7 iron only off the tee challenge

[BigMac]

It might be a fun idea to try next time my buddies want to play the shorter tees on our course. It's fun hitting driver and having a flip wedge to the greens, though!

 

[JonMA1]

@Wormkiller Goodluck and I love Golf Sidekick and have emailed him and I was surprised when he replied pretty quickly.
He makes alot of sense for someone struggling to break whatever barrier it might be 100, 90 and pretty close to 80.
It doesn't have to be as hard as we make it sometimes.

I could do this but I'd use my 5i. It would be a fun experiment if I could go out whenever I wanted.


I bet you could do it or get real close with just 5-7 clubs including a putter! I often think we over complicate things with 14 clubs.
It's amazing what keeping it in play and not taking lots of penalty strokes will do for a chance at bogey and par.

I’ve played with just 5 clubs and shot about the same as my average. The difference is that my 140 yard club wasn’t the longest in the bag.
I’m a big proponent of accuracy over distance, but there’s a tipping point where lack of distance becomes a liability. Many of us who shoot in the 90s are not lights out accurate with less club. But I’ll find out.
I’m looking forward to the challenge this weekend.

 

[Wormkiller]

My total yardage with a 7i is only 140 yards. I have a marsh requiring a 125 yard carry with no bail out and little room in front for a drop. I may have to drop on the far side for my 3rd shot or just use ESC.

I’ve watched a couple Golf Sidekick videos and I get the impression he doesn’t know how bad some of us 90s golfers are. Taking less club is an oversimplification of the issue and will help some more than others. Even if I hit my irons perfectly straight and got my distance every time (which of course I do not), I’d still be looking at bogey on most holes due to dog leg par 4s and longish par 3s… this at only 5500 yards.

I dont believe I’ll get a sniff at breaking 90 (I’ve broken 90 a few times using a full bag). But I’ll be happy as a clam to report back I was wrong.

I agree with you in many respects. Its not as easy as it sounds. He makes it look easy. Hes a scratch player. Although I respect that he's done things to legitmise his strategy, like using his friends as examples (B-Dog shot in the 70's with 7 iron only) and playing left handed himself. I've followed him for a long time and have had long periods just using hybrids and woods off the tee but, again from tracking all my stats, my scores never improved. If you're a poor/inconsistent ball striker, like I am, then a shorter club is likely to go wayward like a driver is but leaving you 100m further back...

My best rounds have come from using driver and a full set - when the stars align and I dont lose balls OB I've shot mid to high 80's.

But then again my worst rounds have come using driver and a full set. 100+ scores. And on my home course Im losing way too many balls as the left side of a number of fairways is completely dead and/or OB.. And for a lot of my blow up holes using driver Im finding flubbed, snap hook drives are going less distance than a 7 iron anyway.

My ball striking has improved, and I've been working on my short game a lot so I'm interested in seeing how I'd go dropping all the way back to a 7 iron. Something I havent tried yet.

Do I think my scores will significantly improve? Well I've tried everything possible and will continue to try everything possible to become a better golfer with barely anything working long term so no I'm definitely not expecting magical results.

Is this a sustainable strategy? No I don't think it is. No one succeeds at golf doing this long term. In fact to be good a golf for 99.9% of the population you need to be competent with driver.

But I love to tinker with strategy, its one of the reasons I love playing the game, so I'm going to give it a go.

 

[checkered]

I have never tried wth 7i, though i have used my hybrid off the tee instead. 7i does make sense in some ways, but as some have said, some holes could be problematic for that. I dont know that i would ever want to do 7i personally unless from the forward tees, maybe 5i though.

 

[blugold]

Yeah I cant see myself trying this in a formal comp. Purely because Id be too self-concious about it.

Plus everyone has to play from the blues in comps which are normally the longest tees.

