Welcome to The Sand Trap!

Like many golfers I have a bag of 14. When I play a normal round of 18 all of them come with me. I will say that I'm constantly tweaking the line up of clubs. I actually have 18 clubs from which to select said 14. Sometimes a 3 wood, sometimes a mini-driver, sometimes this driver, sometimes that one, sometimes the 4-iron, sometimes the driving iron, sometimes the hybrid, sometimes one of 2 different gap wedges. PW through 9 are always the same, and have been for 10 years. My sand wedge and LW are always the same and so is my putter.  Having said all of that. I like getting out for a quick 9 after work and in doing so I'll carry 7-8 clubs. I take the evens one day the odds the next. Plus sometimes the LW sometimes the SW sometimes no driver, sometimes no 3 wood. What ever. I helps my brain think it's way around the golf course. It also builds my confidence in clubs that perhaps I wouldn't use all the time. I learn to hit different shots. Lastly it's just plain lighter to carry. 

Summary: Number of clubs and mode of transportation have little effect on score for average golfer.  My golals for playing golf: to keep my bones from getting any weaker; to continue to play bogie into my old age; to enjoy the best life long sport. This year I decided to play from tees appropriate to my driver distance and to experiment with walking and carrying a short set of clubs, so I could avoid hurting my back moving the push cart in and out of the car.  Set consisted of driver (vrarious clubs 9.5* G20 to 16* Mini) , putter and 4hyb,6i,8i, pw,sw. With this setup I walked 9,18 or 27 holes on varrous courses around Ottawa Ontario. I scored about same  walking with short set  as with riding with a full set. About me: 80 years old, golfed off and on for 65 years, never better than 10 handicap: never had a fitting as I am constantly working on developing a better swing;  I consider myself an bogie golfer as I play about that level with 14 or 7 clubs, walking or riding on 9 or 18 hole courses. 

Never been, but I've met a number of Indian co-workers of my brother when they visited here.  Mainly, I remember those guys in parkas in September. So I gather that it's pretty darn hot. Maybe coming from Florida it won't be as much of an issue for you. I also remember them being astonished by our grocery stores and fascinated by strip clubs. For what that's worth. 

The fact that he went through all that golf says a lot about how his back is working. Even if he had traines for it and been prepared, it was a lot of golf in a short period of time, and he won the TC, which must have been a bit exhausting in itself. I still think having the cup the week after the Tour Championship is a poor decision, even if Tiger didn't play poorly.

Congrats!   All of the hard work is paying dividends!   Keep at it.    I'm excited to see your continued progress.