how many clubs do you really need?

after a poor performance in last weekends open, i went out last night with limited expectations.
our wee group is having a '4 club challenge' on saturday, so i thought i'd have a go with the 4 clubs i plan to use and get use to hitting those in-between shots that are unfamiliar.
i was a little hesitant over the club choice, we've got to pick a driver/wood/hybrid, an iron, a wedge and putter. i only carry a driver and a 17 deg hybrid [2iron] in the top section, so in the interest of experimentation i selected the hybrid knowing that i'd only be getting about 220 yards out of it due to the soft conditions. 6 iron was the obvious choice for iron [workability on the par 3s being one of the main concerns], and i am pretty confident at the moment with my 52 deg wedge from inside 100yards so that went in the bag too.
to my great surprise i got on a lot better than expected, three birdies in the first 4 holes helped, but managed to finish the round +3 despite not holing a putt longer than 4 feet [our greens had been tined and sanded and were tricky].
i was particularly pleased with the flexibility of the hybrid, comfortable with easing off and hitting down to about 180yards with a 2/3 swing, and also the 6 iron, where i set up 3 birdie chances inside 10 feet after punch shots from around 130yards, about 40yards short for my comfort zone.
the gap wedge was also in great form including a terrific shot from 70 yards to 2 inches after a trip into the water on the 9th. all in all i only had about 4 or 5 shots out of the 75 that i felt like i had to do anything particularly unconventional with, as i was focussing particularly on my course management and was leaving comfortable shots into most greens.
i just can't believe that i can play so poorly one day with 14 clubs in the bag and then go out with just 4 and break my handicap by a couple of shots. it has got me thinking about my game and how rigid i can tend to be with certain shots. for example more often than not i'd have reached for my sand iron to play that 70 yard pitch, but with the wind as strong as it was the gap wedge kept the flight much lower.
obviously there is not going to be any change in the number of clubs the rules allow you to carry - club manufacturers would not have it for one thing - but yesterdays round has made me think a lot about my game: course management, shot selection, touch/feel of a shot, and the importance of correct excecution. yesterdays round was the most fun i've had on a golf course for quite some time.
so, are 14 clubs really necessary - or is there a possibility that carrying so many clubs could actually be holding us back, losing feel, and sticking to rigid 'golf-by-yardages'? i'm beginning to wonder if i might actually improve my game by doing this more regularly.

we had a 3 club 9 hole chalenge a couple of months back. i went for a driver 8 iron and lob wedge. my 60 deg. lob wedge is my club og choice from pretty much everywhere inside 100-110 yards and i can get to this range on 4 of the 6 par 4s. the 8 iron was perfect for the other 2 and also the par 3s.
the big problem was when i took 22 putts with the blade of my lob wedge for +5 gross!!!! still not too bad though

interesting stuff hend. i was a little hesitant particularly over the hybrid / driver, as we have 4 par 5s: 495, 490, 540 & 500 yards long. also a few longish par 4s: 420, 450, 420, 430. despite only having the hybrid, i played those 8 holes in +1, and was greenside in two or better on 7 of the 8. just shows that distance off the tee doesn't mean absolutely everything.

it just shows you much an extra bit of concentration helps rather than just looking at the distance and hitting the usual club while on autopilot.

The majority of people have no idea how far they hit each club but only know how far they are supposed to hit them. Therefore until they reach a standard where they can consistently hit a ball then half a dozen clubs would probably be sufficient for them.

In those type of matches I always find the hybrid good for tee shots/chipping/run ins and when a putter is not stipulated putting.
Leaves a much wider choice for the other clubs.

I play my local 9 holer with driver, hybrid, 6, 8 wedge and putter

fair point s_r,
i guess the main stress point of my game this year has been my short game. now i'm over the worst of it i'm starting to work on my feel around the greens and getting the ball close to the hole. playing a round where i was playing such a variety of shots with each club i was carrying got me feeling much more comfortable with my chipping, meaning 3 tap-ins from 6 chips and short pitches, and makeable putts with the rest. probably just a case of a good exercise for me personally right now - but not a bad thing to do from time to time anyway.

That's my point ban, for instance lots of people carry 3 or 4 wedges but no real idea of how to play a shot or which club to use to execute it. I'd advocate that people who want to improve should learn to chip with just one club most of the time. It builds distance control, accuracy and feel, and takes the confusion of which club to play.

Do most of the posters on here use 14 clubs ? Just out of interest.

I carry 12.

