- 2 days ago
5 Clubs Every High Handicap Golfer Needs!
Joe Ferguson runs through the 5 golf clubs every high handicapper needs
Joe Ferguson runs through the 5 golf clubs every high handicapper needs
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00:00As a PGA professional, I play in a lot of pro-am tournaments
00:03with golfers of all different levels of abilities,
00:07believe me.
00:08Now one of the most frustrating things I see in those events
00:10is those amateurs using golf equipment
00:12that really isn't doing them any favors.
00:15So I've come here to Stoke Park today
00:17to pick out five clubs that I really think
00:19could benefit high handicap golfers.
00:21Let's take a look.
00:30The first club I would really like you to consider using
00:40if you are a high handicapper
00:42is one of these very high lofted fairway woods
00:45like this nine wood, this G430 nine wood from Ping
00:48that I've got in my hands.
00:49It's got 24 degrees of loft and everything about it
00:52is screaming help to get you, get the ball airborne.
00:55A lot of the higher handicappers I play with
00:58tend to have some slower swing speeds
00:59and can struggle to get the ball airborne
01:02as high as they would like
01:03and get the ball stopping on the green.
01:04Everything about this is designed to help you with that.
01:07We've got, as I said, 24 degrees of loft.
01:09We've got a super shallow face
01:11just to help you get under the ball and scoop it up.
01:14And it just makes your life an awful lot easier.
01:16And don't be fooled into thinking
01:17this is just a high handicap option.
01:19People like Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood,
01:22Matt Fitzpatrick, even Tyrrell Hatton I think
01:24have all toyed with at least seven woods
01:27but potentially nine woods too.
01:29And it's just such a useful club.
01:30So just from a fairway position like this,
01:32well I'm on the tee admittedly,
01:34but the ball's on the ground.
01:35As soon as I put that in behind the ball,
01:37I just get so much confidence.
01:39I can see so much face of the club.
01:41The head's nice and shallow.
01:42It's almost sitting below the level of the ball.
01:45And then you just put like a nice normal swing on it.
01:49And it basically, it's taking off up my nose,
01:53not too, too spinny, lands super, super soft.
01:57And even with, and admittedly,
01:59I've got a reasonably high level of swing speed,
02:02but in slower swing speed hands,
02:04it's the same principle.
02:05That CG location, that shallow face,
02:07everything is helping you get the ball up.
02:09And it's not just off the fairway, it's super versatile.
02:12If I move forward just a foot or so here,
02:14into this kind of semi rough,
02:15and I give myself a not great lie there.
02:17I just tap that on the head,
02:18get it down nestled in that grass a bit.
02:21That would be a bit of a challenge.
02:22Even for me with a four iron, five iron,
02:26I'd really need to have a really precise strike
02:28to get that out.
02:29And even then it would probably come out quite flat.
02:32Again, as soon as I pop that in behind the ball,
02:36the amount of face I'm seeing
02:37and the kind of bigger footprint of that nine wood head,
02:42I know I can just chop that out.
02:44And that's basically got the exact same flight
02:47as it did off the fairway.
02:48So it just makes life so, so much easier
02:51than battling away and trying to pierce those long irons
02:53and get that precise strike.
02:55So really give some consideration
02:57to popping a nine wood in your bag.
03:04Another club that I really think
03:06higher handicappers could benefit,
03:07certainly the ones that I've played with,
03:09is a chipper like this one from Ping.
03:12Now when I play these Pro-Am tournaments,
03:13I see a lot of people when they're missing greens,
03:16pulling out lob wedges, sand wedges,
03:18and with a very thin sole of those golf clubs,
03:21the margin for error on strike can be pretty, pretty tight.
03:26So something like this chipper,
03:27that's got this really wide sole,
03:29it's beveled on both edges to make sure it doesn't dig in,
03:33is really useful for turf interaction.
03:35Also, it's built very, very upright,
03:38so you can get your hands in a nice high position.
03:40It's pretty much putter lie angle.
03:43And because of that, you can more or less use
03:44your putting stroke, just to make sure
03:47we're brushing the grass.
03:48The ball will just pop off gently
03:50and you can treat it like a putt.
03:51There's no margin for error with strike.
03:53You're not worried about trying to pinch the ball or nip it.
03:56You're just literally brushing the grass
03:58on the way through, dead level of the ground,
04:00and trusting that the loft on this face
04:02will pop it up and deliver it.
04:03So again, I even use my putting grip
04:05when using this chipper.
