On a summer’s evening or a crisp winter’s day, it’s a great feeling to stroll out on to the golf course with a half set of clubs in a pencil, carry bag. It gives you the freedom to walk in a straight line to your ball wherever it is. You feel light as a feather as you skip across the fairways and breeze around the course in under three hours.
Taking a half set is also a great practice exercise. You might not have the exact club for a particular yardage, so you are forced to be a little creative. To take more club and shape a shot, or to knock one down a little. If you play regularly with a half set, you’ll find you become far more confident and comfortable with manipulating half or three-quarter shots when the occasion demands it in more competitive play. Playing with a half set, you’ll be surprised at how little your average score differs to when you have the full arsenal at your disposal.
When it comes to organising the perfect half set, there’s no exact right or wrong way and it will depend on the course and conditions you are playing. If you’re playing a shortened winter course, you might not need to take driver. If you’re playing on a windy day on the links, you might limit the lofted clubs you put in the bag.
It's also, as with so many things in golf, a personal choice and you may well have trusted clubs in your 14-club set-up that simply have to go into a half set. I certainly do. A half-set doesn’t necessarily need to be seven clubs (for those not so good at maths, that’s half of 14), a couple of clubs more or a couple fewer still works. But, for the purposes of this article, I’m going with my ideal seven! If I’m building the ideal half set, for average conditions, at my home course, these are the clubs that make the cut.
Putter
Let’s start with the most obvious. There’s no way I’m going out to play any type of sensible golf without a putter. It’s my go-to short game club, even when just off the green. If you want to put a score of any sort together, you’re going to need your putter in the bag.
Driver
I get a great deal of pleasure from hitting a good, straight drive. I wouldn’t deny myself that pleasure by leaving the driver out of the half set. If you’re playing a course with longer par-4s and par-5s, you’ve got to give yourself the chance to get down there and approach with a shorter club. If there’s a driveable par-4 on any layout, I want to be able to have a go at it!
2-iron
I wouldn’t bother with my 3-wood. I have a Titleist U505 2-iron which is my go-to fairway finder on tighter par-4s. It’s a pretty forgiving weapon, more like a hybrid than a 2-iron of old, and it can also generate pretty decent distance. That means, on shorter to mid-length par-5s, after a reasonable drive, I might well still be able to reach in two. It’s a versatile club and I can shape it (when playing ok).
5-iron, 7-iron and 9-iron
It could be those, or it could be 4-iron, 6-iron, 8-iron. I don’t know why, I just prefer the look of 5, 7 and 9… There’s more of a gap at the top end of the bag, but I find a well struck 5-iron can often go a surprising distance. I also rely quite heavily on my 7-iron for chip-and-run shots around the green and I wouldn’t like to be without it… That is reason enough for me to select odds rather than evens when it comes to the irons.
54-degree wedge
I think that’s the right loft of wedge to give you the maximum number of options for short shots and escape missions. You can open the face up on a 54 if you need to extricate yourself from a deep bunker or clear a tall tree. But you can also play it back in the stance for a chip shot, or hood the face to play a lower, more penetrating pitch. Some might prefer to manipulate a slightly more lofted club, others might choose a wedge with a couple of degrees less loft. I have chosen 54 and that is that!
