My bag, need some thoughts

[trxEden]

Hello all, 

New here, but I have been following for years.  I have made some changes in my bag and I wanted to get some advice.  First of all I should say that I'm playing off an unofficial 12.6, but my last 3 rounds have been 83, 84, 75 since I made this change.  Most the yardages I play with my group are between 6200-6800. I noticed that I rarely ever hit my 3w as I am pretty confident with my driver and for anything I am not, my Mizuno 3H (cranked down to 17*) goes about 230 or so and I absolutely love it (very straight, neutral flight for me).  Last course we played, the longest par 5 was 523 and I almost was on the green for eagle (missed a little left).  Point is, I wasn't using it, so I took out the 3W and now play with PW, 50, 54, 58 and a 60 TM High-Toe bent to 62*.  That 62, I have found, is very useful.  Its my short pitching club, sand club, flopper, short green stick. I generally prefer chipping with the 50, but I also use the 62* for special shots.  I really like this setup for wedges, but  doing that left a pretty big gap though between the Driver and the hybrid.

Here is my bag:

Taylormade Aeroburner TP 9.5*

Mizuno JPX 900 3H 17*

Taylormade Aeroburner Rescue TP 4H 22*

Mizuno MP-18 MMC, N. S. PRO 1150GH TOUR, 5i-7i

Mizuno MP-18 MB, N. S. PRO 1150GH TOUR, 8i-PW

Callaway MD3 50*, 54*, 58*

Taylormade High-Toe 60* (bent to 62*) 

Taylormade Spider (J-Day) Putter

So, after getting fitted for my irons I noticed that my 5i and 4H were very similar gapping.  What I am thinking of doing is taking out the 4H and putting the 3W back in the bag, just to have another option off the T or for maybe a really really long par 5.  My other thought was maybe getting a driving iron, but I am concerned I wont get enough use out of either.  My 3H is adjustable from 17-21* so another though would be to get a 2H, crank it down closer to 3w range and crank the 3H up to 21.  I am not so worried about the gap between the 3H and 5i as I can choke up on my 3H and play it shorter, but the Driver to 3H has at least a 30-40 yard gap.  Anyone have any advice?  Anyone play with this many wedges?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post, just wanted some thoughts from better players.

[dennyjones]

Welcome to TST.   It looks like you have options and you may find different courses would allow you to swap out clubs based upon the course design.   The 3W may come in handy for a real tight fairway tee shot.

Don't be a stranger.   We're glad you've decided to participate in the forum.

[NM Golf]

So you carry 5 wedges, PW, 50°, 54°, 58°, & 62°? That seems a bit excessive. I would go to a traditional 4 wedge setup and put the 3 wood back in the bag.

[trxEden]

  On 5/16/2018 at 3:52 PM, NM Golf said:

So you carry 5 wedges, PW, 50°, 54°, 58°, & 62°? That seems a bit excessive. I would go to a traditional 4 wedge setup and put the 3 wood back in the bag.

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Yes, 5 wedges.  The reason is simply down to versatility for me.  I could just open the 58 to get a 60/62 like effect, but it's the high toe I really have the club in the bag for.  What do you think of dropping the 4H and putting the 3W in, then use the 3H choked up if I need to cover the 4H distance.

[Friz]

It all comes down to whether you think you'd get use from the 3W.  It sounds like you took it out due to never using it.  If you have a reliable distance club off the tee that isn't driver, what would your 3W be used for?

Not looking for an actual answer, just a question to ask yourself, because from your original post it sounds like very little if anything at all, and you'd just put it in because you feel like you're not supposed to have the gap after your driver, but if it works for you then keep it out.  Personally I like having more flexibility around the green than off the tee

[Groucho Valentine]

Dump the 62, set your current hybrid to 25 degrees, then get another hybrid and set it to 21 degrees. 

Edited May 16, 2018 by Groucho Valentine

[NM Golf]

  On 5/16/2018 at 4:18 PM, trxEden said:

Yes, 5 wedges.  The reason is simply down to versatility for me.  I could just open the 58 to get a 60/62 like effect, but it's the high toe I really have the club in the bag for.  What do you think of dropping the 4H and putting the 3W in, then use the 3H choked up if I need to cover the 4H distance.

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Or you could use a 52, 56, and 60 to go with your PW. All I am saying is a 5 wedge setup is wasteful IMHO. I have never even heard of someone doing that, as it's completely unnecessary and causes the very issues you are having. It's much easier to produce every necessary short game shot with 4 wedges than it is to try and manufacture long game shots by choking down, hitting cuts, etc. 

