Right-handed play dominates golf all over the world. If you head out onto a Swedish course on an ordinary Saturday, the vast majority in your group will be right-handed players, and that shapes everything from how clubs are made to how courses are designed. That is the short version of the answer to the question.
But the interesting part comes after the statistics. Because what is most common in golf, right or left, actually says surprisingly little about which side you personally should play from. That connection is weaker than most people think, and that is where most beginners make their first wrong choice.
Why most golfers play right-handed
A right-handed golfer stands with their left side towards the target and swings the club from right to left. Since the majority of the population is right-handed, golf follows the same pattern: the great mass of players are right-handed players, and that applies both at club level and among the absolute world elite.
The dominance is reinforced by a practical reality. When almost everyone plays from one side, the whole industry is built around that side. The beginner who borrows their first clubs will most likely be handed a right-handed set, the coach demonstrates from the right, and instructional videos show a right-handed swing. Habit breeds habit, and the person who never questions the choice simply continues along the track already laid out.
The difference between being right-handed and playing right-handed
Here lies the misconception that governs far too many first-time choices. Being right-handed in everyday life does not automatically mean you should play golf right-handed. The golf swing is a rotation where both hands and the whole body work together, and the most decisive side is actually the one that steers and pulls the club through the shot.
For a right-handed player, it is the left side that leads the swing on the way down towards the ball, while the right side provides speed and power. That means a person with a strong and coordinated right side may in fact benefit greatly from playing right-handed, since the strong arm gets to contribute speed in the right phase. The point is not which hand you write with, but how you distribute control and power through the movement.
That is why there are players who are right-handed in everything else but who swing best from the left, and vice versa. It comes down to what feels natural when you actually stand over the ball, not what the pen in your hand suggests.
How to test which side suits your swing
The best way to determine your side is not to work it out on paper, but to try both at a range. Borrow or rent a simple club in each configuration and hit about twenty balls from each side. Notice which stance feels balanced, where you achieve a cleaner strike, and which side does not force you to think about where your feet should go.
A good golf coach usually sees the answer quickly. A professional eye picks up on how you naturally rotate your upper body, where your centre of gravity wants to end up, and which side gives you the most stability at the moment of impact. A couple of lessons at the start is rarely wasted money, and you can read more about how to find the right person in our guide to golf coaches in Sweden.
If you want to test systematically on your own, a simulator is an underrated tool. There you get numbers on ball speed and strike quality from both sides without weather or curious glances getting in the way, and the differences become clear in black and white. It is a calm way to make a decision you will live with for a long time, and our thoughts on the equipment are gathered in the text about simulator golf.
What the choice of side means for your equipment
Clubs are made side-specific. A right-handed club has the clubhead angled for a right-handed swing and simply cannot be played sensibly from the left. If you choose to play left-handed, you therefore need a left-handed set, and that is where practical reality starts to make itself felt.
Left-handed clubs exist, but the selection is smaller. New models often come in fewer variants for left-handed players, the second-hand market is thinner, and quickly borrowing a club from a playing partner on the course becomes harder when almost everyone around you plays from the opposite side. That is no reason to rule out left if it is your side, but it is worth knowing before you decide. A good fitting at a knowledgeable retailer solves most of it, and how to think about the set itself we have gone through in the guide to building golf clubs.
The glove follows the same logic but the opposite way to what many people think. A right-handed player wears the glove on the left hand, because that is the hand that sits uppermost in the grip and takes the most wear. For a right-handed swing, the LR Players Glove LH is therefore the right choice, while a left-handed player instead chooses the LR Players Glove RH for their leading hand. The right glove on the right hand sounds obvious, but it is a common mistake at the checkout for anyone who has just started.
Right or left makes no difference to your clothing
There is one thing you do not have to worry about: your wardrobe does not care which side you swing from. Freedom of movement in the shoulders and upper body is equally important regardless of direction, and that is where good golf clothing makes a real difference during a round that stretches over several hours.
A polo shirt that breathes and sits right across the shoulders lets you rotate freely without the fabric pulling tight at the top of the backswing, and a classic like the tech polo - dark navy does exactly that job on a warm day. When the temperature drops and you want to keep your mobility up without piling on thick layers, a midlayer q-zip - navy is the layer that moves with the rotation instead of getting in the way. If you want to dress for the whole course according to our philosophy, you will find our polo shirts gathered in one place.
Don't switch sides unnecessarily once you've chosen
Once you have settled on your side and put a few months of play behind you, the advice is simple: stick with it. The golf swing is built on thousands of repetitions of the same movement, and switching sides late means you effectively start over from scratch. The muscle-memory feel you have built up cannot be mirror-reversed.
The exception is the person who very early on realises the wrong side was chosen out of pure routine, perhaps because the first borrowed clubs happened to be right-handed even though everything else pointed to the left. If that insight comes during the very first weeks, a switch can pay off. If, on the other hand, you already have a functioning swing and a handicap you are happy with, there is no reason to stir the pot, regardless of what the statistics on right and left say.
Right, left and the feel for the game
What makes golf beautiful is that it holds room for both. A left-handed player on a course built for right-handers is no curiosity, but simply a player who has found their natural movement. The question of what is most common in golf, right or left, is fundamentally a question of statistics, while the question of what is right for you is a question of your own body.
Our stance at Local Rule is that the game should feel like your own, from the swing to what you wear. If you choose your side with open eyes and dress in garments that follow the movement instead of hindering it, you have already laid the foundation for many good rounds. Let a stroll through our range inspire the next step, and see the entire range at Local Rule when you build your course wardrobe.
