What’s In My Bag
Irons & Wedges
National Custom Works short set:
22-27-32-28-44-50-57* lofts
“Phatty” muscle blades
Large cavity back for the 22* iron
Bounce + camber sole grind, killed leading edge
50* pitching wedge, 12 deg bounce, moderate camber, narrow heel
57* sand wedge, 12 deg bounce, moderate camber, aggressive heel/toe relief, moderate trailing edge relief, slight belly
Square toe in irons, standard toe in wedges
Nippon Modus Tour 105 stiff steel shafts
BB&FCo Ferrules “Prep School” - cream, tan, navy rings
Golf Pride Tour Wrap Gen2 black midsize grips
If you’re interested, these are my yardages.
What can I say about my irons? They were handmade by Don White, the man who made clubs for Jack Nicklaus, José Maria Olazabal, Greg Norman and many other great players during his time in MacGregor’s legendary Tour/Custom Department. Mr. White is one of the greatest clubmakers of all time, a true craftsman. He’s a legend.
These irons are spectacular. And they were made exactly for me, exactly to my own unique specs. I often find it hard to believe I have irons this good, and I certainly do not deserve them, nor do I pretend to do them justice. Pinch me.
The feel they offer is exquisite, and when I make a good swing the purity of contact is nothing short of sensational. When I’m really on my game the shot-making potential is unparalleled. These irons can do it all — fade, draw, high, low — if you can make the swing they can give you the shot. For me, shotmaking is one of the most fun parts of the game. When you’re hitting it great the fun is in making the ball move, working it according to the wind, the shape of the hole, or the distance you need to achieve when you’re between clubs. I never felt that blades are as “hard to hit” as people think they are, but I’m absolutely certain they are more workable and offer more feel than game improvement cavity backs.
I’m a high-ball hitter. Low COG irons are not good for me — the ball balloons. The mid-muscle “Phatty” design of my blades has a little higher center of gravity, helping moderate my high ball flight. It also puts a lot of mass behind the sweet spot, making it … sweeter. Concentrated mass helps with power and feel. The sweet spot is so good, there’s no question when I make a pure strike.
I did go with the large cavity back head in my longest iron (22*) for just a touch of extra forgiveness. It sacrifices nothing in feel, and looks totally sleek and blade-like at address. It’s very easy to hit and I think it’d make a tremendous 1-iron … another project for down the road.
My irons are not chromed, they’re raw. I like the extra-soft feel and the dull look they take on as they patina. They’re not at all hard to take care of. I always wipe them down between shots, and after a round I scrub the faces with cold water and an old toothbrush, and dry them completely with paper towel. If they get a little too rusty for my taste I touch them up with some superfine steel wool. It takes very little effort to make them look quite clean again. I would never hesitate to recommend raw irons to anyone and I’m not sure I’d like to go back to chromed heads down the road.
You may find my specs odd. Why not a regular 3-PW full set with 4* gaps, plus three more wedges? Why only seven irons, including two wedges? Why the weak lofts? For one thing, I don’t care to carry fourteen clubs. I like to walk, and I don’t like a heavy bag. So I stick with a “short set.” The loft and length gaps I went with in my irons are still quite playable. I don’t have trouble selecting clubs for a yardage. If anything, I were doing it again I think I might spec my set just a little differently to have only six irons to cover the same span of lofts instead of seven.
Somewhere along the way it also occurred to me that when I was younger I never carried a “full set” of fourteen clubs. My first set of clubs were my dad’s Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge set I found in our basement, unused. I just took them — never even asked (I knew my dad didn’t like golf) — and started playing. The set was driver, 3W, 5W, 3-PW, SW and a putter. I couldn’t really handle the 3-wood or the 3-iron so I just left them out of the bag. What was left was only eleven clubs, and that’s basically the setup I carried for years, without even thinking about it. Somewhere in the late nineties I picked up a lob wedge, and started carrying more woods, and basically had a full bag. But a 60* wedge never really worked for me, and while the extra woods are nice (and I’m a pretty good fairway wood player), I don’t need all of them. I’m happy with a just a driver and a 4-wood or 5-wood most of the time.
