The topic of carrying a lighter bag is a popular one at this time of year.
It’s better for the wear and tear on the course, all of us can manage a pencil bag and the pace of play picks up but still most of us are out there with a trolley and full bag and doing what we do the rest of the year.
Having written about this for a decade and done nothing about it I tried this at Moortown to add something different to a round of golf in January as well as doing my bit for the club.
On the face of it six clubs seems plenty but you’re still probably taking out eight as most of us carry the full allowance given that we can.
The bankers with having just six clubs are that a) you are constantly going to find yourself ‘between clubs’ b) you’ll tell yourself and your playing partners this far too often and c) you’ll still take the club that will only, even when struck perfectly, get you onto the front edge of the green.
On the flip side your score will be pretty much the same as you would have managed with the full quota and you’ll quickly develop a level of confidence with each club.
You’ll also love how light your bag can be and it will make you quickly question why on earth you carry 14 clubs around 18 holes.
Decision time. These are the clubs I’m selecting…
1) A driver is a non-negotiable. If you think you are going to hit 14 tee shots with a 3-wood or a hybrid or even a ‘long iron’ in the depths of winter then you are a better person than I am.
What you do want, with no real rough to worry about, is to get yourself down there as far as possible. As we’ve all learnt in recent years the modern way of thinking is to lump it forward as far as possible and take your chances from there.
We say this as amateurs to liken ourselves to the tour pros even though we do next to nothing to add any extra yards but it sounds good.
2) Another non-negotiable is a putter. If you’re down to a choice of three clubs then you can get carried away with the notion that you are good enough to putt with a sand wedge.
But, if you’ve got six clubs, then use them and make one of them a putter. Which leaves us with four clubs to cover the small distance of a 10-foot putt and a 250-yard drive.
3) You’ll also need a club to get out of the sand. You might think that you’re good enough to stay out of the bunkers a la Tiger at St Andrews but you’re not.
A personal preference is a 64˚ Callaway Sure Out which pretty much guarantees you getting the ball out of the sand. This does work from other areas of the course and is fantastic when faced with a lob shot and no green to work with but it can also get you into various funny spots when you take it outside your comfort zone.
For the normal golfer, who isn’t quite as paralysed with so many short-game concerns, a wedge of around 54˚ should be ideal. And then you can also tick off a shot of around 80 yards.
4) Think about the par 3s at your local club – does a certain club lend itself to two or three of them? While general gapping is around 10-15 yards, now you need to cover at least 25 yards with each club.
You’ll want a club to all the long par 4s and par 5s but isn’t too niche eg a 5-wood that it doesn’t give you some sort of flexibility.
My personal choice, again, was a 6-iron. For a normal person this might be a 5-iron or a lofted hybrid but I am hopelessly inconsistent with both and at least I can lump it 170 yards down there and get to all the par 3s off the winter tees.
5) From here it gets easier as we don’t want any clubs next to one another so the 7-iron isn’t an option so we’re down to an 8 or 9.
For me it was the 8 so we have a club that’s going to give us something like 145-150 yards and we might be able to fashion/fat something in the region of 130 yards. And who doesn’t mind their 8-iron? Even I can’t point an accusing finger at an 8-iron.
6) Then we’re down to some sort of wedge. This is the one club which, bizarrely, I over thought.
The A (approach) wedge and pitching wedge were both given the green light ahead of the big day before settling on the more lofted A wedge. In hindsight, this was a mistake.
What I thought I could magic up with the A wedge that I couldn’t with a pitching wedge god only knows. The result was that I rarely had enough club every time I hit it and it never saw any action around the greens thanks to the strange short-game triumvirate of putter-6i-64˚.
Summary
This is as easy a way to have some fun with your winter (or summer) golf.
It encourages more imagination which generally encourages better shots or at least something out of the norm.
Better players will play one round with their even-numbered irons and the next with the odds.
Give it a go, it’s worth it alone for how easy it is skip round with such a light bag, let alone the ease of clubbing and no-nonsense approach to the game.
READ MORE: Trying to break 90 again – Ryder Cup venue Moortown a magical place to start 2025
The post Six-club challenge: check out our exclusive top tips on what clubs to choose appeared first on Golf365.
Article Link: Six-club challenge: check out our exclusive top tips on what clubs to choose - Golf365