Feel 'nothing' when hit sweet spot with blades

[khale]

I started golf with cavity irons for 9 years. I just got a set of MP-58 irons (near blade?) and tested them out today. Although I was not very consistent and shanked a several times. I hit a a few balls at the sweet spots and felt like I swung through air and the ball travels 5 or 10 yards longer than my average shots. I actually didn't feel like I hit the ball. I have never felt like this with my cavity irons before.

Is this the 'feel' people are talking about with blade or near blade irons?

Thanks,

[McGolf-Doggie]

Yes, for me, sometimes that's the feel.

And other times it's even more inscrutably delicious than that — just this slightest hint of perfect reciprocation between ball and clubface through the swing...with a feedback that's so smooth and perfect it's just ridiculous. I can't explain it in words, and I think that's why I love the game so much because that feeling is so addictive.

A friend's R9s give a "less contact" nothingness/effortless/easy feel that I really like; many more shots feel effortless.

My TM Racs are a little harder to achieve that perfect contact, but when they do the reward is even more heightened--more feelable, kind of what I described in the second paragraph.

Recently after a lot of iron and swing work, I've ben hitting them flush a lot more often, and have just been in la la land with delight. And this evening was one of those nights and the memory is still relatively fresh.

(The putting, woods and driver have been neglected in the meantime, while I worked on solving my iron hook--no hooks tonight, yippee!.)

I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses on this one -- I'm interested to read what others say who've tried many more clubs.

Personally I've only had the chance to try 6 or 7 sets of irons, the sensations transmitted seemed a little different with each one, but what you described I think is definitely the common denominator in that perfect contact equation.

[Gerald]

Ohhhhh here we go again, the next thread about puring butter soft blades

If you hit a GI club pure, you also feel nothing and besides that the Mizuno MP-58 in nothing more than well made players modern GI club, with the looks of a blade ......

If you didn't feel nothing with a pure hit GI iron before, you should ask your self if you were ready to go for a "near" blade .....

[khale]

I am not good enough to be consistent with these MP-58 irons yet evident by the shanks and I probably won't use them on the course any time soon. However, I was getting complacent for the last 4 years with no improvement with ball striking. Before buying these clubs, I thought that I need to get blades to force myself to improve my ball striking. I have a tendency to hit nearer to the hosel, and with my bigger face cavity irons, it is not a big deal and I rarely shank. However, with the smaller club faces of the MP-58, I shanked 6 or 7 times today at the range so I know I need to make some change. I found out that if I swing the club with the lower body more (sliding the hip forward), the contact will be closer to the sweet spot.

If you didn't feel nothing with a pure hit GI iron before, you should ask your self if you were ready to go for a "near" blade .....

[VMAN]

puring a blade for your first time is like...catching you first wave...you just can't believe how easy it was and you want to do it again!

[Gerald]

Before buying these clubs, I thought that I need to get blades to force myself to improve my ball striking.

It is actually the other way around, force yourself to become a better ball striker and when you reach the next level or even better the next level beyond, consider blades. (I know what I am talking about, I played blades at least 20 years at a low HC, but now I prefer the ease of a more forgiving iron and it really doesn't hurt my game......).

No blade is going to make you a better ball striker, you will have to do that your own ! The only sound reason to play blades, would be that it is easier to work the ball both ways, however that might be difficult with the MP-58 because of the tungsten weight.

[ks8829]

You get the same feeling from hitting a blade putter like the Yonex ADX forged blade putter and my mp33s.

[tim31x]

shanks have nothing to do with the type of the club being used, what so ever. also, with blades i feel that getting the proper lie angle on your clubs is essential. you won't believe how much better they feel when u can consistantly hit the sweet spot with the right lie angle. sure you won't catch them flush 100% of the time, but it will happen more often.

[kfowler]

I agree with tim31x. No club is going to keep you from hitting shanks or throwing the club in the ground on your downswing. I can personally attest to that.

