Wider Yardage Gaps in Short Irons Isn't Necessarily a Bad Thing

[billchao]

From time to time, the topic of modern irons and jacked up lofts comes up and a common criticism is that individual irons hitting farther creates wider gaps at the scoring end of the bag. I thought about this a little bit and I realized, as I'm getting better at the game, I almost never hit a full swing on an approach shorter than 150 yards.

I've always liked the partial wedge yardage system and this year I finally mapped mine, but I also find myself using the knockdown or 3/4 swing approach to hitting greens with short irons more and more.

As a result, even though my full swing yardage gaps are wider towards that end of the bag than they would be with "traditional" (I use the quotation marks there because I've been using a set of modern blades which are closer to traditional lofts) irons, I'm not actually losing anything in terms of having options for specific yardages. In fact, I have far more options available to me inside 150 than I do outside of it.

This made me think a bit about the rest of the bag. I like my blades, but they're about half a club shorter than my GI irons and as long as I don't have issues with holding greens, I want those 5-7 extra yards. That can't hurt my game at all. It makes me want to go back to "jacked up" GI irons for my next set.

Yes, irons going farther forces you to carry more wedges, but I like carrying 3 or 4 wedges and I like how it has forced me to learn different shots for different situations. I can understand how some people would be unhappy that their full swing gaps are wider where it counts the most, but I feel that forcing yourself into only full swing options kind of holds you back. Thoughts?

[boogielicious]

2 minutes ago, billchao said:

From time to time, the topic of modern irons and jacked up lofts comes up and a common criticism is that individual irons hitting farther creates wider gaps at the scoring end of the bag. I thought about this a little bit and I realized, as I'm getting better at the game, I almost never hit a full swing on an approach shorter than 150 yards.

I've always liked the partial wedge yardage system and this year I finally mapped mine, but I also find myself using the knockdown or 3/4 swing approach to hitting greens with short irons more and more.

As a result, even though my full swing yardage gaps are wider towards that end of the bag than they would be with "traditional" (I use the quotation marks there because I've been using a set of modern blades which are closer to traditional lofts) irons, I'm not actually losing anything in terms of having options for specific yardages. In fact, I have far more options available to me inside 150 than I do outside of it.

This made me think a bit about the rest of the bag. I like my blades, but they're about half a club shorter than my GI irons and as long as I don't have issues with holding greens, I want those 5-7 extra yards. That can't hurt my game at all. It makes me want to go back to "jacked up" GI irons for my next set.

Yes, irons going farther forces you to carry more wedges, but I like carrying 3 or 4 wedges and I like how it has forced me to learn different shots for different situations. I can understand how some people would be unhappy that their full swing gaps are wider where it counts the most, but I feel that forcing yourself into only full swing options kind of holds you back. Thoughts?

I agree with the partial wedge/short iron approach. But there are times when I need to carry on the green with a full SW or LW. Not often, but once or twice a round. But most often, I can hit partial shots with 8 iron down to LW and get good results. I am currently working on getting them to launch higher too, which helps.

The only caution I would have with the GI irons is, for me, I find them harder to aim. I switched back from the AP1 to an older set of AP2 I played a couple of years ago and I find I am more accurate from left to right than with the AP1. The AP1 have more offset and I have heard that the offset can make the face appear more closed. So for that reason I switch back with good results. I've lost 3 - 5 yards in some cases, but I like the ease of aiming better.

[billchao]

18 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I agree with the partial wedge/short iron approach. But there are times when I need to carry on the green with a full SW or LW. Not often, but once or twice a round.

I'm not saying you can't hit full swing SW or LW (I don't, but that's me). What I mean is if your irons are spread 12-15 yards apart instead of 10-12 and that gets extended down to your wedges, it's not as bad as people think because there are plenty of options there. Being able to hit a full club shorter to 170 or something though, that's a significant advantage.

18 hours ago, boogielicious said:

The only caution I would have with the GI irons is, for me, I find them harder to aim. I switched back from the AP1 to an older set of AP2 I played a couple of years ago and I find I am more accurate from left to right than with the AP1. The AP1 have more offset and I have heard that the offset can make the face appear more closed. So for that reason I switch back with good results. I've lost 3 - 5 yards in some cases, but I like the ease of aiming better.

My biggest problem with GI clubs wasn't aim, it was my tendency to toe draw everything and the extra speed on toe shots just ended up making me miss farther left. It's a pretty standard miss for me so it was a common occurrence.

My blades lose 20 yards when I toe the crap out of the ball and sometimes that's a good thing, but there are other shots that are slight misses where I end up shorter than I would have been with different irons. As with everything there's a tradeoff, and I'm not quite sure for myself where the tipping point is.

[boogielicious]

Just now, billchao said:

I'm not saying you can't hit full swing SW or LW (I don't, but that's me). What I mean is if your irons are spread 12-15 yards apart instead of 10-12 and that gets extended down to your wedges, it's not as bad as people think because there are plenty of options there. Being able to hit a full club shorter to 170 or something though, that's a significant advantage.

My biggest problem with GI clubs wasn't aim, it was my tendency to toe draw everything and the extra speed on toe shots just ended up making me miss farther left. It's a pretty standard miss for me so it was a common occurrence.

My blades lose 20 yards when I toe the crap out of the ball and sometimes that's a good thing, but there are other shots that are slight misses where I end up shorter than I would have been with different irons. As with everything there's a tradeoff, and I'm not quite sure for myself where the tipping point is.

Curious. That was my miss with the AP1. Now with the AP2 and my new alignment, it is a straight push right. I did not think it was a toe hit, but rather an OTT moment.