10 Clubs in the bag?...Less is MORE!

[Michael Hayes]

I have played with 10 clubs in my bag since early August...

This all started with a 3 club tournament that I was a part of.  I was amazed at the scores, almost everyone in the field played within 3-5 shots of their handicap...I was in the middle of a slump and fired a 74 with a driver, 6 iron, and PW...I really had a ton of fun and the byproduct was that I thought about shotmaking more than I had on this particular course in years...

Since that day I have played about 20 rounds with just 10 clubs...D, 3W, 19 hybrid, 4,6,8,PW,SW,LW,&P.  The results have been amazing, I can think of only 5 or so shots that I really would have prefered to hit one of the clubs I took out.  The best part of it is that I am actually scoring better than before (i.e. my bad rounds are not as bad   ).  

This change has reawakened my thinking as to lie,wind and where to miss...

The club makers will never go for this but, I would encourage all of you to give it a go.  It might work as well for you as it has for me !

[Jim_Kennedy]

Michael,
You should look into adjusting the lofts on your clubs. Change a degree here and a couple there and you'll have no gaps.

[THuckaby2]

Michael:

This idea has been covered many times over the years in here.  You'll find many supporters.  I too tried it, got down as low as 6 clubs before I started going the other way... the problem being that while it's fun in the short term, in the long term one tires of losing and/or not scoring to his best potential.

It might work for you long-term, but if so, you'd be in the great minority.  For most of us it's just so much of a higher percentage play to take a full swing with a dialed-in yardage than it is to try and create a shot.

Hopefully you won't have to find this out.  But I'm betting that if we discuss this again a year from now, you'll be back to the full 14 clubs... ESPECIALLY if you play competitively.

TH

[Michael Hayes]

Jim

I had not even thought of that yet, but your right. If I tweak my iron and wedges I can get from 8 deg gaps in irons and 4 deg gaps in wedges to about 5.5 degrees across the board...

I like the idea...

by the way 10 clubs are a hell of alot easier to carry than 14...

[Jim_Kennedy]

Michael,
Just remember this, it's usually better to weaken the longer iron than strengthen the shorter one. Adds a little bounce to the sole. If you stay at ten clubs you won't have too large a gap between them and you won't experience the same problem that Huck suggests. One degree is about 2.5 yards, more or less, so you'll have about a 14 yard 'Delta" at 5.5 degrees instead of the 'standard' ten yards.

 

[Ted Kramer]

In my opinion, golf would be a better sport with 10 clubs instead of 14.

-Ted

[Michael Hayes]

Ted, I like your comment, but why...

I think golf might be better too, if we only carried ten clubs...T just don't know if it is because we are forced to create shots more often or is is because when we have our yardages pegged with 14 clubs we can just shut our brains down a little...I think its some of both for my game, I really am able to stay "in the moment" better with fewer clubs...