Help me pick my 14th club

[Z1ggy16]

K so I've been thinking about this for a day or two and I've actually changed my mind (for now) on my 14th club. It's going to be a strong 3w... my old M1 turned down 2* and playing just a touch over 43''.

Rationale: 1) I already had this head laying around and a shaft that can go with it well. 2) the clubs I was going to use were a 21* hybrido and a 22* 4i (225 and 215 yards respectively). These two yardages aren't in and of themselves that useful compared to my 220 yard 4h right now. I almost never have approaches of 225 or 210 yards, and only 1 hole out of all the courses I play has a par 3 over 185 yards. The strong 3w will potentially be more useful on days where I just can't seem to get the driver grooved, which I guess is more likely than having a 215 yard approach when I think about it.

Like I was saying before... the par 5's I play are either pretty easy for me to get to in 2, or they force you to lay up by blocking you out with trees or by having severe bends in them. If I go for it in two, usually the 4h is plenty of club and to be fair... I don't go for it often (maybe 1 in 5 times). Odds are the strong 3w won't be going that much further than my 4w, but if I can get it out to about 260-265, I think that would be alright.

[Myherobobhope]

i think that’s a good decision... it’s what I went with but I’m still at 13 clubs. I’m missing a 5 iron in my bag but don’t need a 215 club.

based on the description of your courses, a drop and stop driver alternative should put you in more fairways and allow you better approach shots.

keep practicing from 150 and in and your handicap will drop.

[ClubBuildRookie]

I would love to have your distance off the tee. I would be a driving iron fairway finding machine all day off the tees hitting every fairway at 250 and be happier than a pig in poop.

What percentage of fairways do you hit? Do you track direction of misses off the tee and approach shots?

If you track this stuff and post your rounds in system that gives you good visibility to strengths and weaknesses, analyze your game data to find and attack your weakpoint. If you don't track this stuff you probably oughta seriously think about it cause 280 to 290 off the tee is a horrible gift to waste from my perspective. I use TheGrint to track my data. Lots of great insights can be gleened for the data.

Bottom Line, use your 15th club to mine your game data to find the biggest weak point and best option for your 14th club. The data doesn't lie.

 

[iNeedMoreGolf]

You know whats funny to me about the 240+ carry... i learned if you hit the ball with driver anywhere from 230 to 270 your going to be just fine. You truly dont need a 310+ drive. Its nice but most shots might be in the woods or in trouble with those drives depending on the hole and how accurate you can place the ball with or without curve on it. If you play from whites or even blues a 240 250 drive you can still birdie or par easily if you ok with your irons. It also seems to me like most courses play shorter then there yardages anyways.

[Z1ggy16]

I use shot scope for now. Fairways hit is between like 40-60% usually, and greens is about 20-30%.

Yeah for some reason I just don't like diving irons, hybrids gives me the same flight for the most part (maybe a touch higher) but feel 10x more forgiving.

I've definitely toyed with just going with a fairway wood off most tees, and I've done it before and played pretty well, but it does require the iron game to be a bit more on point.