What irons?

[Lihu]

  jswoosh said:

[quote name="Phil McGleno" url="/t/80485/what-irons/30#post_1113372"] How do you know that? I have met golfers who will top out at about a 9 handicap, or a 6, and that is if they work at it a LOT. That is not true. Mishits with blades are worse. Lower MOI and less forgiveness.

ok another question am I more likely to stay a 6-9 handicapper because ill never have a good enough swing to hit blades, despite how many lessons i have and practice i do, or because my chipping and putting will never get to the level required to be any better ? This is not meant to be sarcastic and is a genuine question[/quote][quote name="jswoosh" url="/t/80485/what-irons/18#post_1113737"][quote name="Lihu" url="/t/80485/what-irons/30#post_1113728"] That's kind of what I think. The reason is because the feeling of hitting just one shot well, will make your entire round feel good. I still remember hitting my 3i nicely, even though my swing is currently crappy. That feeling is driving me to improve my swing to do that again. It's an addictive feeling. My son just went from Ping I20 to Cleveland CG Tour irons at the start of this season. He's hitting them pretty well, and is even using his old i20 4i as a driving iron. My original thought to him was to use those for training only, but now he's addicted. The good news is his ball striking is okay enough to use them. So, even at two ends of the skill spectrum, the feeling of hitting a blade well is driving us to improve. What could keep you from scratch is lack of distance and accuracy, mainly distance.[/quote]Distance isn't really an issue that's one of the reasons I'm happy to change from the rocketbladez. It's touch and accuracy, mainly touch though[/quote] I don't really think of "touch" when talking about irons. The thing I like about blades is that you need to really hit them for the ball to go far. What this means for me is less distance variation from more or less aggressive swings.

[jswoosh]

  Lihu said:

I don't really think of "touch" when talking about irons. The thing I like about blades is that you need to really hit them for the ball to go far. What this means for me is less distance variation from more or less aggressive swings.

By touch I mean touch around the greens not with the irons. Distance control is something I'm really after, almost looking forward to the challenge of trying to hit some. There's an s55 at the range which I'm going to try tonight, ill see how that feels. I don't know if that's a genuine blade but its marketed as a players iron

[Lihu]

There are Mark Crossfield video on blades versus game improvement clubs. The basic gist is that you need to work for the distance, and I believe this because whenever I hit my clubs, it's really loud. When some of my playing partners hit their clubs the same distance it's a much softer sound. Btw, SGI or GI clubs won't kill your swing. The swing is the same. Blades versus GI is about ball striking.

[jswoosh]

  Lihu said:

There are Mark Crossfield video on blades versus game improvement clubs. The basic gist is that you need to work for the distance, and I believe this because whenever I hit my clubs, it's really loud. When some of my playing partners hit their clubs the same distance it's a much softer sound. Btw, SGI or GI clubs won't kill your swing. The swing is the same. Blades versus GI is about ball striking.

Ill have a look at those tonight. What I mean about killing my swing is if I give the rocketbladez a whack they go miles so I think subconsciously it almost becomes a big hitting competition then my shape starts to go and the strike isn't as good. With those clubs as long as its not a shocker you still get away with it. If I never practiced and played everynow and again they'd be great but I practice all the time and at this stage of my development I'm worried about papering over cracks

[Shorty]

  jswoosh said:

There's an s55 at the range which I'm going to try tonight, ill see how that feels. I don't know if that's a genuine blade but its marketed as a players iron.

The s55 is not a blade.

There are very few "blade" irons around these days. Its a misused term - not that anyone cares anyway.

Rory's  3 iron that was recovered from the lake is the closest thing you'll find to a blade nowadays.

You'll probably find that you can hit the s55, but I promise you that using "players" irons will not improve your swing or make you more consistent or more demanding of yourself.

GI irons help you hit the ball higher and good players want to control their ball flight which isn't always easy when clubs have too much weight at the bottom.

[Mahonie]

The blade v game improvement argument was best described to me through the 'claw hammer' analogy. When hitting a nail into a block of wood with a claw hammer in the normal fashion it is the equivalent to hitting a blade. The sweet spot is quite small but you get the whole mass of the hammer behind the hit and it feels satisfying when you 'nail' it. If you miss you miss completely or bend the nail over. You practice until your grip is right and your swing hits the nail squarely more often than not. Turn the hammer on its side and then try hitting the nail. The sweet spot is now a bit bigger, the misses are less severe and you can get away with a few. It takes longer to hammer the nail home and somehow it is far less satisfying...game improvement.

[mchichioco]

I enjoy the the Mizuno MP 54's kbs 115 gram shaft(steel stiff shaft)

Wonderful irons, much smaller heads than my previous ones, and great feel to them.!

[jswoosh]

Tried the s55 and really enjoyed it, a 7 iron so I suppose that should be easy enough to hit. There's also a second hand set of rocketbladez tour at the range. Have had a bash of the full set on the range and tbh they don't feel any harder to hit than my standard rocketbladez, might have a go at these until I can afford some newer ones