Does taking more club really help? What our test reveals | How to play golf

Welcome to MythBusters, a Golf Digest+ series in which we explore the answers to some of golf’s most common questions through a series of tests with real golfers. Although our conclusions are not definitive, they nevertheless aim to shed new light on topics that have concerned golfers for years.

Amateur golfers often run out of greens for one simple reason: they don’t take enough club. By judging our range distances solely by our best shots, we fail to account for times when we miss the center of the face, which in many cases is closer to reality.

The solution, coaches And statisticians let’s say, it’s taking more club, even if it means making a smoother swing. By taking an extra club or two, you give yourself a margin of error on your misses and better account for your actual carry distance. But is this strategy really useful? We tested it.

To learn more about how taking more club affects our performance on the greens, two Golf Digest staffers – Drew Powell (+2.4 Handicap Index) and Sam Weinman (11 Handicap Index, 2) – achieved a series of shots with two different clubs at Manhattan Woods Golf Club in West Nyack, New York.

The shots were fired flat at 130 yards. Powell and Weinman hit 10 shots each with the typical club they would hit at that distance (gap wedge for Powell, 9 iron for Weinman), as well as 10 shots each with two additional clubs (9 iron for Powell, 7 iron for Weinman ).

We alternated between the two clubs after each shot to account for finding a groove with either club. With each shot, we measured the carry distance and dispersion from the hole. When analyzing the data, we removed the strongest outliers from each group of clubs.

Avg. range: 125.6 meters
Avg. proximity: 22′ 8″
Greens hit: 9/9

Avg. carry: 128.1 yards
Avg. proximity: 28′ 6″
Greens hit: 7/9

Avg. carry: 116.1 yards
Avg. proximity: 47′ 1″
Greens hit: 5/9

Avg. range: 128.9 meters
Avg. proximity: 43’ 2”
Greens hit: 5/9

There are several interesting takeaways from the data. First, Powell performed slightly worse with the 9 iron compared to the gap wedge in terms of proximity to the hole, while Weinman performed slightly better with two extra clubs compared to his normal 130 club.

Powell’s distance control was much more consistent with the gap wedge than with the 9 iron. Almost all shots hit with the gap wedge flew between 123 and 127 yards, before returning slightly under the hole. With the 9-iron, however, some shots went 120 yards, while others went 130.

While Powell made a full swing with the gap wedge, when he took more club, there was a lot more feel involved, requiring proper swing tempo and length. This created more inconsistencies in remote control. Sometimes he took too much, other times he hit way too hard.

One obvious advantage he noticed with the 9 iron over the gap wedge, however, was spin control. Each shot hit with the gap wedge and returned to the green, often further from the hole. With the 9 iron, balls hit and stopped, allowing him to have better control when the ball landed.

As a result, his best shots with the 9 iron (four feet and nine feet) ended up closer to the hole than his best shots with the gap wedge (nine feet and 15 feet), even if his consistency was better with the gap corner.

Weinman has noticed a similar trend in remote control. With the 9-iron – the typical club he uses at 130 yards – he was very consistent in his distance control, but he often fell short of the hole, averaging 116 yards on the 130-yard shot. As a result, his overall proximity to the hole was worse with his 9-iron, as most shots never reached him high.

When he took more club with the 7-iron, Weinman says it seemed much easier to make contact with the center face. But like Powell, he noticed it was difficult to judge swing length and speed when he took more club. Despite this, his average proximity to the hole was better with the 7-iron because his average carry distance of 129 was much closer to the distance he needed. While nine of the ten shots he hit with the 9-iron finished short of the hole, only two with the 7-iron finished short of the hole.

Where does all this leave us? For low handicap and high speed players, hitting your standard club may be the easiest way to hit the ball a consistent distance every time. However, if you are looking for better spin control, taking more club and swinging easily is a great option.

For mid-handicappers, taking more club might help you find the center of the face more often, as was the case for Weinman. And if you’re constantly short of shorts with your standard club, this extra club will make it easier to reach height. However, correctly gauging the exact distance with a supplemental club can be tricky, as you need a bit of feel. And if there are issues with green length, Weinman’s results show us that taking an extra club could be quite detrimental, as almost all of his shots that missed the green were long, not short.

Of course, we recognize that our test is limited by the use of two golfers. Other golfers of varying abilities or techniques might achieve different results by taking more club. For Weinman, who tends to be a little stiff in the downswing, taking more club allowed him to have a smoother transition, which smoothed out his downswing and created better control. Others may have different tendencies that were made worse or better by taking more club.

For low handicap players, taking a lot more club can make distance control difficult by requiring more feel than just taking your normal club. However, because taking more club decreases spin, these players may notice better ball control when hitting the green with an additional club.

For mid-handicap players, taking more club can help you make more consistent contact with the center face and place the ball higher more often. Likewise, taking more club requires more finesse to correctly judge the distance, which constitutes a potential disadvantage. However, for players who struggle with iron shot contact, taking more club and making a smooth swing could be a great solution.