Since we're all talking an array of clubs, what do you stack your bag with?

I play
D 3H 4-A 54 58 64

Some of you guys have some funky wood and hybrid combos, why dont you share your bag.

At my home course we have one par 5 that has an open run up to the green and another with a bunker fronting the green. On the first one with favorable wind conditions from 200 to 225 yds I will occasionally go for it with mostly 3 Wood, though I did get my 5 WD there from 225 once with a tailwind and dry turf, usually though its a lay up with a Hybrid or 5/6 iron. The other is more of a layup hole with anything from 7 iron to Hybrid depending on what lay up distance I'm trying for and on that one I would have to be right at 200 to even try it with a 3 or 5 wd. Generally, I've gotten better at managing the course and not trying Hero shots, but it's still nice to try every once in awhile.

gpickin wrote:

Since we're all talking an array of clubs, what do you stack your bag with? I play D 3H 4-A 54 58 64 Some of you guys have some funky wood and hybrid combos, why dont you share your bag.

D
3w
5w
21* hybrid
24* hybrid
9i-5i
PW
GW
SW
P

I haven't tried a full swing with the 21* for a long time (more than a year?) because I haven't trusted it. The only reason I carry it is that a half swing with that club is AWESOME for punching from the woods. My new plan is to work on getting better with that club. I'm also going to replace the 5w with my 18* hybrid and work on that club as well. If I can get consisten with those two clubs, they should provide me the shot length my game is missing from the fairway.

The Wedge Guy will kill me,but here it is:
9deg DR
15deg 3W
18deg 5W
20deg HY
3iron tru PW
SW
Putter.

this is quite situational, but I guess I would say that I prodominantly use a 4I, usually pretty accurate and roughly 200 yard club. Depending on yardage though might be as much as a 2 hybrid set at 15* of loft.

PS I dont carry a 3I, only a 2h (15*), 3h (19*) and 4I.

Not that they help but:

Dr
3wd
20* hybrid
26* hybrid
6-9 iron
48, 52, 56* wedges
putter

Coming soon will be a 17* and 23* hybrid and losing the 3wd.

I have learned this summer that the kind of clubs one plays is very, very important. It's about having the right club for your game. I bought a Ping K15 5w earlier this summer, and I have dispelled any previous notion that I can't hit a fairway wood. I hit that club as good as my driver.

The key is that I went out and got the most forgiving fairway wood I could find, and that's exactly what the K series by Ping is for. If I need to hit the ball 200+ yards, I'm not looking for accuracy. If I need accuracy, I'll lay up to one of my blades.

That all said, the one thing that has absolutely changed my game since I got this fairway wood is that I no longer feel like I've blown up the hole after hitting a bad drive. And I'm getting comfortable enough with it now that it is the club I hit at long distances. And if I need accuracy from 220-240 out, like I said, I'll lay up wo an iron.

So, rule of thumb....if I have a clean lie, it's the 5w. If I have to hit through a little bit of rough, I'll pull out the hybrid. If I have to hit out of a lot of rough, I'll pull out the 7i (my most consistent iron).

Agree with you Bryon, for the most part. I too hit 5W when the lie is good and I need the most distance I can get. I even sometimes hit it from the rough if not too deeply imbedded. Otherwise, I'll hit my 3H.

I recently put a 4W in the bag, thinking that my 3H and 5W give me similar distances, so a 4W would give me an option for maybe 10 more yards. However, I hit the 5W better and don't want to replace it in favor of the 4W which is slightly more difficult to hit from fairway lies (but much easier than a 3W). I haven't played an official competitive round since the 4W went in the bag, but will need to remove one club when I do. (I'm carrying 15 right now.) I really like the new 4W and will try to get in much more practice with it before sitting out the 5W. Here's one of those instances where, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rings true. Everything in my bag was working well before the addition of the new 4W. I just started getting greedy, wanting a few more yards on par 5s and long approaches, and now I have a dilemma. I should have just left well enough alone, stuck with my 5W for that situation and saved myself a couple hundred bucks or so and left that 4W right where I saw it. But, noooo, I HAD to have it. I guess now I'll have to learn to hit it as well as I hit my 5W. Anybody wanna buy a Titleist 910F 19* 5W?

Doug: For me, the decision to carry more club was all about the need to have a club to try to hit greens on long par 3's. I played a course in St. Peter, MN earlier this summer that had several 200+ yard par 3's. It's one of the hardest courses I've ever played because of it. I mean, if course designers can make par 3's of 240 yards from the middle tees, that means I need to learn how to play those holes. Right?

