Which Clubs for a 4-Club Tournament?

[RandyBobbitt]

I will be competing in a 4-club tournament in a few weeks. I'm leaning toward the following choices:

3-wood -- I usually hit it about 215 but I'm hoping to choke down and swing easier to hit it under 200

6-iron -- for all shots 90 yards to 160

sand wedge -- for all shots under 90 yards 

putter -- I don't think I could putt with anything else. I personally think this should be required in order to protect the greens, but that is not the case. 

Any thoughts on different or better choices? 

 

[pganapathy]

i would suggest a more lofted fairway wood or hybrid since a 3 wood needs a good lie to be hit off the fairway.  If you are in the rough or in a bad lie, then the 6 iron would be your only choice.  A 5 wood might be shorter but is more flexible and adaptable in the types of lies you can play it from.  The iron for me would be anything from a 6 to 8 iron depending on your comfort and distance.  The wedge you should consider whether you can play a slightly less lofted wedge, like a gap wedge maybe.  However, the less loft you have the more skill you need in playing different shots.  Hitting a sand wedge is easier but it does mean most of your shots around and close to the green will be high lofted shots. The putter is the one club where I question whether you truly need it.  If you can putt with something like the wood/hybrid in your bag, that gives you far greater options and flexibility.  However, it would need practice since we rarely putt with any other club.

In my case a 4 club choice would be 4 hybrid, 7 iron, PW and SW/LW depending on course conditions.  I would putt with the hybrid and use that for most tee shots.  On my home course, there are maybe two holes where I couldn't reach a green in regulation with those clubs.   Essentially long par 4's where I need to hit driver off the tee.

[measureoffsetinnm]

31 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

i would suggest a more lofted fairway wood or hybrid since a 3 wood needs a good lie to be hit off the fairway.  If you are in the rough or in a bad lie, then the 6 iron would be your only choice.  A 5 wood might be shorter but is more flexible and adaptable in the types of lies you can play it from.  The iron for me would be anything from a 6 to 8 iron depending on your comfort and distance.  The wedge you should consider whether you can play a slightly less lofted wedge, like a gap wedge maybe.  However, the less loft you have the more skill you need in playing different shots.  Hitting a sand wedge is easier but it does mean most of your shots around and close to the green will be high lofted shots. The putter is the one club where I question whether you truly need it.  If you can putt with something like the wood/hybrid in your bag, that gives you far greater options and flexibility.  However, it would need practice since we rarely putt with any other club.

In my case a 4 club choice would be 4 hybrid, 7 iron, PW and SW/LW depending on course conditions.  I would putt with the hybrid and use that for most tee shots.  On my home course, there are maybe two holes where I couldn't reach a green in regulation with those clubs.   Essentially long par 4's where I need to hit driver off the tee.

 I would say it depends on how the 3W distance works with the length of the holes he is going to be playing. If there are par 4s around 430 for example I think he would be foolish not to carry a club that enabled him to get there in 2. Agree however that flexibility goes up drastically if not carrying putter and with the tournament several weeks away there is theoretically enough time to get comfortable with using a low lofted metalwood or bladed wedge. Really would be ideal to know the course to help strategize.

[Vinsk]

Driver/7i/PW/Putter.

[Golfingdad]

Without thinking too hard I’d basically do same;

3W-7I-SW-putter

[Darkfrog]

I think I would leave out putter and do:

Driver

Hybrid (multitasks as putter)

6-iron

50 degree wedge

[Elmer]

Driver/7i/54/putter

[Lugowskins]

I think its very course specific but my home course I'd probably go driver, 6 iron, 60 degree, and putter. Tempting to swap the driver for my 4 hybrid for some versatility but that is probably getting unnecessarily cute.  

[mdl]

Distance is my biggest advantage, and I figure I could turn it into even more of one in a 4-club tourney where almost everyone's longest club is shorter than driver. So I might go with Dr/4i/9i/60˚ and just blade one of the irons for putts.

I figure I lose some strokes putting but more than make up for them hitting 9i or 60˚ into most par 4s and having space for the 60˚ around the greens. I'm really good with my 60˚ green side and much less so with other clubs.

[boogielicious]

Four Drivers. 😜

[Hardspoon]

I’d go with Driver, 4h, 8i, and a 56-degree wedge.

I don’t think I’d lose much by learning to putt with a hybrid if I could practice for a little bit. Definitely less than I’d give up by sacrificing driver or a good pair of irons. 

[measureoffsetinnm]

Well Rick Shiels released a video where plays a 9 hole match against a former European Tour pro with a 4 club handicap and the pro went driver/7i/52°/putter so I guess that could be an argument in favor of the setup described in OP. Still think it really comes down to strategizing around the specific distances on the course itself.

[azgreg]

4h, 8i, 54° sw, p. The last one of these I played in 9 of the top 10 guys used putters.

 

[onthehunt526]

On 5/11/2021 at 9:00 PM, Hardspoon said:

I’d go with Driver, 4h, 8i, and a 56-degree wedge.

I don’t think I’d lose much by learning to putt with a hybrid if I could practice for a little bit. Definitely less than I’d give up by sacrificing driver or a good pair of irons. 

I can’t putt anyway, But I would use putter, 54°, 7i, 5w.

[ncates00]

I see some variables:

1) is the course long?

2) are you comfortable putting with another club?

If the course is long, then I’d go driver, 5w, 7i, and PW. 
 

If the course isn’t long, then I’d go driver, 7i, PW, and putter. You can opt for another club if you don’t mind putting with other than putter. 

[measureoffsetinnm]

6 hours ago, ncates00 said:

I see some variables:

1) is the course long?

2) are you comfortable putting with another club?

If the course is long, then I’d go driver, 5w, 7i, and PW. 
 

If the course isn’t long, then I’d go driver, 7i, PW, and putter. You can opt for another club if you don’t mind putting with other than putter.

 

Only thing I would say is maybe more loft on the wedge for chipping, unless you are thinking of true PW rather than today's rebranded 8/9 irons

😛

[ncates00]

4 hours ago, measureoffsetinnm said:

Only thing I would say is maybe more loft on the wedge for chipping, unless you are thinking of true PW rather than today's rebranded 8/9 irons

😛

Yeah my pw is 48*. If you need more loft, just open the blade up and glide the club with the bounce—you’ll get plenty of height. 

[measureoffsetinnm]

13 hours ago, ncates00 said:

Yeah my pw is 48*. If you need more loft, just open the blade up and glide the club with the bounce—you’ll get plenty of height. 

Yeah that is definitely enough I think.