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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.
00:07Now 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.
00:14So 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.
00:37The first club I would really like you to consider using
00:40if you are a high handicapper
00:41is 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
00:57tend to have some slower swing speeds
00:59and can struggle to get the ball airborne
01:01as high as they would like
01:02and 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.
01:28And it's just such a useful club.
01:30So just from a fairway position like this,
01:32well I'm on the tee admittedly
01:33but 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.
01:44And 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, admittedly I've got a reasonably high level
02:00of swing speed but in slower swing speed hands
02:03it'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.
02:11If 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'll 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 even for me
02:23with 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,
02:35the 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
03:06high 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,
03:15pulling out lob wedges, sand wedges.
03:18And with the very thin sole of those golf clubs,
03:21the margin for error on strike can be pretty, pretty tight.
03:25So something like this chipper
03:26that's got this really wide sole,
03:29it's beveled on both edges
03:30to make sure it doesn't dig in,
03:32is 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.
03:42And because of that,
03:43you can more or less use your putting stroke,
03:46just to make sure we'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 on the way through,
03:58dead level of the ground,
03:59and trusting that the loft on this face
04:01will pop it up and deliver it.
04:03So again, I even use my putting grip when using this chipper.
04:06So reverse overlap grip,
04:09and just a rock of the shoulders,
04:11and trust that the ball will just elevate off the face
04:14and 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,
04:29the margin for error just goes through the roof.
04:32A chipper like this, from all sorts of lies,
04:34I'll give myself a great lie on that first one.
04:36If I just go down in a little depression there,
04:39that's down in a hole.
04:40That's pretty nasty.
04:41Again, I still don't have to do much more
04:43than 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.
04:50But again, pretty useful.
04:51Only a few foot past,
04:53and 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.
04:59High 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.
05:17Okay, the broomstick.
05:19Now, you might be thinking, what are you talking about?
05:22The broomsticks for the pros.
05:23I would never use that.
05:25Bear with me.
05:26Hear me out.
05:27I play an awful lot of these programs, as I said.
05:29One of the biggest culprits I see for people losing shots is missing these short putts.
05:35One of the biggest reasons I see for that is people not being able to control the release of their
05:40hands.
05:41By that, I mean I see so many people hitting cover drives with a normal putter, where they're holding on
05:47to this angle, not releasing the blade.
05:49That pushes the blade right, and 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, you'll see how the butt end of that club, if I'm using the
06:01broom handle there, would protrude backwards, and that tends to mean you're adding loft, you can lose pace control, and
06:08you can even rotate the face too far left.
06:09So it's very, very difficult to control club face when you've got that type of stroke.
06:14Now, the more prudent answer might be to take some lessons and learn how to control your wrist to create
06:19more of a one-piece putting stroke, but not all of us have the time or even the inclination to
06:24do that, and I think the broom handle can be a real kind 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 and keep it in place anymore, so I'm keeping
06:35a gentle gap here between this, but what I can do is I can make sure that my
06:39right hand, sorry, my left hand, my top hand here, doesn't move too far backwards and forwards.
06:44I've got a reference point near my sternum, and all that moves there is the right hand, so I've got
06:51a very consistent release pattern.
06:52I can't over-release it, I can't under-release it, because that would involve that moving, so it takes out
06:58a really key variable.
07:01I've had a little dabble with it.
07:02On the longer putts, it takes some getting used to, but I've seen, you've obviously seen some tall success with
07:06it, the likes of Lucas Glover, Will Zalatouris, Adam Scott.
07:09I've got using it really, really well, but from short range in particular, I've found it really, really useful.
07:16You can stand nice and tall, set the putter blade in there with just the left hand, keep that top
07:20hand still, release the putter blade, and it just feels like, like I said, just that little extra insurance that
07:28the putter's not going to go offline through any over or under release.
07:32So, my key takeaway here, don't be afraid to experiment with some alternative putting 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 the high handicappers, again, comes for use around the green.
