Thought Experiment: How Many Clubs Do You Need?

[Tom_Doak]

What if the Rules stated, for every club you have in your bag, you must add one shot to your score?


Or two shots per club?


How many clubs would you want to carry?  My guess is there's no way it's 14.  Maybe ten.  Maybe five, depending on the player.


P.S.  Last month I Googled and found some YouTube excerpts for the one-club match at St. Andrews after The Open in 1984 ... which featured Ballesteros and Trevino vs. Aoki and Faldo.  They all used 5-irons.  They played the holes out at the far end of the course -- looked like maybe #6 through #13 -- and Seve made a bunch of pars with just his 5-iron.  Watching them try to hit a 5-iron as far as they could off #13 tee was probably the highlight.

[Kalen Braley]

Tom,


Another excellent bifurcation possibility.


14 clubs for weekend warriors.
11 for top notch Am events
8 for the Big boys.


I think this would be excellent!!


Phil would be
1- Driver
1 - 3 wood
1 - 5 iron
1 - 8 iron
3 - Wedges
1 - Putter

[Tim Fitz]

My dad's club in Florida has an annual event in which the number of clubs you are permitted to carry is equal to 50% of your course handicap, rounded up to the nearest whole club.  I believe that last year the tournament was one by a 6, who teed off and putted with his hybrid, while also carrying a wedge and a mid-iron.

Not exactly an answer to Tom's question, but it does go to show that you don't need 14 clubs to get around the course well.

[Tom_Doak]

The most telling example of "regulatory capture" I've ever witnessed in golf was at the conference for architects in St. Andrews a few years ago, when we were spitballing ideas at the R&A's head of equipment testing.  Someone [I think it was Tom Mackenzie] suggested the possibility of reducing the limit to seven clubs, and the fellow responded without missing a beat, "I don't think our friends in the manufacturing business would like if they only sold half as many clubs in a set."   

[JESII]

It's a cool question Tom, and one very much worth exploring at the club level in a real event. Just as you've written it I think I would end up in the high single digits. 7 or 8 clubs.


But, that said...the more I see gnashing of teeth, about how good the top 100 guys are, from the key protagonists in golf architecture creativity/discussion/understanding the more I worry about the short term future of great architecture happening on the ground.


Yes, there is undoubtedly a very clear consciousness from the governing bodies of the manufacturer's agendas...but this one was clearly tounge in cheek with the term "friends".


The reality is, for 99% of golfers, the club limit could be raised to 30 or lowered to 8 with very little difference in their enjoyment or appreciation of great golf courses...so why in the world would it bother you?

[Thomas Dai]

That’s a dreadful, but not surprising, reaction Tom mentions above. Tail wagging the dog?
The St Andrews 1-club event that’s on YouTube is one I recall seeing when it was made. Seve putting with the back of the club!
I believe Alister MacKenzie advocated a 6-Club limit. That would be fine by me even though it would be a reduction from the eight I usually carry.
I raised a thread a while back about how many clubs folks carry when playing. Can’t seem to find it now though.
Atb

[Jonathan Mallard]

Watching them try to hit a 5-iron as far as they could off #13 tee was probably the highlight.

Didn't (Trevino?) get it up and in from Strath Bunker on 11?

[MCirba]

When I was a kid starting the game I used to have to rent clubs.  Usually you'd get a bag with some odd lots...a 1 or 3 wood, something like 3, 5, 7, and 9 iron, and a putter.


We didn't know for quite some time that we needed more.


The last few times I played I had 15 clubs in the bag, because I finally broke down and got fitted and got a set of Titleist AP3 irons from 3 through Gap Wedge, to accompany my Taylor Made Driver, 3 wood, and 5 hybrid, as well as my TM 53 degree sand wedge, and 60 degree Cleveland wedge and Odyssey putter and I've been trying to do some test runs to see whether I keep the 3 iron or 5 hybrid in the bag as I approach age 60.


Confused yet?


Lord, I feel like such a sellout.   

[Joe Bausch]

I'm confident I could play with 8 or 9 clubs and bet it wouldn't really affect my score.  Heck, the enjoyment probably would go up!

Many who know me can attest I've been hoping (dreaming?!) the governing bodies would reduce the number of clubs available to a pro golfer to 10.  I would enjoy watching the pros adjust!

