It's a fact that the club in your bag used more in a round than any other is the putter. It accounts on average for just under half your total score.
Even if you two-putt every hole (I wish!) and allow yourself a couple of three-stabs, that's 38 strokes with the same club.
But is it really the most important weapon in your armoury?
Perhaps you think it's the driver, which you will reach for 10-14 times on average in a round, assuming at least four of the holes on the course at which you most regularly play, are shortish par-3s.
But the chances are it's a wedge - pitching, gap, sand or lob wedge. These are the 'scoring' clubs; the lofted irons you use when you miss the putting surface on par-3s, fail to reach the green in two on a par-4 or leave yourself 100 yards to the flagstick, after two whacks on a par-5.
Ben Hogan once said: 'The secrets and the answers to golf are in the dirt," inferring that success in the game was likely to be found more off the green than on it.
Other legends were also aware of the key role these short irons play. 'Because 70 per-cent of your golf game is played within 120 yards of the hole, the wedge is the most important club in your bag,' said one.
It's probably why modern players carry as many as four in their bag, such must be their versatility from every kind of condition placed in their way to prevent them making a mug of par.
Look at the winners of last year's major championships and how adept they were at turning three shots into two or even chipping in.
In particular Jim Furyk in the US Open at Olympia Fields, used a prototype Ben Hogan wedge with such dexterity on those fast-running aprons, that no one could catch him.
Ben Curtis was equally adept with his Titleist Vokey wedges, chipping to within 10 feet on the final green before sinking a title-clinching putt, that no one had considered at the start of the week.
Also Mike Weir (US Masters) and Shaun Micheel (US PGA) didn't get where they are today without spending hours a week, chipping and pitching.
It's a fine art that shouldn't be neglected by club handicappers in favour of spending time ripping driver down the practice range or patting putts around the practice green, one eye on the clock, without thought to pre-shot routine or alignment.
I've decided to devote 75 per-cent of my practice time to chipping and pitching in future and hopefully I will achieve my goal to return to the single figures I enjoyed 30 years ago. I'm close, but not close enough.
The wedge will become the most important club in my bag. What's yours? Tell us on the forum.
