A lower ball flight

[atrapasuenos]

Hey guys. I need your help again. I'm having a lot of trouble with my irons, so let me tell you the story. These days I've been playing really bad cause of my iron play. With my irons I really like to hit down and take a bit of a divot, I don't try to hit hard just make good contact. Thing is that the last days wind has become an issue...

I know playing into the wind is different but my playing partners, we have more or less the same distances, lets say we have 140 yards to the pin they hit a 9 iron into the wind when I'm hitting 8 maybe a 7 because my ball goes way up in the air and it's really hard to play like that. Even when I try knockdown shots the ball comes out low and then goes way up in the air... yesterday in a 303 par 4, I hit 6 iron then 6 iron! When my buddies played 6 iron then something around 125 yards!

So I'm looking for a lower trajectory... I'm planning re-shafting my irons. Actually I'm using the Project X Flighted 6.0. The other day I tried a friends irons that has the X100's and the ball flight was pretty good, I liked it and didn't feel that I need to change my tempo for making good contact, it was easy.

I'm not trying to say that I need this shaft because of my swing speed or trying to prove something, and having clarified that, in here is hard to find a good fitter to check some different shafts...

So based in your experience what shaft will give me a lower ball flight? (My natural shot is straight xD)

Thanks in advance!

Regards!

[TinCupTampa]

I had the PX in my 57s and I felt that the ball flight was way to high... I now have the True Temper Black Gold in my Protos and the ball flight is much lower. I will probably put those same shafts in my 57s. There are pleny of shafts that promote a lower ball flight... find one that fits in your price range and try it out. Good luck.

[Crey23]

I'm not to be giving you advice based on HC, but IHO with your HC, I'd suggest to llok at your swing/setup. If you have recently starting launching high flyers, maybe you have done something to change your swing/setup/grip...etc. I would suspect that you would probably get better results with few video recorded lessons to pin point what you are doing.

Just my 2 cents!

[chrt396]

I may be wrong...but think about this. If you are hitting down on the ball with a knock down shot...you are hitting the ball with much more of a descending blow than if you were to meet it with a normal strike. That forces more backspin on the ball, thus causing it to spin upward. Is the ball back in your stance? I play with a guy that hits way back in his stance and he is very inconsistent. Sometimes he can hit with a 8 iron on a 175 yard hole and is successful, but more than not...he is off target and short. Also....use an abbreviated follow through. If you have a high finish, that could lead to more back spin causing more of your woes.

[Shanks A Million]

  atrapasueños said:

Hey guys. I need your help again. I'm having a lot of trouble with my irons, so let me tell you the story. These days I've been playing really bad cause of my iron play. With my irons I really like to hit down and take a bit of a divot, I don't try to hit hard just make good contact. Thing is that the last days wind has become an issue...

I wouldn't reshaft just yet. There's several other options. The easiest is to look at your ball. The ProV1x spins a pretty good amount. When it's really windy, I break out the Surlyn covers. A Callaway Warbird or something similar pierces the wind like a bullet. The other thing, 6.0s are great shafts, and you should be able to hit it low. To flight the ball down, it's important to keep the follow through really low and compact. To hit it low, I take it back shorter, and try to stop it right as it hits the ball. You need to cut down on the spin to get it to go lower into the wind. I play in wind every day, so it's fairly normal for me to practice these shots. Practice them more, and you too will master them. And finally, you play cavity back irons, which will hit it higher. No amount of shaft change will help that. I pay pro combo irons which move from a blade to a shallow cavity in the long irons. These really help keep the flight lower.

[atrapasuenos]

Thanks for your responses!

  Shanks A Million said:

I wouldn't reshaft just yet. There's several other options. The easiest is to look at your ball. The ProV1x spins a pretty good amount. When it's really windy, I break out the Surlyn covers. A Callaway Warbird or something similar pierces the wind like a bullet. The other thing, 6.0s are great shafts, and you should be able to hit it low. To flight the ball down, it's important to keep the follow through really low and compact. To hit it low, I take it back shorter, and try to stop it right as it hits the ball. You need to cut down on the spin to get it to go lower into the wind. I play in wind every day, so it's fairly normal for me to practice these shots. Practice them more, and you too will master them. And finally, you play cavity back irons, which will hit it higher. No amount of shaft change will help that. I pay pro combo irons which move from a blade to a shallow cavity in the long irons. These really help keep the flight lower.

