During the golf swing, the shaft bends in so many ways and in so many places that we wonder how the ball can be hit straight. But it all works out. Read this description of something that looks simple only when we see it at high speed.

The clubhead of an iron weighs about eight ounces. The entire golf club weighs about fourteen. When the club moves away from the ball, the flexible shaft gets ahead the movement of the clubhead; that is, the shaft bends in a concave direction in regard to the target. The clubhead remains in this lagging position throughout the backswing.

At the top of the backswing the clubhead catches up again just before the reversal of direction the swing. But as before, when the clubs starts swinging down, the heavy clubhead gets left behind, bending the shaft again, but in the opposite way than it bent at takeaway.

The downswing accelerates the clubhead, whereas the backswing it was decelerating. At some point in the downswing, the accelerating clubhead passes the shaft, causing the shaft to bend in the opposite direction, a concave shape relative to the target, as the clubhead approaches the ball.

The clubhead now behaves as if it were a freewheeling object. This bending of the shaft causes the clubface to be closed at impact by about 2 degrees. In addition to being bent a bit backwards, the shaft also bends downward, somewhat like a fishing pole bent downward by the weight of the lures tied to the line.

This downward bending causes the lie of the club to flatten out, and must be taken into account when the lie of the club is determined during club-fitting. The amount of the bend can between from 1 to 3 degrees, depending on shaft flex and clubhead speed.

So again, we manage to hit the ball straight in spite of this high-speed noodling. Knowing this makes golf a little more interesting, but don’t get caught up in all of it when you swing. Let this be something that keeps club designers awake at night.

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When I began playing, a set of clubs was four woods (1, 2, 3, 4), nine irons (2-9), a pitching wedge and a putter. Most people swapped out their 2-wood for a sand wedge. A few people traded their 2-iron for a 5-wood. That was about it.

A half-set for beginners was sold, consisting of a 1- and 3-wood, the odd-numbered irons, and a putter. I don’t think half-sets are sold anymore, though they should be, to make it less expensive for beginners to get into the game. As far as the composition goes, you could trade the 3-iron from a modern set for a 21-degree hybrid and you would have it.

Whatever clubs you have in your bag, make sure there is a reason for every one of them to be here. You’re allowed fourteen clubs, but you don’t have to carry fourteen. Also, every club except maybe the driver should be able to multi-task. If not, either learn how or get rid of it.

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A few weeks before Christmas, Santa said, “Bob, I’m going to bring you a Leupold GX-1* rangefinder for Christmas, but I’m pretty busy right now. Can take care of that for me? Wrap it, put my name on it? Thanks a bunch.”

Thank you, Santa.

If you’re looking for a distance-measuring device, this is the one to get.

*No longer manufactured. Click link to see current models.

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I like to have fun with the clubs I choose for my bag. A particular makeup means that you have to play the game in a patricular way. There’s no harm in that, and it makes it more fun to mix things up every so often. It makes you create, and the rewards of doing that successfully are great.

This is my short bag: driver, 2H, 4H, 7i, PW, SW, putter. I play pretty well with just these seven clubs. If you only think before you hit, there really isn’t any shot that you can’t pull off. It’s just not automatic. Seven clubs make the bag a lot lighter to carry, too.

This is my long bag: driver, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6-9i, PW, GW, SW, LW, putter. I look at the length of the longest par 3 I will be playing today and take the 2H or 3H as appropriate, leaving the other at home. Four wedges give me lots of pitching flexibility, and make chipping formulaic.

I have felt for many years that I won’t put clubs in my bag because a manufacturer wants me to. They go in because there is a reason.

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I get a few ideas for what to write about in this space from the keywords that people use to find it. Lately there have been a few searches concerning long irons. I give you from today’s list:

faster swing speed with long irons
how far do you hit a 4-iron
anyone play gi irons in their long irons?

These are good questions that deserve good answers. Most of us feel comfortable up to about 160 yards and then from 200 yards and up. It’s that gap that we find difficult to fill. We’re still trying to hit the ball a selected distance, and straight, and that’s not easy for a recreational golfer to do.