04:07So reverse overlap grip,
04:09and just a rock of the shoulders,
04:11and trust that the ball will just elevate off the face
04:15and start releasing out towards the hole.
04:18So decent result there, I'm in about three feet.
04:20You're pretty happy with that.
04:21It just takes out any risk of a duff or a thin.
04:25So as soon as you start putting risks into it
04:28and trying to pinch that strike,
04:30the margin for error just goes through the roof.
04:32A chipper like this, from all sorts of lies,
04:34I've given myself a great lie on that first one.
04:37If I just go down in a little depression there,
04:39that's down in a hole, that's pretty nasty.
04:41Again, I still don't have to do much more
04:44than just rock my shoulders and let it pop out.
04:46It's come out a little bit quicker, that one.
04:48It might even hit the pin.
04:49Very close, but again, pretty useful.
04:51Only a few foot past, and I've not duffed it in front of me,
04:54and I've not thinned it.
04:56One more time from a technique point of view.
04:58Nothing complicated.
05:00High hands, putting grip, rock your shoulders,
05:04and just let that ball pop up on the green.
05:06Release out, somewhere near the hole,
05:10three or four feet, and you'll save more parts.
05:18Okay, the broomstick.
05:19Now you might be thinking, what are you talking about?
05:22The broomstick's for the pros, I would never use that.
05:25Bear with me, hear me out.
05:27I play an awful lot of these programs, as I said,
05:29and one of the biggest culprits I see
05:31for people losing shots is missing these short putts,
05:35and one of the biggest reasons I see for that
05:37is people not being able to control
05:39the release of their hands.
05:41By that, I mean I see so many people
05:43kind of hitting cover drives with a normal putter,
05:46where they're holding onto this angle,
05:48not releasing the blade.
05:49That pushes the blade right,
05:51and then missing the putts right for a right-handed golfer.
05:54Conversely, you see the same thing the other way.
05:56When people are over-flicking their hands,
05:58you'll see how the butt end of that club,
06:01if I'm using the broom handle there,
06:03would protrude backwards,
06:04and that tends to mean you're adding loft,
06:06you can lose pace control,
06:08and you can even rotate the face too far left.
06:10So it's very, very difficult to control club face
06:13when you've got that type of stroke.
06:14Now, the more prudent answer might be to take some lessons
06:17and learn how to control your wrist
06:19to create more of a one-piece putting stroke,
06:21but not all of us have the time
06:22or even the inclination to do that,
06:25and I think the broom handle can be a real
06:27kind of cheat code for those players.
06:29So think about the technique of it.
06:30We're not anchoring,
06:31we know we're not allowed to press this into our sternum
06:33and keep it in place anymore,
06:35so I'm keeping a gentle gap here between this,
06:37but what I can do is I can make sure that my right hand,
06:40sorry, my left hand, my top hand here,
06:42doesn't move too far backwards and forwards.
06:44I've got a reference point near my sternum,
06:47and all that moves there is the right hand.
06:50So I've got a very consistent release pattern.
06:52I can't over-release it,
06:54I can't under-release it
06:55because that would involve that moving.
06:57So it takes out a really key variable.
07:01I've had a little dabble with it.
07:02On the longer putts, it takes some getting used to,
07:04but I've seen, you've obviously seen some tall success
07:06with it, the likes of Lucas Glover,
07:08Will Zalatouris, Adam Scott,
07:09using it really, really well.
07:12But from short range in particular,
07:14I've found it really, really useful.
07:16You can stand nice and tall,
07:18set the putter blade in there with just the left hand,
07:20keep that top hand still, release the putter blade,
07:23and it just feels like, like I said,
07:26just that little extra insurance
07:28that the putter's not going to go offline
07:30through any over or under release.
07:33So my key takeaway here,
07:34don't be afraid to experiment with some alternative
07:37putting style that might make sense mechanically,
07:40and I firmly believe the broomstick is one of them.
07:48Another club that I really think would benefit
07:50the high handicappers, again,
07:52comes for use around the green.
07:54There's a bit of a theme developing here
07:55in terms of short game,
07:56and it is a specialist sand wedge specifically for bunkers.
08:01Now, you might be thinking, hey,
08:02I've already got my Vokey, or my Jaws Raw,
08:04or my MG4, whatever it might be,
08:06but I still think there's clubs out there
08:07with just a little bit more help,
08:10like this Ram Easy Out wedge.
08:12And by extra help, I'm talking the sole geometry.
08:15We've got a monstrous sole here.
08:17It's really, really wide.
