“I now play with a cross between a driver and a brassie, which, like all the best play clubs nowadays, is made with a slight bulge. I have a driving iron, a light iron, a mashie, a niblick, and a putter — six clubs, only one of them wooden. If you carry more clubs, you are always in doubt which to take, and while you are musing and trying to determine the right club, you have begun to lose your confidence as well as your concentration.”

Charles Blair Macdonald

Scotland’s Gift — Golf (Classics of Golf, 1985), p. 49.

Roughly speaking, C.B.’s set translates to modern clubs like this:

Brassie … 2-wood

Driving iron … 2-iron

Light iron … 5-iron

Mashie … 7 iron

Niblick … Wedge

Putter

I am fascinated with “short sets,” sets of less than fourteen clubs. I’ve long felt that golf is best enjoyed from a “less is more” point of view, especially when it comes to clubs. I like the minimalist aspect of short sets. I like the forced creativity that comes from having to make a few clubs work for any shot. And, of course, I also like the light weight on my shoulder when I’m walking and carrying my sticks.

My own current setup is based on ten clubs, and for most of my playing life I carried only eleven or twelve clubs. Fourteen clubs in the bag definitely feels like a luxury to me — or rather, quite often a burden — reserved for when I’m riding a cart and don’t care about the extra weight. I typically throw in a few more fairway woods that I don’t really need, but which are sometimes nice to have : a 3-wood for greater accuracy off the tee and fairway firepower on par-5s, a 7-wood Niblick for longish shots from thick rough, etc.

Lately I see many players going the route of carrying just four irons with ten degrees of loft gap between clubs: 56-46-36-26*. National Custom Works made several sets this way that I am aware of, and many other short sets of only five, six or seven irons spanning approximately a 2-iron to lob wedge range. Gaming an abbreviated set of irons like this, combined with just one or two woods and a putter, yields a tidy set similar to what C.B. Macdonald carried in his bag.

I’m contemplating a similar setup inspired by C.B.’s bag, slightly expanded:

Irons: 16-26-36-46-56* (ten degree loft gaps)

Woods: 2-wood and 5-wood, or driver and 4-wood

Putter

This makes eight clubs total, two less than I typically carry today. I like how this set (I’ll call it the “base set”) can be adjusted slightly with the addition, subtraction or substitution of one or two clubs, such as:

Min Set (six clubs): One wood, four irons, putter

Mid Set #1 (seven clubs): Two woods, four irons, putter

Mid Set #1B (seven clubs): One wood, five irons, putter

Base Set — as above (eight clubs): Two woods, five irons, putter

Mid Set #2 (eight clubs): Three woods (e.g. Driver, 4W, 7W), four irons, putter

Max Set (9 clubs): Three woods, five irons, putter.

I can see myself leaving out the 16* iron at times in favor of a fairway wood. Or, I can see myself throwing in my Louisville Golf Niblick model 7W for versatility out of thick rough. It’s a great club I can hit about 185-190 yards, and it laughs off bad lies. I can even hit it out of fairway bunkers. Sometimes I might carry a driver and 4W, other times a 2W & 5W combo. I might just carry a 2W & 7W combo and leave out the 16* iron. Or, if I really wanted to cover all the bases, I would carry all five irons along with a driver-4W-7W combo. If I want to go extremely light I’d just take the 2W, or maybe a 4W instead, and four irons and my putter for a minimal six-club setup.

What I love about this setup, in addition to the minimal aspect, as well as the light weight, are the many setup options you can go with based on where you’re playing and what course conditions there are like. In Scotland or at, say, Bandon Dunes, where the wind blows with wicked force I’d want that 16* iron for low, running tee shots on shorter holes. In places like that you want to keep the ball out of the wind and take advantage of the firm playing conditions. I also contemplate a lower lofted 9* driver at a slightly shorter length of 43” long for my standard tee shots to play at courses like that as well. But in the American midwest in the summer, a five-wood might be a better choice than the 16* iron. I hit my 5W well off the tee, carrying it a good 200 yards, and from the fairway a 5W is good for longer approaches at softer courses where the ball hits and sits. It’s also pretty good from the rough. A 4W plays similarly, with just a touch more distance. I like either a driver/4W combo or a 2W/5W combo in my bag most of the time. Carrying one wood for tee shots and another wood for fairway play or layup tee shots is almost always perfectly adequate.

