What Is The Longest Club That You Would Want For A 2nd Shot into a Par-Four?

[onthehunt526]

I figured we hadn’t touched on this as a community.

Say you’ve hit a good drive to your average ability in the fairway. We know that golf is not a game of perfect. But simply put with all of the trouble a course designer throws at us, what is the longest club you’d want to have into a par-4, that gives you a chance at a GIR or nGIR?

Since I’m starting the thread, I’ll start. The longest club that would give me the best chance for GIR or nGIR, is for me probably 4-iron, I seldom have a lot of 4-irons into par-fours but I feel comfortable with that.

[woodzie264]

The easy answer is sand wedge, but anything over 6i is a big ask. I tend to get streaky and hit some really good 5W’s, but about 180yds out (6i) is pressing the limit of my 50/50 chance of hitting a nGIR/GIR...anything longer than that which qualifies as one is bonus.

[phillyk]

4iron or my 2iron. I don’t typically have my 3iron in the bag. I don’t know, I guess I don’t look at the par for this as much as out to what distance/club do I feel reasonably comfortable hitting to the green from. 

[ChetlovesMer]

Since your question asks which is the longest club I'd WANT into a par 4, I'd say a putter. 

 

[Darkfrog]

5-iron.

90% of the time it’s the longest iron in my bag. I rarely have more than 8-iron into a green on a par-4, maybe 7-iron if I’m laying back off the tee for some reason. The course I play most of the time doesn’t require more than hybrid off the tee except for a couple longer holes. It’s a short, tight course, with lots of extreme lies (uphill, downhill, and side hill) and forests/creeks/“native areas” to lose balls in (in LSW terms, a lot of black)

[TourSpoon]

I would say 4 iron at this point in my golf career which would put that hole at 450. I think given a good drive of 250, I am making par half the time with 4 iron. Most par 4s for me its a 6 iron or less with the longest being 425 yards. 

[mcanadiens]

Yeah, "want" versus "not a total disaster". 

I want the putter (if not to hole-out on the drive). Anything more than a 5I (roughly 170 yards for me), is just a crap shoot. Odds of actually hitting the green go up with each shorter club until SW. My full-swing PW from 95-105 is probably the best odds. I'll skull and fat my SW a bit too often inside of that.

The 3I and 4I are to be avoided and that makes 180-190 a sort of no man's land for me. I make better contact with the 5W, but never have done well with taking partial swings to try to hit that distance. I was meaning to give some old hybrids another try and never got around to it.

 

 

[Bucki1968]

Ironically I would rather hit one of the hybrids (3 or 4) into a green than my 5 or even my 6 iron. I haven't really kept track of it but I would be willing to bet I hit more greens with the hybrids than the five or six irons. 

[boogielicious]

For a good chance at GIR, 6 iron. 

[uitar9]

Depending on the situation, greater than 150, I'll lay up to use a wedge.

[David in FL]

4 hybrid.  
 

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating.  This is what I consider the best way to determine which tees are appropriate when looking at a new course.  Much better than simply looking at overall yardage.  If the tees I’m playing are likely to require more than that on 2 or more holes, I’m probably playing the wrong tees.  For me, that means more than 2 holes over about 415 yards.

[TN94z]

For the best chance at a GIR, I would have to say a 6i, maybe a 5i.

[HJJ003]

Besides the smarty pants answer of a putter or wedge...I looked at game golf (even though I haven't used it much in recent months). I hit almost 40% of my green inside 150 yards so I would say I need an 8 Iron, or maybe a 7 to feel pretty confident about my GIR chances. 

[No Mulligans]

I think of this question in terms of which tee box to play from.  If I was using my 3 hybrid more than say 2 or 3 times to a par 4 after a decent drive, I'd play from a more forward tee box.

Ideally, if I was a course architect, I'd want you to use a long iron (3 or 4 iron) a couple times for par fours, and have one or two par five holes that you can reach in two with a really good drive and a 3 wood, and the other par five holes are not reachable in two.

[rvanculin]

I would agree with most and say my longest iron, which is a 4-iron. 

I've played some courses where I had to hit hybrid into par 4's, and that makes for a long day.

To decided which tees to play, I look at the total yardage compared to the par 3 yardages. I played a 6900 yd course that was miserable because I was hitting 3H into par 4's and 9i into par 3's. I really enjoyed a 7400 yard course where I was hitting 3H into the par 3's and never hit longer than 4i into a par 4. Also, on the latter, the par 5's were usually reachable in 2, which if fine by me.

[saevel25]

On 11/30/2020 at 9:01 PM, onthehunt526 said:

The longest club that would give me the best chance for GIR or nGIR, is for me probably 4-iron, I seldom have a lot of 4-irons into par-fours but I feel comfortable with that.

I feel like this should have had a poll. 

To get a nGIR and GIR, probably a 5 iron. I don't like my 4-iron. Its been a trouble club for me. I am cool with my 5-iron, and then my 2-hybrid. 5-iron. 

[billchao]

4i sounds about right for me. I don’t run into too many long holes like this, but by coincidence I played one yesterday. Hit a decent drive and had 4i in, made nGIR and ended up with bogey.

I drive the ball poorly, though, so there are plenty of opportunities for me to hit 4i into greens even on short par 3s.

[Esox]

7 wood, which has replaced my 3 iron.  But if I'm hitting a 7 wood into a par 4 I must have completely blown the drive, or it a par 4 that's over 465 yards, and I don't play those tees.