- 4 weeks ago
Are you a high-handicap golfer struggling with consistency? You might be using the wrong clubs. Join PGA Pro Joe Ferguson as he details the five most forgiving clubs that can help you get the ball airborne, improve your short game, and lower your scores.
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00:00As a PGA professional, I play in a lot of pro-am tournaments
00:03with golfers of all different levels of abilities,
00:07believe me.
00:07Now one of the most frustrating things I see in those events
00:10is those amateurs using golf equipment
00:12that really isn't doing them any favors.
00:14So I've come here to Stoke Park today
00:17to pick out five clubs that I really think
00:19could benefit high handicap golfers.
00:21Let's take a look.
00:37The first club I would really like you to consider using
00:40if you are a high handicapper
00:41is one of these very high lofted fairway woods
00:45like this nine wood, this G430 nine wood from Ping
00:48that I've got in my hands.
00:49It's got 24 degrees of loft and everything about it
00:52is screaming help to get you, get the ball airborne.
00:55A lot of the higher handicappers I play with
00:57tend to have some slower swing speeds
00:59and can struggle to get the ball airborne
01:01as high as they would like
01:02and get the ball stopping on the green.
01:04Everything about this is designed to help you with that.
01:07We've got, as I said, 24 degrees of loft.
01:09We've got a super shallow face
01:11just to help you get under the ball and scoop it up.
01:14And it just makes your life an awful lot easier.
01:16And don't be fooled into thinking
01:17this is just a high handicap option.
01:19People like Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood,
01:22Matt Fitzpatrick, even Tyrrell Hatton I think
01:24have all toyed with at least seven woods
01:27but potentially nine woods too.
01:28And it's just such a useful club.
01:30So just from a fairway position like this,
01:32well I'm on the tee admittedly
01:33but the ball's on the ground.
01:35As soon as I put that in behind the ball
01:37I just get so much confidence.
01:39I can see so much face of the club.
01:41The head's nice and shallow.
01:42It's almost sitting below the level of the ball.
01:44And then you just put like a nice normal swing on it.
01:49And it basically, it's taking off up my nose.
01:53Not too, too spinny, lands super, super soft.
01:57And even with, admittedly I've got a reasonably high level
02:00of swing speed but in slower swing speed hands
02:03it's the same principle.
02:05That CG location, that shallow face,
02:07everything is helping you get the ball up.
02:09And it's not just off the fairway, it's super versatile.
02:11If I move forward just a foot or so here
02:14into this kind of semi rough.
02:15And I give myself a not great lie there.
02:17I'll just tap that on the head,
02:18get it down nestled in that grass a bit.
02:21That would be a bit of a challenge even for me
02:23with a four iron, five iron.
02:26I'd really need to have a really precise strike
02:28to get that out.
02:29And even then it would probably come out quite flat.
02:32Again, as soon as I pop that in behind the ball,
02:35the amount of face I'm seeing
02:37and the kind of bigger footprint of that nine wood head.
02:42I know, I can just chop that out.
02:44And that's basically got the exact same flight
02:47as it did off the fairway.
02:48So it just makes life so, so much easier
02:51than battling away and trying to pierce those long irons
02:53and get that precise strike.
02:55So really give some consideration
02:57to popping a nine wood in your bag.
03:04Another club that I really think
03:06high handicappers could benefit,
03:07certainly the ones that I've played with,
03:09is a chipper like this one from Ping.
03:12Now when I play these Pro-Am tournaments,
03:13I see a lot of people when they're missing greens,
03:15pulling out lob wedges, sand wedges.
03:18And with the very thin sole of those golf clubs,
03:21the margin for error on strike can be pretty, pretty tight.
03:25So something like this chipper
03:26that's got this really wide sole,
03:29it's beveled on both edges
03:30to make sure it doesn't dig in,
03:32is really useful for turf interaction.
03:35Also, it's built very, very upright.
03:38So you can get your hands in a nice high position.
03:40It's pretty much putter lie angle.
03:42And because of that,
03:43you can more or less use your putting stroke,
03:46just to make sure we're brushing the grass.
03:48The ball will just pop off gently,
03:50and you can treat it like a putt.
03:51There's no margin for error with strike.
