The six-iron is a neglected club in my bag. I gravitate to the seven every chance I get and the five is the standard layup club no matter what the yardage. I rarely need a six-iron for an approach on a par-4 or par-5, so unless there is a par-3 that requires a six-iron, I likely won’t hit it during a round.

When I tried to use nothing but a six-iron and a putter to par the sixth at Anchorage Golf Course on Thursday, I discovered you can hit a bunker shot with the six-iron, a feathered six-iron still has a fair bit of run and the 80-yard layup shot with a six requires plenty of finesse.

My strategy on the par-5 was to smooth one off the tee and see what I got and go from there. I decided my best option from there was to chip a the ball to about 170 or 180 yards out and hit a full approach, but my layup ran too far and left me just 145. When I tried to half-swing a little shot into the green, the ball took a nice arc in the air, but was too hot on the ground until it found sand. I left the first attempt in the sand, but hit a rather awesome second attempt, then rammed in a 20-footer for bogey.

Six-iron, where have you been all my life? So versatile, yet so unnecessary. I could probably play an entire round with nothing but the club or leave it out of my bag entirely.