Right now I stop playing the ProV1x cause the backspin was ridiculous! I know the AP2's are designed for a higher flight... but maybe a shaft change will flatten (?) the ball flight a bit? Maybe not the X100 but maybe the S400 or something like that..

Regards!

[Shanks A Million]

  atrapasueños said:

Thanks for your responses!

Honestly, it's like putting racing slicks on a Volkswagon. You're never going to hit the ball as low with GI type irons as you would with blades or pocket cavities, the center of gravity is too low. There is a trade off in everything in the known universe. Two cycle engines are lighter and have twice as much power, but they use twice as much fuel and the oil has to go directly into the fuel. Heavy gauge strings vibrate longer and have a stronger sound, but they require more force to set in motion, and they exert more tension... The list goes on.

I would suggest you play the ball further back in your stance. This is the most basic, and easiest change to make.

[tim31x]

  Shanks A Million said:

Honestly, it's like putting racing slicks on a Volkswagon. You're never going to hit the ball as low with GI type irons as you would with blades or pocket cavities, the center of gravity is too low. There is a trade off in everything in the known universe. Two cycle engines are lighter and have twice as much power, but they use twice as much fuel and the oil has to go directly into the fuel. Heavy gauge strings vibrate longer and have a stronger sound, but they require more force to set in motion, and they exert more tension... The list goes on.

how are the ap2's considered game improvement? more of a player's cavity i'd say. anyway, when i play in heavy winds which i encounter alot down here in orlando, i typically will play my normal prov1x and i just shorten my swing. focus on taking my backswing to roughly 3/4, and my follow through i bring my hands to about my chest. just club up and swing easy, a higher club with less backspin is a much better shot in the wind, your low irons and wedges and stuff will get the same amount of spin on the greens so don't worry to much about that. remember, "Swing Easy when its Breezy"

[Shanks A Million]

  tim31x said:

how are the ap2's considered game improvement?

http://www.golfworks.com/images/art/...tingsChart.pdf MPF 551 My irons are 337. Generally lower MPF launches the ball lower.

[Dub]

I'm veiwing this on my iPhone via tapatalk. One limitation is that I can't see handicaps or signature lines so I don't know what you are gaming.

I'll use my own irons as examples. They are GI styled designed to get the ball up. Knockdown shots are do-able but not easy.

If I were trying for a wholesale change like lowering trajectory on all shots then I'd look into new irons altogether. I don't believe shafts alone would work on these heads.

The cost of reshafting & regripping alone would be high enough to consider selling a current set and getting new irons with the shaft you want. This is exactly what I did last April, only I went from players club $ Rifle shafts to the G5's. My goal was to increase trajectory and carry. Both were accomplished and for less than putting new shafts & grips on my old irons.

Good luck.

[tweaky]

I put my 2 cents with Shanks A Million. It's the indian in this case (no insults intended!). If you haven't been to a clubfitter/maker to be sure the lofts and lies are right for your swing then it's definitely worth the effort to do so. I've heard nothing but raves about the PXs and if yer ball flights are that high then the shaft isn't going to make enuff of a difference.

[atrapasuenos]

Thanks everyone!

@Shanks A Million: I was thinking about the design of the AP2... and yesterday I hit some ball with my friend irons, he has the Mizuno's MP68 (I think) with the X100 and the ball flight was considerably flatter. So maybe, not an MB's, but maybe the CB's will give me a flatter ball flight.

@tweaky: I really like the shafts they feel great, I will try playing the ball a bit back in the stance and see what happens.

Thanks a lot again!

Cheers!

[patriot07]

I went through this a couple years ago. I couldn't get the ball down to save my life, and shots into the wind were killing me. So I hit the range for many hours and learned how to hit a mid-trajectory, low-backspin draw with my irons, and it's worked out really, really well. Most of it had to do with taking a little more club, swinging lighter, cutting off the follow-through, and not releasing my hands fully before impact.

That being said, I don't think you'll be able to do much to the ball flight with your shafts. You're going to have to work on the range or find some different irons to lower the flight. It's not like you have a graphite shaft with a really low bend point. The Project X shafts are built for a fairly low flight already, so I don't think you're going to help yourself out with the shafts, and re-shafting your irons can be a costly venture if you don't get the results you want.