Moving onto Blades

[IcemanYVR]

You'd think.

Great post!

"I will judge my rounds much more by the quality of my best shots than the acceptability of my worse ones"

I have that link saved in my favorites, and it usually comes up in these discussions. Good stuff.

OK, this test is approximately 15 years old. I would bet that the majority of it still holds true today... but with the amount club technology has advanced in the last 15 years, I would wonder (or at least hope for the sake of the golfing public in general) that GI irons have improved significantly.

Any thoughts?

[kennay92]

look at j36's, cavity backs (or pocket cavitys) and also the VR split cavity.

[Dad-2-3]

OK, this test is approximately 15 years old. I would bet that the majority of it still holds true today... but with the amount club technology has advanced in the last 15 years, I would wonder (or at least hope for the sake of the golfing public in general) that GI irons have improved significantly.

Actually I was mistaken this is the link I have saved in my favorites.

http://3jack.blogspot.com/2010/02/bl...ent-irons.html My thoughts are that ALL irons have come a long way in 15 years. My old irons were Wilson prostaff midsize which are approx. 13 years old. I would put them in the GI column. I noticed an immediate decrease in dispersion when I switched to the ZB's and really they aren't a blade except 8-PW. The 6i & 7i are MB, with 5i-3i are CB. Nothing changed (certainly not my hack of a swing!) except the iron and shaft.

[yamhang]

Try pick a set of "modern blade" which is easier to play compare with the good old fashion ones with high CG, stiff shaft and almost no offset. I have a set of Macgregor Miurfield 20th Annivary made in 80's and managed to stick with them and got quite used to them.

But when i tried out the recent VIP blades, they are just lot easier to play.

I have been contemplating moving on to Blade Irons, for no other reason than because I love the look of blade irons. I am a 12 handicap and getting better. I have been playing game improvement irons for the past 4 years, (G10's, Rac OS, X-16's), but i'd like to try some blades, of course my fear is that I will shank the ball all over the place. So my question, is there such a thing as a Forgiving blade iron? Which brand of blades is the most forgiving?

[sean_miller]

Try pick a set of "modern blade" which is easier to play compare with the good old fashion ones with high CG, stiff shaft and almost no offset.

I'm not so sure the VIPs are any easier to hit in general than Muirfields. If you prefer them, great!

I personally think they have a similar weight distribution as 1987 Titleist Tour blades. They have a much higher COG than these older MacGregor blades (the old ones throw the ball really high - almost too high in fact). It's all a matter of what suits your eye and your swing.

[shades9323]

This might not be exactly what you want, but I'd recommend looking for some Titleist ZBs. They are a blended set, moving from muscle-back (short irons), to semi-cavity back (mid irons) and on to full-cavity back (in the long irons).

Unless we have a alter ego or lurker, K.J. is better than 100% of the guys on this forum. There are only 35 players in the world better than K.J.

[TailWind]

yuo should check out the mx-300s. they are kindof a hybrid between players and gi irons

[yamhang]

nice pictures!!

[DarkPrince]

I've gotta say that after trying both my current irons (Taylormade RAC MB TP) and the Nike VR Blades, both were ungodly easy to hit and felt like butter. Have I probably hurt myself by buying/playing blades? Yeah, but geez you just cannot beat the feel of them, knowing pretty much every time if it was low off the toe, heel, high, or dead center flush. As someone else said, they are more modern and aren't true blades, so they do have some weight towards the bottom:

[marpr]

I appreciate the honesty, I understand blades are much harder to hit than GI clubs, but I can learn to hit them. What I am looking for are recommendations/suggestions on what brands or clubs are considered to most forgiving in the Blade category, Or what GI club compares to a blade in terms of workability???

I wouldnt even bother trying to learn off blades although, there are many golfers who started off doing so (IACAS i believe!?), technology should be treated as your friend and as a 12 marker, i dont recommend them at all.

Most GI irons are very workable now (look at Ping I's, Callaway x22/Diablo Forged etc)!! There is no doubt that blades are more workable to the very low marker (who hits the ball in the centre most of the time) but, they will not give you one bit of forgiveness on off centre hits. Chris

[shades9323]

I've gotta say that after trying both my current irons (Taylormade RAC MB TP) and the Nike VR Blades, both were ungodly easy to hit and felt like butter. Have I probably hurt myself by buying/playing blades? Yeah, but geez you just cannot beat the feel of them, knowing pretty much every time if it was low off the toe, heel, high, or dead center flush. As someone else said, they are more modern and aren't

At least you admit you are probably leaving strokes on the course by playing a mb iron. A bit crazy if you ask me.

