The right irons

You answered your own question. Hit a bunch, see what you like, and then get fitted for them.

Luckily for me, my pro originally worked in golf equipment for a long time, making custom sets of clubs for people. So he was very helpful in figuring out were my current set of clubs are and were i need to go from there. He like frequency matching, because its a unified metric for golf clubs, basically stiff shafts from one club to the next are not the same. So if you go from a Stiff in lets say True Tempter, going to a KBS, it wont be the same stiffness. So frequency matching helps there

As for irons that fit your game. I know some 10 handicaps that play game improvement irons, and some that play player irons. Now does this mean they are playing the clubs for there game, not sure if the game improvement gives him some help, or if the player irons are hurting that person's game. Its tough to say. 

As a 10 you can get away with some player irons, but i would setting closer to the game improvements,

Titleist AP1,AP2's

Taylormade, R11's

Ping, i20's

Mizuno, MP59, MP-H4, JPX825 Pro

Basically, irons that are inbetween players and game improvements, i like these because they tend to have very good feel, some workability, but your not going to get nailed on mishits with pure muscleback blade irons. 

If i had to rank these in order of less forgiveness to more,

MP-H4, MP59, AP2, R11, i20, AP1, JPX825 Pro

For me, if you get the golf shafts similar in length and hit a similar loft, they perform very similar. The ones on the left fly a bit lower than the ones on the right, but you can always mess around with that with golf shaft selection. From hitting these, i haven't hit the H4, its new. But the MP59 is silky smooth, just awesome. R11 was shockingly receptive for being taylormade. I really liked the i20 as well. JPX825 Pro is very solid. Honestly i was not a fan of the Titleist irons, i think there overpriced. 

So when i look at irons, i basically think, ok, do i have the occassional toe or heel shot per round that i might need a bit of forgiveness so i know i wont be to penalized, how much do i actually work the ball with the irons. If your not constantly hitting big draws or fades, go with a more forgiving club. For me, i just think, what is the maximum workability i can get with out being a detriment to my game. For me, i probably pick any of these irons and go form there. For some, you might pick from a more forgiving list of irons. 

From there, its basically finding the right golf shafts, like i said, i like frequency matching, its a bit more expensive, but its a way to make sure your consistant through out the set. I like flighted golf shafts, the trajectory is much more boring, and tends to really bring my flight down. 

I would go to a demo day, you can easily try out multitude of irons with different shaft options, and you get to see how the ball flight looks

Quote:

Originally Posted by saevel25 

 

If i had to rank these in order of less forgiveness to more,

 

MP-H4, MP59, AP2, R11, i20, AP1, JPX825 Pro

 

 

For the most part, I'd agree, except with the first two. Mizuno recommends the MP-59s for 0-10 hcp and the MP-H4s for 2-14 hcp. I have the H4s in the bag right now and find them to be pretty forgiving.

Don't forget that the shaft is (at least) half the club. If you're looking at Mizuno, try out their shaft optimizer to get suggestions on which shafts to consider.

See, i haven't tried out the H4's yet, i was going with how they looked. Usually you can tell alot by the look of an iron, in how forgiving it is

All these add to forgiveness

Cavity backs, distributed weighting towards the perimeter of the clubhead, lower center of gravity, larger clubhead, thicker face, less offset. 

MP59 are a bit of a trickster, because its basically a cavity back hiding as a muscle back, why, because of there use of two metals in the back of the club, it shifts the COG down a bit more, and to the perimeter.  I really really love this iron, its on my very short list for new irons next year. 

So, a lot of times you can tell by looking at the irons, like i20's are like H4's but add in that synthetic weight insert in the cavity for the i20. So you can see how these golf club companies can mess around with design. Now this slot technology, new taylormades, that's a whole new beast :p 

Quote:

Originally Posted by saevel25 how much do i actually work the ball with the irons. If your not constantly hitting big draws or fades, go with a more forgiving club. For me, i just think, what is the maximum workability i can get with out being a detriment to my game.

I'm a bit confused here.  You're talking about draws or fades, and 'workability'.

I think 'forgiving' clubs (perimeter weighting, size and depth of cavity, etc) relates only to amount of 'controllability- that's the ability to control the angle of launch - not bending left/right.  The less controllability you have designed in, the more forgiving the club is in terms of angle of launch being a bit more insensitive to small variations in swing.  the tradeoff for a club being insensitive to controlling launch angle, is just that, it's a lot harder to affect angle of launch - you get what you get.

For "workability" - sensitivity to being able to  bend it left or right at will.......

Let me say it differently - what are the design features that affect 'workability'?  or is that pretty much all in our swings?

Quote:

Originally Posted by press 

Very good point. Does the club do the work or does my type of swing take care the workability? I am looking for a club that will improve score based on the swings I give them. ...

It all depends on what degree of workability you want.

If you understand the golf swing, you can hit a basic fade or draw with most any golf club.

Varying the height of your shot, however, is more complicated. Two influences on loft are Vertical Center of Gravity (VCOG) of the clubhead, and the shaft characteristics. Other things equal: the lower the VCOG, the higher the ball will fly.

In SGI irons, the VCOG tends to be pretty low. Then there's the effect of the shaft:

• With the X20 irons shafted in Uniflex, you get a medium trajectory from the shaft.
• If you have SGI clubs such as the Big Bertha or the Ping G10, the stock shaft is high launch, so you may risk ballooning the ball on your short irons.

Also, you have to be "in practice" to pull off certain shots. The GI and especially the Player's clubs allow you more leeway in working the ball, but the misses are also greater if the shot doesn't work.

I met a former small-college golfer who once played to a 2 HDCP with muscleback irons. He now has a job, a young family, and a 10 HDCP, so he went to GI irons to give himself more of a margin of error. He says the added forgiveness is worth more than the ability to try trick shots.

Note: People forget about golf balls. If you have a high-spin ball like a ProV, you have to be able to control the spin to use it effectively. A 20 HDCP player probably wants a mid spin ball, or a distance ball for lower spin. If you don't make solid contact with a high-spin ball, it can spin you sideways into the left or right treeline. Distance balls tend to fly straighter.