What advantages/disadvantages do different sole widths give you?

[svchiefs19]

golf clubs can have either thin, medium, or wide sole widths. what are the advantages/disadvantages of the different sole widths?

[PiKapp23]

Wide soles have a couple of purposes. The first reason is that they are typically more forgiving because the club designers use the wide soles as a way of moving club weight lower and further back from club face. The second reason for wide soles has to do with a player's swing. For those players who tend to 'dig' too much/too deep on swing the wider sole helps keep the club from digging as far into the turf.

For the most part, clubs with a thin sole tend to be clubs for better players as this allows the clubs to be more workable and more versatile. Wide soles can sometimes be problematic if you play on courses that are very firm or present lots of thin lies. They can be helpful for courses that have soft conditions.

There are good players that use clubs with wide soles as well. 2 PGA Tour players that use a wider sole are Kenny Perry and Michael Campbell. They both use them because they are 'diggers'. Many people just look at the soles on clubs and assume a thinner sole is a 'players' club, medium sole is a 'game improvement' club, with the wide soles being 'super game improvement' clubs. This is not necessarily always true anymore though.

[whit53]

As a matter of course, narrower soles are better suited to players with a shallower swing plane. Additionally, irons w/ narrower soles tend to perform better from very tight fairway lies. Conversely, a wider sole width is suggested to be a better fit for players w/ steeper and slower swings........ and perform better from plush and/or fluffy lies. The heads camber also plays a significant role in the sole's performance.

Good luck,

[Logan Gabriel]

Sorry to dig this thread up again after 4 years but i have a question.  i have recently purchased a set of Spalding Executive Irons 3-PW.  What drew me to them was that the soles were pretty wide and from what I understand they are from the late 60's early 70's.  So, i was surprised that thir sole was so wide but yet had a very traditional small blade "everything else".  Would these be considered an early game improvement iron?  Also i can post a picture if you folks would like.  Thanks!

[Jon Robert]

I have Hogan Apex Edge. They have very wide rounded bounce soles. They are great for most everything.

I also have Hogan 1963 IPT blades that have as equally wide of sole on the shorter clubs at least. However they have zero bounce and a knife blade edge where face meets sole. You had better be a rather accurate striker of the Ball. You have 2 choices. You take a divot where you want or you take a divot where you don't want. It will knife out a divot one way or the other.

Comparing the two extremes is one is for divot wanters and one is for no divot wanters. Also one is for plowing through the sand and one is for knifing into the sand where you want OR NOT where you want.

Likewise width of sole can produce similar effects where wide plows and narrow digs.  Wide may bounce/skip on hard earth while narrow may dig/slide

It is really common sense applied physics.