Lie Angle

[buckshot4227]

I had a question on lie angle.  I have never been fitted for clubs, but recently became curious on how my standard(off the shelve) clubs fit me.  I am 5 ft 11 so I figured I am pretty close to average height.  Any way I have noticed, from my divots, that my toe does tend to dig a bit more than the heel.  I recently put tape on the bottom of my club and it also showed contact with the ground is a bit towards the toe.  In fact 3/8 an inch off center.

Now for my questions

1)  How many degrees up would my irons have to be bent to compensate for that 3/8 in?

2)  I have callaway razr x tour irons, can they be bent as far as I need them to be(being they are cast)

3)  Why would one want to have there lie angle adjusted?  What I mean is why wouldnt one just change there swing to fit there lie angle?  I know that my hands are higher and farther away from my body at impact compared to address(I think most players are, I believe Sergio is an exception) causing my swing to be upright.  Why wouldnt I just try and get my hands lower at impact?  What other affects could trying to have my hands lower at impact have on my swing?  Thanks in advance.  Hopefully this all made some kind of sense.

[WUTiger]

You are on the right track. Here's a couple more things you might want to do, working with a good fitter:

• Put impact tape on the bottom of your 5, 7 and 9 irons. Hit a half-dozen shots with all three. See if the 3/8" scuff mark is in the same place on all the irons. If the 5i and 9i are pretty much in the middle, and 7i is 3/8" off, that means the 7i may be out of tolerance. Don't automatically bend all your irons because one has too flat a lie.
• If the iron lies are off, you may need some combination of lie angle and shaft length adjustment. A skilled fitter can help you on this.
• A couple of different companies make the sole tape; make sure you have it in the proper place on the sole, and make sure you know how to interpret the left/right deviations.

As for which irons are bendable, I would contact Callaway on this. The hardness of the steel and the shape of the hosel (some clubs don't fit into a bending tool very well without getting damage) influence how bendable a club is. OEMs often recommend a factory lie adjustment if the clubhead metal is brittle, or has an odd hosel design.

Why adjust lie angle? Conventional wisdom says that lie angle is pretty steady for an experienced golfer. If lie angle is too flat, you tend to miss to the right because that's where the club is pointing. Too upright, miss left. Several different club fitters have told me that lie adjustment is one of the biggest - and simplest - benefits of more customized clubs of the past few years. If you have a consistent swing (12 HDCP looks pretty good to me), it's easier to tweak the clubs than to jack around with your swing.