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Anyone else find it easier to hit blades?


dwade247
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this is the exact reason I've been thinking of picking up a (very) cheap used set of blade-like clubs and giving then a try.  I've noticed that on a lot of holes the safest place to miss is short, even if you are off line,  since you will still be playable.

I did it for a few reasons, but I will never claim that it was for the benefit of my game. I determined that it might not hurt my game so it was worth trying out.

Jury's still out on that, BTW. I haven't determined yet if I actually play just as well with them, or I've convinced myself that I do because I like the clubs so much.

Also one of my points of focus for this year is ball striking and having the extra feedback mishits could be useful

Yes, it gives you better feedback, but it's also completely unnecessary. If you want feedback on your ballstriking, get some impact tape, foot spray, or dry-erase marker. It's not like exposing yourself to painful vibrations to your hands and wrists is going to make you find the sweetspot more often.

I'm not trying to dissuade you or anything, I just want to point out some of the "cons" in this line of thinking. Go ahead and get them, if that's what you want to do, and have fun :-)

Bill

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” - Confucius

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My blade iron set doesnt have a gap wedge. I grew away from the idea of using a 9 iron perimeter weight vs a 8 iron blade because I have wedges that fill the gaps. Right or wrong? I dont really know because they are really just different designs and I have grown to favor the higher ball flight of the more modern designs. A really stiff blade iron is too harsh for me but it is probably more accurate in the sense that I play it as one club shorter.

I would think that the standard flight is probably dictated more by the shaft flex than the MOI of the club head? Maybe blades also need to be hit more "down" on the ball to get that high ball flight?

:ping:  :tmade:  :callaway:   :gamegolf:  :titleist:

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Ping i20 irons U-4, CFS300
Callaway XR16 9 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S
Callaway XR16 3W 15 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S, X2Hot Pro 20 degrees S

"I'm hitting the woods just great, but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them." ~Harry Toscano

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[quote name="trickyputt" url="/t/71299/anyone-else-find-it-easier-to-hit-blades/90#post_1121812"]My blade iron set doesnt have a gap wedge. I grew away from the idea of using a 9 iron perimeter weight vs a 8 iron blade because I have wedges that fill the gaps. Right or wrong? I dont really know because they are really just different designs and I have grown to favor the higher ball flight of the more modern designs. A really stiff blade iron is too harsh for me but it is probably more accurate in the sense that I play it as one club shorter.

I would think that the standard flight is probably dictated more by the shaft flex than the MOI of the club head? Maybe blades also need to be hit more "down" on the ball to get that high ball flight?[/quote] At the end of the design talk, even with the same shafts, the newer iron designs have a downward weight shift that I like, and I think that helps me get the ball up, or maybe it is to do with having the weight that extra inch down toward the ground for energy reasons. I played blades both with and without toe weight, and there are toe weighted gi designs all over the place, but I have grown to prefer the lower center mass muscle cavity as sort of the modern combination of the characteristics I like, which is definitely not a high or middle mass blade iron, or toe weighted iron for that matter. I dont mind a consistent perimeter weight, but to have it biased to the toe to "help" me, actually got under my skin after a few years, because it biased my left-right control as well. I like the main weight design to be in sort of a triangle, the top part behind the sweet spot and the rest below. The last blades I hit were the new 588s and I didnt think the weight was high enough on them. I liked the cg1 better.

Tom R.

TM R1 on a USTv2, TM 3wHL on USTv2, TM Rescue 11 in 17,TM udi #3, Rocketbladez tour kbs reg, Mack Daddy 50.10,54.14,60.14, Cleveland putter

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I only had my blades for a few range sessions and a 9-hole round, but I'll share what I've observed, so far:

My misses with the blades can be straighter than the GI irons. I don't think it's because blades are "straighter" than GI irons. What I believe happens is that the mis-hit on the blade transfers less energy to the ball and causes it to travel less distance off line than a similar mis-hit with the GI club because it doesn't go as far. Simply put, if your 150yd GI shot was going to miss 5° to the right, your 135yd blade shot that misses the same 5° to the right is going to be closer to your original target line. It will also be farther away from the green.

