I know most people have a bag with 14-18 clubs. But what is the bare minimum number of clubs you’d need to play the game? Not to do great, just to play?
Can you get by with just 3 clubs, a driver, an iron and a putter?
You could play with one club if you wanted. Probably a 3-wood or a long iron would be best.
It’s hard to putt with a short iron, but it can be done. Your best putter, if you don’t have one, is your 3-wood.
Just don’t get stuck in any green-side bunkers, as it might be hard to get out with a 3-wood. You’d have to use the “blast” technique. It can get you out, but it’s not very accurate in terms of keeping your ball on the green. For shorter shots, though, you would choke down on the shaft and shorten your swing.
A really good golfer might opt for a mid-iron, and figure he could get on the green in regulation typically (except for long par 3s). A good golfer can improvise, and he could putt with a mid-iron if he had to. A pro should be able to hit a 6iron 190 or 200 yards.
There was a TV show in Britain in the 80s where they challenged pro golfers to play a round with only one club. IIRC Lee Travino was rather good at it as that was how he learned to play as a boy.
BTW, USGA rules limit the number of clubs to 14, so 18 would be against the rules.
I’ve played rounds with 3 clubs before. Back in high school friends and I would ditch school on occasion and hit the local city course mid-day. Nobody wanted to schlep a full set (as if any of us owned one!) so we’d each just grab a wood, an iron and a putter, pocket a couple of balls and go play.
Just a 7-iron. cite
Lee Trevino could beat most people using a baseball bat instead of a club.
If I played an entire round with just a 9 iron I wouldn’t do significantly worse than with a whole bag of clubs. That just means I’m no good at golf.
Unless there are some large hazards to carry, I wonder if your typical weekend hacker wouldn’t score better if he never touch anything his his bag greater than a 6 or 5 iron.
I believe it was Sam Snead who would carve a club out of some tree he favored, and add a putter and play anyone straight up.
Dennis
Lee Trevino once played a man for money (and won too) with just a Dr Pepper bottle and the other gentleman could use all of his clubs.
Yes, to the OP you can play with just three clubs a 2 iron and a 7 iron and a putter …
This article suggests that a beginner really only needs seven:
- Driver
- 3 wood
- 3 iron
- 5 or 7 iron
- 9 iron
- Wedge
- Putter
And, I’m not even sure about the driver, if only because, while it gives the best distance, it also can be a particularly difficult club to use well.
You could play golf with any single club from driver to putter.
Playing well would be another matter.
I could beat anyone here using just a five-iron (assuming they were blindfolded, drunk and limited to one arm).
It’s easy to beat someone with a five-iron. Really, any iron is going to hurt when you get hit with it. Any iron will do, or a wood. Don’t use a good putter though, you could damage it.
I played a round once 25 years ago or so with a guy who was on the old side for a golfer, then in his late eighties. He carried a little rack with spikes that he could stick in the ground wherever he was, and it had clips for three clubs: a 3-wood, a 5 iron, and a putter.
He shot a 42 on nine holes, and beat me.
Never mind what I shot. He beat me.
Moderating
Moved to the Game Room, because sports.
If you are asking if there is a minimum required number of clubs, the answer is, “one.”
(You get to choose which one, but keep in mind that, unless you are willing to pull the ball out of sand traps and other such nasty places, you’re going to need a club with some loft).
If you are asking if there is a minimum number that most people take out when they don’t want to carry a full bag around, I’d say three or four. Indeed, one of the more popular tournaments at most golf clubs is a 3-club tournament (sometimes 3 clubs only, sometimes 3 clubs plus putter). Usually, this will be a wood to drive with, a medium iron, and something short to pitch and chip with. I have had many a day where I walked around toting 1-iron, 5-iron and 9-iron only.
If you are asking if there is a minimum number that a beginner needs to be happy playing, I’d say that it’s about 5: Driver, 4-hybrid, 7-iron, wedge, putter. That pretty much covers all the needs, and actually, it does the good service of teaching a beginner how to hit something other than a full shot all the time.
Many “beginner” sets are sold with two woods, one or two hybrids, three irons and a putter, or roughly half a set. Back when I was young, usually those sets had the Driver, 3-wood or 4-wood, the odd-numbered irons from 3 to 9 or 5 to 9, and a putter.
There used to be a “world championship” for playing golf using only one club. However, the link in the one article I found about it, dated 2010, does not work, so I don’t know if the tournament still exists.
The record for one round at a “proper” course appears to be 70, shot at Lochmere Golf Club in North Carolina in 1987 by someone using just a 6-iron.
Yeah, you can play with just a putter but you’ll suck horribly.
But with just 2-3 clubs, can you play at about 85% as well as you’d play with an entire bag full of clubs?
Wouldn’t a wood driver function as a putter? If so you’d just need 2. The driver and a mid range iron.
I knew a guy that played with 3 wood, 9 iron and putter. He later added a fourth club: left-handed 9 iron for trouble shots.
I’ve played 9 holes a couple of times with just a putter. Mates and I did it for laughs.
I didn’t suck horribly. I thought I played to my usual…oh.