Think outside the box - 2 drivers school of thought

I was inspired to think more logically about my club selection after I saw Phil Mickelson last week. I have a new driver which I'm delighted with - but I no longer need my 3 wood as my driver is more consistent and I'll just grip down and swing easy if I want a shorter drive.

Also I have 60 deg lw that is handy once in a while (1 use in 5 rounds say).

My bag contains
Driver - Big Ben CS-3
3 wood
18 deg utility wood/iron
22 deg utility wood/iron (easier to hit than my 5i)
5,6,7,8,9,pw,gw,sw,lw
putter

I am an improving player that is starting to get pars and avoiding the big numbers 8/9/10 and very few double bogeys in a round.

I was considering developing a new club for myself as I'm quite happy to drop either the 3 wood, lw or even both.

My idea was to get something like a 20 deg 5 wood head or 20 deg utility wood head type of thing - maybe even as low a loft as 15 deg and get a reg shaft - but get it cut down to say a 7i or 8i length.

I'd be hoping that this would be as easy to hit as a mid/short iron, with the forgiveness of a wood head AND getting a much lower flight - which in the summer would really role on for you.

My reasoning for this is that the days I'm swinging poorly I have the common sense to ignore the long irons/fairway woods on a Par 5 or long Par 4 and just hit the ball 140 yrds with my 7i for my 2nd shot (I have beaten many friends with this logic when I'm swinging badly and they are playing well - my philosophy is - know you limitations, but never be limited by them...). It would be great to be able to go to my bag and pull out a club that would go 150/160 yrds or so but might role on another 20/30 because of the really low flight...

Also if/when I get caught in trees or just off the green, this club would be very easy to use due to the shorter shaft.

Is there such a product? If not is it because some law of physics dictates that such a low loft and short shaft will create too much spin or no spin etc.

Jokes at my expense, logical suggestions or anything in between are welcome.......

Such a product is not readily available on a store shelf, but can be had by a competent club builder.

The problem that you'll find is that assuming you hit your 7 iron 150 yards, your '7 iron length' club with 'strong 4 iron loft' will fly about as far as your 22° utility.

Loft is the major determiner of yardage, not club length. The proof is in the products available at 1irongolf.com They're all the same length, but the lofts aren't all the same, hence different distances from different clubs.

What it sounds like you're looking for is a swing, with the ball placed back in your stance, aiming a little more to the draw side of target, taking one less club. This will keep the flight down and increase roll, as you're delofting the club.

Now, all that said, if you have some extra cash lying around, why not try it? You may find that you use the club well, but with a smaller swing to limit distance.

__________________
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.

The full explaination of club selection is done best by Pelz in his short game bible. He goes through stats to show why most players have the absolute WRONG clubs in the bag.

I find his arguements overwhelming convincing for the amateur, and maybe a little less so for the pro, and I'll cut to the chase. To see the math, buy the book.

REQUIRED:

1. Putter
2. Flop wedge 64
3. Lob wedge 60
4. Sand wedge 54-56
5. True pitch wedge or for most sets, a gap or attack wedge 50-52
6. Driver

Now that you have these, I would venture that the next clubs added are preselected for the course based on what club you need for the pars threes.

If you fight a hook or a slice, remember that a higher lofted club swung harder is always better than more club swung easier (unless you can't control it.) This is due to great backspin that overwhelms the side spin that causes slices. If you have 300 yards to the green from the fairway, from a stats perspective the AVERAGE golfer is far better dividing it into two 150 yard hits with a seven iron rather than going with a two iron and a attack wedge.

Finally, some type of a resue club.

To prove this to yourself, the easiest way is to track every hit, mark the club and the distance. You'll see that you really shouldn't have some clubs in the bag. The easiest way to do this is with the Intelligolf program, which you can Google.

Theo "I Bug Myself With All The Stuff My Brain Has Accumilated" Logic

Im gonna buy 2 drivers from walmart