Top of the Bag Gapping and Strategies

[Sweep-n-Swing]

So I'm considering revamping the top of my bag. 

 

Currently I hit 4 iron off the tee more than driver as my driver has a high chance of slicing far, and I can hit my 4 iron decently far (typically about 205). I've got a 4 wood that I'm just getting confident hitting front the fairway, I really struggled with it for a long time but I've recently found some swing thoughts that seem to work. I don't have a great sense of the yardage yet, but it's longer than my 4 iron. The other day I hit it about 230 into a bit of wind. And then I have a 2 driving iron. I rarely hit it outside of the driving range as I just have no consistency with it. 

 

I think it would be best to replace my 2 iron and work on my driver on the range (which had got a bit better, but still needs improvement). I'm not sure what to replace it with though. I'm kinda hesitant to buy a hybrid. Last time I tried one was at a simulator and it was going really high and only about as far as my 8 iron. 

 

I'm also not really sure as to what is the ideal strategy for when to use each club at the top of the bag. If it is relevant my handicap index is 18.1. 

[ChetlovesMer]

15 hours ago, Sweep-n-Swing said:

So I'm considering revamping the top of my bag. 

 

Currently I hit 4 iron off the tee more than driver as my driver has a high chance of slicing far, and I can hit my 4 iron decently far (typically about 205). I've got a 4 wood that I'm just getting confident hitting front the fairway, I really struggled with it for a long time but I've recently found some swing thoughts that seem to work. I don't have a great sense of the yardage yet, but it's longer than my 4 iron. The other day I hit it about 230 into a bit of wind. And then I have a 2 driving iron. I rarely hit it outside of the driving range as I just have no consistency with it. 

 

I think it would be best to replace my 2 iron and work on my driver on the range (which had got a bit better, but still needs improvement). I'm not sure what to replace it with though. I'm kinda hesitant to buy a hybrid. Last time I tried one was at a simulator and it was going really high and only about as far as my 8 iron. 

 

I'm also not really sure as to what is the ideal strategy for when to use each club at the top of the bag. If it is relevant my handicap index is 18.1. 

There's a lot to unpack here. 

Firstly, I suggest learning to hit your driver. It's likely to be the longest off the tee. (Although, I've met folks who hit their 3-wood almost as long.) Plus, hitting driver is fun. And your life is better when you are hitting driver well. Don't ask why, just trust me. Everything is better when you're hitting driver well. 

Secondly, If you are afraid to use your 2 iron on the course, that's okay. But consider replacing it with something you have confidence in. That could be a hybrid. Could be a 5 wood or a 7 wood. 

Personally, I'm a fan of gathering data so that you know exactly what you need. I like Shotscope, but there are lots of ways to gather data. In lieu of that, consider at least noting the situations that come up on the course that you don't have an answer for. If you are finding out that you are often 200 yards out and you don't have a club for that, find yourself something you can hit 200 yards with confidence. ... Or what ever the shot is that comes up and you don't have a club for it. If you are okay from the fairway, but bad from the rough... or visa-versa. That might be a place you want to look to expand the top of your bag. 

[Sweep-n-Swing]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

There's a lot to unpack here. 

Firstly, I suggest learning to hit your driver. It's likely to be the longest off the tee. (Although, I've met folks who hit their 3-wood almost as long.) Plus, hitting driver is fun. And your life is better when you are hitting driver well. Don't ask why, just trust me. Everything is better when you're hitting driver well. 

Secondly, If you are afraid to use your 2 iron on the course, that's okay. But consider replacing it with something you have confidence in. That could be a hybrid. Could be a 5 wood or a 7 wood. 

Personally, I'm a fan of gathering data so that you know exactly what you need. I like Shotscope, but there are lots of ways to gather data. In lieu of that, consider at least noting the situations that come up on the course that you don't have an answer for. If you are finding out that you are often 200 yards out and you don't have a club for that, find yourself something you can hit 200 yards with confidence. ... Or what ever the shot is that comes up and you don't have a club for it. If you are okay from the fairway, but bad from the rough... or visa-versa. That might be a place you want to look to expand the top of your bag. 

