How many different clubs do you use around the greens?

I use a 60* wedge for 90% of my greenside shots. The only exception is using a high bounce sand wedge when I'm on the fairway. A lot of people say that you should use a different club around the green depending on the amount of green you have to work with. I find that when I use my 60* wedge, I know that the ball is going to stop close to where it lands. When I try to use a PW/9i/8i/7i, I can never judge how much the ball is going to roll.

So, how many clubs do you use around the greens?

That's an interesting question.

Last season I did all of my chipping with my 52°. If I wanted to get more spin / check, I'd use my 56° because it had good grooves. I'd use my 60° for floppy-type shots (where the year before I did all my chipping with this club, but I realized the bounce being only 4° wasn't doing me any favors). I toyed with an 8i from really nasty overseeded rough around greens, but I was bad at judging it. I would use a PW for chipping if I was on an upslope and I wanted to account for the added loft my stance was giving to the shot. Also putted with a 4H when I was against the rough in the fringe a few times. Oh, and I guess I used my putter, too.

So that's... 7?

This year, I've been practicing the putting chipping motion more that @mvmac big thread on here, so I'm going to be using different irons. I realized I was delofting my 52° so much, it was basically like chipping with an 8i or 7i anyway (and why chipping with those irons before was so pointless). And having practiced, I can judge the distances decently now. So more clubs will come into play. I've been using my 56° almost exclusively since the thaw, though, because it's a high bounce club and the ground is so soggy and wet, anything else might give me a fat shot if I mishit it.

I really hate using my putter from off the green, though. I usually will chip from the fringe. Personal preference.

6 different clubs... I'll use anything from my 8 iron to PW for chips around the green and then my 52 or 58 for pitches. In addition to that, I'll sometimes putt from off the green.

Defining around the green as within 15-20yds -

I know players who like to hit a variety of shots with one club, and others who make the same motion and adjust the club based on carry vs roll. I fall in between both of these camps.

I look at any given shot and decide what the safest, shortest swing will produce and how quickly I can get the ball rolling on the green on the way to the pin. This could be punch, bump and run, or a flop. This can be done with almost every club in the bag.

I suppose I am more 'bump and run' rather than 'drop and stop'. Most of my short shots require a soft 50 degree wedge. I putt from the fringe a lot. I've tapped a ball from deep rough with a small 3W chip.

Imagination makes it fun for me.

The 15-20 yard area I tend to keep with 9 iron for shots with little flat area of approach and go to 52deg for anything with raised green or over bunker type shots, find my I have higher percentage to get within 10 feet of the hole.

I use 4.  Most often I use my 51° GW, but I also my 8I, PW, and 56° wedge depending on carry to the green and how much roll I need.

LW, SW, GW1, GW2, PW, 9i, 7i, and putter.  That's 8.   I try to use same swing with different lofted club for different distance.  I use 7i as putter just off green.

I will also use hybrids around the green.  Sometimes the distance control is not there, but most of the time it gets the job done.

I use my 3H, 6, 7, 8, 9, pw, gw, lw, and putter.

I've used the theory endorsed by Greg Norman in the following web page for more than 35 years with a consistent level of success....

http://www.shark.com/sharkwatch/instruction/lesson41.php

What I find interesting is my thought process on club selection. It's like inputting data into a computer and then coming up with a club selection. The various factors in club selection for me include:

- depth of pin on the green

- speed of the green

- breaks on the green toward the pin

- lie of the ball

- length of the rough, if applicable

- how prior greens reacted to shots around the green

And, to me the amazing part, is how all of this (and more) computes within a matter of seconds for most shots.

I love this game.

I use my 58* wedge 95% of the time. Chipping motion to hit it low and a pitching motion to hit it high, I think it is better to develop are really strong sense of control with one club than dividing it up. I'll occasionally use a 9 iron if I have to chase the ball up to the back shelf of a green but that is the only scenario I can imagine not hitting the 58*

3 Hybrid

7 Iron

8 Iron

9 Iron

Pitching Wedge

Gap Wedge

56 Degree Wedge

Putter

Well over half the bag.

For chipping anything from my putter to my 7 iron depending upon how far I need it to roll. Pitching? I'm comfortable with a lob wedge.

I really like the 60 and used it for the majority of my short game shots yesterday (seemed like every shot had to go over a bunker). But I did have an opportunity to try out a shot I'd been working on.

Ball was just past the fringe on top of a hill with a long run downhill to the hole. Greens were pretty slow. I took an 8 iron and with a very short backswing, gently hit down on the ball in an attempt to get a bit of backspin and it seem to have worked. The ball jumped over the little bit of rough and fringe, landed on the green and rolled slowly toward the hole without going past. Either that shot controlled the spin/speed or the greens were slow enough where it didn't matter.

For most rounds, I'll use more than just one club with my pitching wedge, gap and 60 degree being the most common. But if I have a lot of green to work with, I like the control the lower lofted clubs provide.

Just one...56.12 SW.

When I picked 4, I figured that the putter was a given, so I didn't include that in my vote.  I mean, doesn't everyone use the putter when they are on the fringe just a few inches off the green?  I know that some guys don't use it if they more than a foot or so, but I can't imagine chipping when I only have 6 inches of fringe.  For that reason I didn't think that it was really a factor in the poll.  If I could change my vote, it would now be 5 or more.