club itself truly different—and if we are just talking a shaft change, that can be made through custom order.

So, why call it a women’s club?

One of the best examples of building a unisex brand is Accra Golf shafts. They don’t identify their shafts by stiff and regular, they identify by a numeric code from M1-M5+. It’s extremely helpful for a couple of reasons, not just with women but with men in need of a softer flex (there always seems to be a lot of ego involved for some reason). It’s a lot easier to say “you are an M1 or an M2” rather than “sir, you need senior flex shaft”

As the demographics in golf continue to evolve—don’t forget women are still the fastest-growing segment of the golf population—I believe that more companies will be taking notice, and soon we won’t be talking about women’s clubs anymore.

I discussed the subject of “women’s golf clubs” on my podcast, On Spec, which you can check out below.