03:53You're not worried about trying to pinch the ball or nip it.
03:56You're just literally brushing the grass on the way through,
03:58dead level of the ground,
03:59and trusting that the loft on this face
04:01will pop it up and deliver it.
04:03So again, I even use my putting grip when using this chipper.
04:06So reverse overlap grip,
04:09and just a rock of the shoulders,
04:11and trust that the ball will just elevate off the face
04:14and start releasing out towards the hole.
04:18So decent result there, I'm in about three feet.
04:20You're pretty happy with that.
04:21It just takes out any risk of a duff or a thin.
04:25So as soon as you start putting risks into it
04:28and trying to pinch that strike,
04:29the margin for error just goes through the roof.
04:32A chipper like this, from all sorts of lies,
04:34I'll give myself a great lie on that first one.
04:36If I just go down in a little depression there,
04:39that's down in a hole.
04:40That's pretty nasty.
04:41Again, I still don't have to do much more
04:43than just rock my shoulders and let it pop out.
04:46It's come out a little bit quicker, that one.
04:48It might even hit the pin.
04:49Very close.
04:50But again, pretty useful.
04:51Only a few foot past,
04:53and I've not duffed it in front of me,
04:54and I've not thinned it.
04:56One more time from a technique point of view.
04:58Nothing complicated.
04:59High hands, putting grip, rock your shoulders,
05:04and just let that ball pop up on the green.
05:06Release out somewhere near the hole,
05:10three or four feet, and you'll save more parts.
05:17Okay, the broomstick.
05:19Now, you might be thinking, what are you talking about?
05:22The broomsticks for the pros.
05:23I would never use that.
05:25Bear with me.
05:26Hear me out.
05:27I play an awful lot of these programs, as I said.
05:29One of the biggest culprits I see for people losing shots is missing these short putts.
05:35One of the biggest reasons I see for that is people not being able to control the release of their
05:40hands.
05:41By that, I mean I see so many people hitting cover drives with a normal putter, where they're holding on
05:47to this angle, not releasing the blade.
05:49That pushes the blade right, and then missing the putts right for a right-handed golfer.
05:54Conversely, you see the same thing the other way.
05:56When people are over-flicking their hands, you'll see how the butt end of that club, if I'm using the
06:01broom handle there, would protrude backwards, and that tends to mean you're adding loft, you can lose pace control, and
06:08you can even rotate the face too far left.
06:09So it's very, very difficult to control club face when you've got that type of stroke.
06:14Now, the more prudent answer might be to take some lessons and learn how to control your wrist to create
06:19more of a one-piece putting stroke, but not all of us have the time or even the inclination to
06:24do that, and I think the broom handle can be a real kind of cheat code for those players.
06:29So think about the technique of it.
06:30We're not anchoring.
06:31We know we're not allowed to press this into our sternum and keep it in place anymore, so I'm keeping
06:35a gentle gap here between this, but what I can do is I can make sure that my
06:39right hand, sorry, my left hand, my top hand here, doesn't move too far backwards and forwards.
06:44I've got a reference point near my sternum, and all that moves there is the right hand, so I've got
06:51a very consistent release pattern.
06:52I can't over-release it, I can't under-release it, because that would involve that moving, so it takes out
06:58a really key variable.
07:01I've had a little dabble with it.
07:02On the longer putts, it takes some getting used to, but I've seen, you've obviously seen some tall success with
07:06it, the likes of Lucas Glover, Will Zalatouris, Adam Scott.
07:09I've got using it really, really well, but from short range in particular, I've found it really, really useful.
07:16You can stand nice and tall, set the putter blade in there with just the left hand, keep that top
07:20hand still, release the putter blade, and it just feels like, like I said, just that little extra insurance that
07:28the putter's not going to go offline through any over or under release.
07:32So, my key takeaway here, don't be afraid to experiment with some alternative putting style that might make sense mechanically,
07:40and I firmly believe the broomstick is one of them.
07:48Another club that I really think would benefit the high handicappers, again, comes for use around the green.
07:53There's a bit of a theme developing here in terms of short game, and it is a specialist sand wedge
07:59specifically for bunkers.