I moved from Cleveland CG Golds to MP 58s this year. I've been playing with them since March. One of my playing partners asked me why I moved to "blades". I said my misses have nothing to do with what club I'm swinging. I have a tendency to fall towards the ball during the downswing. This causes a shank to rise it's ugly head every now and then. I can shank just as easy with my GI club as with my blades.

I've been thinking about starting a thread about this but was waiting to get some more data. I recently went to the range with my Zelocity Pure Contact to conduct an experiment. I was curious if I was consistently losing distance with my MP 58s vs my CG Golds. The MP58s have a slightly weaker loft so I was expecting a little drop in distance. Comparing 6i between the two clubs, I was surprised to find that my average ball speed and carry distance was slightly better with the MP58s than the CG Golds. I was also more accurate with the MP58. I think that may have more to do with simply being more used to the MP58s since I play regularly with them. I want to do this again at one of our local Trackman to get some solid data.

The biggest difference I notice with the blades is I can really tell when I make a center hit or not. I think they do give you more feedback when you're really examining your swing. I also agree with the other posters that the MP58s are one of the more forgiving "blades" out there.

BTW, my HCP has gone down since switching to blades. They are not some wild horse that's difficult to tame. There's way too much of that mystic surrounding them.

[golfro]

BTW, my HCP has gone down since switching to blades. They are not some wild horse that's difficult to tame. There's way too much of that mystic surrounding them.

There definitely is no wild horse to tame... but to attribute your lower HCP to your blades is a bit silly too.

I often hear mid handicappers say they switched to blades because they force them to improve...hypothetically speaking it makes sense... However, a good swing is a good swing regardless of what club you use. I definitely don't think you need a blade to tell you that. Work on consistencya nd being a good ball striker with ANY club and the rest follows whether you're playing blades or GI's. Blades are just going to make your rounds more difficult. I'm surprised by how many people on this forum don't regularly practice at teh range, but they'll often say "blades help me improve because they force me to be a better player" That only comes with practice. I'm not saying the OP doesn't practice but I was a bit surprised by the recent poll on this forum that stated that most people on this forum rarely practice at the range...yet they all want to find a magical way to improve by buying new clubs...?

[rebby]

Blades are just going to make your rounds more difficult.

*cough*bullshit*cough*

[sean_miller]

It comes down the lie angle, the leading edge, and the sole characteristics (camber, grind, leading edge, whatever).

The ball doesn't know whether you're using a cavity back or a muscleback. Compress it and off it goes. It's not rocket science. Well maybe it is for some of us - lol. BTW - blades probably feel worse on bad shots, in theory, after a while you don't do it often enough to remember.

[double_j]

I'll second (or third, or fourth, I can't tell) the notion that the difficulty of blades is overrated. I learned on them and still play them from time to time when i want a change. For the most part, the mishits we amateurs make with blades would be mishits with any type of club, with only marginal differences in the end result. There is no such thing as a magical club that takes a bad swing and creates a good hit. It's more the fact that your mishits have the chance to be slightly less penalizing with 'easier' clubs. I would guess the only really noticeable difference in shot result between blades and other clubs might show up in the 4 iron or below

And on the original question - yes, that is the blade feel. It's like nothing else. That said, feel also applies to mishits - blades aren't shy about letting you know if you missed the sweet spot by the smallest of margins, whereas all hits kind of feel the same with GI clubs.

[golfro]

*cough*bullshit*cough*

Sure the difficuty of blades may be overrated but to dismiss the entire notion is silly.

You take a blade and mishit it slightly on the toe and you're looking at a big difference to overall distance. Take a mid-high handicapper who doesnt have a great consistent swing and isnt a great ball strikers...and you're going to get some major differences in where the ball goes. A forgiving iron does exactly wat its supposed to...even on a slight mishit, its going to be much more forgiving and still give you the distance and flight. obviously its easy for low handicappers to say "oh blades really aren't that hard"... but to someone who went from using GI irons to blades, take it to the course and it IS much more difficult to hit.