My 5w is usually right around 220. I can hit it 240 under the right conditions. It's not accurate as far as distance or side misses go, but it wasn't designed to be. It is a forgiving club with a high MOI and a wide dispertion by design, and that's why I bought it. And interestingly enough, even though I have a very wide gap between it and my driver, I do not have the desire for any more distance. You see, in the past, I would always judge what tees to play on a new course based on the distance of the par 3's. Now that I have a club that can hit those long par 3's, I need to find a new method. One day, I will probaby find myself moving back to the tips on a regular basis. When that day comes, I will probably start looking for 20 more yards out of my fairway wood to hit those longer par 3's. Right now? I'm extremely happy with what the 5w gives me.

Same as most here, 3W if i am not worried about accuarcy as much and want it as far as possible. 3H if i am looking to make sure it stays in the FW. I have dreaded hitting my 3W from the FW but so far this year i have hit it 5 times and every time has been about 225 or longer and straight. So now i am not afraid to hit the shot even in a tight opening. I love my hybrids too becasue i am consistent and know they are going to be around 200 and in good position.

My poll response is 3w, but it's a very simplistic answer since I sometimes also hit my 3hyb or my 4hyb. Once in a while I'll try my 4 iron but I've lost my mojo with that one.

Having said all that I don't think I've ever hit my 3w further than about 175/180 off the turf, which is probably a similar distance to my 3hyb.

jpjeffery wrote:

My poll response is 3w, but it's a very simplistic answer since I sometimes also hit my 3hyb or my 4hyb. Once in a while I'll try my 4 iron but I've lost my mojo with that one. Having said all that I don't think I've ever hit my 3w further than about 175/180 off the turf, which is probably a similar distance to my 3hyb.

Show me a guy who hits his 3W well nearly every time and I'll bet that same guy hits virtually every other club in his bag very well too. It takes a pretty good player to hit a pretty good 3W off tight lies, consistently.

Based on what little I know from your descriptions of your game and your struggles to improve, I would recommend NEVER hitting your 3W from a tight lie, at least not until your swing becomes very repeatable and consistent. It is a very difficult club to hit---the most difficult---for most of the middle to higher handicap golfers out there. I replaced mine with a 17* 4W and frankly, am still much more comfortable hitting 5W or 3H for those 200+ yardage eaters on par 5s and long par 4s. Off the tee, I will hit the 4W on 215+ yd par 3s or others where hitting driver too long brings trouble into the equation. And sometimes, I will hit 4W from a perfect lie where the ball is sitting up a bit. If I hit it perfect, it is only 5-10 yards longer than my 5W, so unless I am pretty sure I can get a good portion of the face, cleanly on the back of the ball, I'm not gonna take the chance for a few extra yards. A 3W might give me a bit more distance than a 4W, but the ability to hit a 3W cleanly on every swing is even harder to achieve.

No matter what, at this point in your progress, a 3W is NOT a necessary club to carry. If you have the room for it, fine, carry it for those rare occasions where you can or need to hit it off the tee. If your bag is full with 14 clubs already, I say, dump the 3W in favor of a 4 or 5 wood, another hybrid, or, even more beneficial, another scoring club/wedge.

JMHO.

I have to add an addendum to this.

I think I'm at the stage right now where course management is going to become a very big deal. In fact, I truly believe that I'm a better golfer right now that I was last year at this time even though my handicap hasn't improved. And I think that the reason my handicap hasn't improved is because I'm just starting to realize the importance of course management. Rather, I'm just beginning to realize what it really is.

I feel most comfortable from about 120 to 160 out on an approach. In fact, I think if I was to go back and figure my percentage of greens hit from that distance, it would be 70+%. My round yesterday was the first time I truly realized how important this was to my course management skills. For the first time, I started to lay up to that distance when I felt the green was out of reach, and I was very successful.

So here is the deal. If I'm 300 yards out, I'm probably going to use a 7i to get myself to 150. If I'm 230 out, I'm probably going to use a wedge to try to get myself to 120. My hybrid, at this stage of my game, has specfically two uses. I will use it to hit a green, or I will use it to get out of a tough rough lie when I'm more than 300 out.

Interestingly, all I've been working on for the past few weeks is my wedge play, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

DougE wrote:

Show me a guy who hits his 3W well nearly every time and I'll bet that same guy hits virtually every other club in his bag very well too. It takes a pretty good player to hit a pretty good 3W off tight lies, consistently. Based on what little I know from your descriptions of your game and your struggles to improve, I would recommend NEVER hitting your 3W from a tight lie... JMHO.

Well, Doug, I value your humble opinion, so keep it coming.

I think you've hit upon an important point when you emphasis the tight lie aspect. Of course it depends on what you mean by "tight". I don't use my 3w for non-tee shots very often but when I do, it's never when the ball is really tight to the ground. So most often very light rough, or very 'long' fairway grass (I rarely play properly maintained courses so the fairway grass can be relatively long).

Either way, I don't think of my 3w as being a club I fail with. Maybe that's my mojo club!