To me it comes down to distance. If you hit the ball a fairly long way then a 4 wedge setup makes sense because you don't need as many long clubs in your bag. But 5 wedges means you have devoted 6 clubs, 43% of your bag, to shots 125 yards and in. Seems counterproductive to me.

Edited May 16, 2018 by NM Golf

[trxEden]

 Excellent, exactly the arguments I was looking for.  I am going to put the 3w back in for a few rounds and track how often I use it vs.  Not having the extra wedge and if I miss that.  I think Friz nailed my thinking on why I did this in the first place 🙂

[billchao]

I don't use my 3w every round but it stays in the bag. What it comes down to for me is, I have other clubs that can do what an extra wedge can, but I don't have anything that can substitute for my 3w when I need that shot.

If you really want the extra wedge in, I'd drop either your 4H or 5I.

[FlappyGilmore]

Learn to be like Gary Player and use all your clubs around the green.

[dbuck]

What is the loft of your PW ? Could you drop the 50 and bend the 54 to 52 or 53?

I like the idea of a 21* hybrid; I am thinking of doing that myself, replacing a 20 and 23 with one club.

Personally, I use my 3 wood a lot, but my distances are a little shy of yours.

With your length another option would be to add a fairway club around 16-16.5 and raise the loft of the hybrid back to around 20, and drop the 4H.

And as other have said, keep all the clubs in the rota, changing them out to fit various courses.

[trxEden]

  On 5/16/2018 at 9:05 PM, dbuck said:

What is the loft of your PW ? Could you drop the 50 and bend the 54 to 52 or 53?

I like the idea of a 21* hybrid; I am thinking of doing that myself, replacing a 20 and 23 with one club.

Personally, I use my 3 wood a lot, but my distances are a little shy of yours.

With your length another option would be to add a fairway club around 16-16.5 and raise the loft of the hybrid back to around 20, and drop the 4H.

And as other have said, keep all the clubs in the rota, changing them out to fit various courses.

Expand  

PW is 46. If you get a hybrid make sure it's adjustable imo.  My 3h can go from 17*-21, so it's perfect for gapping.  I thought about what your saying too, maybe set my current 3H to 21* and get a 2H and set it down to 15* or so. 

[zipazoid]

Was gonna say, but already mentioned - FIVE wedges?

What's the difference, really, between the 54 & 58? Why not split the difference & get a 56 to replace both of them?

[dbuck]

  On 5/16/2018 at 10:44 PM, trxEden said:

PW is 46. If you get a hybrid make sure it's adjustable imo.  My 3h can go from 17*-21, so it's perfect for gapping.  I thought about what your saying too, maybe set my current 3H to 21* and get a 2H and set it down to 15* or so. 

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Agree, looking at the Titleist 818H1

[trxEden]

OK, so just an update guys, and thank you all for the help.  I finally got my new irons (MP-18 MMC 5i-7i, MB 8i-PW) and wow, in love already.  Got a half an hour in on the launch monitor and it was exactly what I thought was going to happen.  My lowest iron, the 5i, carried 186 at clubhead speed of 84.3 and ball speed of 120.  My 4H carried at...182 with a club head speed of 83 and a ball speed of 111 with a slightly higher apex.  So two clubs now that do roughly the same thing.  That was actually good news because now I am pulling the 4H and putting the 3W back in.  I feel more comfortable laying off my 3H than pounding that 4H (wants to go left when i do that).

That lets me keep my specialty 62* wedge and I also got yardages on full swings from 62* up to 50*.  Here are the results at about 75-85%:

62*: 73-77, @10607 spin

58*: 84-88, @10102 spin

54*: 92-98, @9982 spin

50*: 105-114, @7900 spin 

I think I am going to give this ago Monday for my tournament, need to confirm the numbers more, but I feel pretty good on both ends of the bag now.  

 

[Typhoon92]

Ok, you obviously can hit it a good distance being just off the green of a 523 yard par 5.  You and I seem to have a lot of similarities.  I hit my 9 iron Ping ie-1 150 yards.

5 wedges...I love it.  We both hit it far enough on those certain length courses that most of our second shots into par 4's are going to be some form of a wedge.  I also carry 5...45, 50, 56, 60 and 64.

Top of my bag DOES have a gap but if it's a long par 5 that I can't reach in 2, I get it as close as I can and rely on the wedges.  

My bag goes like this:

Driver

3hl (16.5 degree that I play at 18)

4 iron- 64 degree and putter.

4 iron goes 210.  I usually only need my Fw to max out at 230..so I play it at 18.5 degrees.

 

Hope this was somewhat of a help.  I too toy around with taking out the fw and buying a ping crossover but they suck out of the rough...as do any driving iron/UDI.