Maximum Number of Clubs

[el tigre]

In the latest issue of Flagstick, there is an ad for a contest to win an Adams complete golf package as follows:

Irons: 3 - PW
Wedges: 52, 56 & 60 degrees
Woods: 1, 3 and 5
Putter
and a bag to put it all in.

Count them up and you get 15 clubs, and as we all know, the maximum number of clubs you can have during a round is 14. Interesting, isn't it?

I also carry 15 clubs in the bag (of course, I take out a club during OGT events), and from what I can tell most golfers have more than 14 in the bag. The pros normally have more than 14, and they cut out some before each round according to the course and the playing conditions.

It would be interesting to know:
a) whether most golfers actually carry mory than 14 clubs, and
b) with so much variety in clubs now available, whether you think the limit should be increased to 15.

Any thoughts?

[NoBack]

I'm sure the rule is 14 clubs.

I carry the 1-3-5-7 woods
3-SW and a putter.

At home are the 2 iron and lob wedge. which alternate when i feel the need to carry them.

[Gary Hill]

The limit on clubs is fairly recent.

During the 1930's pro's caddies would carry 25-30 clubs in the bag.

This got to be ridiculous, so the Rule was set at 14.

At the time, the standard set was Putter, 1-9, Wedge, 1-3-5 woods.

I have it on good authority that there is NO intention to raise the limit.

[The Shtick]

It depends of course where you are playing. I tend to keep 3-4 wedges in my bag when I'm playing a course where I can grip it and rip it with the driver.... But when it comes to target golf, I'll use long irons or even a 7 wood instead.

I'll never keep 15 clubs in my bag because it's soo easy to forget to check before the round and in my case, I play in quite a few tournaments and it can be very costly when someone calls you on it.

That could be a bad habit to get into and I don't encourage anyone to do it. On the other hand, I could always use a chainsaw in my bag.....

[Colby]

I had a guy once try to call my umbrella and ball retriever clubs.

Gary what's the rule on that? I once tried looking for the definition of a club, but couldn't find the exact wording.

[Kilroy]

LOL, I think you need to be able use it to hit a ball with.

I have
1,3,5,7,9 woods
3-9I
S,M,P,L wedge
2 putters - soft face ping and hard face Taylor Made - I prefer the Ping
18 if I were to carry them all

The short woods are easy to hit, and fly high, lousy in the wind, but easy when its calm. Conditions dictate the choice.

Most of the time I leave out the 9W and 3+4
4 woods 5 Irons 4 wedges + putter

[em69]

I carry all the clubs I own...14

[Gary Hill]

Colby -

A club is an implement designed to be used for striking the ball.

The specifics of a what constitutes a conforming club may be found in Appendix II.

Obviously an umbrella and a ball-retriever are not designed to be used to strike the ball.

[Colby]

That is much more polite than the way I said it to him.

I was guessing, but it only made sense.

[GarthM]

As an aside, and this may be an urban legend, but I heard somewhere that the reason they set the limit to 14 clubs was, as Gary mentioned, because caddies were being forced to carry 25-30 clubs. In those days (i.e. no graphite, titanium etc) a bag with 20 clubs would probably weigh in at over 30-40 lbs!

Given that most club caddies were something like 10 years old, they were being seriously abused by the weight of the bag.

Golf Trivia 101! Wonder if it is true or not??

[natgolfer]

If on the first tee, before I have hit a shot, I discover a 15 th club in my bag. Can I declare the club out of play, tuck in under my golf bag and play away, or must I physically remove it from my equipment?

If the answer to the latter is, "Yes," what do I do with it if I make the discovery on the 3rd tee?

[nice_lag]

Gary will hopefully support me on this one but if I'm not mistaken, you can leave the club in your bag, show it to your partner/fellow competitor and declare that you will not use that club and that it is "out of play".

What happens if you use it??? Well we've all seen it a few months ago on the Tour when a "high-temper" golfer threw that club away and fired his caddie not too long after... hurts to take those penalty strokes.

[Gary Hill]

You may not declare an excess club out of play before the round and carry it. You must physically remove it.

If you make the discovery of an excess club or clubs during the round, you must immediately declare the excess club or clubs out of play.
You may carry the excess club or clubs for the remainder of the round. If you thereafter use the club during the round, you are disqualified.

I generally advise players to turn the club(s) upside down in their bag so they don't inadvertently use the excess club.

[em69]

Originally posted by nice_lag
What happens if you use it??? Well we've all seen it a few months ago on the Tour when a "high-temper" golfer threw that club away and fired his caddie not too long after...

If your refering to Ian Woosnam, I don't think he fired him. He said it is as much his fault as it is his caddies. Yes I know the caddie is supposed to count the clubs, but as Curtis Strange said..."the player is ultimaltely responsible".

[nice_lag]

Unfortunately, yes I was referring to Ian Woosnam. The caddie did get fired after another incident a few weeks (2 or 3) later.

I agree with you though that the player is ultimately responsible like any other phase of the game.

[em69]

Another incident? Didn't hear about that. Oh man...I guess that guy won't be caddying for anyone in the near future.

[jimrobin]

From what I remember hearing was, 2 weeks after the 15 club incident, the caddy slept in for a early morning round and Ian fired him after that.