A flight punch cuts the hole that a flight protector clips through, and it is the tool that makes protectors work properly.

A hole made by hand is never quite clean or centred, and an off-centre protector sits crooked — which changes how the flight seats in the shaft and undoes the point of fitting one.

It is a single-purpose tool, so it is worth buying alongside the protectors rather than on its own. The pocket-sized versions are the more useful ones, since flights usually need attention at the club rather than at home — a punch in a drawer is a punch you will not have when it matters.