One club wasted

[postmanclark]

Hello all,

I've got a bit of a dilemma with the clubs in my bag - I'm basically wasting one club.

G25 driver - carry 250 / 260

G25 3 wood - carry 235ish

3 iron - don't use

4 hybrid 23 degrees at 210 carry

5 iron etc

4 wedges - PW, 52, 56 and 60.

My weakness lies in the mid irons.

Anyway, as you can see I am not using the 3 iron at all.

My suggestions are to fill the gap between the 3 wood and 4 hybrid with a 3 hybrid - or get a 64 degree and carry 5 wedges.

5 wedges would be over the top, but I would use the 64, more than 3 hybrid.

[mdl]

Depends on what kinds of courses and which tees you play.  How often do you wish you had a 215-225 club?  How often do you find yourself by the green wishing you had an even higher lofted club than your 60˚?

Given your distances and the fact you already have 3 wedges on top of the PW including a 60˚, personally I'd get a hybrid that carries 220-225.  I have a 19˚ hybrid that I carry ~220 off the tee and I really like having it in the bag.  It does three things for me.  Sometimes I need it for long par 3s – I really don't like trying to hit an 85% 3w.  It extends the length of par 5s I can reach in two without trying to hit the green with a 3w.  And it extends the length of par 4s I can play very safe off the tee, hitting hybrid instead of driver or 3w, but still have a 7i or less for the approach.

On top of that, for me I love my 60˚ but very rarely wish I had an even higher lofted wedge around the green, so for me it'd be an easy call to close the gap between 3w and 4h.

[shortstop20]

I'd go for a hybrid.

Honestly, I have played with the idea of getting rid of my 60 degree and putting a 3 hyrid in my bag. I'm better with a 54 around the green unless I really have to hit a high and short shot which rarely comes up during a round.

[Dave2512]

Really depends on the courses you play. Here I like fairways rather than hybrids because they are easier to not hit under the ball in deep rough. Even then most of the longer clubs I carry only come out on the tee and second shots on par 5's. How often do you really need a 225 yard club? I am rarely that far out on par 4's and usually not that close to greens on par 5's. For a while I had space and carried two drivers.

[603Golf]

Me personally I would go with the 3H, but mostly because I doubt I would utilize the 64.  Perhaps demo a 3H nearby and see if you like the feel and go from there?

[anthony]

Practice with the 3 iron maybe? I didn't have one for years, but put one in the bag last year because I really wasn't getting along with my hybrids at all. It's practically my favorite club now.

[mdl]

Practice with the 3 iron maybe? I didn't have one for years, but put one in the bag last year because I really wasn't getting along with my hybrids at all. It's practically my favorite club now.

This is an option to consider for sure.  I've gotten pretty confident with my 3i (relative to my HC and expectations!), and on days when I'm hitting my irons well I'll often use that as the safe tee club instead of my 2h.  It's lower trajectory so even though I carry it 8-10 yards shorter than my 2h, and they both stop pretty well on the green so they're different distances for approaches, I tend to get more roll out with my 3i on tee shots and get only a few yards less total distance.

Bonus here is that if you practice and get confident with the 3i I've found it translates throughout the bag.  I feel really confident about having a solid round if I'm hitting my 3i well warming up, much more so than if I'm hitting my 2h well.

[postmanclark]

Some good points made by all, so thanks. The 64 degree wedge option seems to be have been debated against - which is fair enough. Unless your Phil Mickelson, a 60 degree wedge is enough around the greens. Also I wouldn't be needing it for a full shot, you would just hit another wedge, softer. The 3Hy would fill in the gap nicely; particularly in the winter time, with the ball flying shorter and there being less roll - it would become more important. Practicing with the lower irons is a good point. It would save me £120, which sounds good to me. For me the biggest issue with the mid to low irons, is I have a very low ball flight with them. Although I did hit two cracking 5 irons today (which surprised me), both dead straight and pretty accurate; so perhaps I should give myself more credit. I will practice with the 3 iron in the next few days, and see if I can inject some confidence into that part of the game and increasing the height of the ball.