Oh I'm definitely working on my driver. It has come a long way, but still needs work. It seems like the only way I can hit it reasonably straight is to have a stupidly strong grip though. I'm not sure if that is a good idea long term. 

 

I have a Garmin watch, this is what it says at the top of the bag:

 

 

I'd say it is 95% accurate. Occasionally I misclick which club I used on my watch, and I don't bother to go back and change it after the round. The numbers in my head for each club are a tiny bit different, 4 wood is the only one that is significantly different and I'd say that is because I've only recently started hitting it well. 

[Ty_Webb]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

There's a lot to unpack here. 

Firstly, I suggest learning to hit your driver. It's likely to be the longest off the tee. (Although, I've met folks who hit their 3-wood almost as long.) Plus, hitting driver is fun. And your life is better when you are hitting driver well. Don't ask why, just trust me. Everything is better when you're hitting driver well. 

Secondly, If you are afraid to use your 2 iron on the course, that's okay. But consider replacing it with something you have confidence in. That could be a hybrid. Could be a 5 wood or a 7 wood. 

Personally, I'm a fan of gathering data so that you know exactly what you need. I like Shotscope, but there are lots of ways to gather data. In lieu of that, consider at least noting the situations that come up on the course that you don't have an answer for. If you are finding out that you are often 200 yards out and you don't have a club for that, find yourself something you can hit 200 yards with confidence. ... Or what ever the shot is that comes up and you don't have a club for it. If you are okay from the fairway, but bad from the rough... or visa-versa. That might be a place you want to look to expand the top of your bag. 

100% agree. To add to that, one thing that certainly used to be an issue is people tended to have an overloaded top end of the bag and underweight in their wedges. People wind up with 3 clubs that go between 200 and 210 and one club that goes less than 100 yards. I've seen people advocate for not even having one club between about 200 and 230 since you're probably not hitting the green from that range anyway, so you might as well hit it 30 yards short and try get up and down from there the 1 time it happens per round, versus having more options when you're closer to the hole, which happens a whole lot more times per round and will have much better ROI.

It's very worth saying though, if your max reliable distance is 205, then figuring out a club you can reliably hit 235 or so is going to do serious damage to your handicap. 

[Sweep-n-Swing]

9 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

100% agree. To add to that, one thing that certainly used to be an issue is people tended to have an overloaded top end of the bag and underweight in their wedges. People wind up with 3 clubs that go between 200 and 210 and one club that goes less than 100 yards. I've seen people advocate for not even having one club between about 200 and 230 since you're probably not hitting the green from that range anyway, so you might as well hit it 30 yards short and try get up and down from there the 1 time it happens per round, versus having more options when you're closer to the hole, which happens a whole lot more times per round and will have much better ROI.

It's very worth saying though, if your max reliable distance is 205, then figuring out a club you can reliably hit 235 or so is going to do serious damage to your handicap. 

I've got PW (135), 52 (125), 56 (115), and 60 (100). I have a "9 o'clock swing" for the 3 wedges to get 90, 75, and 60 yards. 

 

I'm hoping to get my 4 wood as that reliable 235ish club. It has definitely gotten a lot better this year, although I'm more consistent with it from the fairway than the tee (a bit of a pull tendency there). 

 

Learning to hit my driver is top priority for sure. I guess I'm uncertain if it is better to try and fill the gap between 4 iron and 4 wood (220ish), or to try and get something like a mini driver to give me a conservative option off the tee that still has distance (instead of using 4 iron like I have been). 

[Carl3]

I got fitted last December for the top of the bag. I needed a new driver and ended up getting a 7w and a couple of hybrids to round it out above my 5i. I used to have driver, 3w followed by a 3i. Then played around with a 3h and 4h and would pull those in and out with my 3i and 4i depending on the course and long par distances.

They have Trackman and a covered section of the range to keep me shielded from Ohio weather. It is nice to see actual ball flight plus the track man numbers. I don't see how anyone would spend $$ getting fitted hitting into a screen. 

