How many clubs do you carry in your bag for recreational play

[Wakit300]

Wow, let's see ... the rules say 14 clubs max, I play with 14 clubs.

EXCEPT in the winter when I'll carry about 9. I'll switch between odd and even irons from round to round.

[Marty2Shanks]

Usually 14…although at times I have gone with 8-9 just to see how I’d score (usually close to the same).  My 14 club makeup does change depending on the course…typically by dropping a wedge and adding a second driver (one fade bias, one draw bias).  Other than that it is driver, FW wood, two hybrids, 5-9 Iron, 3-4 wedges, putter.

[ShortGameSavesLies]

D,5w,3h, 5-Pw, 46,50,54,58, P.

All serve a purpose

[MCMSR]

Usually, carry 14. However, depending on the tees/conditions &/or what I need/want to work on, I’ll mix the setup to ‘every-other, odd/even’ …. 
So, it may be only 7/8 clubs total — Makes for different hole-by-hole strategies, shot selections, etc. 

[AndySP]

Since I haven’t seen any other minimalists, here’s my bag of 11:

Driver

4-PW

51, 57

Putter

I take these because I haven’t yet stood over a shot on the courses I usually play thinking, “I wish I had x club,” I just bring these.  There is obviously a big gap between my Driver and 4iron, but I don’t find myself in that distance very often, so it doesn’t bother me. I could reconfigure my wedges, but they are expensive and I’m comfortable with my gaps there too (15-20 yards).

But, every once in a while I will add one of either a 4 wood, 3 hybrid or 2/driving iron if im somewhere different and I think adding one would be better. 

[Roomspimp]

I always limit my bag to 14 so there is no need to remove anything. I have always been paranoid that I would forget the extra club and be DQ'd from an event. I do shuffle the long clubs depending on how I'm playing. Normally I carry a 3 wood, 2 hybrid, and a 3 iron. If I'm struggling with the 3 iron I will swap it out for a second hybrid but I prefer the shape I get with the 3 iron. I have, occasionally, removed my driver and added a 60 degree wedge. That is only if I'm playing somewhere really tight or short. 

[Ryan M]

This is something I am struggling with right now. I have 15 clubs:
Driver
3W
3H
4-9, PW, GW (8)
GW (yeah 2...), SW, LW
Putter

I know typical wisdom would say to drop one of the GW, but one came with my set and is distance gapped to the PW. The other is a 50* Vokey or Cleveland (depending on which one hasn't been naughty lately). I wouldn't drop the GW that matches my irons because it is gapped right, and there are occasions I love the 50*.

I have been considering dropping my 3H, but have been hitting it great the last few weeks. Have thought about dropping the 4i, but I love that club off the tee.

What do others think? Even though I have been hitting it good, and it can get me out of trouble, I feel like I need to drop the 3H from the bag, at least if I were to play in anything official.

[GolferXY]

I keep 14 in the bag, but I do a lot of fiddling about with wedges, rotating between bounces for different lies.  I keep  the 50, 56, 60 in the bag and have a 52, 54, and 58 that I keep in a small Sunday bag.  Course, conditions, and confidence make the decision on which I use.

Edit: After re-reading this post I wanted to clarify that I don't carry both bags at the same time! 

Sunday bag stays in the truck bed when I play for realz.

Edited August 7 by GolferXY

[GolferXY]

1 minute ago, Ryan M said:

This is something I am struggling with right now. I have 15 clubs:
Driver
3W
3H
4-9, PW, GW (8)
GW (yeah 2...), SW, LW
Putter

I know typical wisdom would say to drop one of the GW, but one came with my set and is distance gapped to the PW. The other is a 50* Vokey or Cleveland (depending on which one hasn't been naughty lately). I wouldn't drop the GW that matches my irons because it is gapped right, and there are occasions I love the 50*.

I have been considering dropping my 3H, but have been hitting it great the last few weeks. Have thought about dropping the 4i, but I love that club off the tee.

What do others think? Even though I have been hitting it good, and it can get me out of trouble, I feel like I need to drop the 3H from the bag, at least if I were to play in anything official.

There's a couple of places that may overlap isn't there?  I'm looking at the 3w, 3h, 4 iron.  And of course the GW and GW.  With my game, that hybrid would be dropped.  I've become a wedge junky and understand keeping a couple of clubs that say "GW".  If they both do different jobs, and you play them both well, there's no reason to drop one just for the sake of  being one of the 'cool kids' 

[RetiredBoomer]

All joking aside,

I, as a rider in my old age,
would be perfectly content to stack sixteen or seventeen clubs in my bag,
but only if somebody made a cart bag with that many full-length dividers
which I've come to need now that I'm used to them.

They relieve anxiety over having left a club out on the course which,
when I was young and really couldn't afford to do that,
I did that.

I'd be content to bag seventeen, but I certainly don't NEED to bag seventeen. 

In fairness, however, I have to say that fourteen is certainly ONE fewer than I want.
I honestly feel that fourteen clubs leave me one club short
of what's comfortable to feel like I have every likely shot covered,

at least from the standpoint of equipment if not skill.

 

 

[Ryan M]

38 minutes ago, GolferXY said:

There's a couple of places that may overlap isn't there?  I'm looking at the 3w, 3h, 4 iron.  And of course the GW and GW.  With my game, that hybrid would be dropped.  I've become a wedge junky and understand keeping a couple of clubs that say "GW".  If they both do different jobs, and you play them both well, there's no reason to drop one just for the sake of  being one of the 'cool kids' 

I should have probably clarified a little here.

3W - 240ish
3H - 220ish
4i - 220ish

There is a significant gap between 3W and 3H/4i. The issue is if I am in the rough >200yds out, I will take the 3H at it whereas I don't think I can get my 4i through the rough.

