Is it easier to "work" longer clubs?

[DJYoshi]

I was thinking about this yesterday during my EXTREMELY slowed up play by that awesome 2-some in front of me. Why is it that I can pretty much hit a draw or fade on command with a driver, wood & hybrid...but when it comes to irons, it's almost impossible to work the draw in there. I can cut the ball if I need to. i'm learning how to play the ball differently at points in my stance to get a different ball flight....but when it comes to working the ball with irons, it's so much harder than doing it with the big 3?

[jasongst]

I was thinking about this yesterday during my EXTREMELY slowed up play by that awesome 2-some in front of me. Why is it that I can pretty much hit a draw or fade on command with a driver, wood & hybrid...but when it comes to irons, it's almost impossible to work the draw in there. I can cut the ball if I need to. i'm learning how to play the ball differently at points in my stance to get a different ball flight....but when it comes to working the ball with irons, it's so much harder than doing it with the big 3?

It's true. A matter of physics, although I know nothing about physics. But I do know you get more ball speed thus more friction against the air, thus more exaggerated effects from the friction.

[kekoa]

No Way. Longer irons will be more difficult to effectively work the ball. the driver, hybrid etc. have more face area thus making it seem easier.

[JaY_B]

In a nut shell - the less loft you have on the club the less back spin you will get (more side spin, easier too 'work')

The more loft you have on the club the more back spin you get and less side spin (harder too 'work' the ball)

So, yes!, It is easier to 'work' longer clubs.

[CPHoya]

I'm not so sure about this. You can make a more dramatic movement of the ball with a 3 iron than you can with a 9 iron, so in that sense it's "easier" to hit a draw or fade with less loft, but that doesn't mean you can't alter the characteristics of your 9 iron's ball flight in an effective way. It's just more subtle.

For example, you can certainly play your sand wedge for a lower or higher trajectory, or for more or less or no rollout, or even to suck it back, or to sort of fade it a little, and those are all examples of "working" the ball on that shot. At least as I understand it. Right?

[michaeljames92]

In a nut shell - the less loft you have on the club the less back spin you will get (more side spin, easier too 'work')

100% correct. this is why a driver slices so much compared to a wedge.

[clemsontiger]

I think that the longer clubs are easier to work around it a tight spot. It enables you to not swing as hard and really get some work done.

[mellojoe]

Also, there's something about distance there, too.

Over 200 yards, a small change can be magnified quite a bit.
Over 80 yards, that small change looks like a small change.

[iacas]

100% correct. this is why a driver slices so much compared to a wedge.

Well he's not 100% correct, but that's how a lot of people like to think of it.

You don't hit your wedge as far as your driver, so even if it had the same sidespin, it wouldn't slice as much because it doesn't go as far. The angle the ball flies through the air also has an impact. Slice sidespin is left to right. If the ball is going mostly horizontal, the left-to-right matters. If the ball is going up at 45°, the left-to-right doesn't matter much (about half). Straight up, and you can put all the sidespin in the world and the ball ain't moving sideways. Additionally, people tend to make slightly different swings with their wedges. It's easier not to "slice swing" them. In other words, you can put just as much - or even more - sidespin on a wedge shot as a driver, and it'll slice less, but that's not really about the backspin.

[CPHoya]

Well he's not 100% correct, but that's how a lot of people like to think of it.

. . . and that's what I was trying to say a few posts ago. Rep points for iacas (like he needs 'em)!

[tm22721]

I find that the longer clubs are no harder to control if I can apply more lag, and have smooth tempo.

[sp00ky]

All things being equal, the straighter the face the easier it is to work the ball. Having said that, many newer clubs with game-improvement features make it harder by design.

-k

[bruce]

I can draw and fade the ball with a 3 wood pretty easy,but out of all my
irons i find that for some reason i can work the ball very easy with my 7 iron
compared to the others,don't ask me why.

[michaeljames92]

Well he's not 100% correct, but that's how a lot of people like to think of it.

Ok. I thought the theory was (along with the launch angle, ball speed etc) was that on a wedge there is so much backspin compared side spin that it barely moves much. And with a driver which has a much faster ball speed, a lesser launch angle and which when sliced has a crap load of side spin which makes the ball curve in the air. anyway i was under the impression that what made it curve left or right is the amount of back spin compared to the amount of side spin.

[CPHoya]

If you've ever played tennis you'll know what I'm talking about here. You can hit a ball as high in the air, straight up, as you possibly can, a couple of ways. One of them is without much spin. One of them is with as much sidespin as you can possibly impart on the ball . Interestingly, the trajectory of the two balls will be almost identical (until they land, when the spinning ball will squirt off to the side).

If you hit these balls at a 45º angle, the spinning ball would curve through the air. If you hit them at a 30º angle, the spinning ball would make a more dramatic curve through the air.

So apply this to golf. With your lob wedge, you can put as much side spin as you can possibly impart on the ball on a shot, but it isn't going to be bending around trees. That's because of the trajectory, not the backspin - just like the tennis ball.

With your driver, you can put as much side spin as you can possibly impart on the ball on a shot, and it's going to bend like crazy. That will, again, be because of the trajectory.

The point is that it isn't "easier" to work the ball with longer clubs; with any club it's basically the same deal to "work" the ball. It's just that you can make the ball bend more the lower the trajectory of the shot, so the less lofted clubs will reward your effort to work the ball more obviously than your efforts to work the ball with your wedges.

So, in practice, you don't want to try to cut your 9-iron left to right with water on the left because it won't bend, and when you're stuck under a tree and you need to punch out right to left you want to be using a 5-iron (or something even flatter; it's preference dependent upon the amount of bend and, more importantly, the distance you need). Hope this helped!