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, Carl3 said:

I got fitted last December for the top of the bag. I needed a new driver and ended up getting a 7w and a couple of hybrids to round it out above my 5i. I used to have driver, 3w followed by a 3i. Then played around with a 3h and 4h and would pull those in and out with my 3i and 4i depending on the course and long par distances.

They have Trackman and a covered section of the range to keep me shielded from Ohio weather. It is nice to see actual ball flight plus the track man numbers. I don't see how anyone would spend $$ getting fitted hitting into a screen. 

Windmill Golf Center? 

[Clemsonfan]

14 hours ago, Sweep-n-Swing said:

Oh I'm definitely working on my driver. It has come a long way, but still needs work. It seems like the only way I can hit it reasonably straight is to have a stupidly strong grip though. I'm not sure if that is a good idea long term. 

 

I have a Garmin watch, this is what it says at the top of the bag:

 

 

I'd say it is 95% accurate. Occasionally I misclick which club I used on my watch, and I don't bother to go back and change it after the round. The numbers in my head for each club are a tiny bit different, 4 wood is the only one that is significantly different and I'd say that is because I've only recently started hitting it well. 

Two things stand out from your comments. 1. If you have to make grip alterations to a ‘crazy, strong grip’ for your driver to work that club is likely a poor fit for you. I would check on that. 2. You have 3 clubs that go the same distance. Keep the one you hit the best and drop the other two. If you did, would that help, or hurt your ability to hit shots around the course? Keeping inconsistent clubs in my bag has never helped me. 
 

I am a big fan of lessons and fittings - have you used either?

[Carl3]

10 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Windmill Golf Center? 

Granville Golfland. Second fitting there in about 8 years.

[p1n9183]

I would love to hear the story about the 5 iron that went 394. 

22 hours ago, Sweep-n-Swing said:

 

 

 

[Sweep-n-Swing]

12 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

I would love to hear the story about the 5 iron that went 394. 

 

 

I think that probably was just the watch didn't pick up the second shot for some reason. 

[Sweep-n-Swing]

10 hours ago, Clemsonfan said:

Two things stand out from your comments. 1. If you have to make grip alterations to a ‘crazy, strong grip’ for your driver to work that club is likely a poor fit for you. I would check on that. 2. You have 3 clubs that go the same distance. Keep the one you hit the best and drop the other two. If you did, would that help, or hurt your ability to hit shots around the course? Keeping inconsistent clubs in my bag has never helped me. 
 

I am a big fan of lessons and fittings - have you used either?

Yeah I have taken lessons. I also got clubs fitted in like 2011 ish. My driver and wedges aren't from that set though. 

 

1. I'm just not sure why I can't seem to get the face back to square. I don't have that problem with my other clubs. Sure the longer ones a miss tends to be a slice, but I don't need to make a grip change to only sometimes hit the ball reasonably straight.

 

2. I think there is a bit of inaccuracy there. The number I have in my head is like 195 for my 5 iron. 4 iron also definitely has more variance than all my other irons, but 210ish is about right for non mishits. 

[Ty_Webb]

59 minutes ago, Sweep-n-Swing said:

1. I'm just not sure why I can't seem to get the face back to square. I don't have that problem with my other clubs. Sure the longer ones a miss tends to be a slice, but I don't need to make a grip change to only sometimes hit the ball reasonably straight.

So driver is longer than all the other clubs and gear effect plays a bigger part with driver than anything else. If you're hitting it out of the heel it could slice even if you have the face square. Could try some foot spray or impact tape and check that. Other thing is if the shaft is different in how it flexes or how flexible it is it could be affecting your swing somewhat. Driver also has the straightest face, so while with a 4 iron it might fade, with driver that can wind up being a slice with the same face angle at impact. 

[Clemsonfan]

12 hours ago, Sweep-n-Swing said:

Yeah I have taken lessons. I also got clubs fitted in like 2011 ish. My driver and wedges aren't from that set though. 

