Abstract: The present invention pertains to the striking head of a golf club designed to maximize both the distance a golf ball will travel and the "forgiveness" of the club to off-center hits. These two advantages are achieved by a novel approach to club head design for improving the properties of stiffness and moments of inertia. The increased stiffness reduces the energy absorbed by the club head, thereby increasing the distance the ball will travel. Increasing the moments of inertia increases the "sweet spot" or "forgiveness" of the club by reducing the rotation of the club head during off-center hits. This invention has application to putter, iron, and wood golf club heads. The approach is to concentrate the majority of the mass of the club head into one structural member in the shape of a ring. The ring is formed by attaching a low-density rigid striking face to a high-density rigid ring segment extending behind the face.