I went shopping with a friend who wanted to buy new irons. After some time in the hitting bay, he was down to 2 sets, the latest Callaways, or the latest TM's. He was favoring the Taylormades, because the computer showed he was hitting them further. My reaction was- it doesn't really matter how far you hit your irons, what matters is that you can hit them consistently to a given distance. If you need more distance, just step down a club. I always felt that
irons are target clubs whereas woods and some hybrids are really distance clubs. I don't think he bought my argument, but he took the callys, because he claimed he had less dispersion, thou shorter. Was I right, or am I all wet?
iron lofts
- Edited
I tend to agree with you. I do see the advantage of stronger lofts IF, AND ONLY IF, the shaft length is close to standard for that iron ( 8 iron ~ 36.5" for ex), AND the club delivers the desired trajectory for me. I'm not going to buy a 31 degree 7 iron if it is the length of a 6 iron. I just ordered a set of PING G30 irons which have "modern" lofts, (30.5 degree 7 iron for ex), but the shaft length is 37" and the shaft tip is designed to launch the ball on my desired flight.
You're 100% right. You don't get points for being able to shoot the ball into the stands from the free throw line in basketball, either.
Some irons are made with stronger lofts to offset lower COG and "springy" faces, but in general I think that stronger lofts mean you need more wedges, less long irons, and end up with 8 clubs that hit the 8 distances you need either way. If you are pumped that you can hit your 23deg 6i 210yds, but then you're going right to a 5w, more power to you bro.
Last I checked no one gives a f*** how far you hit your 7i whether you shot a 70 or a 117. Long and short are both misses.
I guess being an old goat, I'm used to less lofted irons. I tried the new Cally's , and while they felt good, the lofts looked really jacked, and I got a low ball flight, and a few more yards. My Ping G15's indicate fairly jacked up lofts, but I still get a nice high trajectory out of them. Could be the shafts. I feel distance is being oversold in irons, I'd rather know my 9i goes 110 yds most of the time, than 120 or125 sometimes. Consistency will always beat distance in my mind.
- Edited
ZWExton
It was my impression that they had to lower the center of gravity because they had jacked up the lofts and at the jacked up loft most players would not be able to get enough height because of the stronger lofts not the other way around. But to the OP yes accuracy is more important than distance in most clubs except for the driver and for most the driver is grip it and rip it. But the irons must be accurate because greens are much smaller than fairways.
I think it's more important to know how far you consistently hit each iron, than it is to hit each iron farther.
Anyone ever hit the same club the same distance in real life as on a golf discount store simulator?
Bingo. It's all about the center if gravity. Because the modern game improvement irons have a lower center of gravity they've been able to strengthen the lofts while not affecting trajectory.
The G15 6 iron has 29 degrees of loft. The G 6 iron has 27 degrees of loft. I had my G irons strengthened for gapping reasons. So my G 6 iron is now 25.5 degrees. The G 6 iron is now around 8 to 10 yards longer that the G15 6 iron.
Bottom line is it's not what number is on the club. It's knowing how far you hit each club and making sure your gaps between each club fit your game.
I look at my bag as a tool box. For each shot I need to pick the right tool for that shot, regardless of what number is engraved on the bottom of that club.
Older sets 3-pw ,new stuff 4- gw , same clubs different numbers on sole.
I swear that every time I'm on a par 3 tee station and a good shot is hit (not necessarily by me haha), someone in the group will ask, "What'd you hit?" so they can try to base their club selection on it. Some golfers really obsess about being able to hit a certain club the farther than others that they fail to take into consideration that consistency and accuracy are more important than distance as well as that all 7 irons (or whatever club) are not all the same based on loft, head design, etc.
sdandrea1 sdandrea1
2 hours agogolfer_LD
When asked, I will tell them what club I hit, followed my "but you shouldn't select a club based on me AND I'M ADDING A 2 STROKE PENALTY FOR ASKING FOR ADVICE ".
Fixed it for you. I just beat Atticus Finch, wherever you are, to the punch.
Good point. Is Atticus around here?