To soft step or not?

[The Wrong Fairway]

Hi. I'm looking for some advice. I have played a set of mizuno mp 52s for the last year fitted with DG SL r300 shafts. Over the last 5 or 6 rounds I have noticed that my normal high ball flight has now started to land with moon dust on my ball it's going that high and I'm losing nearly a clubs distance. The main prob is I'm hitting the ball better than ever. I'm not a long hitter, my 7 iron is 140 yards with a good strike. My last round I was constantly coming up at least a club short.getting really frustrated playing well but constantly leaving myself 20 foot putts for birdie/par. I've decided to try reshaft have my irons with DG s300 shafts in an attempt to try and bring down the ball flight a bit. I've hit stiff flex before and not noticed any loss in distance and accuracy. As I only play 5-pw and the set of s300 shafts I've bought are 4-pw im wondering whether it might be an idea to soft step them. I'm asking because I'm always reading it's best to play the softest flex possible. Does soft stepping make much of a difference? Would it make them a firm flex?  Any advice/experience appreciated.

[MarvChamp]

My experience is that when I soft stepped. my regular iron shafts, they were 1/3 softer. That is, regular minus, not firmer. -Marv

 so the answer is that a one soft step is 1/3 softer.

Edited May 29, 2017 by MarvChamp
To finish what I was saying.

[The Wrong Fairway]

Ok thanks. I feel like I am stuck right between reg and stiff. Hard to tell though as the last time I hit stiff flex in my irons my ball striking wasn't as good or as consistent. I play stiff flex in my driver, 3 wood and hybrids but that's mainly for consistency. I've always had a high ball flight since I started playing golf but lately it's become ridiculously high. Do you guys think moving over to stiff flex would help with lowering the ball flight.

[Hatchman]

Hello.  I've tried several combinations and have the shafts now stored in the garage.  With my swing characteristics, as flawed as they may be, it was best to go to a fitter who had various shafts to try.   Now working on the swing with an instructor since I was always a low ball hitter, no matter what shaft was installed.  FWIW.     

[The Wrong Fairway]

I've always been the opposite. I've always hit the ball high but never like this. I've worked on my swing a lot recently and I'm reaping the rewards with my driver, 3 wood and hybrids. I'm hitting them better and further than ever but my iron play even though I feel I'm striking the ball better than I ever have are launching soooo high and going nowhere. An example is I played a round on Sunday, par 3 which was 133 yards to the middle of the green (according to the hole 19 app I have been using) and into the slightest bit of wind. I took my 7 iron and hit it really well. It launched into the air but I couldn't see it down as there was a mound in the way which means you can't see most of the green. When I got up there I discovered my ball on the fringe at the front of the green. 127 yards from a 7 iron that I consistently used to hit 140. I'll try to have a look around to find somewhere that does a fitting but for a city with so many courses around I'm really struggling to find somewhere that does it. Does anyone know how much a fitting normally costs in the UK. I can do the work myself so would only have to pay to find out what shaft would be best for me.

[WUTiger]

About the shafts...

• DG S300 weighs 127 grams
• DG SL R300 weighs 104 grams
• The DG S300 will be quite a bit heavier that the SL R300.

Also, the DG S300 is very slightly softer in comparative flex than the KBS Tour Stiff, and more than a half flex softer than the Project X 6.0. So despite being a low launch shaft, the DG is not the harshest in feel.

As you suspected, this is a case where you would do best if you could get a fitting. I looked online and found six clubfitters in Nottinghamshire. You might call around and see if one could help you.

Also... see if you can find a demonstrator 6i or 7i that matches your iron set. You could test out different shafts in the demonstrator, and do a side-by-side with the demonstrator and your corresponding R300-shafted iron.

[Release]

Which shaft was the one which you hit "normal" distance ?

One other thing, Were you using the same set of iron with different shaft for distance comparison.

I had done soft stepping and hard stepping with different set of irons in the past and the result is more with ball flight and shot pattern, never was much different in distance change.

 

I'm thinking, if you were comparing different set of iron heads, check the loft numbers first., there moght be discrepancy between the sets.   If you had never used the TTDG S300 in the past, it's an old school steel shaft which is quite a bit heavier than the modern day light weight shaft.  It also produced higher ball flight for my golf swing.

You could, just reshaft one iron to see if you like the result before change the shafts for the whole set of irons.  7 irons was mentioned in your post which you "know the distance ", so why not reshaft the 7 iron without soft stepping and see if you like the result, then soft step it if you need to do that.    I won't even waste a ferrule for testing the steel shaft.

 

[The Wrong Fairway]

Thanks for the replies. The loss of distance I spoke about is with the same clubs and shafts. When I first got the mp 52s I hit them the same distance I've always hit  a my irons. I've always hit the same distance regardless of flex it's just as I've been swinging better these irons are going higher and shorter than ever. I have just ordered a 6 iron with stiff flex so I think it will be a few weeks of testing the two 6 irons at the range and on the course to see if there is a difference. I have read a few people saying that the mp 52 irons I use are quite high launching. I also have an old set of t zoid irons with stiff shafts in them so may test that 6 iron along side the other 2 to see if a more muscle back iron might help lower ball flight as well. 