I carry 13 at the mo having taken the Baffler out as it's so bad at the mo i don't want to be tempted to give it a bash from 230 left on the par 5s!!

Good article banbam.
I've been thinking a lot more recently about my club selection off the tee. I hit the driver ok but it still has the potential to get me in trouble. It only takes 2 drives into the trees per round and that can be a good score ruined.
I've got a 21 degree hybrid that gets out around 200 yards and played a couple of rounds with just that and no driver and didn't score any worse that i usually do.
These days any par 4 under 350 and i'm not hitting driver. Ok i've got an 8 iron in rather than a 9 or wedge but that's ok and a good trade off for double bogey being out of the equation.
To be honest it kind of opened my eyes a bit and off 17 if you take double bogeys out of the equation it really isn't too hard to play under my handicap. I'd say this change in course management is the best piece of improvement i've achieved all year without question

Like most I carry the full compliment but with a piece of paper stuck into my scorecard holder which reminds me how far I hit each club at full and at three quarter swing. Give it a go, its much better than selecting a club based on what you think you should be hitting each club.

i also carry 14, though my 60 deg wedge is seen as a luxury club and only really used for flop shots or short pitches where there's no much green to work with. i'm looking into a new 3wood [i only carry driver and 2iron equivalent hybrid] and will probably drop the 60 from the bag to make space.
good tip s_r, we've got a nice flat and stodgy practice area which i might try that out and measure the carry of each. not worth measuring it to include the run out as that is quite variable at our club. also when i go up north to my away links it goes completely out the window as the ball flies so much further in the thinner sea air and runs much more too.

Like others I have played in 4 club competitions and not really found too much of a difference to my score.

This got me to thinking which clubs could be taken out of my bag that get used once every couple of rounds and I think about 3 or 4 could go. I think that I could get down to less without much problem as I seem to favour certain clubs and would rather play and easy or hard shot than go up or down a club. Not sure why but that's how it works in my head.

I guess most people could drop all the odd or even number irons quite easily. Particularly the higher handicappers who aren't really consistent enough.

I did read someone (possibly Olazabal) suggesting that pros only be allowed 10 clubs to make them have to manufacture more shots. But would imagine the club manufacturers would have something to say about that.

I carry my 3 iron but I have only used it twice in the last six or so rounds.

What club, apart from putter, do you use most often.
I think for me it has to be the Driver

Sand iron for me!...

Doon the Water wrote:I carry my 3 iron but I have only used it twice in the last six or so rounds.

What club, apart from putter, do you use most often.
I think for me it has to be the Driver

Out of interest Doon, why is that?
Is it because your driver always puts you in the spot that you want to be in, in which case good for you or is it because machismo takes over and the urge to hit driver at every opportunity regardless of where it goes is too hard to resist.

In my experience (and I'm not trying to patronise) is that those with the poorest course management (and usually higher handicaps) reach for the driver without hesitation.

For that reason my most used clubs (outside of the putter) are my 52 deg wedge for chipping and my 16 deg rescue because it almost goes as far as my driver, often leaves me in the safest part of the fairway at my favourite approach length but has a more consistent flight and shape than my driver and so goes where I want it to go almost all of the time.

its a tricky question to answer doon. off the tee at my home club i typically use the driver 5 times, my hybrid 7 times, two 3irons for the short par 4s, and for the four par 3s normally 9, 6, 5, 4irons. the inbetweeny shots just depend, though recently i've been trying to leave myself around 90 yards to the flag as i'm becoming more confident with a punchy little 3/4 gap wedge. so its probably between the hybrid(2iron replacement) and the 52 deg wedge.
at my away club, whilst working on the greens as a labourer i built up a fair bit of muscle and regularly used a 5iron off 11 of the tees! it is quite a short course mind, and all that extra links bounce and run was pretty helpful.

Super

For me the club used most often other than driver is my 56 degree wedge. Probably because I miss the green too often.

I'd say for me it has to be either the 52 wedge as i use that from 100 yards and for almost all chipping, or the 21 hybrid as that gets hit a lot off the tee these days and a couple of times on par 5s!

MAC, very interesting. If you used a club that put you in the middle of the fairway more often than you can rely on your driver to do, do you think you'd hit more greens in regulation as a result, thus meaning more putting and less chipping?

Super

That would be assuming I could hit the green from the middle of the fairway. Which sadly is not the case. Knocked down eight iron form around 130 the other day went about 30 yards left into a feckin gorse bush.

Dropped another, hit it easier and came up short by ten yards. What a plonker.

