Simplifying the long end of the bag

Port and Starboard · October 13, 2022

On 10/4/2022 at 12:15 PM, xkilgorextroutx said:

I did the same a few years ago when I dropped my 3/4 wood and now just have a driver then the 18* Hywood. Wide open hole? Driver. Tighter hole? Hywood. I may be a bit further back than I would be if I had a fairway wood but I know I'm in the fairway. Works for me.

I did the same quite a few years ago. Driver and a 19 degree hybrid.

Yeah it was a big gap but I played with it pretty well.

Age is finally forcing me into playing a HL 3 wood and it's a love/hate relationship.

mshills · October 13, 2022

I like where the OPs head is, particularly on reducing clubs and therefore indecision. I think that is far more important than perfect gapping. I have more clubs at the top end of my bag, but I don’t hit it very far and it’s a rare round indeed where I don’t hit driver 14 times. My setup:

Driver

4w

7w (cannot live without!)

9w (ditto!)

5i-SW

If I wanted to simplify, I could easily lose the 5i and probably the 4w without much impact. I never need the 4w off the tee, and my days of 3 putt pars are long over.

me05501 · October 13, 2022

9 hours ago, bobfoster said:

Interesting. I've taken exactly the opposite approach. I've kept long lofts consistent for probably two decades, and they are traditional old school. 10* D, 15*3W & 18*5W, and maybe 10 years ago finally broke down and swapped my 3i for a Hybrid. With long and mid irons - it is kind of funny. My 150 club 10 - 15 years ago was around an 8i, and still is today (though I'm getting older and shorter). Because this year's average OEM 8i is probably at least 2* - 3* stronger than one from a decade ago.

But here's the odd thing. Because I have kept consistency in clubs, it actually gives me a lot of questions about which club to pull, but I consider that a real plus. Distance is usually a secondary consideration for me for anything other than the Driver on long holes. My first thought (when I'm walking up to the ball and starting to conceive of the shot) is usually ball flight, how I want the ball to behave depending on the hole and course conditions.

For instance, 150 out under calm conditions. That is a 90% swing on my 8i (I rarely ever swing a club 100%). But! If the green is a fast turtleback, I'll hit a hard 9i both because it can have a higher trajectory, and I can give it more spin - I want to make sure I can land and stop it. Likewise, if I'm hitting into the teeth of a decent wind, it will be a 7i (or even 6i) choked up, with a hooded 2/3s - 3/4s swing. Pierce the wind, keep it low, and roll it to the hole instead of trying to do a soft landing next to the hole.

Put another way, I have three basic shots with pretty much every club. 8i (that I'm using as an example) is about 150* straight. But also have a 155* - 160* lower flight draw, and a 145* higher flight fade.

So, (in the Monty Python "and now for something completely different" category), what you are calling "indecision" that you want to avoid, I call "options" that I actually want to have. To me it is a positive that I feel the confidence the be able to choose between two or three different clubs on any given shot. I don't want certainty about distance, I want multiple ball flight choices for any given distance.

At the most basic level, the only real "opponent" a golfer ever plays is ... the course, and all of its variables. Including the kinds of grass, the weather, the elevation - distance is only one of many variables that enter into a shot. I live in the NE, long grass blades with deep roots. But also play a lot in Florida - short and dense grasses and roots. In the NE I hit down hard and take dig divots. In FL I shallow my swing, and become more a picker than a digger (if I swung in FL like I swing in NY I'd break my freaking wrist). At humid sea level in FL my 150 is an 8i, but I also lived in Mexico City (about 1.5 miles above sea level in thin, arid air) - and my PW was my 150 club.

That said, I totally get what you are saying. When I said I've taken the opposite approach, was not even remotely implying it is a better approach, just a different one. We all play our best golf when we find our own unique game, and play within it.

I definitely still think that way from about 6 iron down through my wedges, just not across the longer clubs.

When I had two fairway woods I’d often decide which one to swing for wrong or poorly planned reasons. Having less options there has made me focus more on the shot I’m trying to hit rather than which club to pull.