Buying Guide for Junior Irons from Nevada Bob's Golf

Buying Guide: Junior Clubs: Irons

Your irons form the backbone of your game, and if you can master them when you're young then you're set for a long and happy golfing life. So it's important that your child uses the best golf kit for their game as early as possible; and by providing them with irons which suit their size and style, you're giving them a solid foundation on which they can flourish as a junior golfer, learning good habits and practices which will stay with them throughout their golfing career.

Junior Golf Irons as a Gift

Golf clubs make exceptional presents for young golfing boys. If you've ever had the pleasure of presenting a set of shining new clubs to a young golf enthusiast, you'll know that they won't be able to leave their new set alone for days. They'll hover around it, even forgoing any other presents are treats simply so they can be near their new clubs, admiring and holding them as though the clubs held some magical hypnotic power. They do, in a way. If your junior golfer has a birthday around the corner, or golf clubs are on the tops of their Christmas list, a new set of irons will really make it a special occasion.

And the choice is pretty extensive. There are irons for all ages, for boys, for girls, for different styles and for training purposes. Most of the larger club manufacturers are producing junior golf clubs these days so the market is quite competitive. That's great news for us as consumers; it means that the quality of the clubs is necessarily higher - otherwise they won't get sold - and the prices are necessarily lower - to compete successfully with the other manufacturers.

The biggest and most prolific manufacturer of junior golf irons at the moment is the American company US Kids Golf, and we'll return to them in a second. Before we do, there are two other companies which are manufacturing clubs and selling them individually.

Jaxx Junior Irons

One is a company called Jaxx. As with all of Jaxx's golf junior clubs, Jaxx group their junior irons according to age. They use a colour-coordinated system to help you choose the right club for your young golfer, outlined here for reference:

Red: Ages 5-7
Green: Ages 8-10
Blue: Ages 11-14

These colours will appear either on the head or on the shaft of the child's iron, so you can see at a glance whether or not the club is the right size for your junior golfer. The Jaxx Junior Irons on offer include a 5-iron, a 7-iron and a 9-iron, and the low price belies the high quality of these clubs.

Meridian Junior Irons

The other company producing junior golf irons is Meridian. Meridian offer a number of short irons, from 7 upwards, designed to help your junior golfer learn how to use an iron around the green. Meridian's Midsize Iron will help any young golfer hone their accuracy by giving a club with which they can control the ball's movement, applying backspin and side - taking their game to a new level of sophistication.

US Kids Golf

But the predominant force in the junior golf iron market is US Kids Golf. US Kids is a company started by a father of children who wanted to play golf, but who quickly lost interest because of the lack of usable clubs. The heavy junior clubs which were prevalent in 1997 - when US Kids was started - were heavy, bulky affairs. They were just adult kids with shortened shafts, and they hurt after a while and ruined a good swing.

US Kids pledged to produce junior golf clubs which were light and easy to handle, so children could enjoy golf and develop as players. Their junior golf clubs usually weigh around 25% less than their adult equivalents; and that makes a significant difference. It allows kids to practice their swing for longer without getting tired.

Boys' Club Sizes

US Kids Golf uses slightly different sizes for boys and girls. Their boys' sizing is as follows

Red for boys 3'0' to 3'8' (approx. ages 3-5)
Blue for boys 3'8' to 4'4' (approx. ages 6-8)
Green for boys 4'4' to 5'0' (approx. ages 9-11)
Gold for boys 4'10' to 5'6' (approx. ages 11+)

It's worth pointing out that US Kids top-of-the-range irons - the Championship Iron - are very slightly different. They use a Gold and Silver system; the Silver clubs are for boys between 4' 4" and 5' 0", or roughly 9-11, and the Gold irons are for boys between 4' 10" and 5' 6", or roughly between 11 and 15.

Girls' Club Sizes

The sizing of US Kids girls' irons is even more precise, so that the best possible club is found for the young female golfer. Girls' sizing is as follows:

Pink System for girls 36 to 42 inches tall.
Lavender System for girls 42 to 48 inches tall.
Tangerine System for girls 48 to 54 inches tall.
Lime System for girls 54 to 60 inches tall.
Lemon System for girls 60 to 66 inches tall.

US Kids clubs use deep, forgiving cavities in the clubheads to keep the weight of the club low. This provides momentum and contacts the ball low, which lofts it high and sends it far. The shafts of the clubs are very light graphite, so they're strong and encourage a faster swing.

As you might expect, US Kids are the most expensive of the child's irons - their competition level Championship Irons represent the very cutting edge of junior golf technology. Meridian and Jaxx are both very well respected club manufacturers and they offer clubs which are generally a little less costly. If money is a real concern, then you might want to investigate the sets available; they include a whole range of irons, and a golf bag too, and it works out cheaper than buying each of the clubs indivually.