Too Many Clubs?

I heard a story about Bubba Watson playing a round with just a hybrid club and managing to shoot level par. I decided to see how I would get on playing a round using just my 21 degree hybrid and my putter. A normal distance for me with this club is around 220 yards so I knew I could expect to be playing lots of half shots. I did not know what, if anything, I would learn from doing this but I thought it would be fun to try.

The first difficult shot I faced on the course was a 90 yard bunker shot on the first hole. I made an effort not to think about technique and instead focused on getting the ball out of the bunker which I am delighted to say I achieved. Despite this I made bogey on the first and misjudged a 40 pitch on the second hole resulting in another bogey. At this point I realized just how special Bubba's skills are.

The 180 yards I had into the third was one of the easier shots of the round but on the fourth I had one of the most difficult shots of the round. From the left hand rough I had 157 yards over a tree. Normally I would have hit an 8 iron and not thought about the tree but today was different! I somehow managed to hit a high slice over the tree to around 20 feet and make the putt for my first birdie!

Another interesting hole was the 130 yard seventh, made much more difficult by a bunker that goes around the front of the green. Fortunately I had some room to stop the ball due to the back pin position. I am not sure if it would have been possible to get close a front pin because of the bunker. I have never tried to hit a club 90 yards shorter than normal before but by relying on feel I managed to hit high slice onto the green.

In the end I actually managed to shoot 1 over par for the 9 holes I played and I was actually 1 under for the last 7 holes. In an exercise like this the score is irrelevant and what I can take from the experience is far more important.

The first thing I learnt is just how easy it is for me to hit fairways with a hybrid instead of a driver. I hit 6 out of 7 fairways so I now know I can trust my hybrid if it is a tight hole or I am not feeling the shot with the driver. Despite the lack of run in the winter I was still able to comfortably reach all the greens in regulation so I will definitely consider hitting the hybrid more off the tee now I can see the benefits.

Playing this round really trained my feel for different shots. Never before have I tried to shape shots this much or hit a shot so much higher than I would normally. Remarkably I was able to do all of this without thinking about technique. I just pictured the shot and let my body work out how to hit that shot. I think this is possible because I have been playing golf for so long and my body is so used to how to swing the club to create different shots. It would be easy to say hitting these crazy shots has no practical use but I think it will help my trust myself to hit the shot I want to without thinking. If I can trust myself to take 90 yards off a hybrid or hit it 15 yards higher then I can trust myself to hit a small draw with an 8 iron much more readily.

I had a lot of fun trying this and I would recommend for other golfers to try this. I have a feeling this is something that everyone can try and get different results from so please let me know how you get should you try this.