Strong Loft GI club theory

[jrm1493]

I was thinking the other day about how most GI clubs have stronger lofts and why that is (other than so folks can brag that they hit a 7 iron 170).

I have a 45° pitching wedge and a 49° Cleveland 588 (blade style) gap wedge, and I just had to have the 49 bent to a 51 because I hit it very nearly as far as the 45° pitching wedge (maybe 5 yd difference on a well struck shot). After bending the new 51° wedge fills the gap between the 45 and 56 much more nicely.

My theory of why it goes nearly as far is that the high launch conditions promoted by the 45 deg GI wedge promote such a higher ball flight that it actually goes a shorter distance than a more traditional club like the 588. So a GI club with 45 deg of loft actually may play more like a 47 or 48. I also experienced this when I hit my friend's old Hogan blades, where I seemed to hit the Hogan 7 iron as far or farther than my Adams 7 iron (on well struck shots of course), despite the fact that I'm sure the Hogan 7 iron was probably 2-3 deg weaker.

I also realize that this could very well be specific to the shaft that is in my Adams irons. My "first" clubs were some old Dunlops with almost no cavity back and Dynamic Gold stiff shafts, and I had trouble getting the ball airborne, but now I seem to hit moon balls with my Adams clubs, so maybe I have outgrown the shafts. I've been improving so much (about 8 strokes off handicap in a year) that I'm very reluctant to change anything.

Anyone think this makes any sense?

[lumpuckeroo]

Launch angle and spin rate would have an effect on the ball flight, so I could see were the conditions between those two factors would be perfect and a weaker lofted club would hit it further than a stronger lofted club.

[Chief Broom]

I just bought new irons (the ones listed in my sig line). I had been gaming Wilson Staff Di7's. Those are SGI irons with extremely strong lofts (the PW in that set was 43 degrees!). I was interested to see how my distances would stack up from what I was used to with the Wilsons to my new Ping i10's (a "players" iron with more traditional lofts - the i10 PW has 46 degrees of loft). So far after 2 weeks of trials I'm finding that my yardages have pretty much stayed the same. Go figure?

[Shindig]

This makes sense to me. I just start thinking it's bizarre to see things like a 42.5° pitching wedge or an 18.5° 3-iron, especially the latter, when a friend of mine carries a 2-iron that is 20°.

[flanagan]

I was thinking the other day about how most GI clubs have stronger lofts and why that is (other than so folks can brag that they hit a 7 iron 170).

Actually, falls under the category of extremely common knowledge for 20+ years, BUT kudos to you for working it out on your own.

[WUTiger]

If you are interested in the mechanical details on this, see if you can get a copy of Ralph Matlby's 2005 book, The Maltby Playability Factor.

Page 17 carries some info related to your strong loft/GI theory .

Golf Galaxy is selling off remaining copies of this edition for just a couple of dollars (triple reduced price).

If you are into the physics of how golf clubs work you will love this book. It has full color sketches comparing the Burke wooden-shafted #5 iron (early 1900s) with the Callaway Hawkeye VFT #5 from 2001.

Gives lots of pictures of and comparisons among different famous irons from the 1950s up until today. If you're into the history of golf clubs, it's great!

Also, the book shows how the MPF that I keep talking about is actually calculated. Maltby describes what the MPF will - and will not - tell you about a golf club.

One of the real shockers: Maltby sugggests that from the 1950s to the 1970s, golf club design was based more upon aesthetics - does the clubhead look sporty - than on physics. So marketing rather than engineering ruled the day.