Master "Forged vs. Cast" or "Blade vs. Game-Improvement" Iron Thread

[SGD]

""Every once in a while I feel like I shouldn't be hitting my Mizuno MP30/33s, like "maybe I should just get some Pings and make life a littlee easier." Then I'll hit a shot that tracks like a dart and feels like a marshmellow exploding off my MP30 6-iron and all is forgotten. Man that's a good feeling."

I have the same idea as u have. I am the proud owner of Miura Cabity Back forged Irons, and have been playing for less than 6 months now. I am HCP 24 now and the idea of "easier to hit" irons runs through my mind now and then. Ping G5, Taylor, Mizuno, etc.... BUT i have already lowered 12 shots from the max HCP with these, that as Eric said, if i learn to hit these, i will hit better. The MX23's are the ones i'd buy, cause when i borrow friend's Pings or Taylor, they just dont feel as nice or sound as nice, so i think im a forged Irons kinda guy.Then after im decided to buy the Mizunos, i go to the range, hit a beautiful 7 iron, feels "marshmellow exploding off it" and PROVES me i MUST keep these ones. The fact that Mr. Miura is one of the best club forger in the world helps a lot though, i've always liked good craftmanship and build quality so that even helps my confidence, even though nobody has ever heard of them.
Regards
Sergio

[kklick]

I'm currently playing the titleist 990b irons. They are in the dci line but are definitely blade inspired. If you compare them to the 690mbs they actually have less offset in every club except the wedge I believe. I'm sure they push the limits of my abilities but as others have stated there is nothing like the pure shot that you can barley feel jump off the club. I'm set on getting the new titleist 735s and trying them out. Just need a few more side jobs to come in and were in business.

[Maverick]

okay, my perception is that their are ...W T FU!!!!! why the heck did Reggie try to lateral that..OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..sorry..game improvement and game assistance..I like game improvement..so yes I like to play irons slightly better than me..MP32..I don't struggle with them, but I know there's room left for me to achieve more out of them..if this makes sense.

[Guest]

"Every once in a while I feel like I shouldn't be hitting my Mizuno MP30/33s, like "maybe I should just get some Pings and make life a littlee easier.

Ive been seeing similar point of view like this one , ni some of the posts so far , and i must say that i don't agree with that.

Some of you are speaking like when practicing , you are trying to improve your iron technique instead of your golfing techniques , which is weird ... I never had blades and that doesnt make me a bad player , and that doesnt mean that i would struggle if i moved to blades , I believe that if your technique is good enough , you should be able to hit any irons , as long as you are comfortable with them .. right now im hitting some ping i3+ and im hitting them pretty good , i also tried the new blades from titleist and i had no problems hitting them , off course i was hitting some bad shots since i needed to get use to the clubs , but not because i did not have the right techniques. I guess what i want to say is that , you wont get better faster because you are using blades , you will get better because you'll learn how to make your swing better , and with a good swing you can hit any types of irons ...

[Gary W]

When I was just beginning to learn the game in my early 30's, I told my wife that I did not want an expensive set of clubs. The main reason is I didn't want to be "that guy" who shows up at the first tee with the finest golf equipment available, promptly slices his drive into the woods, tops every shot, and generally makes a fool of himself. In other words I wanted to be better than my clubs, at least until I could get around the course in decent form.

I had to give up the game a few years ago, and just picked it up again last fall. Being somewhat of a purist, I had my heart set on a traditional set of irons that were playable, but I could "grow into". There is no doubt that the MP60's I am playing are better than me. But then, that may be true for most of us, since I don't think you can buy a bad set of clubs today.

I know this is going to sound heretical, but honestly I hope to never replace these irons. Or better stated, I hope I have to replace them but only because I wear them out. There's something about the idea of playing with the same set of irons for many many years that is appealing to me.

[SGD]

What i meant, is that if you learn to hit clubs with smaller clubface and less offset, you will force ur "swing" to be better. I recently read in some Golf Magazine, a pro saying, if you wanna hit your driver's Sweer Spot more often, hit some balls with your 5 wood teed up to ur driver's height, since the face is smaller, u'll concentrate more in hitting more often in the sweet spot.
I think the same apply with smaller or less forgiving Irons.
If i can hit mine, "with smaller sweet spot, and less forgiving", whenever i try to play with a more forgiving Iron, i will be able to.
Its like, if u learn to drive an automatic transmision car, what will you do when u have to drive a manual transmision??

Regards
Sergio

[cmarkmyers]

...if you wanna hit your driver's Sweer Spot more often, hit some balls with your 5 wood teed up to ur driver's height...

I was wondering what was meant by this when I read it, as I tried it myself the other day. Do you swing like you would a driver, with your hands out in front of you a bit? Or do you keep your hands a bit closer like you would a normal 5 wood shot?

I tried both. And when I tried putting my hands a bit in front of me I had trouble getting consistent solid contact but the few times I did the ball went a ton. Oh, and back to the original question... I play irons that are a ton better than me. But even if I played with my nephew's little plastic snoopy club it would still be better than me. Even so, I hate my beginner’s irons, and will probably get other ones (I ordered an Innovex gap wedge, so if I like that then maybe I will get a few of those). Sure they will be even better than I am now, but I just hate these cheapies. Besides, it will be nice to get clubs with slightly larger grips. Maybe I will gain some much needed confidence, if nothing else.