[JESII]

Joe, how do you think you/we would see their adjustments?


Do you think you'd be able to recognize hooks and slices from the fairway to fill in the yardage gaps? Maybe knockdowns?


I hate to say it but I think we would see them simply swing harder if they needed 10 yards more than their stock whatever iron would go.

[PCCraig]

Well you only really need one club to technically play golf. However, in reality I could use about 20 clubs. A couple extra wedges, an extra putter, maybe a 7 wood would all help me out a lot!

[BHoover]

I could use 7-8 clubs. I’d prefer to have all 14. But nothing is stopping me from using as few as I want.

[Cal Seifert]

I've been playing with 8 clubs in a small carry bag for a while now.  Shoot the same score as I would with 14 clubs.  Make less club selection mistakes and forces me to try different shots.  I laugh now when I see these 11 handicaps with staff bags.

[BHoover]

I've been playing with 8 clubs in a small carry bag for a while now.  Shoot the same score as I would with 14 clubs.  Make less club selection mistakes and forces me to try different shots.  I laugh now when I see these 11 handicaps with staff bags.

If you’ve been playing with only 8 clubs for a while, presumably exclusively, how do you know whether you would score the same with 14 clubs?

[Tim Martin]

I would go with 5,7,9,SW, Driver, 4 wood,22degree hybrid,putter. When I have tried it the score is basically the same. 8 total.

[Cal Seifert]

I've been playing with 8 clubs in a small carry bag for a while now.  Shoot the same score as I would with 14 clubs.  Make less club selection mistakes and forces me to try different shots.  I laugh now when I see these 11 handicaps with staff bags.

If you’ve been playing with only 8 clubs for a while, presumably exclusively, how do you know whether you would score the same with 14 clubs?

I never saw a fluctuation in my scores when I first switched over. It sounds crazy, I was genuinely surprised.  I believe I heard someone won the US Open with 7 clubs once before. 

[Ben Hollerbach]

When I started playing Hickory my club count went down.


I believe that no more than 10 clubs are needed, and even that could be reduced. Around the 8 or 9 club mark I think that with each club removed I'd probably cost myself a stroke around, so the stroke penalty would probably balance out until I got down to 3 or 4 clubs in which the difference would be magnified.


Chick Evans won the 1916 US Open with only 7 clubs, and that probably stand as a record for the fewest clubs used to win a US Open.


With so much talk about the ball and the length of the modern game, I've wondered for some time what if the club count for the pro's was reduced to 9 or 10? How would players choose to set up their bags, would they continue to carry a drive and a 3 wood? would the seeming more common 4 and 5 wedge setups be reduced to 2? how would the stagger their irons? I could easily see that by removing 4 or 5 clubs from a pro's bag that top end distance would come back to the pack and some more creativity would be returned to the game.

[Jim_Kennedy]

I've seen a steady trend of customers buying partial sets over the past 1/2 decade. The last purchase of the season was a new set of Callaway clubs that consisted of a 13.5* driver and 21* hybrid, both adjustable, a 5, 7, and 9 iron, plus a gap and sand wedge. He also bought a small stand bag to replace the behemoth he was using.

The cost of equipment is having a positive influence on player's choices. Like it or not, the folks in the equipment business will be selling fewer clubs as more folks wise up to the fact that they don't need 14 of them.


I've been maintaining the handicaps for a 32 person league for about 15 years and once a season they have a 4 club event. Without fail a few come in w/a score over their normal range and a few come in w/a score under their normal range, with the remainder turning in their usual number.
 

[JMEvensky]

Didn't all of us over 55(?) start with a set comprised of driver, 3-wood, putter, 3,5,7,and 9 irons? Add a sand wedge and a hybrid and you're all set.

