But these aren’t the only ways to reduce your scores. Others exist that don’t involve visiting the range or taking golf lessons. One is by expanding your bag. Reducing scores this way is just a matter of putting more thought into what you carry when you play and increasing your range of options. Put simply, it’s a matter of tailoring your bag to the courses you play.
To do this, you must account for key variables like the weather, the course, and the shots you expect to play on a course that day. Tailoring your bag to fit these variables increases your ability to meet the challenges you expect when playing. And that, as we tell students in our golf instruction sessions, helps lower scores.
Here are several golf tips on how you to expand your bag to chop strokes off your scores and golf handicap:
Customize your driver
This used to be hard to do, but no more. Today’s driver technology lets you interchange clubheads and shafts to customize your drive quickly and easily. All you need is a wrench. The biggest benefit of this approach, though, isn’t saving time. It’s using the same setup and swing to hit different types of shots.
If you want more run say on a cold day, you can pair a longer shaft with a less-lofted clubhead. This produces a shallower angle of attack and reduces backspin. If you want to hit higher shots on a shorter fairway, you can pair a shorter shaft with a more lofted clubhead. This produces a steeper angle of attack and increases backspin.
Interchange your hybrids and long irons
Interchanging your hybrids and your long irons is another fruitful way to expand your bag. Substituting a 3-iron for a 3 hybrid on certain courses, for instance, lets you use the same swing to address different lies. Your choice of hybrid or iron obviously depends on the course you play.
For the most part, use your hybrids to do the heavy lifting. They work on most courses. They average about 10 yards more than your irons and are quite versatile. Hybrids are great for playing a longer course with heavier rough. But if you’re playing a shorter course with lighter rough, use a longer iron, which takes a smaller divot.
Keep one thing in mind when interchanging hybrids and irons. You must match your hybrid’s lie angle and shaft specs to the rest of your irons. Otherwise, you’ll have to tailor your swing to the club you’re using.
Tailor the wedges to your lies
Many PGS pros do this expertly. Phil Mickleson, for example, carries 5 wedges. A pitching wedge, a gap wedge, a sand wedge, and two lob wedges—a 60-degree and a 64-degree. The last two might seem redundant, since you can hit flop shots with both clubs. But Phil’s strategy is sound as we explain below.
The 60-degree wedge has about 10 degrees of bounce. That makes it the “go to” club for facing shots around the green or when the ground is spongy. The 64-degree wedge has about 6-degrees of bounce. That makes it ideal for shots that require you to slip the leading edge under the ball, like when you have a tight lie.
Match the ball and the putterface
The key with putting is whether you’re using a harder or a softer ball. When hitting a harder ball, like a Callaway Tour ix, use a putter with a softer putterface. Switch to a putter with a harder putterface when using a softer ball, like Callaway’s HX Tour. The difference is noticeable.
Keep in mind the ball will come off the two putterface differently when you switch, so you’ll have to adjust to the putterface you’re using that day. Hitting the practice green before playing helps resolve this issue
The golf tips above are just some of the ways you can expand your bag. Others exist. Done correctly, expanding your bag can help you chop strokes off your golf handicap and break 80. The biggest benefit with this approach is being able to hit different shots without changing either setup or swing.