 

1. I'm just not sure why I can't seem to get the face back to square. I don't have that problem with my other clubs. Sure the longer ones a miss tends to be a slice, but I don't need to make a grip change to only sometimes hit the ball reasonably straight 

Your fitting is likely out of date if your most recent fitting was 2011.  Since the driver was not from that fitting, @Ty_Webb and his comments provide some insight to your results.
 

If you don’t have a major swing flaw, the driver is likely a poor fit. The low-hanging fruit is to have a driver fitting. I am no fitter but have sat in on many driver fittings. If not a swing flaw, your ball flight, in order, is indicative of a staff that is too stiff; or too little loft; or too long. Once that is fixed you can address your needs for the top of the bag setup. That would be best with an instructor or a fitter. Good luck! I think this is an easily solvable issue, but you need some guidance from someone watching you swing.

[ChetlovesMer]

16 hours ago, Sweep-n-Swing said:

Yeah I have taken lessons. I also got clubs fitted in like 2011 ish. My driver and wedges aren't from that set though. 

How long's it been since you had a lesson? Sometimes a small thing will get you back on track. Other times the whole thing can be a mess. 

Personally, I find that I'm very streaky with the driver (in truth with all parts of my game). 

I'm also a big fan of filming my swing. Sometimes there are things I can diagnose easily myself. Other times I have to go see Yoda. Over the years Yoda has given me several pieces that I know are ... let's call them "reoccurring problems". Things I fix for a while but then it can come back again. Those kinds of things I'll often see for myself because I've seen a lot of videos of my swing. 

A good swing coach is worth a ton. A bad one is worthless. You need to find somebody who actually helps you and presents things in a way that makes sense to you. 

[Sweep-n-Swing]

8 hours ago, Clemsonfan said:

Your fitting is likely out of date if your most recent fitting was 2011.  Since the driver was not from that fitting, @Ty_Webb and his comments provide some insight to your results.
 

If you don’t have a major swing flaw, the driver is likely a poor fit. The low-hanging fruit is to have a driver fitting. I am no fitter but have sat in on many driver fittings. If not a swing flaw, your ball flight, in order, is indicative of a staff that is too stiff; or too little loft; or too long. Once that is fixed you can address your needs for the top of the bag setup. That would be best with an instructor or a fitter. Good luck! I think this is an easily solvable issue, but you need some guidance from someone watching you swing.

Yeah I have a Covert with a stiff shaft so it is pretty outdated. It's been a while since I've swung on anything that can give a swing speed, but as I recall it was like 105ish which I am under the impression is a fine speed for a stiff shaft. 

 

I also recently changed the head from 9⁰ to 10⁰ which has seemed to help a bit. 

5 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

How long's it been since you had a lesson? Sometimes a small thing will get you back on track. Other times the whole thing can be a mess. 

Personally, I find that I'm very streaky with the driver (in truth with all parts of my game). 

I'm also a big fan of filming my swing. Sometimes there are things I can diagnose easily myself. Other times I have to go see Yoda. Over the years Yoda has given me several pieces that I know are ... let's call them "reoccurring problems". Things I fix for a while but then it can come back again. Those kinds of things I'll often see for myself because I've seen a lot of videos of my swing. 

A good swing coach is worth a ton. A bad one is worthless. You need to find somebody who actually helps you and presents things in a way that makes sense to you. 

I think I had 1 last summer or the summer before. I took a handful at Golftec. It definitely helped my game all around, but the focus was on irons for a while. We never really got the driver straightened out. 

Thing is I've gone back to school as a mature student. That makes it hard to spend a tonne of money on a driver or lessons. I've got one more year though, so hopefully this time next year I'll have a better job and more disposable income. 

 

On a walk the other day it occurred to me that I might be really opening my hands on takeaway, which would explain why the super strong grip "solves" the problem as my hands can't open more. I haven't got a chance to go to the range and test it out yet though. And of course I'm always hesitant to make swing tweaks on my own since I don't really know much about the golf swing. 

[Shindig]

On 8/4/2025 at 7:24 PM, Sweep-n-Swing said:

So I'm considering revamping the top of my bag. 

