It regularly amazes me how many golfers will rely on a small number of “favoured” clubs when playing.

Now this is fine, say in a competition or when you are faced with a challenging shot that would require a club in which you trust.

However, there is an argument that would suggest and in my opinion as a golf coach, correctly so, that you carry all the clubs so you should be able to use them, or at least make use of them.

I completely accept that most golfers, me included have a go to club, or a favourite club, but that does not give the excuse of it being used at all times from the fairway for example.

Having played last week with a new client, their apparent reluctance to play with the correct club for the shot was foremost in my mind.

So much so that after the third hole I had to ask why:

The response was bizarre in my mind.

“I always use my hybrid because I hit it further than my fairway woods”!

Baffled by the response I questioned my client, as to why every shot (whether it be from the tee or fairway) was played with their hybrid?

Surely when you only have a short distance to the green (they would choose the hybrid from 80 to 180 metres from the hole) it would be more beneficial to use a full swing and the correct iron for the shot.?

The response was a resounding “NO! I can´t control any other club.”

This got me thinking. There must be a reason, other than confidence in a hybrid that this client was dismissing all the other clubs in their bag.

Again I questioned and the response was worrying. “My first pro taught me to hit the hybrid off a tee, we never worked with other clubs, well except the putter”

I was astounded that any self-respecting professional would teach with just one club, and even more so a hybrid.

I decided to immediately end the playing lesson and head to the range and see if we could get this golfer to change their set in stone ways.

Reaching the range, I pulled out the client’s hybrid and made them promise not to hit it for at least 3 weeks, even if that meant not playing on the course. This may seem harsh but it was absolutely necessary.

We began to work on their iron play, from the very beginning. After around 2 hours we were beginning to make progress, the client realized that the swing with any club is the same and that the only major difference between the hybrid and their irons was the distance from the ball.

When our time was up, the client commented on how “blinkered” they had been, wishing to have seen their mistake from the very beginning.

Finally, we had broken the habit of reaching for a favoured club at every opportunity. We had now created a behaviour pattern that allowed the client to progress, become the golfer they had dreamed of.

Use all the clubs in your bag, never become reliant on a handful of clubs, and if you do you may as well throw the other clubs away and save energy by not having to carry them around the course.

Each club has their purpose and using them for that purpose will produce better results.