This may or may not be a good thing, and that all depends on the state of your individual game, as well as the types of courses you typically play. For myself, losing distance on a mis-hit can actually be advantageous, as I tend to hit the ball so far off line that I'll put the ball into trouble. YMMV.

Thanks for the explanation Bill,for me i generally hit my GI irons pretty straight and the courses round here have fairly generous fairways so the extra yards are welcome even when the ball strays of line a little (or a lot). The blades may come out for the odd round at the local par 3 but ive decided to stick with the GI's as my main irons. Also cant seem to bring myself to get the Titleist's dirty :-P

Russ, from "sunny" Yorkshire = :-( 

In the bag: Driver: Ping G5 , Woods:Dunlop NZ9, 4 Hybrid: Tayormade Burner, 4-SW: Hippo Beast Bi-Metal , Wedges: Wilson 1200, Putter: Cleveland Smartsquare Blade, Ball: AD333

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  • 2 weeks later...
I am now the proud new owner of a set of Ben Hogan Apex II's, the '83 Black Cameos. They'll get this whole "I hit blades better" idea out of my head quickly...

Actually, they were fairly cheap, and I kind of like the idea of owning a vintage set of irons, so even if I can't hit them out of my shadow, I'm happy with the purchase.

So, how is the experiment going?  Just curious if you've been using them and what the results are.

Driver: R7 425,  3-wood: V-Steel
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So, how is the experiment going?  Just curious if you've been using them and what the results are.

I've only played 27 holes with them so far, but I don't think they're hurting me much, if at all. Besides being shorter than my other clubs (partially due to lofts, partially due to weather), I can't really find any fault with them. There isn't anything that I could do with my GI clubs that I can't do with these, and I've looked back at my rounds and can't find any shots where the blades cost me strokes that the GI clubs would have saved. I've even hit one shot (and @nevets88 can confirm this) square off the toe to an uphill green and still stuck it to 15' or something.

When I miss with the irons, I tend to miss laterally as well, so I'll usually miss the green with the GI clubs anyway. Even if the blades cost me some distance, I doubt that the slightly longer pitch to the green will make much of a difference in my scoring.

There are lots of things I found that I like about them. I like the smaller clubheads, the thin topline, and zero offset. I like the fact that the shafts are slightly shorter (I'm 5'9"). I like the idea of playing with vintage blades. Until I find a definitive difference in performance, they're staying in the bag.

Bill

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” - Confucius

My Swing Thread

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Ive been thinking about the clubs i use recently and decided to take 3 each of the blades and SGI irons to see the difference. The thing is i started playing with a loaned set of Dunlop maxflite cast musclebacks and hit them ok for a beginner. I also had an old set of Macggregor "caviry" irons which had a very shallow cavity and narrow sole.

I moved to the Di9's after a visit to Direct golf for a club MOT and was told that if i kept using the Dunlops i would be a better player in the long run but would enjoy the game more if i bought GI or SGI cavities. As they shoulf know what the are talking about i took the advice and have struggled to get on with them.

Now it could be that i am used to the style of a MB iron or that the light uniflex fatshaft in the Di9s is contributing but there is just "something" about the SGI irons.

The 695MB's feel more substantial, have a shorter and heavier shaft (i even have steel shafts in my hybrids) so it will be intresting to see what, if any, difference there is.

Russ, from "sunny" Yorkshire = :-( 

In the bag: Driver: Ping G5 , Woods:Dunlop NZ9, 4 Hybrid: Tayormade Burner, 4-SW: Hippo Beast Bi-Metal , Wedges: Wilson 1200, Putter: Cleveland Smartsquare Blade, Ball: AD333

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I did a little experiment over the weekend. Using 6,7 and 8 irons in both the Wilson Staff and Titleist 695mb (all with impact tape) i comapred them to see if A) a high handicapper like my can hit blades and B)if a a high handicapper like me should hit blades.

So first off, I didnt find it that dificult to make decent contact with the blades. The centre strikes felt very nice, as if there was nothing there, and the off centre strikes were no where near as bad as i was expecting.

Distance was down over the WS irons by about 10-15yards. Lofts are different (695 7 iron is  weaker than WS 7 iron) but even the 695 6 iron was shorter than the WS 7 iron depsite both being 32 degrees.

one thing i noted was my misses. with the WS irons my misses were more to the toe while the 695's were more to the heel. Not good on an iron with weight taked from the heel!!