As I liked to walk and carry, I often found myself carrying only every other iron in my bag to go even lighter. I’d carry Driver-7W-5-7-9-PW-SW-putter … eight clubs. That always worked pretty well and was plenty light. I feel like a setup of eight to eleven clubs is about right, and so I spec’d my irons to work with that. My “full set” is ten clubs. What I call my “max set,” when I add in two more fairway woods, is just twelve clubs.
If I want to go even lighter than ten clubs I think I’d just drop the 22* iron, and replace my 5-wood with a 7-wood. That’s nine clubs. I could also drop the 50* wedge (although it’s a wonderful club and a favorite) and just use the 44* wedge for short pitches. Any time I get about 75 to 100 yards to the hole I find myself using that club anyway.
As far as lofts go, I definitely went old school. To me that means a 50* pitching wedge, with the rest of the lofts going from there. My two favorite sets from my past — Mizuno MP-14s and Cleveland Classics Byron Nelson Reg. 68.3 blades — both had 50* and 49* pitching wedges, and they always worked very well for me. I also carried a Cleveland Classics 588 49* pitching wedge for a good while and liked it a lot. I just feel like 49 or 50* is the right loft for what I call a true “pitching wedge.” And I don’t use my pitching wedge for full swings that often. It’s more my 50 to 75 yard club. Inside about 40 yards I use the sand wedge. And as I mentioned above, over about 75 yards I will probably hit my 44* iron, though sometimes I’ll hit the PW up to 100 yards. If I hit the pitching wedge, or any well-lofted club, with too much of a full swing I hit it so high, and I find I just do a little better with three-quarter shots.
My sand wedge is an all around club for short greenside shots and pitches up to maximum 50 yards. I always played a 56* sand wedge and, as I said, lob wedges just don’t work for me. I went with 57* to have just a pinch more loft. I’m pretty good at playing shots with the face open too, and can flop it pretty well, so 57* is plenty of loft for me to play about any shot.
With a 50* pitching wedge and a 57* sand wedge I feel really confident in my two-wedge setup and can cover anything inside 100 yards very comfortably. These National Custom wedges are just fantastic. They feel terrific and the sole grinds — matched to my tendencies — perform well in a variety of conditions. I can play a lot of shots. These wedges just work. I went with a standard toe because it looks right to me no matter how you open the face. Frankly, custom grind irons are not inexpensive, far from it, (though they are totally worth it, in my opinion), but I tell people: you may not be able to afford a whole set, but do yourself a favor and get a wedge or two. That’ll make a huge difference in your game, and the cost is relatively similar to the cost of a good driver or putter, the other two most important clubs in your bag.
I really must stress, the sole shape you choose for your irons and wedges is very important. You want a grind that works with your swing, and to some degree the conditions you most often play. This is one of the beautiful things about having custom-grind irons. They can make you anything you want and get the shape just right. I have a relatively upright swing because I’m tall and long-armed, and will hit the ball fat more often than I hit it thin. I’m a bit of a digger and can definitely take huge divots if I’m getting too steep. I also know from experience that clubs with sharp leading edges, thin soles and too little bounce just don’t work for me. They dig and I can take up huge slabs of turf. I live in Michigan where we tend to see softer, wetter playing conditions. Thin sharp soles don’t work well here unless you’re absolutely a picker. My irons and wedges definitely have a good bit more bounce than you might see on retail blades from many manufacturers. The bounce-plus camber grind seems to fit me well and the killed leading edge is a huge plus. When I’m hitting it really well, especially with wedges around the green, I can feel that grind working as it contacts the turf.
One last item about my irons — the ferrules. Plain black ferrules are boring. In the glory days of classic golf equipment, clubs had blingy touches like colorful ferrules, knurled hosels, and diamond alignment patterns on the face alongside the grooves. Clubs back in the 1950s and 1960s looked amazing. My ferrules are from BB&F Co., the sister company (and precursor) to National Custom Works, who made my irons. BB&F Co. has hundreds of ferrules in all colors and designs in their back catalog. They have something for everyone. Irons look so much cooler dressed up a little. It’s that extra touch that makes the custom blade complete, and I highly recommend them.
