Grooveless Blades from Germany

[woltaire]

I am from Germany and therefore I am following a pretty young German golf club company.

They make publicity and were interviewed in Germany's top golf magazines and so on...

The reason for that is because they offer lot's of strange stuff with a "less is more" philosophy

under the company name "Bagger Vance".

However their most outstanding and most discussed product are these grooveless blades here:

http://www.marken-golf.de/golfshop/shop/Grooveless-Eisen-Oldschool---ohne-Rillen_27-444.html

They even offer real leather grips and say they last longer and behave better in rain.

Or they produce bi-matrix shafts of hickory with steel top and remake persimmon woods like these:

http://www.marken-golf.de/golfshop/shop/Bagger-Vance-Persimmon-H%C3%B6lzer_28-1790.html

It's all made in Germany stuff.

However their website is coded like a terrible bunch of debris and the company leader looks like a total freak...

http://www.marken-golf.de/Impressum___AGB/impressum___agb.html

I am not sure if they are cheating with their products or if they are geniusses

and don't know if anybody mentioned their golf clubs here before.

So I wanted to ask what you all think of that stuff...

Is this the true future of golf clubs?

Or is this bullshit?

[Valleygolfer]

It looks like they fill the nitch of outdated technology

[woltaire]

That's possible...

However they offer everything as 4 week buy and try.

So you can get it and then resend it.

That's not typical for people who sell outdated technology.

It seem's that they are very convinced about what they're doing and have interesing explanations...

They proclaim that with grooveless you get less spin on the long irons and more spin on the short irons.

According to them the reason for this is that during impact the ball gets pressed for a moment to about 20% of it's normal width.

In that moment the ball generates a small counter movement in the opposite direction, practically a small moment of forward spin.

The grooves limit the backspin effect during maximum impact in a way like two gear wheels that go into opposite directions which results in a small loss of backspin.

On the short irons this effect is higher than on longer irons.

On an iron 6 and 7 there is no real difference between grooves and grooveless...

On longer irons you get less spin with grooveless which results into more roll...

Can that be?

[tasker]

Hi Woltaire, My friend from Mainz had a set of grooveless clubs which he played quite well. I did not. Believe the technology was valid, but he showed thisnto be untrue with nice ball flight and the ability to stop balls on the greens.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by woltaire

According to them the reason for this is that during impact the ball gets pressed for a moment to about 20% of it's normal width.

Someone is misunderstanding something here!

[xxsoultonesxx]

I always thought that grooves were mainly extra space for grass to go upon impact.  I bet these clubs suck out of the rough, but are probably just fine from a clean lie.

[Topper]

I'm all for innovation and creativity, but can someone tell me what the advantage is for grooveless irons?  Being different for the sake of being different might be creative but isn't necessarily innovative or functionally advantageous.  I assumed that maybe they used an abrasive or milled surface but the pictures show the irons being pretty smooth.

[iacas]

I remember reading that up until about a 5-iron or maybe a 6-iron, grooves don't matter from a clean lie. Above that, though, and the edges of the grooves start to have a *little* impact that increases as you get to higher lofts.

And from the rough, obviously, these would probably suck.

[glock35ipsc]

Their "workshop" looks smaller and more cluttered than my 11 year old son's room!

Somewhere in my barrel of odd clubs there is a pretty cool looking grooveless wedge.  It does have milling lines on the face, but no grooves.  i keep saying I'm going oto take it to the practice area one of these days, but keep forgetting I have it.

[dak4n6]

Quote:

However their website is coded like a terrible bunch of debris and the company leader looks like a total freak...

Um, all of them look like they just ate a bunch of LSD and are ready to join Charlie Manson's gang..

[The Tin Man]

Grooveless offers a huge advantage for those who looking good is better then being good - those irons would polish up nicely.