Do new irons have too much distance?

[SavvySwede 354]

10 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

Yes the distance irons have had their lofts decrease. But as low and to the rear as the CG is, and how hot the faces have gotten it has been a necessary evil... if the new SGI irons had a 47° PW and a 31° 6i, they would be unusable.

SGI Irons do come in 31* and 47* they're just labelled differently. Manufacturer's decided to label based on trajectory instead of distance.

[onthehunt526 254]

14 minutes ago, SavvySwede said:

SGI Irons do come in 31* and 47* they're just labelled differently. Manufacturer's decided to label based on trajectory instead of distance.

31° a 7 iron 47° is a GW in a couple models.

The loft isn't the only factor though, yes they are longer than they were even 10 years ago. Does it matter???... Not Really.

[SavvySwede 354]

20 minutes ago, onthehunt526 said:

31° a 7 iron 47° is a GW in a couple models.

The loft isn't the only factor though, yes they are longer than they were even 10 years ago. Does it matter???... Not Really.

I was just addressing the fact you said they would be "unusable".

[ppine 18]

So now pro golfers are hitting an 8 iron 185 yards or more.  That club used to have more loft than today's PW.

Tour players take the new de-lofted irons and then have a club guru flatten them some more.

Do they try to impress each other with how far they can hit their irons?  The whole thing has gotten out of hand.  Now the move is from 3 or 4 wedges to 5. That means something else needs to be left out of the bag and the other clubs have to get tweaked to cover the gap.

The world was a lot simpler when people carried a couple of woods, irons 2-9, a PW and a SW.  The new forged Hogan irons have the right idea, they show the loft on the sole of the club in degrees and nothing else.

Edited April 28, 2016 by ppine

[Jeremie Boop 343]

46 minutes ago, ppine said:

So now pro golfers are hitting an 8 iron 185 yards or more.  That club used to have more loft than today's PW.

Tour players take the new de-lofted irons and then have a club guru flatten them some more.

Do they try to impress each other with how far they can hit their irons?  The whole thing has gotten out of hand.  Now the move is from 3 or 4 wedges to 5. That means something else needs to be left out of the bag and the other clubs have to get tweaked to cover the gap.

The world was a lot simpler when people carried a couple of woods, irons 2-9, a PW and a SW.  The new forged Hogan irons have the right idea, they show the loft on the sole of the club in degrees and nothing else.

I think you are overestimating how strong the loft on pro's irons are. They are much closer to the traditional lofts than what we play. Now, that's not to say they are the same loft as what were used back in the 70s-80s, but they are still pretty weak compared to what the average amateur uses.

[70sSanO 121]

I'm not sure about current irons having too much distance.  I agree that in the 70's and 80's a 3 iron was around 23*/24* and today that can be a 4i to 5i and with the M2 being 25* even that is close.  It is all relative and gaps can be adjusted, especially with high lofted wedges.

What I do find amazing is all those golfers who played so many rounds back then without ever using a hybrid.  Think about that one for a while.  No whining about not being able to hit a 23* or 25* long iron.  Even I never thought twice about hitting a 3i and I was never a great striker.

In all fairness, I have since joined the ranks of the sniveling wimpy golfers in that I use a 22* 7W, but I still marvel at how the previous generation just went about their business playing the game.

John

Edited April 28, 2016 by 70sSanO