As a PGA Professional, I play in a lot of Pro-Am tournaments with a huge range of abilities. One of the most frustrating things I see is high handicappers making the game more difficult than it needs to be with their golf equipment. There are a lot of alternative choices out there that can make the game an awful lot easier, so let’s take a look at five of my favorites…
WATCH: Joe Ferguson shows you the 5 clubs that can help the high handicap golfer...
1. A Chipper
We’ve probably all heard the statistics about how many shots in a round are hit from within 50 yards of the hole, but we often ignore this area of the game, instead choosing to focus on more glamorous things like smashing one of the best drivers as far as possible. Too often I see high handicappers racking up their scores unnecessarily with duffed or thinned chips around the green, and this can lead to much frustration.
The first club I would implore higher-handicap players to try if that sounds familiar is a chipper such as the Ping ChipR. This has been designed specifically to make those shots around the green as simple as possible. The wider, softly contouring sole is there to provide a huge margin for error in strike, while the upright lie angle allows you to treat these shots more like a putt with loft. This simplifies the technique massively and significantly reduces the requirement for precision. While you may be somewhat limited in the number of shots you can play (for example, these clubs don’t work well if you want to open the face and hit a higher shot), a chipper can be absolutely fantastic for a basic greenside chip or pitch.
2. Broom-handle putter
Now you might be thinking that the game is complicated enough without introducing a completely new technique, and in some ways, you might be right, but once you get over the starkly different method, the payoff can be huge.
Short putting is one of the biggest potential areas for improvement with the high-handicap players I generally encounter, and I feel that the broom handle can really help in this area. One of the biggest causes of not returning a square face to the ball in my experience is simply not returning the shaft to impact at the same angle as the address. Many people drag the grip through before the head causing the putter to de-loft and generally point right of the target (for a right-handed player), and even more people over-release or ‘flick’ their bottom hand at the ball adding loft and generally shifting the clubface closed.
The broom handle putter can remove this variable with ease. Whilst we know we cannot anchor the butt end to our chest, it is a lot easier to keep the top hand still in front of our sternum, thus creating a constant pivot point for the rest of the shaft to work from. This not only helps with clubface alignment but also with consistent delivery of loft which will help distance control.
3. Nine Wood
Typically over the years, high-lofted fairway woods have been seen as choices for seniors and female players and there has been a somewhat macho disdain for anything more than a 5-wood. However, there has been a huge uptake on tour in recent years of male tour players using very high-lofted fairway woods, with players such as Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, and Dustin Johnson all at some stage using 7 and even 9-woods in their bags with huge success.
Our fairway wood tester, Sam De’Ath recently tested out the Ping G430 Max 9-Wood and found some impressive results.
“As much as I thought this club would be somewhat of a one-trick pony, I was genuinely amazed by its versatility. Yes, it is primarily used for sending the ball to the heavens, but I found it surprisingly easy to play a back-foot punch, getting the ball soaring through a headwind. But it was the ability to hit it out of fairway bunkers and even hit bump-and-run chip shots around the greens where I really understood how valuable this club could be to me.”
“At the end of the day, golf is hard and we should be doing everything we can to make the game easier," Sam added. "Playing with equipment that helps you play better golf makes for a much more enjoyable day on the course and so I believe a 9-wood is a club that every golfer should at least consider adding to their arsenal”.
So much easier to hit than a 4 or 5 iron, with significantly more launch, the 9-wood is a must-try for high handicap players.
4. Bunker-specific wedge
Living on the coast in North Devon, I enjoy the beach as much as the next man, but when it comes to the golf course I want to get out of the sand as easily and quickly as possible. Bunker shots can strike fear into the heart of many high-handicap players and that is generally due to a lack of understanding of the correct technique required to extricate a ball successfully. Bounce is the key here, but many players lack the ability or bravery to open the clubface enough to engage the bounce, so to me, it makes perfect sense to simply use a club that does the work for you.
Wedges like the Ram EZ Out have been specifically designed with a wide sole and masses of bounce to stop the club from digging into the sand and make it far easier (as the name would suggest) to get out of the bunker first time, every time.
Whilst many of the best wedges such as Vokey SM10 or Ping S159 can offer more precision and versatility, specialist bunker wedges provide some extra insurance that I feel high handicap players could certainly benefit from.
5. Hybrid Irons
If any of you have ever been struck down by a bout of the shanks, you will know just how crippling it can be. The hosel of the club can just stare back at you cheekily at address with a sense of inevitability about what is to come.
Well fear no more, there is equipment out there to nullify the most destructive shot in golf. I recently tested the Eleven Golf Hybrid irons and was extremely impressed. Not only does the minimal hosel section make it basically impossible to hit a shank, but the rest of the technology is hugely geared towards making the game easier for high-handicap players as well. Additional ball speed from the hollow body is combined with a low CG placement that provides exceptional assistance to get the ball airborne. Furthermore, the extremely wide soles provide a huge margin for error with strike which is something we could all benefit from.
