What "Long Clubs" Do You Have in Your Bag?

[jshots]

How do you all set up the long end of your bag and why? What are your 2 longest clubs besides driver and how did you decide to put them in the bag.

I am finding my largest strokes lost category is penalties off of the tee, and it doesn't seem to matter if I hit Driver, 3 wood, or 3 iron, so I am thinking of swapping out 3 wood and 3 iron.

 

I'm looking at choosing 2 new clubs with options of 3 wood, 2 hybrid, 3 hybrid, or a driving iron. While initially I thought a driving iron might be more forgiving than my current fairway finder ( 3 iron), it seems like if I want accuracy then maybe it makes more sense to get an even more forgiving hybrid. I frequently use 3 wood on several short par 4s where driver would be long, but its squirrely enough that other than needing less distance it doesn't give me really any value for accuracy. Those reasons have me leaning towards replacing my two long clubs with a 2h and 3h.

Edited August 8, 2022 by jshots

[iacas]

Driver, 3W (15°), hybrid (18-19°). Then a 3I on up.

Why? Because those fit my gaps. 3W goes 245 or so, hybrid 230 or so, and the rest a bit less.

[SEMI_Duffer]

Too many: Driver (10.5°), 3w, 5w, 7w, and 4h.

The Plan was to learn which combination of three or four out of those five gave me what I needed.  Golf plans fell completely apart last season. Hopefully that'll happen this season.

[ChetlovesMer]

I carry 

• Driver 9.5 degree
• 16 degree 3 wood
• 18 degree hybrid
• 21 degree hybrid
• 24 degree hybrid (I sometimes swap this one out for my 5 iron. Depends on the way I'm playing and/or the style of course I play.)

Then 6 - 9 irons. 

PW, GW, SW and LW

Putter

[boogielicious]

Driver, 3W (16 deg), 3H (21 deg), 4 iron. They fit my gaps. My 5W is only slightly longer than the 3H, so it sits at home.

[billchao]

Driver, 4w (set to 3w loft 15°), 2h (19° or 18.75°, however that Titleist adapter works), then 4i. The gap between the 2h and 4i is probably a little longer than it should be but I'm not good enough to need that level of precision at the top end of my bag.

[azgreg]

Driver, 4w, 7w, 4h, 5i.

 

[Darkfrog]

I've got:

• 3W
• 19-degree hybrid or 20-degree utility iron
• Iron set starts at 4-iron

Reasons:

I don't really think too deeply about gapping with my long clubs (as long as the distances aren't overlapping or bunched). I am not a good enough ball striker to need more than ballpark distances for gapping with fairway woods/hybrids/utility irons (I do care about gapping with irons/wedges though).

3W: I don't use my 3W that often, and I could probably leave it home and not notice. It is in the bag for 240+ yard approach shots like a 2nd shot into par-5, but my home course has relatively short par-5, so this is not common. Sometimes I will tee off with 3W just to make sure I get at least one or two swings with it a round. If I am playing away from my home course, I use 3W more often.

19-deg hybrid: Until recently, a hybrid was always my go-to club for tee shots on mid-length par-4 (say 380 yards or less), or just when driver is squirrely. I also like having this club for 220-230 yard approach shots, usually on a par-5. For whatever reason, I've always felt confident with a hybrid in hand on the tee - like I am going to keep the ball in play, and set myself up for a successful approach shot (not sure if my stats back this up or not though).

20-deg utility iron: Recently put this in the bag, at expense of the hybrid. The hybrid flies further, but I feel like my misses with long iron/utility iron are less severe than with hybrid/fairway wood type heads. Example, when I hit a pull with a hybrid or fairway wood, it is usually a pull draw, and ends up left of left. But when I hit a pull with a long iron/utility iron, there seems to be less curve in the miss, and the ball stays in play (this is completely anecdotal and I'm not sure if stats back it up). Still seeing how I feel about hybrid vs. utility iron and which one I'll end up keeping.

[mdl]

Currently I'm only playing 13 clubs! My longest clubs are:

• Dr (9.5˚)
• 2i (17˚)
• 4i (23˚)

I used to play Dr, 3w (15˚), and 2h (19˚). But I hated my 3w so basically had a gap from ~225 yards to 310 yards. And had no reasonable alternate tee club for short to medium par 4s when I wasn't feeling the driver or the hole was tight. Hence the 2i. I absolutely love that club. Obviously this isn't awesome gapping, but I really want to keep the 2i in the bag and I'm not sure where that leaves me. I can hit my 4i 220 yards, and there aren't that many times on the course where I need to be able to hit a high shot 235 (as in, not a punch runner with the 2i). And I never need to hit a shot 270. So I haven't felt super urgent about fixing it.