You have two options in terms of equipment — long irons or hybrid irons. Long irons were what I grew up playing with. Iron sets came 2-9. The pitching wedge was a separate purchase. In those days, instruction books had sections, and golf magazines had tips, on how to hit your long irons. There were as many of those articles then as there are “How to get out of a bunker” articles today. They were the clubs recreational golfers just couldn’t get off the ground or hit the distance advertised.

It’s the same thing today. Long irons are still hard to hit. I can hit a good shot with my 4-iron about two out of three times, with my 3-iron about one out of three times, and my 2-iron is strictly to be hit off a tee. At least that’s what I would have said if you had asked me eight years ago.

I went to a Ben Hogan demo day at my driving range and tried out one of these new hybrid clubs. I borrowed a 3. The first ball I hit, with no expectations, was as good as any 3-iron shot I had ever hit. Same thing for the next two balls. Three rockets in a row. I needed no more convincing, and a few weeks later bought a 2, 3, and 4 Ben Hogan hybrid, which I still use in addition to the 5 which I picked up three years ago.

So let’s get to those questions.

faster swing speed with long irons — you definitely need a high swing speed to hit these clubs well. If your drives carry about 250 yards, that’s 250 in the air, not air plus roll equals 250, then you have enough swing speed for a long iron to give you its due. You don’t swing faster with a long iron. You swing with what you have. If you don’t have it with your driver, you don’t have it, period.

how far do you hit a 4-iron — as far as I hit my 4-hybrid, but not nearly as often.

anyone play gi irons in their long irons? — honestly, if you use gi irons, you don’t have a long iron swing.

Sometimes I take my long irons to the range and hit them just for fun, but I would never play with them. There’s no reason for you to, either, not when you can use clubs that are so easy to hit it’s almost cheating.

See also Yes, You Should Play Blades

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There’s a current article on the Golf World site about how to choose the clubs that go in your bag.* With all due respect to Golf Digest, and speaking as someone who plays golf and whose income does not depend on advertising from equipment manufacturers, here are my thoughts.

1. “Anybody still fighting a slice is merely being pigheaded” If you’re fighting a slice, get a lesson or two, and practice until it’s gone. Take responsibility for your own errors instead of asking an adjustable club to fix it for you. While you’re at it, take responsibility for your life instead of asking someone else to fix it for you.

2. “Understand the effects of adjustablilty” If you adjust a clubface more open, you deloft the club? OK, I won’t argue. Just show me.

3. “Driver technology is trickling down to fairway woods” This is about adjustable fairway woods. See #1.

4. “Brand loyalty can have a negative effect” True. When I bought my irons, I tried out eight different brands. Only two felt right. The ones I rejected are played by lots of touring pros, but they weren’t the clubs for me.

5. “It’s OK to have “mongrel’ clubs in your bag” True. Whatever gets the ball in the hole. I have a 56-degree Ben Hogan Sure-Out sand wedge in my bag that gets the ball out of the bunker, gets the ball out of heavy grass (there’s a lot of metal down there that will not be denied), and works great from the fairway. Sometimes I include a Ray Cook chipper.

6. “Unless you’re practicing eight hours a day, you have no business hitting muscleback blades” B***s***. Anyone can hit blades, and I think everyone should. GI irons are a compromise. Blades give you better feel of impact, and have a more rewarding (though smaller) sweet spot. You can play hybrids, 2-5, and blades, 6-PW, and do just fine. The only reason manufacturers tell you not to play blades is to get a return on all the money they’re pouring into something else.

7. “Better players are doing themselves an injustice if they don’t have one or two hybrids in their bag” True, true, true. These clubs are so easy to hit it’s almost cheating. There’s no reason for a recreational golfer to be carrying a 2-, 3-, or 4-iron anymore.

8. “Testing equipment needs to include time around the green” Very true. Buy your wedges and putter at a place that has a real green where you can hit balls. A big box store isn’t that place. Make sure you test golf balls, too, but that’s another article.

9. “Super Game Improvement irons aren’t just for Grandma anymore” See #6. They really want you to buy these clubs, don’t they?