Here’s what my armory would look like, based on the C.B. Macdonald inspired baseline, from which I can mix and match to tune my bag setup:

Driver #1: 43.5” long, 10.5-11* loft — my standard driver.

Driver #2: 43” long, 9-9.5* loft — for places like Scotland and Bandon with high winds, where you want a lower trajectory and a little more control.

2-Wood: 42.5” long with 12-13* of loft — for yet more accuracy off the tee on shorter courses, and possibly to be used off good lies when you want second shot firepower on a par-5 hole.

4-Wood: 41.5” long with 18* of loft — a wonderful all-around fairway wood. In a very minimal set with just one wood in the bag this is actually not a bad teeing club on short courses either. I can probably carry it 215 yards off of a tee. A 4W plays well from rough too. You will not see a sleeker club than a persimmon 4W.

5-Wood: 41” long with 19-21* of loft — another fantastic all-around fairway wood, with a bit more loft, easily playable from rough unless the lie is truly horrid. My current five wood is actually 19* loft, or 2* strong. It’s the length of a regular persimmon 5W, but almost the loft of a 4W. It’s a terrific club. I may yet down the road acquire a second 5W with the regular 21* loft as well. I think that’d pair perfectly with a 2-wood.

7-Wood: 40.5” long with 23* of loft. I prefer the Louisville Golf Niblick model. With its heavy V-shaped sole it can be played from any lie; a true utility club.

Irons:

16* loft, 39.5” length (like a 1/2-iron, similar to C.B.’s driving iron)
26* loft, 38.25” length (like a 4/5-iron, similar to C.B.’s light iron)
36* loft, 37” length (basically a 7-iron, equivalent C.B.’s mashie)
46* loft, 35.75” length (a 9-iron / PW, roughly C.B.’s niblick)
56* loft, 35.5” length (a modern sand wedge, which C.B. probably didn’t have, though his niblick may have had a tad more loft than a modern 9-iron or PW and would have served the purpose)

Putter — I prefer a simple heel-shafted blade putter.

As explained earlier, I can see myself carrying various combinations of these different clubs based on the course and how my swing is behaving, and my bag setup would consist of as few as six clubs, up to nine clubs maximum. Any combination would readily fit into a simple 7” diameter MacKenzie golf bag and carry easily.

I estimate the distance gaps between clubs would be 20-25 yards. Not insignificant, but certainly playable for me. I am comfortable with three-quarter swings or gripping down to affect distance, and I enjoy the creativity required to find the right shot.

The club length progression of the irons I am thinking of is 1.25” between clubs. It’s possible I’d go with only 1” between clubs (36-37-38-39”, excluding the 56* SW still at 35.5”). What that would do is slightly increase the distance I’d hit the 46* club and slightly reduce the distance I hit the 26* and 16* clubs, but I’d have a little more control with those longer irons. In my mind control usually trumps distance. I’m still thinking about it. Another option I’m considering is an iron setup of 20*/39”, 28*/38”, 36*/37”, 44*/36”, 56*/35.5”. It’s basically a 3-5-7-9-SW set, which would play nicely enough.

This is the type of set I spend most of my time thinking about right now, and more than likely the next set of custom irons I buy will be geared toward this setup. It’s still a project for down the road and I’ll be contemplating it for a while, but I think I like the direction I am heading.

Thanks to C.B. Macdonald for inspiring me, and thanks to C.B. too for doing so much to bring golf to America! If you haven’t read his famous book, Scotland’s Gift — Golf, give it a go, it’s terrific, truly an all time classic of golf literature.