Mac, I was speculating that your driver might have been putting you in positions where hitting the green was difficult.

To the original post I carry 14 clubs, dependant on conditions or type of shot I deem most appropriate I could use them all in a round, often in summer during bounce games (exception of this year) and have done in comps as well, I'd carry a pencil bag with only odd numbered irons, a wood, a sand wedge and a putter would even say last year some of my best scores resulted from this as focus was more on the shot that the club needed.

With regards most used club in the bag other than putter I would say mine is the 3wood or 2hybrid. Used for the majority of tee shots, only time I use my driver at my home course is on 3 of the 4 par 5's and occaisionaly on the Par 4 16th usually in matchplay when going for green as the risk is far outweighed by the reward

Super

Driver is not too bad, no worse in terms of accuracy than my 3 wood or 3 iron from the tee.

Just your irons that stink then eh?

driver definitley my most used club.i hit it on the vast majority of par 4s and 5s. its probably the best club in my bag and often the straightest. unless its a hole where all the trouble is in reach with my driver and not my 3 wood then i see no reason not to hit it.
ive found than in the past when i do switch to a 3 wood for "safety" i loose my rythm of hitting my drver well and make a mess of it!

Maybe, either that or my drives are so long I am always left with the SW?

Not the case by the way.

To the original post- i think the key lesson here is course management, when only carrying three clubs you are focused on playing to the correct positions around the golf course to suit the clubs you have instead of what most of us are guilty of doing with a full bag of 14 and just bombing it. There is an extra focus on execution of the shot rather than the result before it has been hit. I played 3 club comp earlier in the year, granted it was off forward tees and my club is quite a short (but extremely tight and tricky) course- brought hybrid 9 iron and putter, the 3 par 5s were a doddle, played perhaps the way they should be, hybrid 9iron 9iron to the middle of the green, 2 stress free pars and holed one of the putts for birdie, recently i've been going for a lot of par 5s in 2 and walking off 6, i had one of my best rounds of the year with a gross +1 and hit 14or15 greens in regulation. I have been asking myself this same question now all year. However it did make me consider my club choice a bit more, rather than trying to hit every shot 100% on many occasions since i'll try play a different type of shot with one more club, off the tee just trying to position my ball rather than try to hit the perfect drive. Still drift back into the same habits as we are all guilty of that's why i think it would be beneficial to our game to play with 5 or 6 clubs in practice rounds to hone the skills of imagination, shot selection and shotmaking

We played 50 holes one day at Royal Aberdeen with one club to raise some sponsership. One of the guys shot 74 with a 4 iron.

74 over 50 holes, with a 4 iron, thats some good shooting

....for one of the rounds.

Ahhh just an everyday round then

Used to play a boxing day match with 3 clubs and everyone had to use the same clubs. It was a wood of your choice, a 7 iron and a putter. The clubs had to be used in strict rotation, so you were often putting with a 7 iron and driving with a putter.

Scores weren't fantastic, but the craic was great!

OS, sounds great fun but I think I'd borrow someone else's putter for the day!!

MustPuttBetter wrote:OS, sounds great fun but I think I'd borrow someone else's putter for the day!!

You're not wrong MPB - some very old putters came down from the loft.

played in our groups 4 club comp on sat. not quite as steady as wednesdays game, on reflection a result of trying to force too many shots. that said i was happy with my round. despite a nasty blip of back to back double bogeys on 5 and 6 and some frustration on our recently tined greens, i finished 8 over for 33 pts. highlight came on the last. after an awful tee shot, i had a good 215 yards left into a stiff breeze with a burn just in front of the green. no guts no glory, went for it with the hybrid and landed in soft about 6 feet left of the flag. knocked it in for a satisfying bird and third place.
it was interesting to hear everyone elses thoughts afterwards. naturally those who'd scored poorly were less enamoured with the format than those who'd played well, but there was an interesting buzz about our table that i couldn't quite put my finger on. i guess everyone was a bit upbeat from the novelty of the 'battle' they'd each had. hopefully we'll do the same again next year - great format!

SR
Belated reply to your question.
On the two courses I play on a regular basis I generally use my driver 11 times in a round.
I tend to hit the ball straighter with my driver than any other club.

I can't think of any club I would use more often as my 3 wood and 22 degree rescue are generally used equally, probably 4 or 5 times each on one course and 3 or 4 times on another.

I tend to use an 8 iron for short chips around the greens so I would think that it would be my second most used club.