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Your experience going from blade to cavity back irons


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Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone has had experience with this 'transition' so to speak. About 10 years ago I 'transitioned' the other way (cavity back to blade) and I don't recall it being as eye-opening. Sure, when I hit the blade off center I'd feel it travel through the shaft and into my hands/arms. But when I hit it sweet I didn't feel a thing except true satisfaction.

Well, I'm 10 years older now and my game and body have changed slightly to the point that I've been researching going to a 'game-improvement' iron. Just the other day I received my gii's by UPS as I picked up a set of brand spanking new Cleveland CG4' to replace my beloved Mizuno MP29's.

Anyways, I went to the range to hit these irons last night and I was quite shocked at how different the experience was. Sure, I was expecting the feel to be downgraded as you cannot duplicate the feel of a true muscle back forged blade but I didn't expect all the little adjustments I had to make to get even somewhat close!

Firstly, the slight progressive offset of these clubs produced fairly strong draws for me. So to counter, I opened the face slightly upon address. That seemed to straighten the ball out. However, upon doing this... I noticed that because of the wider sole of these 'game-improvement' irons I was grounding the club just slightly before impact and thus hitting my shots a little thin! This was therefore the cause of not getting the 'feel' that I normally would get from my Mizuno's but I didn't realize I had to make all these adjustments in my swing to get the these clubs to work for me! These clubs do feel more forgiving than my Mizuno's however, I am a little disappointed in how much adjustments I have had to make in my swing to get them to where I need them to be. Perhaps a few more range sessions and some play on real grass will prove otherwise as I do have a short memory... but perhaps not?

Has anyone had any similar experience or any wise advice as to what I may be doing? Be as technical as you want to be as I'm pretty technical myself (I think). I love this game and I truly want to get better with age... right.

In my bag:

Driver: Attachment 408 Taylormade R580 XD 10.5 Stiff
3Wood: Attachment 410 Cleveland Launcher 13 with Adilla Stiff shaft
5Wood: Attachment 409 Callaway Steelhead 18 with uniflex steel shaft
Irons: Attachment 410 Cleveland CG4 with True Temper Actionlite Stiff shaft (as of June 2007)
(Mizuno MP29's from 1999 to June 2007)
Wedges: Attachment 411 Mizuno MP Series 52 and 58 degrees
Putter: Attachment 411 Mizuno TP Mills
Balls: Attachment 412 Titleist NXT Tour/ProV1

What's In my bag:

Driver: TaylorMade R5 Dual 9.5* UST Proforce V2 77g S
3Wood: Mizuno F-60 13.5* Mizuno Exsar 75S
Hybrid: Adams Idea Pro 3/4 Aldila VS Proto 80SIrons: Adams Pro Forged (5-PW) True Temper Black Gold SWedges: Cleveland 588 (3) 50, 588 (DSG) 54 & 60Putter: Ping i-Series Craz-EBalls:.....

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Hello all,

From my personal experience, I didn't have to make any swing adustments to hit player, game improvement and max game improvement irons. I used the same swing for all categories. Player irons were definitely better in the feel department but distance was increased by half a club (sometime one club length) depending on which clubs I used for game improvement irons. As an example I used these 3 clubs to compare since I hit them all on the same day. Mizuno MP67 - Feel is definitely there. You can always tell if you mishit or not. Distance increase only on perfectly hit situations. Ping G5 - Feel is less but you can still tell on a mishit. Distance was increased by half club lenght. Adams Hybrid Irons - Feel is still there but considerably less of course. Distance gain by one club length or sometime more on perfect shots. I was looking for an iron set that would be somewhere in between (player and game improvement) this season and that is why I chose Callaway X-20 Tour. I only work the ball only a few times during a game. Mostly like to aim and hit straight balls so I don't really need a thin blade like MP67. As far as I know, I am using cavity back (Rac LT and upcoming X-20 Tour) and I am beating friends who think they are players and carry blades/forged iron sets but I think only the score matters as long as you get all the help in the clubs to win and of course legal. ^_^ So whatever works for you is the best set... But again never made any swing changes to hit any kinds of clubs.
Driver
909D2 9.5º w/ Grafalloy Prolaunch Platinum Stiff

Woods
909F2 13.5º w/ Aldila Voodoo Fairway Stiff 909F2 18.5º w/ Aldila Voodoo Fairway StiffIrons MP60 3-PW w/ True Temper Dynamic Gold Sensicore S300Wedges Vokey Design 200 Series Tour Chrome 52-08 w/ True Temper Dynamic Gold S200...
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I went a little more gradual. First I went CB with the long irons, then after a year or two I went to the mid irons. Now the only blades I have left are the wedges. Oddly enough, I've always hit bertha irons great, but they look so ugly to me I still can't make myself buy a set.
In my bag:
The failed hopes and dreams of 25 years of golf (on DG S300 shafts with Lamkin Crossline midsize grips)
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My journey goes from Callaway Big Bertha to TM RAC OS2 to Mizuno MP32 to Titleist 735CM to Mizuno MX25 to TM R7 TPs....you need to find a set of cavity backs with minimal offset....ie MP 60s, Titleist 755, Callaway X forged or TM R7 TPs.....unless you need help getting ball up in the air you really should stay away from game improvement clubs....

In My Bag

Taylormade Burner 09 TP 9.5 Fujikura REAX 65 S
Cleveland Launcher 2009 15 UST V2 75 S
Cleveland Launcher Steel 19 UST V2 75 STitleist 585 H 21 Aldila VS Proto STaylormade R7 TP 4-PW DG S300 StiffTaylormade TP Satin 54 and 58Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2Taylormade TP...

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Id stick with those Mizunos. They are such sweet clubs. If you are looking for a improvement club nothing beats the X-14's They are older but my God you shape shots and really getting into your scoring irons. I rip huge divots and they seems to really attack and hold the green.
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Thanks to all for sharing your experiences!

I should have actually taken the extra time and gone into my local golf shop to hit some irons in their virtual driving range before I bought this set. I bought them 'impulsively' with research to back it up all over the web. I actually rented and hit some original Callaway irons on a trip recently and I was amazed at how good I could hit these huge clubs. I guess that's what sold me into looking for a new set. I hated the way they looked and felt but boy did they fly pretty far and straight... I couldn't miss!

So when I got back from my trip, I did some research on the net and these CG4 clubs were on the Golf Digest Hotlist with a Silver rating. Did some preliminary eBay research and I found this set half the price that they are selling in my local golf shop here. So it was a 'no brainer' and I was the successful bidder.

Got them shipped to my house within a week and I was off the the range with anxious excitement. Anyways, you know the story...

But I may be jumping the gun a bit. I only hit them once now and I will be going back there again several times. I'm sure I'll find the swing to get the most out of the clubs as I can be pretty adaptive that way (I'm always tweaking my swing).

I just polished my Mizuno's last night to take a few pictures of them to potentially sell and boy did they look good. Perhaps, I'll keep them around for a little while longer... just in case.

What's In my bag:

Driver: TaylorMade R5 Dual 9.5* UST Proforce V2 77g S
3Wood: Mizuno F-60 13.5* Mizuno Exsar 75S
Hybrid: Adams Idea Pro 3/4 Aldila VS Proto 80SIrons: Adams Pro Forged (5-PW) True Temper Black Gold SWedges: Cleveland 588 (3) 50, 588 (DSG) 54 & 60Putter: Ping i-Series Craz-EBalls:.....

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Note: This thread is 6126 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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