[Apoc81]

On 5/30/2017 at 1:11 PM, The Wrong Fairway said:

I've always been the opposite. I've always hit the ball high but never like this. I've worked on my swing a lot recently and I'm reaping the rewards with my driver, 3 wood and hybrids. I'm hitting them better and further than ever but my iron play even though I feel I'm striking the ball better than I ever have are launching soooo high and going nowhere. An example is I played a round on Sunday, par 3 which was 133 yards to the middle of the green (according to the hole 19 app I have been using) and into the slightest bit of wind. I took my 7 iron and hit it really well. It launched into the air but I couldn't see it down as there was a mound in the way which means you can't see most of the green. When I got up there I discovered my ball on the fringe at the front of the green. 127 yards from a 7 iron that I consistently used to hit 140. I'll try to have a look around to find somewhere that does a fitting but for a city with so many courses around I'm really struggling to find somewhere that does it. Does anyone know how much a fitting normally costs in the UK. I can do the work myself so would only have to pay to find out what shaft would be best for me.

so9unds like you are scooping the ball up instead of hitting down on it, imo. 

 

Go to a fitter though, anything else is a waste of time and money. 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Apoc81

[The Wrong Fairway]

Hi, thought I would give a little update. As I said in an earlier post I have got a mp 52 6 iron with an s300 shaft. I took this club and the 6 iron from my set that has the sl r300 shaft. Luckily were I walk my dog is a large field surrounded by woodland ( strangely enough I've always thought it would make a cracking dogleg par 4). I took both clubs with me and 6 golf balls which were 2 titleist dt solo, 2 bridgestone e6 and 2 srixon z star. These are all golf balls I would normally game. I set myself up and hit one of each ball with the reg flex and then repeated this with the stiff flex club.all shots from as close to the same spot and lie as I could get. Honestly the results were astounding. I'm trying not to get carried away and I will be doing a lot more testing between the 2 but the shots I hit with the stiff flex shaft were a good 20 yards longer, if not more than the shots from the reg flex. They were all comparable strikes. I've never known anything like it. Could it be possible I can pick up 2 clubs worth of distance from simply changing shafts? Amazing

Edited June 10, 2017 by The Wrong Fairway

[boogielicious]

15 hours ago, The Wrong Fairway said:

Hi, thought I would give a little update. As I said in an earlier post I have got a mp 52 6 iron with an s300 shaft. I took this club and the 6 iron from my set that has the sl r300 shaft. Luckily were I walk my dog is a large field surrounded by woodland ( strangely enough I've always thought it would make a cracking dogleg par 4). I took both clubs with me and 6 golf balls which were 2 titleist dt solo, 2 bridgestone e6 and 2 srixon z star. These are all golf balls I would normally game. I set myself up and hit one of each ball with the reg flex and then repeated this with the stiff flex club.all shots from as close to the same spot and lie as I could get. Honestly the results were astounding. I'm trying not to get carried away and I will be doing a lot more testing between the 2 but the shots I hit with the stiff flex shaft were a good 20 yards longer, if not more than the shots from the reg flex. They were all comparable strikes. I've never known anything like it. Could it be possible I can pick up 2 clubs worth of distance from simply changing shafts? Amazing

Repeat the test a couple more times to be sure.  It could be possible, but replicate testing is the only way to confirm.

[colin007]

48 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Repeat the test a couple more times to be sure.  It could be possible, but replicate testing is the only way to confirm.

Yeah this. 

From everything he's described it sounds very much like he's scooping.

[billchao]

16 hours ago, The Wrong Fairway said:

I'm trying not to get carried away and I will be doing a lot more testing between the 2 but the shots I hit with the stiff flex shaft were a good 20 yards longer, if not more than the shots from the reg flex. 

How was the flight between the two clubs? Hitting a green is a bit different than just hitting in a field so you want to make sure you are still hitting it high enough and with enough spin to hold a green; distance isn't the only factor to consider. If you are launching the stiff shafts well though, I wouldn't bother soft stepping them at all.

16 hours ago, The Wrong Fairway said:

Could it be possible I can pick up 2 clubs worth of distance from simply changing shafts?

It's only possible if your original shafts don't really fit you well at all. There's a significant difference in the weight of those two shafts so you are definitely going to get some different launch characteristics which will affect your distance.

Your best bet is still with a good fitting. I changed my shafts last year after a fitting and it's definitely not something I could have tested on my own.

[The Wrong Fairway]

The ball height was fairly similar, I would say the stiff flex was slightly lower (hard to tell with the naked eye) but seemed to have a lot more forward motion to it. The shots with the reg flex did their usual. They get to their peak height and just drop out of the sky whereas the stiff flex got to the peak height but carried on a bit more. When I had hit the stiff flex shots, as they got to peak height I was expecting the same as the reg for them to just drop out the sky but they kept going landing approx 20 to 25 yards further. They all went nice and straight (I'm a straight hitter, only fade or draw the ball if needed for the shot) so no probs with dispersion.i was picking a target in the distance as a reference point. With regards to the scooping I was expecting this to be the main problem and had been working a lot at a later release and concentrating on keeping my hands ahead of the ball at impact. Like I said in my earlier post all the shots were comparable.i will be doing more testing to make sure it wasn't a freak occurrence. I'll be out on the course at the weekend so will be taking the stiff flex 6 iron with me to test on the course along side the reg flex. 

Thanks