Club Selection: Five Is The New Eight

Shopping for new golf clubs can be a blast. Shopping for new golf clubs can also be a complete headache. Most of all, shopping for new golf clubs is no longer a trip down to your local shop to grab the prettiest thing you see and then heading off to the course to play 9 and break them in. Well, honestly, it can be that simple, but please, don’t make it that way. In the last 5 years, club fitting technology has become so stellar that only a foolish person will walk out of a store (or have delivered) a completely stock set of irons. Even I have fallen victim to this in the past, just ordering blindly and letting my swing adjust to the club rather than letting my natural swing take over and having the club fit to it. It’s an easy thing to do in our era of instant gratification. Still, most golfers out there would benefit from a few words of advice including one that was passed on to my by a local driving range operator – five is the new eight.

Looking at my current bag, I have pulled my three and four irons out from my set already. If I wanted to score even better, I should probably consider pulling the 5 iron and the 60° wedge as well. This would leave me with a 6-PW and a sand wedge – I have a gap wedge as well, but does anyone actually NEED a gap wedge? This would take me down to a six, seven, eight, nine and wedge in my main set. It would cover distances from 185 yards to 132 yards without any issues at all. This 5 club set replaces just about everything that an old 8 club set should do for me on the course. If I take those 5 as a base, then add that 100 yard sand wedge, a 200 yard hybrid, a driver and a putter, I could pretty well battle my way around any course in the country without needing much else. If that’s the case, why do so many golfers still rock the traditional 3-PW sets that you can buy off the shelf?

Tradition. It’s a pretty powerful word in golf, but we’re seeing more and more people stray from it every day. From how they dress to what they play, even the tour professionals are veering off the normal path to get what works for them in their bags. If more amateur golfers followed their lead, I’m positive they would begin to score better. Much like the premise of the “one-length” irons, simplicity is better for most players. Why would anyone want to carry a club that doesn’t work at least 75% of the time for them? You might have those long irons in the bag because you think you have to have 14 clubs, but the reality is, you don’t. You may have a fairway wood or two in the bag just in case you hit that one tight hole – but you hit your new oversized driver better anyways. Getting rid of the old school thinking is critical to get better. Simplifying your club selection is definitely one of those things that can break you out of that old school thinking.

Let’s play a quick few holes with your cut down set right here. First hole is a par 4, 320 yards, fairway bunkers at 225-250 on the left. You hit a drive about 230 yards off the tee and to the right side of the fairway. It leaves you 90 yards to the center, 80 to the front edge and 100 to the back. Grabbing that 100 yard club, you choke down on the grip about a half inch and take a nice smooth swing. The ball finds the center of the green. 2 putts later, you’re off to the second at even par. The next hole is a 160 yard par 3. Bunkers surround the front right pin location, but there’s plenty of room to miss long. You have 150 to the front edge and 170 to the back. My 8 iron is my perfect 154 club, so that should land somewhere between the front and the middle of the green. If you have a 160 club, pull that out and once again, choke down about a half inch and you are staring the flag distance down with a mission. Again, two quick putts and you’re off with another par. Finally, the par 5 comes along at 525 yards. You boom a 250 yard tee shot down the middle of the fairway with that Fisher Price driver that you can’t miss with. That leaves you with 275 yards to the green. A solid 175 yard shot will leave you that perfect 100 yard wedge again. You’re now sitting pretty at the flag with 2 putts to save par once again.

If you look at the way the round could play out with good shots instead of having to play recovery shots from bad ones with clubs you shouldn’t be hitting anyway, you’re going to find that you are much happier playing and your scores are going to come out much lower than you ever imagined. Maybe the pro was right, maybe 5 is the new 8? I had never really thought of it that way, but honestly, I bet I would score better on every hole if I took this approach to playing instead of pushing to get an extra 5 yards our of everything. I had already found out my 3 and 4 were problem children in my bag, but have you seen which clubs in your bag are giving you the biggest problems? If you have a few, try leaving them at home next round. You might be surprised by what happens next.