Using Your Best Club for the Best Results

/ The Grateful Golfer

Everyone has a great club in their bag. You know the club that you reach for when you need that great shot. I have several, but there is always two clubs I depend upon all the time to be my great equalizer. I have honed their use over the years and realized that they have saved my scores on multiple occasions. 

The two most dependable clubs in my back are my Driver and Putter. I am not really sure why, but my confidence with these two clubs is very high. I will admit that sometimes I struggle with them, but overall, they work way more often than not. They set the stage for many of my rounds; however, this may not be the case for everyone:

Your dependable club is unique to you. I have watched players use a 7-iron for most of their round and even out of the a bunker. I talked to one player who likes to use their 5 iron as a chipper. I have played with someone who used their putter everywhere within 10 yards of the green. My point to this minor diatribe is that the reason they have a dependable club is they use it more than any other club.

They practice and practice with their “billy baroo” by using during real situations. I often wonder where their game would be if they shared all that practice time with their other clubs.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I am hooked on Dustin Johnson’s approach to golf. For someone who hits the ball as long and straight as he does, I was surprised when he said “I SPEND 80 PERCENT OF MY PRACTICE TIME ON WEDGE SHOTS.” He decided a few years back that to be the best, he had to practice the weakest aspect of his game – his wedges. Well, his approach seems to work because he is ranked number 1 in the world for a total of 57 weeks.

I like Johnson’s approach and think I need to adopt it. I need to start focusing a bit more time on my weak clubs. It will be uncomfortable and frustrating, but I think it will help lower my golf scores. I am not going to abandon practicing with my driver and putter completely, but cutting back on my driver practice might help. I am not, however, going to cut back on my putting practice because that is the cornerstone of my game.

Any thoughts?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the range!

8 thoughts on “Using Your Best Club for the Best Results”

  1. Jim, gap wedge is my go to club. But the DJ practice article really resonated with me. I’m now trying to emulate and am using 80% of my practice balls for four different wedge shots. One with the gap wedge and three with the sand wedge. So far so good on the practice tee. Need to battle test this on the course though.

    Thanks,

    Brian

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  2. The practice that I do tends to be fairly evenly spread across all clubs – with the exception of the putter, which I never practise with. I know, I know ….. But I do perhaps try to put a little more time in with any club that I’m not currently feeling especially comfortable with – at the moment, that’s my 3 wood off the tee. Cheers, Rob.

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  3. It only makes sense to practice the things you are worst at. You can’t expect to get better at them unless you do. That doesn’t mean we can’t fall back on our favorites when the situation allows and scoring is paramount.

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    • Kevin,

      I agree. However, I have watched players hit their best club over and over again on the range. They pickup their worst club, hit it twice and relegate it to bag for the round. Does not seem the right way to get better, but how am I to judge I guess.

      Cheers
      Jim

      Like

      Reply

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