I was able to hit all the irons well although the misses on the blades were shorter and more off line.

So to answer my questions

a) Yes a high handicapper can hit blade irons, and depending on that persons skill can hit them suprisingly well.

b) in my case, no i shouldnt be using blades. There are too many variables in contact, i also noticed the thinner sole tended to get caught on the turf at the start of the backswing. Not a major issue but annoying,

I think its worth trying a blade, even if to just scratch the blade itch. There are some out there who swear by blades but having tried them, and ironed out the issues causng my GI irons issues i can happily say im staying with forgiving clubs

Russ, from "sunny" Yorkshire = :-( 

In the bag: Driver: Ping G5 , Woods:Dunlop NZ9, 4 Hybrid: Tayormade Burner, 4-SW: Hippo Beast Bi-Metal , Wedges: Wilson 1200, Putter: Cleveland Smartsquare Blade, Ball: AD333

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  • 3 months later...

Sorry if this was asked before but I'm thinking of using blades as a training aid.  If  they are easier to mishit if not hit exactly sweet, isn't that good training for ball striking? In other words if I can learn to hit them perfectly it will make other clubs seem easy - right?

I use old Taylor Made clubs from eBay and golf shops.

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Sorry if this was asked before but I'm thinking of using blades as a training aid.  If  they are easier to mishit if not hit exactly sweet, isn't that good training for ball striking? In other words if I can learn to hit them perfectly it will make other clubs seem easy - right?

I dont think you'll ever hit them perfectly, golf is a game of perfect imperfection, but many people believe they your swing as they seem to make you subconciously focus on a smoother action. When i go to the range i'll take one or two of my Titeleist 695MB's and hit a dozen or so balls, then go back to my usual GI irons.

Russ, from "sunny" Yorkshire = :-( 

In the bag: Driver: Ping G5 , Woods:Dunlop NZ9, 4 Hybrid: Tayormade Burner, 4-SW: Hippo Beast Bi-Metal , Wedges: Wilson 1200, Putter: Cleveland Smartsquare Blade, Ball: AD333

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Sorry if this was asked before but I'm thinking of using blades as a training aid.  If  they are easier to mishit if not hit exactly sweet, isn't that good training for ball striking? In other words if I can learn to hit them perfectly it will make other clubs seem easy - right?

That and you're more aware of your misses.

Mike McLoughlin

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I'd be concerned the feel based response may not be indicative of swing improvement. I don't have to hear a nasty clank and have it vibrate all the way my arms to hit a crap shot.

Dave :-)

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I'd be concerned the feel based response may not be indicative of swing improvement. I don't have to hear a nasty clank and have it vibrate all the way my arms to know I hit a crap shot.

. . .no pain no gain. :-$

:ping:  :tmade:  :callaway:   :gamegolf:  :titleist:

TM White Smoke Big Fontana; Pro-V1
TM Rac 60 TT WS, MD2 56
Ping i20 irons U-4, CFS300
Callaway XR16 9 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S
Callaway XR16 3W 15 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S, X2Hot Pro 20 degrees S

"I'm hitting the woods just great, but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them." ~Harry Toscano

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I had thought about using an old set of Titleist blades when doing range work before. In the end I decided against it because the club swing weight was so much different than my normal clubs that I didn't think it would really do much good. It makes much more sense, to me, to use whatever clubs you are going to use on the course while practicing your swing.

KICK THE FLIP!!

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Better yet take lesson and use the range to work on what your instructor tells you to. I've never understood the "I am going to dig a better swing out of the dirt" approach. There are easier more effective ways to improve. The golfer sending balls in every direction with each swing doesn't need the most precise equipment to figure out something is wrong. Your poor shots will sound funny feel funny and the interaction with the ground and the way the ball flies should be enough.

The blades defense is typically play what you like and that's a good enough reason for me. But using them won't make you a better golfer if you already struggle to hit more forgiving clubs. Just going to waste time and money at the range to frustrate yourself chasing a couple good balls a bucket. Which most do anyway regardless of what they use. Heck I don't even need a club to work on improving my swing.

Dave :-)

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Note: This thread is 3160 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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