You’ll note that my irons are stamped with a BB&F Co. logo. That’s because I ordered them when BB&F Co. was making irons and ferrules, before National Custom Works was established to focus specifically on clubs, and the new National Custom logo was introduced. The irons were made under the BB&F Co. name for less than a year, give or take. The order for my irons was finalized just weeks before the change. According to Patrick Boyd, there are fewer than a dozen sets of irons with BB&F Co. logos in existence. Kind of cool, right?
Truly, this is the best iron set I’ve ever had, no question. Once you go full custom nothing else compares. They feel like magic clubs to me. This is truly as good as it gets, and I’m totally in love with them.
Woods
Driver: Louisville Golf custom deep face model, 11* loft, 43.5” length, Nippon NS Pro 950FW stiff flex steel shaft.
Second Driver: National Custom Works Fine Furniture Department 10.5* loft, 1* open face, 43.5” length, NOS True Temper Dynamic stiff flex steel shaft.
Fairways - Louisville Golf Classic 50s:
3-Wood - 16* loft
5-wood - 19* loft (2* stronger than standard)
7-Wood - Niblick model, 22* loft (2* strong)
Nippon NS Pro 950FW steel shafts in all fairways, stiff flex. Golf Pride Tour Wrap Gen2 black midsize grips.
Unfortunately, what you find in most persimmon woods — new or old — are Dynamic Gold shafts, which can sometimes feel too heavy and stiff for me. Fewer and fewer companies are producing steel shafts for use in woods nowadays so there aren’t many options. Even the venerable Dynamic Gold is now out of production as a wood shaft. But I’m not going graphite, and fortunately Nippon still manufactures their 950FW lightweight steel shaft for woods, and it works great for me. It has a lighter weight and mid flex. It feels fantastic and fits my swing nicely, especially in my fairway woods.
Louisville Golf made most of my woods. They do beautiful work. I have a few other Louisville woods that I’d played for several years, and from that experience I knew what I wanted with this new set. For a reasonable up-charge Louisville will do a lot of customization. The driver, for instance, is a special deep face model of their Classic 50s driver. I first discovered this design when I bought a Louisville deep face prototype from eBay and fell in love with it. Deep face is the way to go. I had them make me this new one with custom honey-blonde finish, a different face insert, and with the Nippon shaft.
Louisville Golf custom deep face driver 11* loft, 43.5” length
Louisville Golf 5-Wood (19* loft … 2* stronger than standard).
I also play a second driver by National Custom Works’ Fine Furniture Department (the same company that makes my irons — they also make new custom persimmon woods in collaboration with Tad Moore, well known for custom putters and hickory golf clubs). It also has a deep face. It truly has one of the nicest shapes of any driver I’ve had — it looks so good at address. They retro keyhole insert is fantastic. The shaft in it is a NOS (New Old Stock) True Temper Dynamic shaft. It’s a little softer and more responsive than the Dynamic Golds from the ‘80s and onward and feels a lot better to me. It definitely has a more lively feel.
While the Louisville driver is set up square the face on the NCW driver is 1* open. It isn’t much but my mishits are push-fades and sometimes big slices. If I’m struggling with that I won’t use this club because the slightly open face just makes it worse. I can have trouble with the club getting “stuck” behind me during the downswing, leading to an open face at impact and often a too inside-out swing path (it’s not uncommon for it to get so inside-out that I starting hitting shanks!). But when I’m swinging well I start hitting little draws and with my driver, and sometimes those start turning into hooks. With the NCW Fine Furniture driver and its open face — when I’m swinging well and on a good plane — I get gentle draws with normal shots but I can also make slight adjustments and produce nice little fades. When I’m playing my best and swinging on the plane I want this driver works fantastically well for me.
