Advice on Club Mix to Carry

[Brenkj]

I'm fairly new to golf and I'm trying to figure out which club mix I should carry in my bag. I currently have a Driver (10.5), 3-wood (14.5) 5-wood (17.5), and 3-hybrid ((19). My irons are Titleist AP1. My wedges are 43, 48, 56 and 60. The only distance gap that's really noticeable is between the 48 and 56 wedges. I hit the 48 wedge about 110-115 and I can't seem to hit the 56 wedge more than 85-90. So whenever I have to hit a shot that's between 90 and 110, I have to either try to really muscle the 56, or choke up and take a 3/4-swing with the 48 (neither of which works very well). I also feel like I should change up something with the fairway woods, hybrid and 4-iron, but I'm not sure what to keep and what to replace with something else. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Jeff58]

Assuming your 48 is the AP1 wedge 1, you’re lacking a gap wedge. Your next club (the 56) is normally considered a sand wedge. Having to muscle a sand wedge is never a high probability shot, even for skilled players. A standard move would be to a 52 degree gap wedge, then either keep your 56 as the highest lofted club, or use a 58. IMO a 60 has little essential functionality, particularly in the hands of a newer player. I use the 52/58 setup and have very little motivation to change.

[Howard_Jones]

Consider to remove your 56* and 60* unless the 56* club is your Sand wedge, then add a 53* AP1 (same shafts as irons), and play a 58* Sand/Lob

Your 56* can also be bend to 58* to make room for a 53*, and then its the 60* lob you take out of the bag.

Another option is to bend both your 56* and your 60* 2* stronger, so they become 54* and 58*, it all depends on the actual head, its sole and bounce, and where you use it, so all my suggestions is made based on lofts only, since i dont know anything about sole properties of this heads and how you play them.

 

My own PW is 47.5* next is a GW of 53* and a combined Sand/Lob of 59*, but i hardly ever use the Sand/Lob for full swings, so try to make gapping equal, for all full swing clubs.

[Brenkj]

Thanks for the responses. That makes sense, although I confess I was hoping for a different answer. The 56 wedge has turned into my absolute favorite club. For some reason it just feels really good to swing and I have a lot of confidence and success with it - everything from the 85-yard full swing, to a 40-yard half swing, and little 15-yard chips around the green. I'm not a great golfer, but my friends are constantly remarking about how close I'm able to get the ball to the pin using that club. I guess if I got the exact same model, specs, etc., just with less loft, it should feel pretty much the same - right? Then I'd just have to get used to the effect of a little less loft?

[HitaHouse]

Perhaps get a 4 wood at 16 to 16.5 degrees and drop the 3 and 5. Then you could add a 52 or 53 deg wedge. On the courses I play, I just don't hit that many fairway woods so I have gone to the driver, 4 wood, then 20 deg leaving room at the other end.

[Brenkj]

Thanks for the response, HitaHouse. Problem is, my 5-wood is one of my favorite clubs (along with my 56 wedge as I explained above). Does it make sense loft-wise to stick with the driver and the 5-wood and drop the 3-wood?

[Howard_Jones]

> @Brenkj said:

> Thanks for the responses. That makes sense, although I confess I was hoping for a different answer. The 56 wedge has turned into my absolute favorite club. For some reason it just feels really good to swing and I have a lot of confidence and success with it - everything from the 85-yard full swing, to a 40-yard half swing, and little 15-yard chips around the green. I'm not a great golfer, but my friends are constantly remarking about how close I'm able to get the ball to the pin using that club. I guess if I got the exact same model, specs, etc., just with less loft, it should feel pretty much the same - right? Then I'd just have to get used to the effect of a little less loft?

 

YES, if you are happy with your 56* "dont fix it".....but add a 52/53 with the same shaft as your 56* and take out something else if you already have a full bag.