08:01Now, you might be thinking, hey, I've already got my Vokey or my Jaws Raw or my MG4, whatever it
08:05might be,
08:05but I still think there's clubs out there with just a little bit more help, like this Ram Easy Out
08:11wedge, and by extra help, I'm talking the sole geometry.
08:15We've got a monstrous sole here.
08:17It's really, really wide.
08:19It's cut out even deeper in the midsection directly behind the impact of the ball, and what that does is
08:24creates extra effective bounce.
08:26So, when you set it up square, you might not feel much different.
08:29The leading edge will be a similar distance from the ground.
08:31All of a sudden, you lean that back, this huge back edge here kicks in and will just act like
08:38a rudder through the sand to help guide that club out of the sand a little bit easier rather than
08:43having it dig and stick in.
08:44The amount of times I've played in these programs where people have played a shot, the club, they've addressed it
08:49too square, the club's just stuck in the sand, and it's flubbed a couple of feet in front of them.
08:54I see that all the time, and this, I honestly believe, can be a big help with that kind of
08:59problem.
08:59So, you just play it like you would a normal bunker shot.
09:03Open up the blade here.
09:04I've got about 25-yard shot, so straight away, I can feel, I know I've got this back edge that's
09:11going to help me here.
09:12So, as soon as I open the face there, I'm engaging that bounce, and all I've got to do, my
09:16job is just to slap this club into the sand with the back edge, and once it goes in, that
09:21bounce will kick in, and it wants to come straight back out.
09:24So, it really helps with that sand interaction.
09:26You can be as aggressive as you want.
09:29Pops out a dream really nicely.
09:32That's in there about four feet.
09:34Really, really good.
09:35It just makes the journey through the sand so much simpler and so much easier.
09:41And, again, I just think when you've got these thinner soles, the margin for error that I keep talking about
09:46with these shots increases.
09:48Once again, I could probably hit this a little bit heavier, and it still does the job.
09:53The bounce has kicked in there, that's popped out further, and that's about four inches away.
09:59These specialist sand wedges for bunker play are really, really useful, and if you're not using them, then you're really
10:05missing out.
10:11All right, I'm going to go there.
10:12I'm going to say the S word.
10:14A lot of players that I play with in these pro-ams of different levels shank the ball, but you
10:21have to accept that, right?
10:22We've got to use irons.
10:23Well, wrong.
10:24If you're smart, you could visit a website like 11golf and pick up a set of hybrid irons.
10:30Now, one of the main benefits of these is that they basically don't have a hosel.
10:34You can get them from four iron all the way down to pitching wedge, and where the hosel meets the
10:39head, it's very, very shank-proof.
10:43So, for those of you who've had the old hosel rocking your time, you'll be very pleased to hear that,
10:47but that's not the only benefit.
10:49They're very much designed with a higher handicap in mind.
10:52The CG locations, the extra mass, the extra real estate behind the ball is very confidence-inspiring, and they're designed
10:58to help you, once again, get the ball up in the air.
11:03And with the wider soles, the turf interaction is also something that is really beneficial.
11:08I see a lot of people using very thin-soled irons that might be designed for better players, and that
11:13puts a real sort of tariff on making sure your strike is very, very precise.
11:18With the width of sole we've got on these hybrid irons, you've got a bit more margin for error.
11:23Those slightly heavy strikes will bounce off the turf a little bit, and you'll still get an acceptable result.
11:28Now, you don't play them like a wood or a hybrid or anything like that.
11:31You just pick out the number seven, it's a seven iron to me.
11:35I'm going to hit the same sort of swing and everything that I would have put on a normal seven
11:39iron, and I'm still going to probably take a little bit of a divot.
11:42You just treat them as an iron.
11:44Play your normal shot, because they are, again, this is seven iron length as well.
11:50It's a peculiar feeling looking down on a hybrid that is essentially seven iron length once they're this close to
11:54it.
11:54But, when you hit it, and that is absolutely perfect, I've performed for you there, that looks about 10 feet
12:05here from 180, 185.
12:08That's just so, so easy, a really nice shallow divot, it doesn't get stuck in the turf too long, it
12:14popped up super, super high, and just dropped like a feather.
12:17They're so much easier to hit, so if you do struggle with your irons, please consider a hybrid iron set.
12:22Anyway, we'll be right back here.
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