Will making lofts stronger affect playability?

[kleraudio]

I got a really good fitting today and I have my optimal specs now! The pro said that if I want a certain brand of irons and the lofts are not optimal for me, just to bend them a little stronger and I'm good...

So can I bend an MP57 from 31* to 29* without affecting playabilty?

He said it should'nt but I know me, and I'd like some more opinions!

Jim

[diducmyball]

It changes the bounce and ball flight. If you decrease loft by 1 degree your bounce goes down one degree as well, 2 degrees loft 2 of bounce and so on. As a result it might cause you to dig a bit more when you hit shots. Also you will notice a change in ball flight, you are going to have a lower ball flight and go a bit longer through out. So if you are not a "digger" and are able to get the ball up without a problem then it should have no adverse effects.

[rebby]

Why the motivation to strengthen the lofts? What are you trying to accomplish by doing this?

[WUTiger]

Looked up specs on MP57.
* The 31º 6-iron bent 2º strong would be 29º.
* The bent 4-iron would be 22º.
* The bent 3-iron (if you use it) would be 19º.

Mizuno small catalog says MP57 irons produce "...slightly higher ball flight in the long irons, and mid-tradjectory in the scoring irons."
With this in mind, what are you trying to accomplish with lower lofts? Keep ball down, or gain distance?

I'm not sure how the loft of irons - as an isolated factor - fits into individual specs. You should also take into account the kickpoint of the shaft. (Low kick gives high launch, and visa versa. A high kickpoint, assuming decent swing speed, would keep ball lower AND give a slight increase in distance).

Can anybody else explain what the pro is trying to say? Maybe I'm just missing something...

[Dub]

The only time I'd want to bend them was if they were measured and found to be out of spec (this does happen....and irons can change over time) or if I had large or uneven yardage gaps that I wanted to close up.

Bending them just for the sake of being 1/2 club longer with each stick isn't a goal of mine. I could care less what other guys are hitting into the greens....I want a nice high shot that will allow the ball to check up on firm greens....I simply want to know how far I hit each club consistenly.

You can go bonkers if you try to hit what everyone else is hitting.

[kleraudio]

Hey eveyrone thanks for the input! This is all based on launch angles, not me wanting to get longer distance...

I had optimal launch angles with a 29* loft on a 6 iron. The MP57 gave me too high a launch angle and backspin rate the pro said.

He said if I like the MP 57's a lot, they would be a good fit as long as I bent them to my optimal specs... If I didnt bend them to my specs, then they wouldn't be worth buying.

So... think I should get em? Is changing bounce by 2 degrees a bad thing?

Jim

[tatertot]

Hey eveyrone thanks for the input! This is all based on launch angles, not me wanting to get longer distance...

Honestly, as a 19 handicapper, I doubt your swing is consistent enough from round to round to even notice a 2º change in your irons. Would the pro be trying to sell you a set of Mizunos and be willing to make the changes to get "optimal launch angle" for a small fee?

[kleraudio]

Actually no, he did not try to sell me anything at all. I told him I was biased to that iron set because I really liked the look of them..... he recommended the burners because I had good launch conditions with them.

Can we forget about the 19HC for a bit? My swing is nice, I cant get up and down and I consistently miss 3-4 foot putts..... And I take 7 penalties a round because I hook my drive into the woods.... I think its cuz I have that slightly closed face a draw turns into a nice hook..

Irons are very nice though!

And a 31* 6 iron went 155 yards and a 29* 6 iron went 170 yards... So yes, I can tell the difference,

I just want to know if the playability will be affected if I strengthen the lofts? I dont think it will, but I dont know that much

Thanks guys in advance!

Jim

[FHopper]

Will you ever sell them? That might become difficult if you bend them. I deloft clubs with a stronger grip, no need to bend a club.

[rebby]

I don't think that you need to bend the lofts stronger. I think that you may just have the wrong shaft in the Mizuno's. The shaft makes a huge difference in launch angle, distance, spin, etc. If you like the feel/look/etc of the Mizuno's start there and find the correct shaft for you. Bending the irons is the wrong way to "fit" the clubs to you.

[kleraudio]

Thats a good point too, but I do know that 1* strong is not uncommon..... Maybe I could do that and see how it goes??