07:53There's a bit of a theme developing here in terms of short game, and it is a specialist sand wedge
07:59specifically for bunkers.
08:01Now, you might be thinking, hey, I've already got my Vokey or my Jaws Raw or my MG4, whatever it
08:05might be,
08:05but I still think there's clubs out there with just a little bit more help, like this Ram Easy Out
08:11wedge, and 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 directly behind the impact of the ball, and what that does is
08:24creates extra effective bounce.
08:26So, when you set it up square, you might not feel much different.
08:29The leading edge will be a similar distance from the ground.
08:31All of a sudden, you lean that back, this huge back edge here kicks in and will just act like
08:38a rudder through the sand to help guide that club out of the sand a little bit easier rather than
08:43having it dig and stick in.
08:44The amount of times I've played in these programs where people have played a shot, the club, they've addressed it
08:49too square, the club's just stuck in the sand, and it's flubbed a couple of feet in front of them.
08:54I see that all the time, and this, I honestly believe, can be a big help with that kind of
08:59problem.
08:59So, 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, so straight away, I can feel, I know I've got this back edge that's
09:11going to help me here.
09:12So, as soon as I open the face there, I'm engaging that bounce, and all I've got to do, my
09:16job is just to slap this club into the sand with the back edge, and once it goes in, that
09:21bounce will kick in, and it wants to come straight back out.
09:24So, it really helps with that sand interaction.
09:26You can be as aggressive as you want.
09:29Pops out a dream really nicely.
09:32That's in there about four feet.
09:34Really, really good.
09:35It just makes the journey through the sand so much simpler and so much easier.
09:41And, again, I just think when you've got these thinner soles, the margin for error that I keep talking about
09:46with these shots increases.
09:48Once again, I could probably hit this a little bit heavier, and it still does the job.
09:53The bounce has kicked in there, that's popped out further, and that's about four inches away.
09:59These specialist sand wedges for bunker play are really, really useful, and if you're not using them, then you're really
10:05missing out.
10:11All right, I'm going to go there.
10:12I'm going to say the S word.
10:14A lot of players that I play with in these pro-ams of different levels shank the ball, but you
10:21have to accept that, right?
10:22We've got to use irons.
10:23Well, wrong.
10:24If you're smart, you could visit a website like 11golf and pick up a set of hybrid irons.
10:30Now, one of the main benefits of these is that they basically don't have a hosel.
10:34You can get them from four iron all the way down to pitching wedge, and where the hosel meets the
10:39head, it's very, very shank-proof.
10:43So, for those of you who've had the old hosel rocking your time, you'll be very pleased to hear that,
10:47but that's not the only benefit.
10:49They're very much designed with a higher handicap in mind.
10:52The CG locations, the extra mass, the extra real estate behind the ball is very confidence-inspiring, and they're designed
10:58to help you, once again, get the ball up in the air.
11:03And with the wider soles, the turf interaction is also something that is really beneficial.
11:08I see a lot of people using very thin-soled irons that might be designed for better players, and that
11:13puts a real sort of tariff on making sure your strike is very, very precise.
11:18With the width of sole we've got on these hybrid irons, you've got a bit more margin for error.
11:23Those slightly heavy strikes will bounce off the turf a little bit, and you'll still get an acceptable result.
11:28Now, you don't play them like a wood or a hybrid or anything like that.
11:31You just pick out the number seven, it's a seven iron to me.
11:35I'm going to hit the same sort of swing and everything that I would have put on a normal seven
11:39iron, and I'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, this is seven iron length as well.
11:50It's a peculiar feeling looking down on a hybrid that is essentially seven iron length once they're this close to
11:54it.
11:54But, when you hit it, and that is absolutely perfect, I've performed for you there, that looks about 10 feet
12:05here from 180, 185.
12:08That's just so, so easy, a really nice shallow divot, it doesn't get stuck in the turf too long, it
12:14popped up super, super high, and just dropped like a feather.
12:17They're so much easier to hit, so if you do struggle with your irons, please consider a hybrid iron set.
12:22Well, let's get started.
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