Today's golf-clubs and 'forgiveness'.

[RichF]

Seems to be the 'buzzword' nowadays todescribe of the feel of golf ball on the face of a club (even though it's not struck in the centre of the clubface) and every club-maker appears to be investing in it. It looks like fewer and fewer manufacturers are including 3-iron and even 4-irons in their sets - the traditional forged 'blade' clubs with small heads and longer shafts that are difficult to hit consistently well for most golfers.
Callaway, have recently exhibited their FTi-Brid irons with the longer irons replaced by the 3i, 4i and 5i utility-style clubs with large heads, tunite weighting in the club sole and a black TPU SenSert in the back of the head to help get the ball airborne quickly and deliver that solid strike we all desire. Their new FT irons with a new head shape and thinner top line are also set to extend the boundaries of forgiveness and already former US Open winner Michael Campbell is using them.
The downside? $1800 (£950) for a steel set.

My query to the folks here on The SandTrap forum is how much does 'forgiveness' mean to you in your golf game?
Or are you willing to sacrifice the occasional miss-hit for power and distance over your friends?

[iacas]

My query to the folks here on The SandTrap forum is how much does 'forgiveness' mean to you in your golf game?

All of my equipment has minimal amounts of forgiveness.

Or are you willing to sacrifice the occasional miss-hit for power and distance over your friends?

I care very little about power and distance and I care even less about hitting it past my friends. Golf, for me, is about hitting good shots, scoring well, and improving or learning each time I play.

[shortgame85]

Amen to that!

[RichF]

All of my equipment has minimal amounts of forgiveness.

iacas , can you post what your club-distances are? (if you know them, that is.....I'm not being nosey or anything - just curious!). I know a lot of people post their driving distances, but I'm just curious to see what other folks hit with there irons, wedges, woods, rescues, etc

[iacas]

iacas

I'll politely decline and simply say that, on flat ground, on the same day, I hit my 5-iron both 215 yards (carry) and 110 yards (carry and roll).

We have a lot of posts about distance of various clubs in the forum. Look those threads up - don't derail your own thread about forgiveness.

[RichF]

Fair point.
I've been using Mizuno MX-19 s for the last gew months now and my ball striking quality from 5-iron to PW is, IMO, spot-on...that is, I can hit straight and pretty much the same distances with a full, controlled swing off a flat lie every time.
3 and 4-iron tend to be a bit, wayward....shanking out of the heel.
However, I've tried to fade/draw shots with these irons and it's hard. I can't go around a tree with a 5-iron...I have to go over-the-top and bust it with maybe a 7 or 8....

Anyway, I digress.

The more I play, and I play a lot now (I have time on my hands) the more I'm leaning toward getting myself a set of muscle-back clubs.
Even when I do have a bad day with my CB irons and start spraying the ball everywhere, I don't let it get me down, ever or destroy my confidence in what I can and can't do with a golf-club.
I immediately ignore the fact that in one hole, some poor shots have ruined my scorecard.

Maybe I'm a traditionalist, maybe I'm elitist....but I'm the same with tennis: I play an old 80s/90s Wilson Prostaff Original (arguably the greatest racquet in the sport's history) and I play fine with it - I can keep up with these topspin-bangers who use 100" sq frames.

[Shindig]

My query to the folks here on The SandTrap forum is how much does 'forgiveness' mean to you in your golf game?

Forgiveness meant everything to me when I got started and had trouble breaking 150. Now I'm shooting in the 90s. When I get to the 80s, I'll get a club set with less forgiveness. As I get better, I'll go for less and less forgiveness. That's not to say I'll necessarily end up with blades at any point, but I see as a general rule that better players have less and less forgiving equipment.

For example:

All of my equipment has minimal amounts of forgiveness.

[nyjets2806]

forgiveness isnt as important to me as feel and with the blade irons you get a much better feel and also have the ability to work the ball alot more. those are much more important than forgiveness to me. as far as distance goes, i think its important (hitting an 8 iron in close is easier than hitting a 6 iron) so wasting it for extra forgiveness also isnt worth it in my opinion.

[Bridgestone91]

Fair point.

I am in the same situation as you, I'm an 18 handicap give or take. I also play clubs that have large cavities and am looking to move into a smaller cavity or even a muscle. Right now I am looking at the mizuno mp-57's. But before I get a whole set of irons, I am going to pick up a demo from my golf shop and play with that for a few weeks/months to see if I can handle the playablilty of it on a day to day basis. Like others have said, I am not worried about distance, but towards placement and feel.

I also play tennis and like you I don't like the feel of larger racquets. I started on my moms OS for about a week and then moved to a MP right away. I'm the same way with golf. I want a club that makes me feel satisfied and lets me know when I have hit a good shot. Instead of mishitting it, yet it still goes towards the green. I feel like I didn't deserve the distance the ball traveled. Even if I have a harder time with a more "demanding" club, I will get more satisfaction out of each well played shot.

[Weltall]

Well right now, forgiveness is the most important, since I'm still a high handicapper but I can see myself going for the less forgiving ones with the irons, since being able to direct the shot is the most important with them, rather than just keeping them straight. However, with the driver, I feel that forgiveness is still the most important factor, if long as you can shoot it at a reasonable distance.

[fastfed]

My dad plays with Wilsons, he got them at walmart for like 150 bucks, lol it even came with tee's.

They are extremely!! Forgiving clubs to hit..

But hey, they don't cost 1k so they must be junk right? :)

[kfowler]

I purchased new clubs this summer and went through this with "forgiveness". I wanted clubs that were pretty forgiving but would allow me to grow into as I improved. I've always been told that the more forgiving a club is, the less you can manipulate your shot. At this point I could care less about hitting a certain type of shot. I just want to hit it fairly straight and make consistently good contact.

So while getting fitted for clubs, I narrowed it down to the Nike Slingshots and the Cleveland CG Golds. The Nikes seemed to be the most forgiving and the easiest club to hit. I hit the Clevelands just about as well. The fitter told me that if I liked the Clevelands, they would last me longer than the Nikes since their shape is closer to a traditional blade vs. the Nikes. I've been playing with the Clevelands all summer and couldn't be happier. BTW, I bought 5-gap wedge. I use hybrids for 3 and 4.

The way I look at it, you wouldn't give a teenager a Ferrari. A Corolla will be a lot easier for him to control.

[Leek]

I find forgiveness over-rated. For me, about all clubheads seem to have about the same amount of forgiveness, save 1 and 2 irons, which I don't carry. I think if you make bad impact, the club can't save you.