[Thomas Dai]

Harry Vardon is supposed to have only had 7 clubs in his bag. I imagine others during earlier periods of the game did as well.
It would be interesting to see the pros we watch on TV these days play a tournament with only 6-7-8 clubs. Not just to see which clubs they carry but to watch their creativity and thinking processes as well. 7-8 degrees of loft difference between clubs instead of 3-4.
If you’ve never tried playing with less clubs in the bag give it a go sometime, just take with you your putter and every-other club. You might be surprised how you score.
And if you’re after new irons, well the days of buying ‘full sets’ of irons seem to have gone as most manufacturers will sell on a club-by-club ‘partial set’ type basis these days.
Atb


PS - when I first watched this short Wolf Point video it wasn’t just the terrific looking course that struck me but the size and number of clubs in MN’s golf bag - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ktydEvIOehc -

[Cal Seifert]

Interesting article on The Walking Golfers Society website written by Joel Zuckerman that goes into more depth on the concept of minimalist golf.


http://thewalkinggolfer.com/minimalist_golfer.html

[Brandon Urban]

Hundred Hole Hike days I go down to six clubs. Driver, 5, 7, 9, wedge, putter.
Last year I shot my low round of the year that day. I don't notice a bit of difference in score between using six clubs or my whole bag.

[Ben Hollerbach]

In the book "The Complete Golfer" By Harry Vardon he describes the 9 club set he carried:


Driver
Brassie
Driving Cleek
Light Cleek
Driving Mashie
Iron
Mashie
Niblick
Putter




Francis Ouimet 1913 set was also 9 clubs:


Driver
Brassie
Cleek
Mid-Iron
Light Iron
Approach Cleek
Mashie
Mashie-Niblick
Putter

[Peter Pallotta]

On a question like this, I want to place my own experience (though I've also played with 8 modern clubs or 11 vintage ones and found no appreciable difference in my score) behind that of the greats who've played the game.

I think of Ben Hogan praising Jimmy Demaret as the best shot-maker he'd ever seen; saying something like "I ended up being able to hit all those same shots -- but it was Jimmy who was hitting them first, and that's who I learned them from". Or

Byron Nelson, on being asked as an 85 year old how much better his 18 win season and 68.3 scoring average would've been if he could've used today's equipment, answering: "Oh, probably not much better. The centre of the club face is the same now as it was back then". Or

Nick Faldo, emotional as he remembered how he marveled at the shots Seve could hit and the imagination he had, the 3 woods out of fairway bunkers, the laid-open 4 irons out of greenside bunkers -- and then getting teary-eyed with pride and affection at how Seve hugged him at the end of that Ryder Cup and said "You're a real pro!" Or

Trevino sharing how much it meant when, fairly early in his career, Jack Nicklaus told him "You're a lot better than you think you are -- and when you believe that you're going to be tough to beat"...and Lee's low spinning wedges from 100 yards out and those amazingly consistent 'blocked' tee shots to the centre of the fairway, time and time and time again, which made Jack realize, during their showdowns, that Lee was never going to back down or beat himself

And of course, Jack himself, with those three amazing (Macgregor) 1 irons!, soaring majestic shots when it counted most that left other pros - the Weiskopfs and Crenshaws etc - speechless: the 1 iron at Baltusrol, 240 yards, uphill, into the wind; the 1 iron at Pebble, the wind whipping off the ocean, the ball stopping inches from the cup; and the 1 iron to the 15th in the 75 Masters, way up in the air and landing on that green as softly as a butterfly with sore feet.

Excuse the ramble, but it's to say: it seems that for the longest time the golfers who played the game best and often truly loved to play it all valued great 'shot-making' as the essence of the game, and most appreciated and envied it their colleagues. And I think that for *this* generation of great golfers (Tiger Woods first among them), it would be the same, i.e. they'd be very happy to re-focus the game on what makes it so fun and challenging and rewarding and such a life-long pursuit, i.e. shot-making.

Jim S is probably right that most of today's tour golfers, if forced to using only 7 clubs, would just tend to hit 'less' club a lot harder. But maybe some of them wouldn't...

[Tim Gallant]

I've been playing with 8 clubs in a small carry bag for a while now.  Shoot the same score as I would with 14 clubs.  Make less club selection mistakes and forces me to try different shots.  I laugh now when I see these 11 handicaps with staff bags.

If you’ve been playing with only 8 clubs for a while, presumably exclusively, how do you know whether you would score the same with 14 clubs?

I never saw a fluctuation in my scores when I first switched over. It sounds crazy, I was genuinely surprised.  I believe I heard someone won the US Open with 7 clubs once before.

Cal,


Interestingly enough, my lowest score by 5 shots on my home course came with a half set of eight clubs. And I score just about the same, if not better. In my mind, it takes the decision of club selection out of the mind and instead I worry about controlling distance / height. I have toyed with the idea of using a half set for a medal round, but don't have the cojones to do it yet.