Ambidextrous?

I am a right hander. I recently hit a ball into the rough slightly under a thorn bush off the left side of the fairway. Playing the ball was difficult and painful with my right handed clubs and in fact I only managed to clear the bushes by a few yards. It occurred to me that I might have been better with a left handed club, which would have allowed me to stand facing the bush and take the shot. A colleague told me that he’d once seen a double sided pitching wedge although I think a better solution would be to take a left handed PW because I use the right handed PW so often that I wouldn’t want to compromise that.



I only carry 12 clubs normally so an extra one (or two) would be allowed but what do the rules say about carrying the wrong handed club or a double-sider?



TIA





Rich

The double sider you speak of is known as a 'dual chipper'. It's a club designed for chipping using a putting stroke, rather than using chipping form with a wedge (or iron).

I'm not aware of any rule regarding the handedness of the clubs in your bag. If you want to carry a left-handed club, it's probably ok. (and not a bad idea if you're just looking to take a stroke to improve your lie).

There is no rule about having a left handed club in your bag, but the two way chippers do not conform to USGA rules for club face requirements:

c. Striking Faces
The clubhead must have only one striking face, except that a putter may have two such faces if their characteristics are the same, and they are opposite each other.

A person at my golf club plays right handed and putts left handed in competitions. Their is no rule for it and he hasn't been pulled up for it so it must be okay

We cleared up that it isn't illegal but, since my game is getting better, I'm finding a use for more clubs (recently adding a lob wedge 64 degree and a 7 wood rescue to the bag) so the luxury of a left handed wedge is no longer an option.

I think it was Greg that suggested a hit with a righthand wedge using with the toe turned down. Did anyone else try it?

I experimented a bit and I'd recomend waiting till the range is empty because I managed to hit a few balls accross the stalls! I modified the technique a little to use a 3 iron (my longest iron) which I use because it has the least loft. I put the ball well back in the stance to close the clubs natural loft, which now is left right instead of up down. Then I turn the club a little so that the toe is forward of the heel creating loft because the club is the wrong way up.

With some practice, it is possible to clear the rubbish and hit the fairway forward of the current position which is better than loosing two shots. Worse case is that you don't clear the rough and need another shot with a short iron or recovery wood but this is still better than a drop from the original position.

On the other hand, its probably better to work on the right shot not to get in this mess in the first place rather than taking time to perfect the recovery.

Yes, turing your club over and hhitting left handed is a great tool if you get into trouble.

You mentioned that you added a 7 wood - did that replace your 4/5 irons or do you still have those as well?

Hi,

I have a tip for this situation.

If you stand with your back to the target and your club in your right hand(right handed player) then swing the club from front to back.

It's a very easy shot to learn and works very well as you are using your strong arm, I can hit around 40yds this way.


Hope this helps.

Ian.

P.s It may be better to work on the problem why you were there in the first, place. only joking

I suppose trick shots could be the new trend in the golf world. Perhaps I can learn a few and get Nike to sponsor them for adverts like Tiger Woods's bouncing the ball on a 7-iron! You're right though, less time mucking around with trick shots and more time on the short game would probably have a much better payoff.

Hi Gord, what did you mean get rid of the 4/5 irons? Did you replace them with hybrids or wedges? I still have wood 1,3,5,7 and i3-9,P,S,64*. Since I got better with the woods from the ground as apposed to a tee, I've found that I use the i3&4 much less as my distances are pretty much the same with i3 and w5. Where is the advantage to the longer irons over a wood with the same distance?

Rich

If the clubs perform similar in all aspects, there is no advantage in keeping both in your bag, especially if you no longer use one of them. This is where you could add another club to close some gaps up in your bag.

Since over 1/2 your shots per round come from inside 150 yards, you may want to consider a gap wedge. Also, what is the degree on your SW? If you have a 54 - 56 degree SW, you may want to move from a 64 degree LW to a 60 degree LW.

Yes, I've a 56 SW and 64 L. I like the 64 because, along with the 7 iron, it is about the only club that I can get accurate distance and direction (at least by my standards). I'll probably try to get rid of a longer iron in favour of a 60 L because I'm loosing most shots around the short game.

The overlap between my long irons and short woods is currently well within my tollerance band in terms of distance. I still find that I hit irons straighter than woods but get more accurate distance with the woods. When I get better and my woods are straight, I'll look at lightening the bag.

Great discussion though.

Hi Rich,

What you could also do is taylor you bag as to what type of course you are playing. I have a whole closet full of clubs and depending on where I am playing and the weather conditions determines what clubs I bring with me. For example, if I was playing a course that plays 7,200 yards on a windy day, I have a 6* driver I bring along to keep my drives low when hitting into the wind (I still keep my 10* driver in the bag for hitting with the wind). Because of the length of the course, I would probably need longer fairway clubs, so I drop the 64* wedge from my bag so I can accomodate the extra driver. Same conditions on a 6500 yard course I would drop the 3W instead of a wedge because the 3W would probably never leave my bag on a short couse anyway. It always pays to have some extra clubs, just make sure when you go to the range to put all the clubs in your bag so you can practice hitting all of them.

__________________
Gord

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