 

Currently I hit 4 iron off the tee more than driver as my driver has a high chance of slicing far, and I can hit my 4 iron decently far (typically about 205). I've got a 4 wood that I'm just getting confident hitting front the fairway, I really struggled with it for a long time but I've recently found some swing thoughts that seem to work. I don't have a great sense of the yardage yet, but it's longer than my 4 iron. The other day I hit it about 230 into a bit of wind. And then I have a 2 driving iron. I rarely hit it outside of the driving range as I just have no consistency with it. 

 

I think it would be best to replace my 2 iron and work on my driver on the range (which had got a bit better, but still needs improvement). I'm not sure what to replace it with though. I'm kinda hesitant to buy a hybrid. Last time I tried one was at a simulator and it was going really high and only about as far as my 8 iron. 

 

I'm also not really sure as to what is the ideal strategy for when to use each club at the top of the bag. If it is relevant my handicap index is 18.1. 

I hope this can help;  I have been thinking of the top of my bag a bit lately.  I definitely want to echo the suggestion elsewhere about learning to hit driver.  I got lucky a bit, as by the time I owned a driver, I didn't slice that often.  Or maybe it's just that I didn't hit it far enough for the slice to venture past maybe the first cut.  

Second, I would bet you have a lot more consistency with your 2-iron than you think you do.  What you might not have is consistently good shots.  That's something to work on, of course.  

Third, learning to hit a fairway wood well helped me a lot;  someone who used to be (might still be?  I sadly haven't been active here in a while, to my regret) a moderator here made a nice video for me over a decade ago after seeing that I was confident for 13 clubs and terrified for a 3-wood.  Now I haven't the fear to hit my fairway wood.

As for the top of the bag, I do suggest getting fit together.  I didn't do that.  My current driver is something I bought for myself towards the end of my first school year as a full-time teacher.  That was over a decade ago, and maybe I'm due for a new one, but I hit this one so well (SG:D rarely worse than the 10 hcp level;  I'm about a 15 now and have never been lower than 11.9).  In any case, that was in April 2015.  My remaining woods at the time (3W, 5W, 3H, 4H) were all Maltby/GolfWorks because reasons.  In 2017, I bought my current set of irons.  My plan was to also get fitted for a 3W and 5W.  The fitter noticed I hit my 3W and 5W, both current and the ones he was fitting me into, about the same distance, but I hit a 4W about a half dozen yards past that (still short of my driver).  I got a 4W.  At some point, I noticed my 3H and 4W were considerably separated in distances, while my 4H and 5I were similar, so I removed my 4H and bought a 19 degree hybrid from a used bin.  It worked great, still does.   At some point, around when I convince myself that yes, I really am back to playing golf on a regular basis again, I'll consider replacing the top of the bag -- with a single fitting, together.

Lessons help.  A lot.  I got lessons early, then stopped.  Then I started with Evolvr, and went from about a 19 down to as low as a 11.9.  Then I stopped playing for almost three years.  When I'm back to having more practice time, I'm going to go back to Evolvr for lessons, so I can use that practice time effectively.   As you said, you don't know much about the swing (I'll admit, I don't think I do either);  there are experts who do, and finding a good one is worth it.   Since you've gone back to school as a mature student, you presumably know the value of doing homework and studying, but you also know that those only help if you do them correctly.  

The last part I didn't see addressed in this thread is when to use each club at the top of the bag.  I use driver off every par-4 or par-5 tee where I believe the likely outcome is that I will be able to advance the ball towards the green on the next shot.  This is almost every par-4 and par-5 I play.  I use the driver because I can typically keep it out of the worst parts of the course and I will likely have the shortest distance into the green compared to any other choice of teeing club.  If I have to throttle down, I'll pick the longest club that can allow me what I just described.  If going long and [relatively] straight wouldn't be a problem, I'll likely still hit driver, even if I'm worried left to right:  I'll just swing a bit less.  Someone else around here compared it to bunting.

