Every time I go out to play golf I learn something. I hope you do, too. Today I learned some thing about pitching and long chipping.

Yesterday I was at the range with a driver and a 9-iron. I use the 9-iron to help me maintain a controlled swing with the driver. If my driver swing is getting out of hand, a few swings the 9-iron brings it back down to earth.

But I put the 9 to use, too. I hit pitches to distances where I would normally use different wedges. They worked out OK. I used a longer or shorter swing, and it was easy to get the distance right.

Today when I played I thought I would use the 9 to pitch on two shots from 89 yards and 59 yards. They worked out pretty well. I got close enough to the hole where the putt was makeable if I could putt worth a lick and the greens hadn’t been sanded a few days earlier.

Then there are those long chips from 20-30 yards off the green. I had a few of those. I thought, what the heck, let me try the short irons here, too. They worked really well. By short irons, I mean 8, 9, and pitching wedge.

The upshot is that I hit short irons to good effect in situations where I would have normally gone straight to my wedges. In addition, I found the short irons easier to hit than the wedges would have been.

Try it for yourself. See if you like the results. There’s no need to be wedded to wedges (but no need to drop them, either). Give yourself options.