If I played more casual rounds, I would definitely try the 7i thing. The par 3s would be tricky, but fun

 

[Nappy]

@blazinden

 

[Paddy1Putt]

I know this doesn't really count, but I like to hit my 5 wood. The shaft is shorter which for me makes it easier to route the head and I tend to miss with too much shaft lean due to swing profile etc. It's nice when I hit it right my 5 wood carries 200 - 205 and gets some roll out depending on geography and fairway conditions (wind), however if I hit it with my miss, to my deloft, the 5 wood turns into a mini 3 wood and goes total distance around 220 - 230, again depending on other factors. It's my magic club.

 

[Bosco...]

We used to play a one club iron round back in the day. Made you a much better ball striker, and you learned to change trajectory etc etc. I usually chose a 5I, which would be more like todays 6In but it was in the middle of my set, I carried 1-10 irons back then,

My old boss and I would do this on occasion for our “meetings” when checking the course. Had an old MacGregor 7 iron that pretty much stayed in the cart. Rusted to hell and hardly a grip to speak of.

One club, one hole, many laughs.

 

[Ooo]

No way I would do it because my driver is the straightest club in my bag. Would be giving up at least 50 yards and distance is short already.

 

[blazinden]

@blazinden

7i. 7i. 7i bump n run. Flip 7i around and go putt putt.

 

[Mr Moke]

I think this is a great idea, when I was new to the game I hard time controlling my driver. I used nothing but a 5i off the tee for a few years, scores did improve along with my swing. When I did pick the driver back up it became my straightest club.

 

[sunshine]

Hello all,

By tracking my stats using my Shotscope I've identified that slightly more than 50% of my blow up holes (net double bogey and worse) are primarily due to wild/flubbed tee shots. To be specific: OB penalties, water penalties, wild shots into the woods, topped shots, duck hooks etc.

On the weekend I played 9 holes at a beautiful country town course in very dense fog (I was literally the only one on the course) and decided to play just a seven iron off a few tees so I could track my ball. Was surprised to make a couple of easy pars just by keeping the ball in play.

I've seen a couple of Golf Sidekick video the other day where he pretty much did the same thing, and made breaking 90 look easy, even after making some mistakes:





Basically with my game any score under 90 is great for me. So I'm going to play a couple of social rounds just using max 7 iron off the tee to see how I go. According to my Shotscope my 7 iron goes about 160 yards (about 145m).

The aim isn't to necessarily make more pars, but rather reduce the number of blow up holes I have which kill my scores.

Would anyone be keen to join in the challenge with me?

I used to always do this. Still do it from time to time. I’ll post some results in here

 

[JonMA1]

In an attempt to give this a fair chance, I'm going with a 6i (150 yard club) off every par 4 and par 5 from the blue tees at 5445 yards. My average score this year is back up to 97.1 but many of those rounds are from longer tees. I haven't been tracking my stats for the last several rounds, but I may decide to track this one.

 

[Wormkiller]

Played 9 holes last night. Shanked a couple of tee shots off the hosel which did put me way back, but at least the ball didn't go OB or miles off the fairway so on these holes I could still punch a 5 iron up the fairway, then hit a medium iron in and got away with a bogey on one and and a double on the other. The rest of the par 4's and 5's I made bogeys, and parred the two par 3's.



My primary aim using this strategy is to try and eliminate blow up holes. For me this is defined as net double bogey or worse. With my handicap I'm still scoring minimum 1 stableford point for a gross bogey. Its the holes that I wipe due to hitting the ball wild off the tee OB or in the woods (51% of my blow up holes are because of this) that I'm hoping to eliminate by playing this strategy as they kill my scores.

I'm also finding this fun to do. I'm going to go out with a mate soon at twilight taking only my 7 iron, 56 degree and a putter to do a bit of an experiment.

I'm definitely not abandoning driver. Ill be working on it at the range. And I've got a couple of comps coming up - not ready to rock up to the first tee Par 5 with a 7 iron in hand, groups watching and risk making a fool of myself...

 

[Wormkiller]

In an attempt to give this a fair chance, I'm going with a 6i (150 yard club) off every par 4 and par 5 from the blue tees at 5445 yards. My average score this year is back up to 97.1 but many of those rounds are from longer tees. I haven't been tracking my stats for the last several rounds, but I may decide to track this one.

