Forged Irons = training aide

[hacker23]

After about 5 years of playing with cast irons, I finally purchased forged (MP-33s).

Took them out to the range today and wow, I noticed right away that my swing had to be almost perfect to send the ball up in the air. One little mistake and BAM, the club sends a shocking reminder to your hands.

I really like this fact b/c the club is acting like a training aide almost. I know i've only spent 2 hours w/ it, but I feel like my swing has been somewhat honed?

Anyone else share this experience?

[max power]

The need to produce a better swing/contact with the MP-33s has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they are forged.

[Danattherock]

Hitting irons that are not GI does make perfect sense it would give you more feedback. Got a Tour Striker pro training aid the other day. Awesome reviews on this thing at Golfwrx in the swing forum. The dvd that came with it was full of great advice. One thing he said was modern GI clubs don't give you much feedback and allow poor swings to still give decent results. Using some blades will surely tell you if you are missing the sweet spot. No doubt about it. Would I buy a set for this reason, hell no. Sounds like an expensive lesson in futility to me. But the Tour Striker is a great training club with similar logic. Check out the TS website. Forces you to do many things well in order to get the ball in the air. A forward leaning shaft at impact being one. Also, the pro version has a much smaller face and will let you know if you are not hitting the sweet spot.

-Dan

[Shorty]

The fact that they are forged has as much to do with their feel as does the colour of the grips. It's the DESIGN of the club, not the manufacturing process.

[Danattherock]

Good older thread here on "feel" of forged versus cast irons. Great reply from Erik as well.

http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...th-playability



-Dan

[luckyluke699]

I would definitely advocate everyone to obtain a second hand ex demo 6-iron of a forged muscle back / blade (such as MP-33 or MP-67 etc) off ebay for use at the range.

As you've mentioned, it truly helps you to hone your practise and gives you great feedback on your swing. Even if you then use your normal cavity backs on the course...

[sean_miller]

  Shorty said:

The fact that they are forged has as much to do with their feel as does the colour of the grips. It's the DESIGN of the club, not the manufacturing process.

How could something that sounds different feel the same? Maybe you can't tell the difference, but some people apparently can. I do know that a form forged muscleback feels harder tha a Mizuno muscleback and both are much softer than stainless steel blades. Is it more in the design than the metal? Who F'ing cares - at the end they sound different and they also feel different.

But the OP is talking about a lower MOI anyway so who cares?!?

[hacker23]

  luckyluke699 said:

I would definitely advocate everyone to obtain a second hand ex demo 6-iron of a forged muscle back / blade (such as MP-33 or MP-67 etc) off ebay for use at the range.

Thank for seeing where I'm coming from.

Perhaps I should have changed my title to "MP33 = Training Aide"

[Blades4me]

  hacker23 said:

After about 5 years of playing with cast irons, I finally purchased forged (MP-33s).

Yes, that happens to me, but the iron I use for that is a 1 iron which requires a pretty flawless swing. Another great training aid in that area is the tour striker.

[luckyluke699]

  hacker23 said:

Thank for seeing where I'm coming from.

I agree with you completely, it's simple logic. If you want to improve your score on a course, pick a forgiving club.

If you want to improve your swing mechanics (the main reason I go to a golf range), pick an unforgiving club which will give you maximum feedback and won't mask the slight flaws in your swing!

[hacker23]

I'm quite happy w/ these clubs.

Hitting these clubs, i'm getting a constant reminder that I have to relax my grip, oil up that wrist hinge, and let the club do all the work. It's even helping me w/ my 3 wood and my driver; I've never crushed both soo far!

Can't wait to play this Saturday.

[Shorty]

  sean_miller said:

Maybe you can't tell the difference, but some people apparently can.

They are having themselves on.

[WUTiger]

The major difference between the X20 and X20 Tour irons: with the Tour version, you can tell on impact if you have hit a bad, OK, or super shot. Tours were not forged, but they were GI rather than SGI.

With standard X20s, you can tell if you hit a bad shot, but that's about all.

I got the X20s, however, because my HDCP was in the low 20s at the time - my swing needed more grooving.

hacker23 , you're an 11 HDCP so this move is OK for you. Me, I still need a fair amount of foregiveness. If I got to the point I was stuck shooting in the low 80s, and couldn't go lower, then I might switch from SGI to GI clubs.

[Caddyshack]

  luckyluke699 said:

I agree with you completely, it's simple logic. If you want to improve your score on a course, pick a forgiving club.

Agreed i have a few old spalding blades from the 1960's that i use at the range from time to time, now those things punish a bad swing, you have to hit it perfect to get a good result.

[gir]

I bought a Titleist 690 mb 9 iron off ebay to both try out a blade and to substitute for a lost ping 9 iron in my set. I've hit that blade great overall actually. Had my best iron shot of the day out on the course with it today.

[kennay92]

forged has nothing to do with it, it just so happens that most players club are forged.. in realality you could have the biggest cavity back beginner club be forged.

[iacas]

  kennay92 said:

forged has nothing to do with it, it just so happens that most players club are forged.. in realality you could have the biggest cavity back beginner club be forged.

Not really. Those kinds of clubs tend not to be forged because of how you make a forged club. Cavity back clubs have nooks and crannies that don't lend themselves to a forging process.

[delav]

  iacas said:

Not really. Those kinds of clubs tend not to be forged because of how you make a forged club. Cavity back clubs have nooks and crannies that don't lend themselves to a forging process.

Agreed. There seems to be quite a bit of confusion regarding the difference between correlation and causation when these topics swirl around.