The 14-club myth: why the average golfer can play better with fewer clubs

Mark Townsend 05 May 2025

Every golfer is allowed to use a maximum of 14 clubs. Generally speaking this means, for the stronger player, something like a driver, a couple of woods/hybrids and then 4-PW, three wedges and a putter.

But not all of us need 14 clubs. Eddie Hammond is a PGA Professional who does a lot of club fittings in his job and he explains how a lighter bag might improve your game.

The process
“If someone comes to me and says that they want a new bag of clubs, we’ll always start in the middle. Some people think you start at one end of the bag but we will start with the 7-iron and then we can make the decision whether a player needs having a 6 or a 5-iron. Then we will look at the hybrids or fairway woods and, finally, the wedges.

“When you used to buy irons you had to buy them from a 3-iron to wedge, now we’re ordering them individually.

“The one big thing with most manufacturers is that you’re looking for a five miles per hour increase on ball speed in your full swing clubs, as you go up. Then that usually then dictates that you get the right gap in between your clubs.

“Obviously somebody like a Rory McIlroy, with a faster clubhead speed, is likely to have a 15-yard gap in between their irons whereas a golfer with a slower swing speed might only have five yards between clubs.

“So it’s the fitter’s job to work out if you need 14 clubs in your bag. You might only need nine.

“If your gap’s only four or five yards. with each club, then you’re over-complicating things. You really want to get everybody into a 10-yard gap. So, for lots of golfers, we will just fit evens or odds with their irons.”

Less is more
“We had someone come in with a full bag of 14 clubs and he walked out with half that amount. By the time we had finished the full gapping session he had a driver, 7-wood, hybrid, a couple of irons, a wedge and a putter. He now has a 10-yard gap between everything that he hits and it also removes a lot of indecision. He now hits the 7-wood higher and further than his old 5 and 3-wood.

“It used to be that we were dropping out 3-irons with everybody, now we’re dropping out 4, 5 and some 6-irons.

“It’s the same when we get into hybrids. Most people can hit a 6 and a 5-hybrid but then you have the same issue – the 4-hybrid doesn’t go any further than the 5 because you’re not generating the clubhead speed and the ball speed to then get that five miles an hour.”

About Eddie Hammond
Eddie is the Head Assistant Professional at Moortown in Yorkshire. He is originally from Sheffield and he moved to Moortown in 2005, qualifying as a PGA Professional in 2010. Eddie is a Titleist ambassador