Good luck mate!

Looking forward to seeing how you go.

 

[InTheRough]

I've tried this with a 6i and I do not score any better. Why? Because while I may miss fairways with my driver the ball might be in play and will be a lot closer to the green.

Stats say that I have a 21.5% chance of a DB from 150 yds. whereas I have only an 8.7% - 11% chance of a DB from 75 - 100 yds. The latter makes things a lot more fun.

 

[Daddio]

Depends greatly on the player's relative strengths and weaknesses and to some degree on the course too. Personally I'd score worse on pretty much any course I can think of but I know some players who would likely score much better teeing off with 7i. I've studied my own penalty shot tendencies and the vast majority of them are due to poor approach shots or poor 2nd shot layups on P5s. Penalties from tee shots on P4/P5 aren't a big issue for me.

 

[darthweasel]

lets see if I can get myself thrown out of the thread with some serious questions....

are you playing from the most-forward tees? If the driver is not an option and you are rolling a 7i to "keep it in play" one can make a really, really strong argument you are playing too deep to have a chance to score well.

And I say that regardless of which club you tee off with. I have played for 23ish years now with a guy whose driver goes 140-170 when he hits it well...and 30-60 yards when he doesn't. I have begged and reasoned with him to move up. Same with another guy in our group who is 78 coming off heart surgery who used to hit the occasional 200-220 drive and has lost 50 yards.

So when we play from even 6000 yards...we play a 2-man scramble vs each other...Jim and John if they CRUSH their drives cannot reach a 350 yard par 4 in two. Move them forward and they would be able to.

Watching their best drives come up short on par 3s, leave them outside maximum range in 2 on 4s and outside possibility of 3 good hits reaching in 3 convinces me that people who hit it shorter, and the reason doesn't matter...if you are not long off the tee with a driver or because the driver is wild so they are using 7i or 9i or whatever it is, if they are hitting it shorter there is a possibility they might enjoy the game more if they played the forward tees.

Second part is this: why the 7i and not the 9i or wedges? if the goal is to not take the big number by getting into trouble, what makes specifically the 7i the play as opposed to say...a pitching wedge that you will rarely if ever hit ob?

these are actually serious questions. I very much want my playing partners to enjoy the round. And although it is unlikely you and I will ever tee up together, I have the same wish for you and combined with your 7i, playing from the forward tees can make the course much more manageable. Note that you still have to hit the shots. I have played some pretty soft courses with very few hazards (no trees, sand, water to speak of...almost just a flat hole with stupid greens)...and you still see no 62s on my scorecard....but it keeps you "close" to the green.

With that said, everyone has their own ways to enjoy the game. At a local course the back tees are just over 7k. I have played twice with a guy who KNOWS they are too long but "I just want to hit driver and the other boxes are too short". That statement is true...I myself refuse to take driver on 1, 2, 10, 13 and 14 as a rule...but from the black I could and should. He keeps up pace, doesn't score particularly well, but it is what he enjoys. More power to him. Enjoy the game the way you want, just wanted to throw an option with you that combined with the 7i might make it a bit more fun scoring-wise.

 

[JonMA1]

lets see if I can get myself thrown out of the thread with some serious questions....

You sir are a menace!

With that said, everyone has their own ways to enjoy the game. At a local course the back tees are just over 7k. I have played twice with a guy who KNOWS they are too long but "I just want to hit driver and the other boxes are too short". That statement is true...I myself refuse to take driver on 1, 2, 10, 13 and 14 as a rule...but from the black I could and should. He keeps up pace, doesn't score particularly well, but it is what he enjoys. More power to him. Enjoy the game the way you want, just wanted to throw an option with you that combined with the 7i might make it a bit more fun scoring-wise.

Having fun is what it's all about. It's why we play with a 5 club bag, or vintage clubs, tee off from different sets of tees, and experiment with different strategies. I've been doing this for 12 years - less than most have played this game but long enough to have tried just about everything several times over.