08:19It's cut out even deeper in the midsection
08:21directly behind the impact of the ball.
08:23And what that does is creates extra effective bounce.
08:27So when you set it up square,
08:28you might not feel much different.
08:29The leading edge will be a similar distance from the ground.
08:32All of a sudden, you lean that back,
08:34this huge back edge here kicks in,
08:37and will just act like a rudder through the sand,
08:39to help guide that club out of the sand a little bit easier,
08:43rather than having it dig and stick in.
08:44The amount of times I've played in these programs,
08:47where people have played a shot,
08:48the clubs, they've addressed it too square,
08:50the clubs just stuck in the sand,
08:52and it's flubbed a couple of feet in front of them.
08:54I see that all the time.
08:55And this, I honestly believe,
08:57can be a big help with that kind of problem.
09:00So you just play it like you would a normal bunker shot.
09:03Open up the blade here.
09:04I've got about 25 yard shot.
09:07So straight away, I can feel,
09:09I know I've got this back edge that's going to help me here.
09:12So as soon as I open the face there,
09:13I'm engaging that bounce,
09:14and all I've got to do,
09:16my job is just to slap this club into the sand,
09:18with the back edge.
09:20And once it goes in,
09:21that bounce will kick in,
09:22and it wants to come straight back out.
09:24So it really helps with that sand interaction.
09:27You can be as aggressive as you want.
09:30Pops out a dream really nicely.
09:33That's in there about four feet,
09:34really, really good.
09:35It just makes the,
09:36makes the journey through the sand,
09:38so much simpler and so much easier.
09:41And again, I just think,
09:42when you've got these thinner soles,
09:44the margin for error that I keep talking about
09:46with these shots increases.
09:48Once again,
09:49I could probably hit this a little bit heavier,
09:52and it still does the job.
09:53The bounce has kicked in there,
09:55has popped out further,
09:56and that's about four inches away.
09:59These specialist sand wedges for bunker play
10:01are really, really useful.
10:02And if you're not using them,
10:04then you're really missing out.
10:11All right, I'm going to go there.
10:12I'm going to say the S word.
10:15A lot of players that I play with
10:16in these pro arms of different levels,
10:18shank the ball.
10:20But you have to accept that, right?
10:22We've got to use irons.
10:23Well, wrong.
10:24If you're smart,
10:25you could visit a website like 11golf,
10:27and pick up a set of hybrid irons.
10:30Now, one of the main benefits of these,
10:32is that they basically don't have a hosel.
10:35You can get them from four iron
10:36all the way down to pitching wedge,
10:38and where the hosel meets the head,
10:40it's very, very shank-proof.
10:43So, for those of you who've had
10:44the old hosel rocket in your time,
10:45you'll be very pleased to hear that.
10:47But that's not the only benefit.
10:49They're very much designed
10:50with a higher handicap in mind.
10:52The CG locations, the extra mass,
10:55the extra real estate behind the ball
10:56is very confidence-inspiring,
10:58and they're designed to help you,
10:59once again, get the ball up in the air.
11:02And with the wider soles,
11:05the turf interaction is also something
11:07that is really beneficial.
11:08I see a lot of people using very thin-soled irons
11:10that might be designed for better players,
11:12and that puts a real sort of tariff
11:15on making sure your strike is very, very precise.
11:19With the width of sole we've got on these hybrid irons,
11:21you've got a bit more margin for error.
11:23Those slightly heavy strikes
11:24will bounce off the turf a little bit,
11:26and you'll still get an acceptable result.
11:28Now, you don't play them like a wood,
11:30or a hybrid, or anything like that.
11:31You just pick out the number seven.
11:34It's a seven iron to me.
11:35I'm going to hit the same sort of swing
11:37and everything that I would have put on a normal seven iron.
11:39I'm still going to probably take a little bit of a divot.
11:42You just treat them as an iron.
11:44Play your normal shot because they are, again,
11:48this is seven iron length as well.
11:50It's a peculiar feeling looking down on a hybrid
11:52that is essentially seven iron length
11:53once they're this close to it,
11:54but when you hit it,
11:59and that is absolutely perfect.
12:03I've performed for you there.
12:04That looks about 10 feet here from 180, 185.
12:09That's just so, so easy.
12:10A really nice shallow divot.
12:12It doesn't get stuck in the turf too long.
12:14It popped up super, super high
12:16and just dropped like a feather.
12:17They're so much easier to hit,
12:19so if you do struggle with your irons,
12:21please consider a hybrid iron set.
Recommended
10:11
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