[cardoustie]

Lots of pro's go with 54 bent to 53 and 60 bent to 59

 

4 wood then 7 wood then 4h also a good idea .. more shot options

[James the Hogan Fan]

> @Brenkj said:

> Thanks for the responses. That makes sense, although I confess I was hoping for a different answer. The 56 wedge has turned into my absolute favorite club. For some reason it just feels really good to swing and I have a lot of confidence and success with it - everything from the 85-yard full swing, to a 40-yard half swing, and little 15-yard chips around the green. I'm not a great golfer, but my friends are constantly remarking about how close I'm able to get the ball to the pin using that club. I guess if I got the exact same model, specs, etc., just with less loft, it should feel pretty much the same - right? Then I'd just have to get used to the effect of a little less loft?

 

If you've found a club that works for you, then the last thing you want to do is change it or get rid of it. If it's your money club, build your setup around it. I happen to have 48-56-60 in my wedges, but with a small twist, the 56 is +1", which works out the gaps well. It sounds like you simply need a club that will slot between 90 and 110. Hit some various lofts and find that club.

 

Now you're going to have to take a club out somewhere. You could drop the 60, or you could drop the 3h and weaken the 5w to something like 18-19 (if possible). Drop 3w altogether, another possibility. (And for the record, I have gone through all of these setups and played rounds with each of them. My current setup is: 9-15-16-18-(4-PW, 48), 56, 60, putter. (15 a designated tee club, 16 a designated deck club) Simply evaluate where you have the gain of the wedge offsets the least loss from the deleted club. When I found my 52 and 56 went the same, I dropped the 52, because I decided having the extra fairway wood was the best thing for my game. Have a look at your game and make a similar evaluation, pick the setup, play a few rounds and see if it works for you.

 

Happy Golfing

[geochitown]

> @Brenkj said:

> Thanks for the response, HitaHouse. Problem is, my 5-wood is one of my favorite clubs (along with my 56 wedge as I explained above). Does it make sense loft-wise to stick with the driver and the 5-wood and drop the 3-wood?

 

absolutely

[geochitown]

you could replace your 56 with a 54 degree wedge

[cadoipi]

Need a 52* wedge. Drop one of 3w, 3h, or 60* (given that you hit your 5w and 56* well).

 

If you are just playing casual rounds, nothing is wrong in my opinion with playing with 15 clubs for a bit. Keep track of each time you use one of the 3w, 3h, and 60* and note if you could have gotten away with using another club instead. After 10 rounds look at the data and drop the least essential club.

[Brenkj]

Thanks everyone. On the wood conundrum, I think I'm comfortable dropping the 3-wood and just going with Driver and 5-wood. I almost never hit either the 3 or the 5 off the tee, and I get better results using the 5 as a fairway wood than I do the 3 (better luck getting it up in the air, etc.). On the wedges, I thought I might get the exact same model of wedge as the 56, but in a lower loft, and see if it works as well for me. It's a Titleist Vokey SM4 and it says "56-14" on it. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but if I'll contact Titleist and see which one of their current wedges they recommend.

[ChipNRun]

How well do you hit the 3W? Would you miss it if you kept just the 5W? (My pro who bombs the ball carries a 5W with a slightly longer shaft).

 

If you added a 52* wedge this might balance things out. (My old PW was a 46*, so your 43* is almost as strong as some 9i)

 

Do your numbered irons run from 5i to 9i?

 

Also, I know what you mean on the 56*. I settled for a 54* as my SW because the 54* is a bit better pitching club than a 56*, although 56* is "best" off the sand.

 

-------------------

 

From my viewpoint... drop 3W and add 52*

 

To help you decide, listen to C...

> @cadoipi said:

 

> If you are just playing casual rounds, nothing is wrong in my opinion with playing with 15 clubs for a bit. **Keep track of each time you use one of the 3w, 3h, and 60* and note** if you could have gotten away with using another club instead.

[Brenkj]

ChipnRun: I hit the 3W just fine off a tee; I just hardly ever need to hit a tee shot with a fairway wood. I bet I hit my 3W maybe once every 4 or 5 rounds, and that's only off a tee, since I hit the 5W better off the fairway than I do the 3W. The 5W I probably hit 3 - 4 times per round (pretty much every par 5). My irons are 4i through 9i and I have a 3 hybrid. The reason I got the 60 wedge is because I need all the help I can get with greenside bunkers, and I assumed a super-high loft wedge would be the best option for that. Bear in mind I have no idea what I'm doing, so if that was an incorrect assumption just let me know.