My 4-wood is my second shot club on most par-5s.  On rare occasion, I have been able to go for it in two with a shorter club, or I did put myself in trouble and had to hit less, or had trouble I had to stay short of that I couldn't fly, but it's the most common second shot club for me on par-5s.  The hybrids aren't different from irons for me:  if I need a particular (smaller) range of distances, those are what I hit.  

[Sweep-n-Swing]

1 hour ago, Shindig said:

I hope this can help;  I have been thinking of the top of my bag a bit lately.  I definitely want to echo the suggestion elsewhere about learning to hit driver.  I got lucky a bit, as by the time I owned a driver, I didn't slice that often.  Or maybe it's just that I didn't hit it far enough for the slice to venture past maybe the first cut.  

Second, I would bet you have a lot more consistency with your 2-iron than you think you do.  What you might not have is consistently good shots.  That's something to work on, of course.  

Third, learning to hit a fairway wood well helped me a lot;  someone who used to be (might still be?  I sadly haven't been active here in a while, to my regret) a moderator here made a nice video for me over a decade ago after seeing that I was confident for 13 clubs and terrified for a 3-wood.  Now I haven't the fear to hit my fairway wood.

As for the top of the bag, I do suggest getting fit together.  I didn't do that.  My current driver is something I bought for myself towards the end of my first school year as a full-time teacher.  That was over a decade ago, and maybe I'm due for a new one, but I hit this one so well (SG:D rarely worse than the 10 hcp level;  I'm about a 15 now and have never been lower than 11.9).  In any case, that was in April 2015.  My remaining woods at the time (3W, 5W, 3H, 4H) were all Maltby/GolfWorks because reasons.  In 2017, I bought my current set of irons.  My plan was to also get fitted for a 3W and 5W.  The fitter noticed I hit my 3W and 5W, both current and the ones he was fitting me into, about the same distance, but I hit a 4W about a half dozen yards past that (still short of my driver).  I got a 4W.  At some point, I noticed my 3H and 4W were considerably separated in distances, while my 4H and 5I were similar, so I removed my 4H and bought a 19 degree hybrid from a used bin.  It worked great, still does.   At some point, around when I convince myself that yes, I really am back to playing golf on a regular basis again, I'll consider replacing the top of the bag -- with a single fitting, together.

Lessons help.  A lot.  I got lessons early, then stopped.  Then I started with Evolvr, and went from about a 19 down to as low as a 11.9.  Then I stopped playing for almost three years.  When I'm back to having more practice time, I'm going to go back to Evolvr for lessons, so I can use that practice time effectively.   As you said, you don't know much about the swing (I'll admit, I don't think I do either);  there are experts who do, and finding a good one is worth it.   Since you've gone back to school as a mature student, you presumably know the value of doing homework and studying, but you also know that those only help if you do them correctly.  

The last part I didn't see addressed in this thread is when to use each club at the top of the bag.  I use driver off every par-4 or par-5 tee where I believe the likely outcome is that I will be able to advance the ball towards the green on the next shot.  This is almost every par-4 and par-5 I play.  I use the driver because I can typically keep it out of the worst parts of the course and I will likely have the shortest distance into the green compared to any other choice of teeing club.  If I have to throttle down, I'll pick the longest club that can allow me what I just described.  If going long and [relatively] straight wouldn't be a problem, I'll likely still hit driver, even if I'm worried left to right:  I'll just swing a bit less.  Someone else around here compared it to bunting.

My 4-wood is my second shot club on most par-5s.  On rare occasion, I have been able to go for it in two with a shorter club, or I did put myself in trouble and had to hit less, or had trouble I had to stay short of that I couldn't fly, but it's the most common second shot club for me on par-5s.  The hybrids aren't different from irons for me:  if I need a particular (smaller) range of distances, those are what I hit.  

Thanks a bunch for the thoughtful post. It shows how much you read the thread and I really appreciate it. 

I'm definitely thinking that getting at least a couple lessons when I finish school would be a good idea. 

I think that is a good way of thinking about what club to hit off the tee. I'm pretty risk averse so for me I might want to have say a 70% chance of advancing the ball towards the green. As of right now that often isn't the case with my driver, but I definitely plan on changing that.