Most USEFUL club

The thread about the Sand Wedge has inspired me to ask this...

What is your MOST FAVOURITE "go-to" club
The club you use the MOST OFTEN (may not be you go-to club),
Your LEAST FAVOURITE club.

An example of why for each would be useful too.

Go USA!

Here it goes...

Most favorite "go-to" club: 8° bounce sand wedge is as useful on the fairway as it is in the sand. The low bounce makes it that much easier to hit off hard turf (no skulling). Plus, open up the face and flop it from the rough. Oh yeah, my 17° fairway metal is a close second.

Used most often: Once again, I have to say my sand wedge. Why, because I just love the club. It has good all round versatility. I use it as much on the fairway as in the sand. From around 85 yards, sand wedge. From fluffy green side rough, sand wedge. From the bunker, well, you guessed it!

Least favorite: It has to be my hybrid. I haven't figured it out yet, but I've got so much difficulty getting consistent ball striking with it. I skull it much too often with it. By the way, where do you place the ball in your stance with that thing (like for an iron or a fairway wood)? That could explain my inability to hit it.

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Cleveland Launcher 400 10.5°
Cleveland Launcher 17° FW
Cleveland CG2 3-PW
Hogan 52°
Mizuno 56°
Hogan 60°

hi
i once asked he pro i was playing with, what was his favorite club and he told me he did not have a favorite as it was bad to have favorite clubs, he said you had to use the right club for the job and not the one you like to use most around the greens, he told me had least favorie distances and with him it was about 40 yds as it was between shots, he also said a good set of clubs all felt the same and should not be any diffrent swinging a 3 iron to a 9 iron, and each club could be used to chip and pitch and all should be thought of as chipping and pitching clubs,
i understand what he means as my friend only uses his 9 iron around the green and would not use a wedge or a 7 iron even it they were the right club to use.
bill

Next to my putter, my most favorite club is my LW. I use it all the time from 50 yards around the green, and out of most green side bunkers. Then again as I think about it, "most usefull" would be a better discription for my LW.

Least favorite is a tougher pick for me. I suppose if I had to choose it would be my driver. Not because I can't hit it (I can) but, because I score just as well with it out of my bag, while using my 3 wood. GJS

Most used is putter. Most useful is putter.
Most versatile is my 60°.
Most hated is all of them, right now. I need to make them longer...

putter then driver

For me I seem to gravitate to the 9W. I use it out of the rough, in the fairway, anywhere I need a nice soft landing from 150-170 yards.

Most often is my putter. I guess that was a give-away.

Least favourite would be my long irons, or the sand wedge. I just can seem to feel comfortable with them.

Bill: I agree with your theory that no club should be favoured over another. They're tools and you have to know how to use them. I vary clubs for chipping because it seems to me it's better to use a consistent chip stroke and vary distance with the trajectory delivered by the loft of the club. Sometimes it's very difficult to deliver a very soft love tap with a 7 iron where a slightly harder chip with a PW will go a bit higher and roll less. The trick seems to be being able to visualize how the ball will land and roll.

I've recently re-considered a fitting theory that I abandoned after inquiring about it and was more or less shot down. But I managed to find a guy who not only has looked into the method, but uses it with 100% success (ie no returned sets built to this standard). He says that he can't sell a standard built iron set anymore.

Here's the premise (based largely off the 1irongolf.com theory): You have an ideal athletic position. Think of any athlete standing in a static position, as they anticipate requiring dynamic movement. Volleyball players. Baseball players. Middle linebackers in American Football. They all stand the same was as the ideal golf posture - feet shoulder width apart, weight centered (or slightly forward of center), spine angled forward. We know in the golf swing the ideal spine angle is around 33° (adjust for your plane as necessary).

Now, in a conventional iron set, you get progressively more bent over. Don't believe me? Stand in front of a full length mirror. Hold your longest iron/hybrid. Get a friend (or the mrs) to use a dry erase marker (or a piece of tape, or lipstick, or whatever) to mark the top of your head. Grab your PW. Now where's your head? What? Below that line? That's what I said would happen.

So now, which is it? Is that 4 iron (or 3 or whatever) put you in your most athletic position? Or was it the PW? Or was it some club in between?

I hit some test clubs, built on this theory. Every one was fantastic. Great trajectory, consistent ball flight, felt the head just fine... needless to say, I'm re-engineering my whole set. Then every club will be a favourite club. (Oddly enough, my 8 iron was already in spec - no wonder I always hit it well).

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True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

Hi, Low Post 42, Sorry , but I don't quite follow your reasoning. If as I understand it you are advocating shafts should all be of equal length, wouldn't this have a dramatic effect on swing weight etc.and would most likely require head weights be adjusted. I find the idea fascinating and intend doing a little experimenting myself,regards..

Most favourite and most used: 52 degree Gap Wedge. From the fairway at 120y, rough from about 100y, and great at splashing from tight packed sand, chipping from the collar, pitching from fluffy lies.

Least favourite: 5 wood. It's neither fish nor foul - not the distance of a 'real' wood, nor the accuracy of an iron so I replaced it with a hybrid club with a 2 iron loft. I realised that it just sat in my bag gathering dust so I flogged it on ebay.

I also agree with the idea that clubs are just tools for the job and you shouldn't prefer one club over another, but often you have the option of using a range of clubs for a shot and if that range includes your 'prefered' club then that's the one I'd use.

I'm not sure that I agree with the fitting theory that LowPost42 mentioned for a couple of reasons. Athletic positions vary depending on what you are going to do. More explosive power might mean that you hunker down a little, while better agility would require you to narrow your position and be more on your toes. This is true in any sport. Thus your ideal position would more likely be a series of ideal positions.

LP is too sharp a cookie not to have some truth in his post but I also can't see how have a PW the same length of my 6 iron would give me better accuracy nor how a 3 iron with a 6 iron length shaft would generate the same head speed as a normal one.

__________________
Cleveland Launcher 460 - Aldila NV 65 x-stiff
Callaway Big Bertha 3W - Aldila NV 75 x-stiff
TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP (16°, 19°) stiff
Mizuno MP-32 2-PW Rifle Flighted 6.0
Titleist Vokey Wedges 52°, 56°, 60°
Scotty Cameron Circa 62 #3 35/330

Well, let's have an open discussion here (New fitting idea **open discussion**). Sorry for the thread jack.

Mine would have to be my 7 Iron.
Loft when I need it, with some distance chucked in for good measure.

Cheers

Darran