NCW Fine Furniture Department Driver
My three wood is totally stock Louisville Golf Classic 50s head and their standard mahogany stain, just with a custom face insert. I absolutely love this club and I have a ton of confidence in it. The three wood is nice to have off the tee on occasions where I want more control than my driver. If I’m playing well it’s also nice to have more firepower on par-5s where my five wood, which only goes about 200 yards, doesn’t quite have the reach that I get with the three wood.
Louisville Golf 3-Wood
Louisville Golf Niblick 7-Wood
Niblick 7-Wood … note the sole shape.
The seven wood is a Louisville Golf Niblick model. I use it as a utility club. I hit it a good 185-190 yards and high, and the V-shaped sole handles nasty lies with ease. If I miss a fairway on a longer par-4 and have a crummy lie and a decent distance to the hole this is the club to go for. It has a little more reach than my longest iron, but still launches the ball high enough to hold a green if I strike it well. And it absolutely laughs at thick rough. It’s such a great club. This is the first club I’ll add to my bag when I feel like carrying more than my usual ten clubs because it’s so useful and it fills the distance gap between my 22* iron and my 5-wood perfectly.
When I’m walking and carrying my bag I only carry the five wood, for ten clubs total including my driver, my irons, and a putter. The five wood, with a loft almost as strong as a four wood, is a good all-around fairway wood for me and it gets the job done most of the time. It plays well from fairway and rough, and I actually hit it pretty far off the tee. But when I ride I usually add the three wood and the seven wood to my bag to have the extra shot options they provide. I have always been a pretty good fairway wood player — much better than am I am with long irons — and I get a lot out of them.
Putter
My flatstick is a Strokes Gained Customs Tour Blade model with custom stamping, raw carbon steel with no finish, and a hickory shaft by Tim Alpaugh (aka Claret Dreamer — @claretdreamer on Instagram). The grip is a simple leather wrap with no taper, rough side out. Overall length is 35 inches.
I love this putter soooo much. I had seen on Instagram where Tim had fitted an old hickory shaft to a new putter head before and could never stop thinking about how cool that was, and how good that putter could feel. I was right. The raw carbon steel head — I didn’t want any finish to get in the way of the softest feel I could get — mated with a hickory shaft is completely next level. Truly, I have never hit a putter that feels so soft and so pure at impact.
Neil Rohrbach (aka “Rohrs”) is the proprietor of Strokes Gained and is fantastic to work with. I had already been admiring his putters on Instagram for a while when I started thinking about this club. I have always been into heel-shafted blade putters, and there’s just something about his Tour Blade head that I like. It looks really good to me at address, and it has a nice heavy feel when mated to the hickory shaft. This is a putter that swings well.
Rohrs also did some nice custom stamping for me. The “1930” and four-leaf clover stamps are a nod to one of my golfing heroes, Bobby Jones, who also wielded a famous hickory-shafted blade, his beloved “Calamity Jane.” 1930 is the year of his incredible Grand Slam, and Jones was born on St. Patrick’s Day, and wore a gold four-leaf clover on his pocket watch chain. You can often see it clearly in photos of him. “Old School” is stamped on the back flange, and my initials are stamped on the face of the club near the toe.
With no finish, the head is getting a bit rusty. I don’t care. In fact, I like the patina. If it gets too rusty from time to time I hit it with some gun oil and scrub it with an old tooth brush and that takes off the heavy stuff.
The grip is one of the neatest things about this stick. It’s completely round, with no taper. I really like that. I usually go with a 34” length. This is just a little longer at 35”. With no taper on the grip I find I can adjust my hands a touch up or down depending on how I’m feeling on a certain day. On very short putts I like to grip down just a little, and the round, no-taper shape facilitates that nicely. Sometimes on heavily sidehill putts I may grip up or down to facilitate the lie. It sounds a little crazy but that’s what you do on sidehill lies when you’re making iron shots, and I find it helpful sometimes on putts too.