PW - 120yds
GW (Matching Irons) - 110yds
50* (Vokey/Cleveland) - 95yds
56* - 80yds

I could drop the 50* and keep the GW that matches my irons, but that 50* is nice when I want to bump & run a green, rather than play a little higher like I will with the 56 or 60*.

All told, the 50* is the most likely club for me to drop, even though I like it in the bag. Basically anything less than 110yds I try to play more of a touch shot. I don't like taking full swings with my 50* and higher wedges.

Edited August 7 by Ryan M

[RetiredBoomer]

There's one thing we don't talk about when discussing the fourteen club rule, and that's gapping.

Sometimes, we who want more than fourteen could easily get down to fourteen
if the clubs were custom made from scratch in the gapping we want.

Bending is a band aid that impacts the designer's intended sole / turf interaction.
Ideally, a clubhead is made from scratch for the loft it will have. Lie is different.

In other words, it would be easy to pare down to fourteen
if we could tell the clubmaker exactly which fourteen to build for us.

Obviously, it's easy to understand how nobody is going to make tooling for every individual club that a customer might want.   Were it possible, though, it would be great.

In the meantime, I love 15-slot cart bags.

Edited August 7 by RetiredBoomer

[GolferXY]

17 minutes ago, Ryan M said:

I could drop the 50* and keep the GW that matches my irons, but that 50* is nice when I want to bump & run a green, rather than play a little higher like I will with the 56 or 60*.

I understand what you mean.  I used to use a 7 iron for those bump and runs but I can't play blades anymore, and player's distance irons are too hot to use for any delicate shotmaking.  I keep the 50 in the bag for the same reasons.  Now that the greens are starting to get baked out earlier and earlier in the year, I've gone to my 60 for many of the touch shots around the green because it gets so difficult to hold the green with the low runners.

[civic]

If I'm not going to use my round for GHIN purposes I will play 15 clubs but if I'm going to use my round for handicap then I will use 14 clubs.

[BIG STU]

See my signature. I found out about a month or so ago I only need 11 to get around my track. I had been playing like 7 in my vintage rounds and shot within 4 or 5 shots of what I played my regular club set with 14. I did some evaluating and found out I can still hit the 3 wood but got into too much trouble with it. In fact my fault it cost me a tournament like a month ago trying a "hero" shot. After I pulled it out I had the same shot and put it by the green with the 7 wood wedged up and got par. I pulled the 9 wood out because even because I can hit it good I hit the 5&6 iron better. I only carry like 3 wedges as SOP. The low bounce 58 works well in our poorly maintained greenside traps. If I play one of the neighboring courses with fluffy greenside bunkers I throw either my old Hogan Sure Out or Ping Eye2 LW in. For me simpler is better.

FTR--- I could care less if some of you carry 15 or 16 clubs and really no one in my league gives 2 rips either

[RetiredBoomer]

1 minute ago, BIG STU said:

If I play one of the neighboring courses with fluffy greenside bunkers I throw either my old Hogan Sure Out or Ping Eye2 LW in. For me simpler is better.

 

Curious about the Ping Eye 2 wedge....the LW has the same offset as the set's 1-iron. That doesn't bug you? 

I like an old fashioned oval-faced sand iron with the curved leading edge looking ON-SET to the shaft
the way they used to be in the old days.   

However, since they still don't make a cart bag with seventeen full-length dividers, I've learned to hit a turf-playable wedge from the sand---even though I'd be more comfortable with a sand specialty club.

I wish I could play with a minimal set like you, but I don't have the shot-making versatility. 
Fifteen seem just right to me.    

Here's a little irony.  If you like fifteen clubs for everyday play, but have to pare down to fourteen for a couple of events a year, taking out one of the fifteen clubs doesn't do the trick.  You almost always have to take out TWO clubs and have a 16th club to replace them!

With me, it's replacing 4- and 7-woods with a 5.  In other words, I have three matching fairway woods so I can play 
either one or two!  Yes, my mind really loves to mess me up.   

 

 

 

[BIG STU]

5 minutes ago, RetiredBoomer said:

Curious about the Ping Eye 2 wedge....the LW has the same offset as the set's 1-iron. That doesn't bug you? 

I like an old fashioned oval-faced sand iron with the curved leading edge looking ON-SET to the shaft
the way they used to be in the old days.   

However, since they still don't make a cart bag with seventeen full-length dividers, I've learned to hit a turf-playable wedge from the sand---even though I'd be more comfortable with a sand specialty club.

I wish I could play with a minimal set like you, but I don't have the shot-making versatility. 
Fifteen seem just right to me.    

Here's a little irony.  If you like fifteen clubs for everyday play, but have to pare down to fourteen for a couple of events a year, taking out one of the fifteen clubs doesn't do the trick.  You almost always have to take out TWO clubs and have a 16th club to replace them!

With me, it's replacing 4- and 7-woods with a 5.  In other words, I have three matching fairway woods so I can play 
either one or two!  Yes, my mind really loves to mess me up.   

 

 

 

LOL this is going to sound crazy. As you get to know me you will find out I have some weird ideas and think outside the box. Normally as an everyday player the offset would bother me. In this case it does not. But if I need to use it on the course that day and look. If the offset bothers me that day then I pack the Old Hogan. Yeah I know right field weird. I will venture you are a pretty smart guy in the fact you identified that I have the ability to create different shots with the same club. Lots of folks that do not really know me do not pick up on that too soon. They are like WTH? The old timers on here that know me know all about that aspect of my game

[zengineer]

14 any time I am playing. I didn't expect so many different answers.

It's often a different 14. Wedges, long irons and hybrids come and go but it's always one in / one out.