[Touredgegal]

This particular post is very interesting to me as I bought my first set of clubs this last April, Touredge irons and wedges and love them very much. I suspect they are better than me at the moment but after reading many posts here I suspect in a year or so I'll be shopping again, maybe for the better TourEdge irons or maybe for something else.

[SGD]

Mark. I think it said that you should hit ur 5 wood as you hit ur Driver...
I am sure of one thing, confidence is a KEY factor. You MUST feel confident with ur irons, woods, putter, etc....
I dont like Taylor Made as a brand, i have no idea why, i just don't and everywhere u hear or read that R7 is the best driver, so i bought it, used it for 1 week, and gave it to a good friend of mine. Maybe it is actualy better than my Clevelan Launcher, but not for me.
The reason why i bought my irons, (Mr. Miura'r reputation as one of the best iron forgers in the world) gave me lots of confidence, so much i could easily say they are the best forged irons available (at least for me) and the result of this is confidence, after being playing for only 4 -5 months and is have already broken 90!!

[NM Golf]

I don't know if using an iron that is more difficult to hit is ever in the best interest of anyone below the upper echelon professionals. Heck if you check it out a A LOT of those guys even use cavity back irons. I am a pretty decent amateur and I know that I don't have near enough game to be trying to hit blades so I can shape my shots. I can do the little amount of shot shaping I need with my Pings. Really in truly I think you should play an iron that you have confidence in even if you misshit it occasionally (which most of us amateurs do). The only shot shape you need is the shape that goes into the fairway and onto the green the rest of that garbage should be left up to the pros. But that is just my opinion I could be wrong. In fact check out these pics of the pros equipment from the Sony open http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15337 (I hope I can link to golf WRX from here if I can't EB can modify)

[670forged]

I played blades for years as that's what I learned with. A year ago I tried going with MP32's and then got the Cally X-Tours and my handicap went up to 12.3 from 4.6. Just never could work the ball like I can with blades and really did not get use to something that felt like a hybrid instead of a iron.
I am now finally seeing my HC come back down as I have only had my new clubs since Thanksgiving but for me, I will not go back to cavity backs again. Of course I still play 2,3 and 4 irons over hybrids so take it for what it's worth. Nothing wrong with playing clubs that help your game and make it more enjoyable. If cavity backs work better then that's what you should play as I don't ever remember seeing anywhere on a scorecard that asked what clubs you use.

Mike

[Will]

I noticed in a recent thread that Jeff Smith said "game-improvement" irons tend to mask swing faults. Makes sense, that's their purpose. So, does it follow that, in order to improve, a golfer should use irons that are slightly beyond his current ability to hit consistently well? That way, you get feedback on your mishits, and can work to correct swing faults.

To illustrate, I've used the Ping G2's for a few years, and I like them. They're pretty forgiving. My index has been declining over the past two years, and I've been looking at some "better-player" irons (Titleist 735, Ping i5, even tried the Callaway x-tour and Taylormade TP MB).

But I have difficulty hitting those irons as well as my G2's. So, the question is, do I bite the bullet and start playing better irons, or stay with what I know?

[iacas]

So, does it follow that, in order to improve, a golfer should use irons that are slightly beyond his current ability to hit consistently well? That way, you get feedback on your mishits, and can work to correct swing faults.

We had

this discussion a while back in a thread called "are your irons better than you?" In other words, are you playing irons that are less forgiving than you need in order to improve. My own conclusion is that if you intend to improve, irons that are "better" than you are a good thing. If you just want to whack a ball around, get irons that suit your game and make you happiest.

[georgep]

I think it depends how much you can practice and/or play. If you get out a lot, then better irons probably will help you improve your ball striking. But if you only get out on the weekend or less, then more forgiveness will help you hit better shots when you have a less than perfect swing (which is bound to happen if you can't practice).

[Rafcin]

IMHO it's definitely the case. You get away with bad swings, therefore you won't work on improving them (subconciously we're all lazy ). Feedback is the most important feature of any iron - at least for me.

[SheriffBooth]

It might not be very genteel, but I want whatever iron is going to hit it closest to the hole. There's a lot to choose from out there and you should play with what fits your eye and makes you comfortable. It's entirely possible to become a very good player using your G2's, but if you like the way blades look then you should by all means try them out.

[FAHooGolfs]

Since you're a current PING player, you might want to look at the S59 irons in your new search. I started out playing golf with TaylorMade SuperSteels (classic game-improvement irons) but I wanted to get better, so I overdid the switch and went straight to Mizuno MP-33s. I worked my way all the way down to about an 8 with the SuperSteels and further down to at best a 6 with the 33s, but I've gone to something a little more forgiving (I do think you can overdo a switch to "better than you" irons) with the S59s (they're still "player" irons if you want to call it that) and I'm now down to a 4. They're a little more forgiving than traditional blades but on the occassion that I hit one way out on the toe, I get enough forgiveness to keep me in line and give me some good feedback without the dreaded "toe hook."

Bottom line, I'm to a point where I'm good enough to keep the ball online and aimed properly, but if my swing gets a bit out of whack, I'm not going to have my clubs overcorrect me.

[Will]

I will try the S59's. I hear Golfsmith has a good return/exchange policy.

I played with a guy today who has the 735 MB's. Nice clubs, hard for me to hit well consistently. So the S59's might be similarly difficult, but I do believe that practicing with better irons will improve things.