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He (Patrick/Shortoffthetee - nice avatar by the way) has no point. His (ludicrous) suggestion is that we would all be better off PLAYING with less clubs and trying to finesse all of the shots in between. I certainly agree with you that it's great to practice all different kinds of shots with all clubs. I do that all the time ... just take a 7 iron and try to hit all of the targets that I can reach from 170 back to 50. But he's intimating that we would be better off playing 120-170 yard 7 irons on the course because it's too confusing or complicated to use 8,9,W, etc for those shots with THE EXACT SAME SWING as the 7 iron. No, it's "much easier" to teach yourself all of these finesse shots with one club as an amateur. (Sarcasm)
Now, on the other hand, I still say that total beginners would probably be fine - maybe even better off - with less clubs at first, simply because it could be overwhelming to them. But quickly, as they start to realize how far each club goes and get comfortable with them, then they'll want to add the rest back in to fill those gaps.
Again, Patrick isn't talking about practice and learning different shots for when the need may arise, he's talking about playing permanently with less clubs because it's supposedly easier. In the words of Ricky Bobby "That's just dumb."
Yea, i kinda had a feeling that the original topic was about getting rid of some clubs all together all the time, i find that concept stupid. Just because, even though we should practice imagination in our golf games, having a full accessibility to 14 clubs will help with imagination as well, because it adds in variety. It sounds counter to what i posted, but there both logics are good. You can practice imagination by taking away clubs because it changes the situation. But having more clubs can let you attempt much more different types of shots once you have that imagination. So yea, its insane to say that less clubs is more simple, when actually hitting a stock shot every time is the most simple way to play golf. Really, i understand kinda were the original topic is coming from, there are times when i will go 10 rounds with out hitting a 3 iron or 5 irons. I actually ditched my 5 wood, because i only hit it half a dozen times a year, i rather stick another wedge in my bag. For the actual game of golf, i always found 14 was a good number, if we say, lets make it 12 clubs or 10 clubs, club makers would just adjust lofts and lengths and build sets with 15-20 yards per gap, which would mean more shot making, which i don't mind for golf pro's, but for Amateurs, that's asking much. 14 has worked for a long time, and there is no rule saying you have to have 14, but i rather have my options.
