How do you decide between fairway woods, hybrids, and irons?

[DavidNJ]

I have available a 19° 5w, 22° 7w, 20° 3i hybrid, 23° 4i hybrid, 26° 5i hybrid, and 26° 5i thin face wide sole iron. Hit them all, with decreasing accuracy as the lofts drop. There is a 16° 3w in front of them and 30° 6i behind them. As expected, the fairways are longer than the hybrids are longer than the irons of similar/equal loft.

However there is only space for 2 or 3 clubs in this group. I can't see how you can give up the 4i and 5i. Although the extra distance of the fairway woods is so nice. I tried the 7w instead of a 4i today, and it left me along side the green (not on) where the 4i would have been decidedly short.

What do you do?

Thanks,

David

[RX Phoenix]

With your handicap, assuming you aren't really smacking the long irons, try leaving the irons out of the bag and using a combo of woods and hybrids.

I would lean towards the hybrids, you probably will get better consistancy with them than the woods.

as your game improves and you can rip the long irons then the irons will give you better consistency, but till then get the advantage the hybrids give you.

when my swing speed was at 90 i used the woods, when it improved to 95 i switched to the hybrids, and now through conditioning using the Speed Stick it's at 110 and i use irons and one 17* hybrid to take the place of the 3 wood. (better consistency in a greater variety of conditions).

[DavidNJ]

Thanks for the advise. So you are proposing 5w, 4i and 5i hybrids?

The handicap is a little decepetive. I'm hitting straight a high percentage of the time, now around 200-220 on the drives. Last week I had one day when I made 6 of 7 fairways. Today I made 3 of 4 (including one were it carried a hill and rolled dead center in the fairway around 110 yards from the hole.) I've been a having disaster after disaster inside of 50 yards and inside of 10ft. More 5 putts than 1 putts.

[RX Phoenix]

Thanks for the advise. So you are proposing 5w, 4i and 5i hybrids?

Yes, that sounds just right for you now.

Inside of 50 yds is the toughest shot in golf, at your level forget about the lob wedge, it's too tough to hit consistently. Try using a half swing with a 9 iron and don't try and hit it real high, keep it fairly low.