I do enjoy scoring relatively low. Breaking 90 is a goal every time I go out even though it only happens a couple times every season. One of the courses I play has 4 sets of tees - 4400, 5000, 6024 and 6670. The course is tough. Players much better than me who know the course play from the whites at just over 5000 yards. 90% of my rounds are played from that distance. While I've yet to play from the forward tees, I have played from the blues several times and even a couple times from the tips.

I don't know how much I'd enjoy breaking 90 from under 5,000 yards. It certainly wouldn't be as satisfying as it is from farther back. I'll give it a try some time and it wouldn't surprise me if I still didn't score low.

 

[rollin]

For myself only....I want to play well but not via some lessor version of the game. The idea (for myself) is to play the "full" game for what it is via using the clubs for what they are. Thats what Ive had the many many lessons and efforts in trying to be as consistent as possible doing. Playing smart and safe (aka = managing good decisions) is one thing, while playing some sort of lessor version is a whole other. This idea would do nothing for me satisfyingly.
I could probably take my 5i low punch recovery type of shot and average good (relatively speaking) rounds with less blowup holes and rounds. But that would feel very incomplete to me. It would feel like I bypassed or cheated my way around my intended goal of playing the full game well with the clubs that are there and part of the whole game.

I dont use driver on all par 4's and 5's because the layout and distances for my first tee shots dont always call for it so perhaps 3 or 5w's or on some cases long i or hyb on those much shorter doglegs etc. For me...thats what I call managing or playing smarter/safer. But to just use the 7? or in my case the 5i puch I described before for most the entire round? No thanks. Imo the whole idea is that I have to (want to) make basic good golf shots with my clubs that have the job they have as consistent as i can. That to me is the entire essence of the game and why I like to play it and what aways keeps driving the desire to play it.
besides...who is ever to suggest that we mid and certainly high cappers can hit 3 good 7irons in a row anyway? hole after hole after hole? If we could do that we'd be regularly breaking 90 in the first place anyway.

 

[darthweasel]

You sir are a menace!

you say that like I wouldn't be proud of it...I may have to change my name to Dennis (that reference probably just dated me to...oh, I don't know...99% of the people on here)

 

[rollin]

Fwiw in a way what this basically is when you yhink about it....is playing old man golf.

Can't hit any siginificant distance so even poor shots are never too far off. Barely lose a ball. By default won't be many if any outright blowups. Chug along in such a manor and play a respectable if not good short game if you can.

Pushing 60 I'm honestly not looking forward to the days when I eventually may have to play that way via no choice in the matter.

 

[Wormkiller]

Fwiw in a way what this basically is when you yhink about it....is playing old man golf.

Can't hit any siginificant distance so even poor shots are never too far off. Barely lose a ball. By default won't be many if any outright blowups. Chug along in such a manor and play a respectable if not good short game if you can.

Pushing 60 I'm honestly not looking forward to the days when I eventually may have to play that way via no choice in the matter.

Cos not losing balls and hitting it straight is so boring. Being a grown man looking for Easter eggs in the woods 4/5 times every round is so much more fun.

To be honest I envy the old boys holding single figure handicaps dinking it around the course. I reckon I’d come off the course feeling pretty damn good about myself shooting 80 off the stick without raising a sweat.

 

[JonMA1]

To be honest I envy the old boys holding single figure handicaps dinking it around the course. I reckon I’d come off the course feeling pretty damn good about myself shooting 80 off the stick without raising a sweat.

Agreed.

While I respect those who not only hit it a mile but also hit it straight and have a complete game to go with, I envy the old guys who hit it shorter but straight and can still score in the 80 from 6,000 yards.

I don't aspire to be a long hitter... and wouldn't have been one of those guys had I taken the game up in my 20's. But I do aspire to play "old man style golf". I'll never get that good but given the choice of being long and wild or short and accurate, it's an easy choice for me.

 

[Just_Brad]

I suppose the biggest hang up for me on this currently, an inability to hit iron shots from the fairway lol.

Considered it for a couple holes today, but couldnt hit an iron to save my life.