Problem: I can’t hit any iron above a 9-iron reliably, and the contact for those long irons as I practice/attempt to fix them is painful and potentially damaging. I am driving it well.
Question: Fewer clubs would make it easier to focus on practice, and not hitting long irons would save me some pain. Can I get by with a driver, a three wood, and 9-iron or less and play bogey-golf or better?
My attempt to answer this question will trace an imaginary 9-hole round through TPC Potomac from the Silver tees.
1: 400 yards. 210 drive leaves 190 in. Full 9-iron leaves 70 yards. Full 60deg (slightly delofted) should leave a par putt.
2: 495 yards: 210 drive to left rough leaves 295. 170-yard 3-wood leaves 125. 9-iron leaves us on front of green or just short. Either a chip up and a par putt or a birdie putt.
3: 185 yards: Either tee up a three wood high and try a high fade from the left or lay up with a pitching wedge to short of the hazard and get on with a slightly opened 60deg. Either should leave a putt for par.
4: 362 yards. 210 yard drive leaves 152 yard approach. I can try to hit a stinger with the nine and get on the front edge. If I’m short, I can get up and down for par, as long as I stay left of the right greenside bunker. I could also potentially punch a 3w.
5: 312: 210-yard drive towards the center fairway bunker should leave a comfortable 9-iron or pitching wedge to the green. Either way, I should have either a birdie putt or a chance at an up and down.
6: 422 par-4. The meat of the golf course. 210 drive to the left rough leaves 212 yards in. I could try to knock a 3-wood close to the green, but my safest option is to knock a pitching wedge 107 yards (since there’s a tight corner and trees, safer than 91), leaving 105 in. Hopefully another pitching wedge will give me a par putt, though I’ll happily take 5 on this beast of a hole.
7: 395. A 210 drive leaves me 185 in. It’s pretty open, so I’d go for a 3-wood. At worst, this should leave me with a 15-20yd pitch. At best, I’m on the green putting for birdie.
8: 415. A 210-yard drive leaves 205 in. Once again, it’s fairly open, so I’ll hit 3-wood towards the left-center of the fairway, and the hill will probably push it towards the center, leaving me perhaps a 30-40yard pitch, and if I hit that well, a par putt.
9: 155: No laying up here, because of the big gully in front. This one’s a toughie for this plan. What happens if I grip down on a teed-up 3-wood?
Conclusion:
This plan is doable, with the exception of the 9th hole, where the distance is challenging. I might be able to bail out long and left with a high 3-wood choked up, but it wouldn’t be easy. This seems like a decent path forward to practice, and presumably, once I groove my woods and short irons/wedges, I’ll eventually be able to hit long irons.
Shots to practice:
- Driver:
- Straight and 210+.
- High and low.
- 230+ extra-gear.
- 3-wood.
- High cut off the tee (for par-3) (175-85).
- High 140-150yd choke-up tee shot.
- Straight shot off the deck (175+)
- 9-iron:
- 115-yard full draw
- 120-yard extra gear
- 150-yard runner.
- Pitching wedge
- 105-yard draw
- 110-yard extra gear
- 10-yard low pitch
- 20-yard low pitch
- 40-yard-low-pitch
- 50-yard low pitch
- Gap Wedge (48deg)
- 95-yard draw
- 100-yard extra gear
- 56deg wedge
- 85-yard draw
- Sand shots
- 60deg wedge
- 65-yard high draw
- 75-yard high extra gear
- 10-yard high
- 20-yard high
- 30-yard high
- 40-yard high
- 50-yard high
