Beau Hossler explains why he's using two 5-irons at Shriners Children’s Open

Inside Beau Hossler’s golf bag, the numbers aren’t all what they seem.

Channeling fellow PGA TOUR player Wesley Bryan, who uses two 4-irons in his bag, Hossler uses two 5-irons within his own setup.

Hossler calls it his “specialty 5-iron,” and he jokingly says he uses it to “play tricks on people.” While having two 5-irons in the bag can certainly be confusing for his playing partners, the second 5-iron is actually there for a real reason.

As Hossler explains, he prefers his irons to have a bit of offset at address, which ends up leading to the double 5-iron configuration that he uses now.

“So, Aaron Dill at Titleist bends a little bit of offset into all my clubs,” Hossler said on Wednesday at the 2024 Shriners Children’s Open. “He basically put some offset into my wedges and my irons. The reason why I use the second 5-iron is because, since it has a shorter length hosel, there’s not as much leverage to bend offset into it. So what we do is we take a 5-iron head, strengthen it down to 4-iron loft, and then when that happens, you naturally increase the offset look just by strengthening the loft. It’s at 4-iron length, the shaft is a 4-iron shaft, the loft is effectively a 4-iron loft, it just says '5' on the top. It’s effectively my 4-iron, but on the par 3s, play some tricks on guys – they don’t know which 5-iron I’m hitting.”

Using a mixed-iron setup, Hossler has Titleist 620 CB short irons (7-9), Titleist T100 mid irons (5 and 6), and a Titleist T200 5-iron. His irons and wedges are loaded up with lead tape, and according to Hossler, he applies the lead tape himself to help dial in the exact weight and feel that he prefers.

“Kind of a unique deal, I have a lot of lead tape on my clubs. … I’m pretty hands-on with my equipment,” Hossler said. “I like to go check it myself, see it with my own eyes. Not for lack of trust, just I feel good about it when I see it myself. I’ve been hands-on with my equipment probably the last three or four years, so that’s kind of a fun little project for me. … There’s a shop near where I live, and I’ve just used that equipment for a while and I feel comfortable with it. It’s kind of just, more than anything, checks and balances whenever I go back, I just pop in there for 15 minutes and make sure everything is kind of dialed in. Usually, stuff doesn’t move more than half a degree, but it’s nice for peace of mind just to know exactly where you’re at.”

With two 5-irons in tow, Hossler is in the field this week at the 2024 Shriners Children’s Open, and he’s currently sitting at 65th in the FedExCup Fall standings after amassing three top-10 finishes in 2024, including a runner-up finish at the Sanderson Farms Championship.