YankeeJim:
Here's the logic............your 3i punches out of trouble you get into with errant drives. You aren't going to make heroic shots from bad lies off the tee, that's folly. You get back into play and save par.
This is where the low end coverage comes into play because you have every yardage covered in one form or another. Punch, pitch, chip and flop with those wedges, learn them now and then when you get to the back tees, you go back to the 3W and keep 3 wedges you know inside and out.
FWIW, I never used a 3W until I made Legend (TM golf is driver/wedge) and I can't tell you how valuable the experience with those wedges has paid off, to this day. :-)
I agree with YJ absolutely 100%!!!!
Everything he said, sounded like a replay of my experiance as a TM. I never thougt about it till read his last comment, but it really was all D/W play. I dont think I pulled my 3wd out of the bag 25 times as a TM, except to tee off with it now and then. But I did learn my irons & wedges inside and out, and learned them in all conditions: fairway, rough, sand, and the wasteland.
I learned them not by trying to but out of necissity because of over driving holes and putting the ball where the course designer wanted to tempt you to put it and not where he said you should put it. And even though I have upgraded the irons since the knowlege I gained on them still passes over for 90% of it, the other 10% is just updating the numbers to the new specs.
Ask yourself one question.....have you ever had to use a driver to dig yourself out of trouble from a previous shot? Answer is probably NO but I bet you have had to use every other club to bail you out of trouble casued by the driver.
Basically IMHO you should build your bag from the pin out or the bottom up. By this I mean short game, approch game, then the worry about being king kong the super gorrila off the tee.
Just my 0.02 for what it is worth.