Gap wedge or 3iron?

Sam,

I had the same issue a few years ago and my pro Greg Guman's solution has worked very well. I took out my 3 & 4 irons and added a Titleist hybrid that I hit my 3i yardage with my standard grip and my 4i yardage by choking up one inch...Hope this helps you...

Tim W 

So why not use a 4 wood (17) and 7 wood (21) in place of the 3W, 5W and 3i?

The choice between a 7W and 3H is personal.   If I put a 7W and 3H (both 21) side by side, I get about 10 yards more with the fairway wood.  There is also a "knock the snot out of it" feeling you get with a  fairway wood vs a long hybrid.

The 4W makes sense because it is a little easier to launch vs a 3W.

I play a more odd ball setup (AP1 PW 46*, SM4 54-11 bent to 52, SM4 58-06 and 64-07 stock).   I also learned how to work a pitching wedge pretty well because I carried a do it yourself set with 47* PW and 55* SW.

The 5W can go up to 20.5    The 3W to 16.5.  

I carry a 7W (21), 11W (25), and 27H (910H set to B3 28.5). 

Look, only you can realistically answer this question because this is your game and your score.

Personally, I just went from 4 wedges back to 3 (48, 54, 60) and I'll have to see how that translates to scores and yardages but I found that I very rarely ever used my PW and most often used my GW so I split the difference in those and freed-up another spot in the bag for myself.  I also think carrying 4 wedges limited me on my creative/shot-making side.  With 4 wedges, each wedge has it's purpose and that's kind-of all there is.  With 3 wedges it makes you think and play different shots with varying degrees of flight and control.  There's a lost art in hitting the 1/2 and 3/4 controlled wedges anymore because people carry so many wedges that they just grab the one that goes full swing for that shot and off they go.  I hit my AP2 P 132 and my AP2 W 125 so it's only natural for me to lose the combo and split the difference.  I comfortably hit my 54° 115 (max 122) so that makes my gaps work from 60° to 9-iron.

If you don't want to change from a 3 wedge setup (keeping the 3-iron or whatever) and you're at odds with the 54° wedge anyway then why don't you carry a 52° and 58° wedge setup to complement the 47°?  In the end it's totally up to you but it's not always as simple as "just fill the gap".  Yes, you need to fill the gap but I think you just need confidence and practice to hit the shot correctly depending on the need.  If you find yourself in that 105-135 zone a lot then you should learn to be efficient within that range.  I'm just not sure that kicking the 3-iron out of the bag is the answer, it might be but only you can decide that for certain...

Good luck!

Sam,

It seems like you only have a 10 yard gap between your 3i and your 4i. Have you thought of taking both those irons out of the bag and replacing it with a hybrid that can span that distance? Then you can have the best of both worlds. 

Hope it works out for you.

drop the 3 iron, hold back a little on the 5 wood if you need to. Im about the same distances on irons and rarely use a 3iron.

Curveball, have you considered going PW, 52, 58? I appreciate you wrote this post 4 months ago and you may have already decided but 52,56, 60 and a PW is a hell of a lot of wedges. I would second guess my self so much if l had all those options around the green. Sometimes (admittedly not in all cases) fewer options bring clarity and can help you to just get on with playing shots. This set up would also help your gapping issues. The other thing to consider, and l apologise if l am insulting your golfing ability, is can you get a good enough ball flight out of a 3 iron in order to maintain a solid carry gap between that and a 4 iron, If yes then 3 iron has lots of benefits: off tees, in wind etc. If no, 4 wedges is a lot but its better than a useless 3 iron!

for me i love the 3 iron so if i were to take out a club i would take out the five wood but then again i also wouldn't have 4 wedges so idk what to really do but if i were you i wouldn't take out the 3 iron. 

Most have already contributed enough information for you to make your decision by now, but I would base it on if you can even successfully pull a 3-iron out and hit the shot you need. I say this because most golfers I know cannot really game those clubs and like to find an alternative. It looks like you have your wood game down, so that being the case, you may want to lean towards the wedge game. 

I carry 10 clubs but I have some of the iron lofts bent to spread the gaps.

13* driver 

910F 17 (D3 - 17 3/4)

910F 21 (A3 - 22.5)

910H 27 (D3 27 3/4)

7-34 hybrid

AP1 9-PW (40-46)

SM4 54-11 (53)

SM5 60-07.

My gaps are 15 yards all the way through, except for the wedges - 20. I played for 3 years with a DIY set of irons (with no GW) so I learned how to work a PW.  I can hit a choke shot with any club in the bag.