[rebby]

Sure the difficuty of blades may be overrated but to dismiss the entire notion is silly.

Yes, for the mid/high handicapper, perhaps your initial comment (below) has some merit.

Blades are just going to make your rounds more difficult.

However, for somebody who is an overall good ballstriker and makes small mistakes measured in units smaller than 1/4" this statement is blatantly false. In fact, in many situations it's just the opposite. I have a very hard time getting around a course with a low CG cavity back iron. When I gamed PING i3 irons on a regular basis I had hardstepped X100's in them (well, the PING equivalent anyway) in an attempt to get the ball flight down where I wanted it. I needed a very aggressive/fast swing with this combo. In my FG-17's, I hit softstepped X100's which was a much better setup for me. I've gone even softer recently, hardstepped S400's. Despite swinging softer shafts, I can keep the ball flight down much easier than I ever could with the i3's and have a great deal more control over trajectory. Put a set of low CG GI or SGI irons in my hands with anything more than a gentle breeze however and I just spend the entire day fighting the wind which will ultimately make my rounds more difficult. Being able to control trajectory is a major benefit hence the source of my earlier coughing fit.

[Idumhet]

Well, I'm a 26-handicapper and have tried the mp-58's.. My absolute first round with the mizunos I spent 10 min at range and after that went out on the course and played a '48-points over 18-hole' round. So this about that blades should be more difficult is something that never appeared to me.
I hate reading reviews where everyone says that "blades" are only for low-handicappers,, they might just aswell be for the mid, or even the high, depending on how the player plays.

And yes, that feeling is wonderful =) I also felt it with the mizunos! :)

/Idumhet

[golfro]

Yes, for the mid/high handicapper, perhaps your initial comment (below) has some merit.

Well said. I completely agree with you. I think anyone of your playing abilities, can play blades just fine. But, its all about playing a set that equates to your playing abilities. My main point is that a set of blades isn't going to suddenly make you a better ball striker... only practice and working on your swing can do that, regardless of what club you have in your hands.

Now when you're at a point where you're hitting consistently and you reduce as much abnormalities in your swings, I think the small details when it comes to golf clubs matter quite a bit. To most hackers, blades are going to only make their rounds more difficult IF they don't practice.

[bplewis24]

Well, speaking as somebody who was playing SGI (UGI?) irons (Callaway FT) for the past 1.5 years as I got back into golf and is now playing the Mizuno MP68s, I'll just speak from my own personal experience, which may be counter to a lot of what I heard and read about before buying them.

1) This buttery soft feel from the sweet spot may be a bit overstated. Yes, I do feel a softer "click" most of the time, but I do feel something. The statements about feeling as if you didn't even hit the ball don't apply for me.

2) Are they harder to hit? I have to be honest and say that I haven't noticed much of a difference. I feel much more comfortable with the lie of the sole against the grass and how the leading edge feels. But when it comes to poor swings with the FTs and the 68s, they both feel flat and crappy. Perhaps balls contacted just inside of the toe feel crappy on the 68s, where I can still stray a bit further from the sweet spot on the FTs, but it seems negligible to me.

3) Less dispersion? I honestly wouldn't know. When I have a swing that repeats itself 9 times out of 10 maybe I'll have more input.

Can a mid or high handicap game blades? Does it take a lot of practice to get used to them? Well, I'm not going to answer definitively, but the scores seem to indicate yes. I went to the range twice before using them in a round. My first 9 hole round was pretty average...something like a 44. Then I played my first serious 18-hole round and shot an 82, which was the lowest I had gone in a month or so. Followed that up with another 82 this past weekend, with a 90 sandwiched in between.

The toughest thing for me so far? Getting used to the distances. The tricked up lofts of the GI clubs takes some adjusting from.

Brandon