The invention provides a golf club head with an openwork (e.g., lattice-like or trellis-like) internal structural element that provides strength and stiffening at key points of the club head and/or attenuates sound while adding little to the overall mass due to the defined or irregular patterns of holes, piercings, gaps, or apertures through surfaces of the material. A golf club head may be given an openwork internal rib that reinforces regions of high strain, thereby minimizing material fatigue and preventing early breakage of the club head.