As I was cleaning my clubs this evening, I noticed a curious thing: the five iron was spotless. The grooves on the face of every other club in the bag had little bits of dirt and grass, but not the five iron.
The obvious implication is that I don’t use the five. I wonder why. It’s not that I can’t hit the longer irons. I am very effective with the four, and that club gets a lot of play. And lately I’ve been perfectly deadly with the six.
But the five is the odd man out.
I suppose it all has to do with the distances I find myself off the tee and the distances I want for my approach. On par fives, a typical sequence is driver-six-nine because I know a full swing with the nine will reliably get me on the middle of the green. If the drive is short or the hole particularly long, it might be driver-5w-nine. On long fours, it’s typically driver-six, and on short fours, four iron-eight or nine. Five just gets left out.
Given that, I’m thinking about replacing the five with something else—perhaps another wedge. I’m thinking of picking up a Cleveland Niblick to offer some more options around the green.
Check your bag. See what’s your least used club and think of some things you might use to replace it. Leave a comment and let us know.
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I’m much the same, my 5 iron and 4 iron to a lesser degree doesn’t get used much. I’m usually hitting anywhere from a 7 iron to sand wedge into most par 4’s. Par 3’s is the same as well.
The 5 iron is also my least used club with my 7 wood close behind. I cannot get rid of my 5 though as that would leave me with a large yardage gap.
Mine is the 8-iron, but I haven’t decided what to replace it with. I’m going back to school with a PGA pro next month to relearn my swing and figure out my game; I’ll evaluate the clubs in my bag during and after that.