Anyone mid to high handicap ever play a round hitting nothing longer than a 5 iron?

[stealthhwk]

Some of us look even stupider. :-D   It's pretty hard to develop even a halfway usable swing, that's half the battle or more. . .

And this is why I joined this forum. You guys are the only ones who understand me. Thanks for that

[stealthhwk]

A variation: Circa 2000 in Oklahoma, I played in a city tournament. The area had a lot of really good golfers, so the Championship and A flights were packed.The A flight extended to 14 HDCP, I was about 17 HDCP at the time, and landed in B flight. Tees: Champ was gold, A was blue, and B moved up to the senior tees, about 5,600 yards. (Normal Blue was 6200). Anyway, from the shorter tees I hit my driver maybe four times all day. I hit a 5W or a 5i off the tee on most longer holes (pre-hybrid days). I shot an 84 on a par 71 course. I guess we ended up part of an early "tee it forward" test. Several of us B-flighters shot lower scores than A-flighters, and some A-guys (quite angrily) called us sandbaggers. We just ignored them - it was our flight, not theirs. (Dirty little secret = there's lots of angry golfers in OK)

You'd be angry if you lived in oklahoma too! Lol

[ChrisWev]

I struggle with strike on my 5i and don't even carry my 4i. I've had plenty of rounds teeing off with my 3 hybrid and using that again or my 7i-Putter for the remainder of the hole.

It's good for consistency but you get pretty much stuck at bogey golf doing this as it's hard to risk hitting greens second shot on par 4's with the longer clubs so you end up laying up a lot and then chip, putt, putt.

It's a bit of a false economy really, your scores may look better, but it's going to hurt you long term, you have to be able to hit the longer clubs and keep them in play at least, or it's like playing one handed.

A problem I have is nearly every time I practice full swing with my irons I'm using 7i and my pitching wedge, I need to change this up to 5i and 30-90 yard shots now, in order to progress.

I'm also going to try a high lofted driver and go for fairways at 210 carry rather than trying to hit 250 and smashing a couple out of bounds each round.

[Jon Hoover]

There is this 9 hole executive course near me that's on the beach, the longest hole is 240, I just use all irons there, and for about a year I didn't have a 4i cuz it was broken. It went fine, but on a full sized course no.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Jon Hoover

[Brakkus]

This is something  I have wanted to try just going round the course with my irons. Or to try with only 3 clubs. Couple of the courses I play you could do it because of shorter par 4 holes. I can get my 4 iron out there to 200 yards off the tee.

To answer honestly what is your goal when you play a round? Is it to shoot the best score you can then what's  the highest percentage shot in your bag off the tee? From the fairway same question. Separate your scoring ability from your practice where you can work on your swing without the pressure to pull out a long club on the course. You'll  gain confidence knowing you can score decently until at such a time you make bolder club selections when your ability grows.

[JonMA1]

To answer honestly what is your goal when you play a round? Is it to shoot the best score you can then what's  the highest percentage shot in your bag off the tee? From the fairway same question. Separate your scoring ability from your practice where you can work on your swing without the pressure to pull out a long club on the course. You'll  gain confidence knowing you can score decently until at such a time you make bolder club selections when your ability grows.

Good question. I often answer that by pulling out the club that will get me closer to the hole - after considering risk. I've always felt like this is a good way to improve if I'm struggling with that particular club. Unfortunately, I can't back that up with a lot of success.

I played a couple of rounds last month where I used the 4i as my longest club and ended up shooting lower than average on a short course. But not using my driver and woods isn't something I want to do very often.

[JP golf]

Actually, I would play whole rounds with just a 6 iron when I was younger.  It taught me a ton.  I learned how to manipulate the clubface to make the ball do what I wanted.  How to add loft, take de-loft, flight the ball, work it left to right or right to left.  I think it really helped me get a feel for where the club head was and what it was doing.  I payed a lot more attention and focused more. 

A few of us were able to get a $200 membership as juniors at a local course and we would change it up because we played the same course every day during the summer.  Now that I'm older I still do this once in a while at the beginning of the season.  To me it helps me concentrate on what I'm doing, I'm focused on my feel during the round and I'm really paying attention to what I'm doing.

At the time, I was probably a 8-12 handicap range but it's tough to say.  I improved a ton that summer just by nature of playing almost every day.

[billchao]

I know some have played golf with just three clubs or just irons only but I was wanting to get a little more specific. Anybody ever play a round with nothing longer than a 5 iron? What was your handicap at the time? How was your experience?

I've done it. Probably was about a 20 at the time. What I can tell you is that I scored basically the same as I did with the woods in the bag. My observations:

1. I didn't hit OB or lost balls off the tee as often as I thought I did. They kind of stick out in my mind because of the 2 strokes lost, but I really only did it about once every 6+ shots, which is basically twice a round. The decent to good shots more than make up for that, especially given #2...

2. The loss of distance is a real killer. I have to hit a "good" 5i to match an "okay" driver. Since I mostly hit "okay" 5i shots, I was actually giving up even more distance off the tee.

3. Related to #2, but longer approach shots actually lowered my chances to convert a GIR.

4. Turns out that big miss with the driver can be replicated with an iron, leaving me to look for balls in the woods still.

5. I have parred long par 5s by teeing off with a 5i, and I'd probably say it's just as hard to do that as it is to make birdie teeing off with a driver. You have to make too many good shots in a row for a high handicap golfer to be able to do reliably.

I've long since learned that taking out the woods is not a panacea for my game. It can help save strokes on certain holes, but you're giving up the potential to gain strokes on others. The better thing to do if you struggle with the woods is to be smarter about shot selection and only hit them when you know you can get away with miss, even if that means you hit your driver twice all round or something. Those two drives can mean a stroke or two gained and you lose that ability without them in the bag.

[DrvFrShow]

I did this earlier this year with my 5 iron. Hit 81% of fairways, had longer approach shots. Only 36% GIRs. Shot a 96 for the round. Tee shots are not my weakness. I played from the front tees, too, so there's that. My short game sucks.

The main difference is 50 yds off the tee. 180 with the 5 iron vs. 230 with the driver. Then the second shot instead of  being a wedge shot is now a 5 or 6 iron that usually ended in a scramble, attempt at  a sand save, or a duffed wedge shot.

Then some courses with "ladies clubs" playing from the front tees due to their design pretty much dictate playing a 5 to 7 iron off  the tee except on a dead straight hole. I really hate playing tight courses like this where the designer tells you how to play it.

Edited October 3, 2015 by DrvFrShow