They are forged so I can mess around till I find what fits right? I dont want 2 degrees of loft to get in the way of clubs I want vs. clubs I dont want....

Jim

[JDD]

OK, first, the Mizuno pros who do the fitting are very knowledgeable. I wouldn't spend a lot of time second guessing them. I am a low single-digit handicap and have been to the fitting and club building schools. When you are fit, your launch angle, spin rate and a variety of factors will dictate the recommendations made. The comments made about bounce increasing is valid. But if you don't take a lot of divot, bounce is your friend. The comment made about not bending them because you might sell them makes no sense. Mizuno clubs are generally easy to adjust. Go with the recommendations and enjoy the benefits of a great set of clubs.

Edited November 14, 2017 by JDD

[saevel25]

They can. If you launch the ball too high with too much spin. Then lowering the loft a degree or to can help out a small amount.

[klineka]

7 hours ago, JDD said:

OK, first, the Mizuno pros who do the fitting are very knowledgeable. I wouldn't spend a lot of time second guessing them. I am a low single-digit handicap and have been to the fitting and club building schools. When you are fit, your launch angle, spin rate and a variety of factors will dictate the recommendations made. The comments made about bounce increasing is valid. But if you don't take a lot of divot, bounce is your friend. The comment made about not bending them because you might sell them makes no sense. Mizuno clubs are generally easy to adjust. Go with the recommendations and enjoy the benefits of a great set of clubs.

Reviving an 8 YEAR old thread might be the oldest one I've seen on any forum I've ever been a part of. And the OP hasn't visited this site since 2014 so I highly doubt he has any interest in your response to a thread he started 8 years ago. But nonetheless, welcome to The Sand Trap! There are tons of more recent posts with numerous new ones getting added every day and since it sounds like you are a pretty solid golfer, I'm sure you have some good insight that can help myself and others out!

[rehmwa]

I got sucked into this expired thread now and I'm also confused.

Why would a fitter recommend to bend all the irons one way?

I can understand tweaking one or two to even out the gaps, but just moving them all in the same direction makes little sense to me.....I'd rather leave them alone and just take a sharpie and relabel all the irons with a -1/2 on them.

then we can have threads like "How far do you hit your 7-1/2 iron?"

 

seems more like the fitter was screwing up shaft selection

Edited November 14, 2017 by rehmwa

[WUTiger]

On 11/14/2017 at 6:54 AM, saevel25 said:

They can. If you launch the ball too high with too much spin. Then lowering the loft a degree or to can help out a small amount.

Reminds me of Ping's experiences when Karsten started producing perimeter-weighted irons: the good news was they got the ball up a lot better than blades of the era. The bad news was they flew about a half-club shorter than the blades.

Sensing that golfers didn't want to hit the ball shorter, Ping strengthened the iron lofts about 2 degrees to hold the line against distance loss. Well and good, until golf's marketing idiots got hold of the idea and created the arms race for the 200-yd. 7 iron.  

[rehmwa]

10 minutes ago, WUTiger said:

Reminds me of Ping's experiences when Karsten started producing perimeter-weighted irons: the good news was they got the ball up a lot better than blades of the era. The bad news was they flew about a half-club shorter than the blades.

Sensing that golfers didn't want to hit the ball shorter, Ping strengthened the iron lofts about 2 degrees to hold the line against distance loss. Well and good, until golf's marketing idiots got hold of the idea and created the arms race for the 200-yd. 7 iron.  

EXACTLY - I don't care how far my ?-iron flies.  I 'should' only care that it goes the same distance for the same swing repeatably......  maybe we should start labeling them with letters.....

If I want to have an 'ego' comparison contest with a buddy on who hits it farther, then we should be hitting the same model of club.  But that's just silly.....

[WUTiger]

1 hour ago, rehmwa said:

EXACTLY - I don't care how far my ?-iron flies.  I 'should' only care that it goes the same distance for the same swing repeatably......

This was the playability problems which some distance irons had around 2013. The ball would come off a bit hot and fly a club longer if you hit low on the face. TM tried to cure this hot spots problem when they developed the Rocketbladz and later SLDR irons.