10. “Simplicity and feel still have their place in putters” Oh, my. Putters these days look like they came off an alien spaceship. Do get fitted for a putter, but keep it simple. I play an Acushnet Bulls Eye, made in the early 1960s, and I do just fine.

Four rules about buying equipment:
1. Get it fitted.
2. Every so often, new equipment comes out that truly does make a difference. Hybrid irons, for example. The rest of it is the manufacturers trying to get their hands inside your wallet.
3. A $400 driver = eight lessons. The lessons will take more strokes off your game.
4. In the end, it’s the singer, not the song.

See also The Best Equipment for a Recreational Golfer

*April 28, 2019 – article no longer available online.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

If you can hit the ball reasonably well from tee to green, most of your handicap is built from 30 yards and in. In order to hit the variety of short shots you are faced with, and hit them well, you have to have the right talent, but also the right clubs.

Which clubs you really need to hit to save strokes from close in is a question each golfer should ask and answer.

Everybody has a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. The question is whether to add a gap wedge of 52-54 degrees and/or a lob wedge of 58-60 degrees.

Do you think there are short shots you frequently hit that would turn out better with a different wedge, or wouldn’t be so much work with a different wedge? If so, read on.

Different courses place different demands on your short game. If the course you play on finds you having to hit into the green from under 100 yards more than a few times, then four wedges, calibrated to known pitching distances would be a good way to go.

Another way to answer the question is, how much work are you willing to put in to learn what that extra club can do for you? I don’t mean hours and hours, but I do mean at least a few honest hours at the practice green learning how to differentiate this wedge from the others you already have.

From the same place, a different wedge makes it a different shot. Knowing that difference is what will save you that extra stroke or not.

If you won’t put in this time to learn the uses for each wedge, the extra wedge will only add confusion and frustration to your game.

Realize in addition that if you add a fourth wedge to your bag, you have to take out a club, which would likely be a long fairway club of some kind.

To make the trade, consider whether adding a wedge will save you more strokes than you might lose by removing the longer club. Golfers who are long and accurate might not benefit.

There is no pat answer on this issue. It all depends on your playing skills, your style of maneuvering the ball around the course, and the amount of time you can devote to short game practice.

In the end, look at it this way. If you think the extra wedge will save you a stroke or two every round, add it. If it’s a stroke or two every month, don’t bother.

However you build your set of wedges, try to keep the gaps of loft consistent.

For example, if a pitching wedge has 48 degrees of loft, a good three-wedge set is 48-54-60. 48-56-60 would be OK, but a set running 48-58-60 has too much of a gap between the PW and the sand wedge, and too little difference between the SW and the lob wedge.

A good four-wedge progression would be 48-52-56-60.

Then there’s bounce and sole width to consider, but that would be turning this article into a book.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

After years of frustration trying to hit a metal driver, I pulled my old wooden Wilson 4300 2-wood out of the bag I keep old clubs in down in my basement. It’s the club I teed off with, quite nicely, for several decades before I decided it was time to get modern.

I live next to a huge field that is used as a parking lot for our state fair. Two weeks out of the year it is filled with cars. Fifty weeks out of the year it is great for hitting golf balls – 600 yards long and 200 yards wide. There is O.B. but I defy you to hit one out.

I took three balls this morning, a few tees, and the 50-year-old club to the field and hit a few. It was like going home again. The soft feel of impact, the gentle click of the ball, and the flight? OMG! Up in the air, straight, hang time to die for.

Controlling this club is easy. The small head doesn’t seem to have the same wind resistance during the swing that the larger-headed metal driver does. The steel shaft (42½”) gives me a uniform feel with the rest of the set. The best thing is I don’t lose one yard. In fact, because I can get the ball in the air, I might actually be gaining yards.

The extra loft contributes to that last part, I’m guessing it has about 13 degrees of loft, whereas my metal driver has 10.5. I’ll have to have it checked on the loft/lie machine at my driving range.

Hit it on the screws and you’re good to go. There actually are screws, too.

Sometimes older is better. Sorry, Titleist, it’s to the basement with you.

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