9ClubberLang

Yes, normally in a field. It's amazing what you can find!

That's about as minimalist as a golf club is ever likely to cost!

Thank you! It's great to have people to chat about this stuff with.

Yes I've always been puzzled with some views in other threads and other forums that have touched on playing half sets etc. On occassion there is the view that "minimalists think they're better than the rest of us" which seems a very strange conclusion to reach to me. As someone who has read every page of this thread I can't remember ever getting that impression once. I'm sure you would all be great to play with! I must admit I do always smile though when I see someone who has written "I ONLY play with 13 clubs!" Haha that one always tickles me. But I think in here we're happy for anyone to play any number of clubs as long as it's legal if they were in a competition. I'm really enjoying playing: Driver 5 Wood 4 Hybrid 6 Iron 8 Iron PW SW Putter Without driver or putter I would really struggle though. I need those two specialists! I'm enjoying how naturally things become now I've had a run of playing this set-up. I'm gripping down the club, feet closer together etc. without consciously thinking about it! My club selection is made before I get to the ball, and more of my time is being spent on how to hit the shot. It's a lot of fun.

I've always played something like a Ping G iron. I kept equipment for a very long time, so many clubs have passed me by. I have found I like to chip with a PW a fair percentage of the time but often game improvement clubs can be a bit hot off of the face. I haven't got on particularly well with a specialist wedge in this position either. I found an old Ping i5 PW up for sale really cheaply recently and loved the feel and way it looked behind the ball. I need to adapt, but I've hit more controlled chips in its first two rounds than I ever have with anything else. It made me curious as to how I could get on with an i series club throughout my irons, so I've been really fortunate and found a 5-PW set of i210's in my shaft in really good condition. I've only played once. They feel absolutely amazing! The distance drop-off is no where near as bad as I thought and I'm really excited to get to know them better. I can see why they are so well thought of.

Another few rounds logged. Although I still don't have masses of data, I can tell now that the 8 club set-up isn't hurting my scores relative to my "full-bag" in any meaningful way. My last three rounds with set-up 3 have seen me putt woefully, or else my green line would be trending significantly lower. I've played enough with the three 8 club set-ups to know set-up 3 is the one. I never feel I don't have a club I can do something with. The other two set-ups felt lacking and not fitting precisely with my game. Within this set-up though the individual club choices still greatly impact how successful I can be so I have been tweaking. Each club really feels as though it needs to be individually selected for it's role in the bag. Driver - No change. I play a 44.75 Mavrik and it's the best driver I've ever owned. 5W - I have been experimenting with this at 18⁰ and 19⁰. It's an Epic Flash and really suits my eye from the tee and the ground. 4H - I've switched from a 23⁰ 5H to a 22⁰ 4H (Steelhead XR) to provide more of a gap to my 6 iron. 6 Iron - at 26⁰ (Steelhead XR) 8 Iron - at 34.5⁰ (Steelhead XR) PW - Recently switched from 44⁰ to 46⁰ SW - Recently switched from a 54.12S to a 54.8D My short game is the area where I needed the most improvement. I've made two changes here I'm really excited about. Pitching Wedge I don't know if others have faced this problem but the PW is a really important club for me in the bag (I chip a lot with it) but struggle with the selection. As iron lofts are so strong nowadays this provides a large loft gap to a SW in this set-up. I often find the iron set PW a bit hot when chipping even though this was a 2017 iron. I don't hit a specialised (blade) wedge well when playing full shots. I find a full cavity back wedge too clunky (e.g. CBX) when chipping. An inbetweener such as the MIzuno S23 or Ping Glide I find I lose significant distance on full shots. I wondered if a different iron in a brands range would be the best way to tackle this. I.e. play the 6 & 8 iron in a Ping G, and the PW in a Ping i. Or the 6 & 8 in the 300 and the PW in the 200 for Titleist/Callaway players. Etc. Anyway, I recently found an old Ping i5 PW cheaply online. With 46⁰ of loft it eradicates my lack of GW worries as it is closer to my SW loft wise. Size wise it looks perfect to me. It seems like old Ping i irons are somewhat in the middle of modern day Ping G and Ping i irons. It's slightly larger than my Ping Glide. I've had a chip in the garden and it feels really soft and not at all hot. It looks so good behind the ball. I'm really excited about how many shots this club could save me. I'm yet to play it on the course, I only received it yesterday. Sand Wedge I've never been brave enough to go with less bounce but I've recently tried a Mizuno T22 54.8D and in these very dry summer conditions it's been a revelation. It sits so tightly to the ground I feel I can't miss. I think I've been playing too much bounce for how hard the ground is. My Ping Glide 4.0 with 12⁰ of bounce is great, but not for this time of year in these conditions. Sorry, that was a bit of a long post! I'm learning lots from everyone's posts in here and from my own experiments. I'm hoping my scores soon reflect this.

Maybe this doesn't make too much difference in practice, but often with wedge design 52/54 is the split where groove design, shaping etc is designed more with either a full shot or greenside emphasis. I.e. there's more than just a 2 degree loft change going on with this decision. I haven't ever really used a 52 too much so can't comment on actual real-world experience out on the course using a 52 for a whole multitude of short-game shots.

Although an even loft distribution seems logical I've found this doesn't work best for me. I've found that relatively normal gaps at the top of my bag transitioning into ever increasing gaps as I get into the short clubs works better. This provides better distance gaps for me. As per @Tommy56's advice the distance gaps are more important than static loft. Shorter shots are more suited to partial swings anyway so I can have as little as a 4 degree gap between my longest iron and hybrid, and 10-12 degrees between wedges.