With the grip being totally round there’s also no question of whether or not it is installed properly, so that when your hands are on it the face sets up square. I know that sounds picky, but I’ve had putters where the grip just wasn’t on quite right, and the face might look too open or too closed, and I could never get comfortable again with how it looked. Re-gripping solves the problem, but then how could I be sure the replacement grip was on right? It’s something you have to eyeball. I’d stand there before the adhesive fully cured adjusting the grip this way and that until I was happy with it, but of course in the end I’d never be happy with it. It gets in my head, but things like that matter, and when it comes to golf having something get in your head is never really a good thing. A round grip takes all of that away. And I like the way it feels anyway.
I’m only aware of Edel Golf making modern rubber grips in a round, no-taper shape. On their website Edel says a round grip “is free from sharp edges or any other features that may impact alignment. It also provides more consistent grip pressure & less face rotation during your stroke.” I find this to be true and I’m not planning to go back to non-round putter grips. I’ve purchased an Edel grip to try on one of my other putters but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. The Edel grip feels a little heavy and I’m not sure it’d work well on a lighter putter head, like my Cleveland Classics Designed by Ben Crenshaw. It weighs 100 grams. That’s actually lighter than a lot of other mid-size, no-taper grips, but a good bit heavier than the type of grip you’d typically see on an old school heel-shafted blade.
I cannot say enough nice things about Rohrs and Tim. They were both terrific to work with and were really excited to make something a little different. My putter turned out fantastic and I couldn’t be happier. They both do such amazing work and are great guys.
Bag
I like to walk and carry my clubs. My bag is a MacKenzie Walker “Sunday Bag” in brushed brown waxed canvas with navy leather trim with cream accents. MacKenzie bags are fantastically well made, and the custom options they offer seem almost limitless. They also carry incredibly well. Keeping my bag light and simple make the round more pleasant and it’s easier on the shoulder. You’ll not find a simpler bag than this. It has a 7” opening that comfortably fits ten clubs, and a single pocket that carries all my basic needs — balls, tees, a pouch for odds and ends like ball markers and my phone and car keys, and maybe a bottle of water.
The little loop at the bottom of the bag is genius. When you carry the bag over your left shoulder with the club heads pointed behind you that little loop is right where your left hand falls. Taking hold of it in your fingers takes just a little bit of weight off your shoulder, making the bag so easy to carry. If you carry over your right shoulder the loop sits just at your right hand.
One customization I went for was to have the years of significant major championship victories — particular favorites of mine, won by favorite players — embroidered on the inside of the ball pocket for a little inspiration. If you’re curious, here’s the list.
I use a variety of headcovers. My driver has a plaid barrel cover from Stymie Golf Supply. For my three wood I use an awesome leather cover from Max Arden, aka “Putter Kid” (@putterkid on Instagram) with his cool logo that just happens to match the color scheme of my bag. My other fairway woods wear custom knit covers from Foreewe, who make fantastic covers with tons of options for customization. For putters I have several different covers I use, but mostly I use one or another I’ve acquired from Sugarloaf Social Club.
I don’t ever mind having a standless carry bag. Stand bags were a very new thing when I was in high school in the ‘80s. Nobody on our golf team had one. This particular kid showed up with one once and our coach, who had a very gruff Hogan-esque look and demeanor, saw it and just stared at him like he had two heads. It was clear that a stand bag was an abomination and none of the rest of us ever dared shoulder one. Eventually though, I tried one, and carried a stand bag for years through the ‘90s. But I never really took to it, or to double straps. I find them to just be a pain in the ass, actually. I still favor a very simple single-strap, standless bag like I had in high school.
I also have no aversion to laying my bag on the ground as I play. Yes, sometimes the ground is very wet or muddy, and on those occasions I use a pair of Tim Alpaugh’s awesome trestle sticks. They work like a charm, and are very light and take up practically no space in my bag and I highly recommend them. As with everything Tim does they’re extremely well made.
Trestle sticks in action.
When I’m riding a cart — which I actually do far more often than I’d like, as many public courses here in Detroit require it — I use a big Jones Rider staff bag. It’s an awesome old school staff bag with big pockets and tons of room for extra layers, rain gear, sun screen, snacks, whatever. It’s a really good bag.