[Brenkj]

Well, I talked to the Titleist Vokey people. They recommended a general purpose wedge (F Grind?) in a 52 loft, with a similar lie to my 56 wedge that I love so much. That will give me 48/52/56. I'll drop the 60 wedge and use the 56 for greenside bunker shots. I think I wound up answering my own question on the woods. Since I hardly ever use the 3 Wood, I'm going to drop it and keep the 5 Wood. Thanks again for all the responses.

[indianalawnguy]

I carry a 46 pw, 50 gap, 54 sw and a 60 bent to 59 as a lob. You have 8 deg between your pw and sw. Maybe replace the 48 with a 50/52

[James the Hogan Fan]

> @Brenkj said:

> Thanks everyone. On the wood conundrum, I think I'm comfortable dropping the 3-wood and just going with Driver and 5-wood. I almost never hit either the 3 or the 5 off the tee, and I get better results using the 5 as a fairway wood than I do the 3 (better luck getting it up in the air, etc.). On the wedges, I thought I might get the exact same model of wedge as the 56, but in a lower loft, and see if it works as well for me. It's a Titleist Vokey SM4 and it says "56-14" on it. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but if I'll contact Titleist and see which one of their current wedges they recommend.

 

The 56 is the loft of the club, the 14 is usually the 'bounce' of the club; something to do with the reverse angle the sole of the club has. Notice if you rest the club on the floor with the shaft vertical, it does not lay flat. If the clubhead from the side looked like this: < (swinging towards left), the 14 would refer to the angle of the bottom incline. (I think in reality it is far more complicated than that, but for base purposes I think this is good enough... I've always thought of it that way.)

[Howard_Jones]

> @Brenkj said:

> Thanks everyone. On the wood conundrum, I think I'm comfortable dropping the 3-wood and just going with Driver and 5-wood. I almost never hit either the 3 or the 5 off the tee, and I get better results using the 5 as a fairway wood than I do the 3 (better luck getting it up in the air, etc.). On the wedges, I thought I might get the exact same model of wedge as the 56, but in a lower loft, and see if it works as well for me. It's a Titleist Vokey SM4 and it says "56-14" on it. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but if I'll contact Titleist and see which one of their current wedges they recommend.

 

A typical SAND WEDGE has a high bounce like yours with a sole angle of 14*, but the GW you plan to put into your set would mostly be a club for use outside the bunker, and many full swings. Static bounce is to compensate for angle of attack, so unless you are VERY STEEP, you should choose a GW with lower bounce angle than your SW, and something like 8 to 10 who is very common and versatile, so what you should look for would be called 52/8 or 52/10.

 

If we have to much bounce, we meet problems on hard surfaces unless we go very steep at the ball, so dont go as high as 14 for a GW, its would be harder to play from most lies compared to 8 or 10 as bounce. Vokey F grind with 8 or 10 bounce and the same shaft as your 56* is my suggestion

[Hertsjoatmon]

Can you not just get the 48 bent to 49 and the 56 bent to 55? cheap and easy solution...

[Brenkj]

Well, I played my first round today with the 52 wedge and without the 60 wedge - and so far, so good. The 52 wedge seems to fit perfectly distance-wise between my 48 and the 56. Without the 60 wedge, the 56 effectively turned into my sand wedge. Unfortunately, I had 2 or 3 chances to try it out in that capacity, and it actually performed better on green-side bunker shots than the 60 has. Granted, it's a small sample size, but after one round I'm pretty happy with the mix. Thanks again for all the responses and advice.

[Howard_Jones]

> @Brenkj said:

> Well, I played my first round today with the 52 wedge and without the 60 wedge - and so far, so good. The 52 wedge seems to fit perfectly distance-wise between my 48 and the 56. Without the 60 wedge, the 56 effectively turned into my sand wedge. Unfortunately, I had 2 or 3 chances to try it out in that capacity, and it actually performed better on green-side bunker shots than the 60 has. Granted, it's a small sample size, but after one round I'm pretty happy with the mix. Thanks again for all the responses and advice.

 

Then it should look something like this