No more full iron sets!

Golf manufacturers appear to try and stay up on the latest trends in golf. You'd suppose they have to in order to compete. They spend lots of money trying to convince us that we'll play a lot better if we upgrade our 2 year old clubs.

It's not all hype. I do admit there have been some real game improvement clubs over the last 15 years. Who but the pros can't benefit from perimeter weighting. Try and buy a driver WITHOUT a graphite shaft. Perhaps one of the newest and most helpful inventions has been the hybrid club - half iron and half wood. Most everyone has one, including the PGA pros. On the Champions tour you can't find a bag without one or even more.

It doesn't take much foresight to see where this is going. I've been thinking about possibly upgrading my clubs. As I started to go through the selection process in my mind, I realized I don't really want to buy a full set up irons, 3-PW. Many of us already use wedges that don't match our set, same as most pros. And most amateurs can't and don't hit 2 and 3 irons. Some of us are seeing the light and thinking about getting rid of the 4 as well. Which leaves me wanting to buy a new iron set that goes from 5 through 9. That's four clubs less than I have to buy now, or half a set. I think I'll wait another year or so, in which time a smart manufacturer that makes hybrids and irons is going to offer me the choice to buy only the clubs I really need.