With my GI irons I can feel and tell you where I hit the ball on the face.

[IcemanYVR]

I appreciate the honesty, I understand blades are much harder to hit than GI clubs, but I can learn to hit them. What I am looking for are recommendations/suggestions on what brands or clubs are considered to most forgiving in the Blade category, Or what GI club compares to a blade in terms of workability???

You've been given recommendations for blades... there is no forgiveness in blades and there is not one brand that is not more forgiving than another. I think you will find that all modern blades (within the last 10 years) they play about the same.

Hogan Apex 2002, Titliest 690 MB, Mizuno MP-33 are three very good sets of forged MB irons you can get on ebay for less than $250

[colin007]

"1. Mis-hits with GI's will tend to go longer.
2. Mis-hits with blades will tend to go straighter and have a much tighter dispersion.


Lastly, there's a big risk reward with the GI irons. I think there's a chance that if you mis-hit a GI iron you can still wind up hitting the occasional exceptional shot. However, if you mis-hit a GI iron you also risk hitting the shot that is far worse than mis-hitting a blade iron."

from the article that was linked above.


also, my recommendation:
Mizuno MP-52
Mizuno MP-52
Mizuno MP-52

[sean_miller]

1. Mis-hits with GI's will tend to go longer.

You like the MP-52s then? I thought you were pushing for blades? Either way, those might be the gold standard for Mizuno forged perimeter weighted irons.

I took some old Lynx Parallax irons to the range the other day (old school, but probably GI to SGI irons compared to today's offereings). Besides having trouble fitting them in the bag (wide soles) those mofos threw the ball so high it was unbelievable. The ball was on line, right at the target, and they're easy to hit but the ultra-high ball flight was not pleasing. Maybe if the wind ever stops blowing, I'll take them out for a round, but not any time soon.

[DarkPrince]

At least you admit you are probably leaving strokes on the course by playing a mb iron. A bit crazy if you ask me.

I also must admit though that my ballstriking has improved immensly since getting them, my distances have also gapped out much more evenly. And that's not again to say I'm not losing strokes on the course, but now when I see a distance on my rangefinder, I know what club to pull whereas I couldn't really figure out just how far my old Wilson Matrix irons would go. My current 150 club is my 8 iron, but with my old set it could be 6,7, or 8 before taking shot shape/height into account :P Essentially I didn't trust my clubs back then :/ I was originally going to buy the Tour Preferred irons, but for I think it was 75-100 more I got my RAC's instead (ty TMAG :P). Again that's not to say I'm not punishing myself as I'm thinking of maybe trading them in for cobra proCB's or something along those lines, but I want to hit/compare them first :/

[Shanks A Million]

What I find most amusing is that the lower handicaps all seem to say play GI, and many of them play cavity back irons. On the other hand, all the higher handicaps claim blades are great, and they feel "like butter."

You know what feels better? Turning in a good score. That's the difference between a high and low handicap golfer, their ability to score. GI irons are great. I learned to play the game on blades (Northwestern J.C. Sneads) like most others, and I would not recommend them to anyone who doesn't have a very consistent swing. I struggled in those early days with the blades, and it was a harsh learning curve to overcome. I switched to super GI irons, and I really started to advance. When my mishits were forgiven, the game became more fun, and I enjoyed practice much more. I got better a lot faster with those SGI irons. When I finally got the go-ahead to play players irons, I was ready for them, and there was no harsh learning curve.

[ericstamper]

i got mp 57s right now and im thinking about going the other way to more forgiving......when i was playing alot i grooved a good swing and i could hit these muscle backs, but with the better technology to hit it higher and farther why do u wanna go lower and harder to hit?

[Shanks A Million]

i got mp 57s right now and im thinking about going the other way to more forgiving......when i was playing alot i grooved a good swing and i could hit these muscle backs, but with the better technology to hit it higher and farther why do u wanna go lower and harder to hit?

Indeed a good question. The people who hit the ball unbelievably high may prefer blades, like Tiger and Phil, maybe Adam Scott and Anthony Kim, but I don't see too many amateurs hitting it that high. The ball, for every club, should go about 100 feet in the air. Any higher and you need blades. So, if your 3 iron goes 130 feet into the air, then blades may be a good idea.