 

[jefkve]

3wd; 21 ˚, 25˚ hybrids

[jshots]

6 minutes ago, mdl said:

Currently I'm only playing 13 clubs! My longest clubs are:

• Dr (9.5˚)
• 2i (17˚)
• 4i (23˚)

I used to play Dr, 3w (15˚), and 2h (19˚). But I hated my 3w so basically had a gap from ~225 yards to 310 yards. And had no reasonable alternate tee club for short to medium par 4s when I wasn't feeling the driver or the hole was tight. Hence the 2i. I absolutely love that club. Obviously this isn't awesome gapping, but I really want to keep the 2i in the bag and I'm not sure where that leaves me. I can hit my 4i 220 yards, and there aren't that many times on the course where I need to be able to hit a high shot 235 (as in, not a punch runner with the 2i). And I never need to hit a shot 270. So I haven't felt super urgent about fixing it.

 

See that is interesting, I have this idea that I would really like a 2i utility for a very similar reason. Plus I love hitting the ball low. Also I have found my 3i currently is really good at helping me hit a low fade out from trees which is a common place for me which the 2 utility could still do, whereas a hybrid doesn't give me confidence out of the rough, and it gets up quickly.

But I watched this and started to think maybe a hybrid has more forgiveness and will just help me hit more fairways. 

 

 

[Wade Patton]

Three wood and 2-iron are the longest two in my bag besides Driver.

I like a 4-wood as well, but simply don't have one right now.

[mdl]

14 minutes ago, jshots said:

See that is interesting, I have this idea that I would really like a 2i utility for a very similar reason. Plus I love hitting the ball low. Also I have found my 3i currently is really good at helping me hit a low fade out from trees which is a common place for me which the 2 utility could still do, whereas a hybrid doesn't give me confidence out of the rough, and it gets up quickly.

But I watched this and started to think maybe a hybrid has more forgiveness and will just help me hit more fairways.

Yeah I just love that club. I feel more comfortable standing over it than I do a wood or hybrid. And it has the hottest face of any club I've ever hit. Though def less forgiving on distance on off center hits. That 256y number is a mix between 240-250 shots hit towards the toe and 265-275+ shots hit in the sweet spot (off the tee where I mostly use it. a bit shorter off the deck).

I bet if I spent the time I could find a wood or hybrid that I hit a more consistent distance. But I'm not actually convinced I could find one that would have as good dispersion left/right, which matters way more to me for how I use the club.

Not to say you should get a driving iron. Just that you shouldn't be scared off by them. It's no only Jack and God can hit it 1i of yore.

[nevets88]

3W, 3H, 4I. I can throw in a 3I, I carry 13 clubs. At 200-230 yards, I am all over the place so really won't make a difference. Gives me the option of throwing in a 60 degree wedge if I need it.

[saevel25]

Driver, 3W, Hybrid

[dennyjones]

Driver, 4W (17°), 4H (20°), 5H (23°)

[Shindig]

Driver (Titleist 915D2), 4W (Titleist 917F2), 19 degree hybrid (Titleist TS2) 20 degree hybrid (Maltby KE4).

What's the story?  I got my driver in 2015.  First ever fit driver, first ever new-as-in-new driver.  In 2017, I got my irons, 5-U.  I got fit for a hybrid (Ping demo day) but I had just bought a 4H, so I kept it.  I already had the 3H that went with it (that's the 20 degree in the bag now).   In 2018, I was going to buy a 3W and a 5W.  Titleist rep discovered I hit the 4W past the two of those, and those two about the same distance.  Dude could've just fit me for those two and made that sale, but I believe he helped me get the best bag makeup I could with what I was looking for.  So he suggested a 4W and a 3H.  I bought the 4W;  again, I had a 3H already.  But Titleist got some appreciation from me for that in the fitting.

A month or so ago, I discovered my 5I and 4H were going comparably, with some of the better 4H shots hitting into the lower end of 3H acceptable shots.  And my best 3H shots were a good 25-30 yards short of my 4W.  So I dropped the 4H and, while at the Roger Dunn, found the 3H I had been fit for (same specs, successor head I think).  I had been looking for the 7W cousin of my 4W but found this instead.  I borrowed it from them (not a euphemism -- they have a 90 day 100% money back guarantee, so it's basically borrowing with a security deposit... but I like this club). And I hit it well past my old 3H and short of my 4W, so there's a good gap.  

One of these days I might get a full bag fitting or replace a lot at once or something but... I took up golf in graduate school and a lot of the financial habits are tough to break.  Plus, I own a lot of clubs that I really like (driver, 4W, 3H now, all my irons down to the UW).   

[Big Lex]

Driver (Taylor Made SIM 2)

Tour Edge hybrid (I think 18 degree)

4 iron 

I used to have 2 hybrids instead of one. I used to have a 3 wood also. 

I took the 3W out of my bag because I didn't use it very often. I had less confidence with it than the hybrid, probably because I used it less than the hybrid, it was a longer club, etc. If I have a "3W" tee shot, I either use the hybrid and accept the loss of distance, or I will choke up an inch on my driver or tee it a little lower or whatever. 

I use only 1 hybrid because I just didn't find many cirucumstances where I felt I _needed_ one over the other. Either was fine. 

If that sounds dumb or illogical or whatever, I don't disagree...I am not recommending this for anyone. I just want the bag to be lighter and simpler and am not claiming this was the ideal decision for my game.