ERLoft

I'm thinking the same thing. I'll give the M1 irons a few more rounds, but am considering going to P770 irons for the 8 & 9 as well. Would make for a reasonable stepping stone going from pure blade wedges to those to the full cavity back 7i-4i.

Definitely heavier on the wedge swingweight, but not by a huge amount. M1 PW is a D2, 50* SM6 is a D3. I do prefer the heavier feel on the wedges, but there's no good way to increase swingweight on the M1 irons due to the nature of their construction. Shafts in the M1's is the KBS Tour 105 - Stiff flex. Shafts in the wedges is the stock Vokey wedge shaft. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that my set that was stolen was a mixed set of TaylorMade Tour Preferred irons. I used the MB for 8i-PW, the MC for the 7i and the CB for 3i-6i. As such, the feel of moving to a full cavity back design for the short irons is a definite change. I also moved from using Project X 6.0 shafts to the KBS shafts. 5 rounds seems pretty reasonable, although I have a tournament a week from today and would like to feel some confidence in the PW going into that. I'm going to try to hit the range a couple of times this week if I can get enough free time.

While I'm sure this largely comes down to personal preference, I'm wondering how many people have a PW that matches the rest of their wedges rather than one that matches their irons? I got my new clubs last week (insurance assisted replacements for my clubs that were stolen from the garage). I had them semi-fit at a local golf shop, then took them to the range where I again had a second fitting session - this time outdoors. Played rounds with them Saturday and Sunday. Definitely happy with them overall, except possibly the pitching wedge. Essentially my range time and Trackman numbers said I was hitting my 46* M1 PW only 5 yards farther than my 50* SM6 GW. My fitter bent it back to the stock 45*, but it still doesn't seem to have the same zing that the SM6 does, nor does it have the same feel. I'm pretty happy with the M1 9i - averaging about 140-145 with it. Only two on course shots with the M1 PW and they're averaging about 118. My 50* SM6 is averaging just over 110 so far. With these early results, I'm considering getting a SM6 46* wedge to replace the M1 PW. I'm thinking the 46* would be good for about 125-130. So, does anyone else set up their set like this? Any other feedback or thoughts?

Thanks for all the ideas and help! Some of these tips definitely helped. Played two rounds this weekend with my new sticks and while I didn't score spectacularly, I did hit the ball pretty well. 57% driving accuracy Saturday followed by 64% today. GIR wasn't great Saturday, but it was also the very first round with new clubs and I'm still trying to figure yardages a bit better. 61% today though with none of the misses too extreme and really only 3 truly bad shots.

Just wondering if anyone knows some good drills or tips to help shorten up my backswing. I've developed a 'hitch' in my backswing - I'll get back to a decent top point, but keep rotating further than this. If I were keeping my spine angle and shoulders level, this wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily, but that's not the case. My left knee ends up flexing too much and my upper body moves towards the ball to facilitate a bigger turn. With my spine angle and shoulders completely different than at address, it's really hard to get back to the ball with any consistency. I've had some success with trying to maintain the same flex amount in my left knee until the downswing is really underway, but still can struggle at not going too far back. There's a couple of reasons that I can think of that contribute to this - 1) Not as flexible as I used to be, but still trying subconsciously to get that same big turn I had in my 20's and 30's and 2) My rhythm and tempo start to feel really mechanical when I'm working to stop from going too far back. Sadly, even though I consciously know I don't hit the ball any shorter when I stop at the 'proper' top of my swing, I'm still struggling to consistently keep from going back too far. I've got an orange whip and think that I need to be working that in my back yard regularly - maybe that will help. Any other drills or tips would be appreciated!

Buying individual clubs - or at the least, individual clubheads - isn't a bad idea at all. My last set of irons used Tour Preferred CB (Cavity Back) irons for 3-6, then a MC (Muscle Cavity) for the 7 and MB (Muscle Back) for the 8-PW. Sure, all were the same brand and all had the same shafts, were set up for the same swingweight, etc., but were still different clubs because I wanted more forgiveness and higher flight on the long irons, but more control, workability and lower flight on the scoring irons. Quite a few club sets are like this out of the box - my new M1 irons are similar in this respect, as the Speed Pockets are present from 3 through 7, but aren't there in the 8-PW.

I just started to check this out and have to say I'm skeptical about this guy partway through Myth #1. He doesn't take into account dynamic loft, redistributed weight and club forgiveness when he claims that today's 7 iron is the same as a 4 or 5 iron from 30-50 years ago. Today's game improvement 7 irons certain do go farther - on a par with two clubs more from a couple of decades back, sure. However, the flight apex, decent angle and spin rate of today's 7 iron is vastly different than the 5 iron from that era. Given the author's obvious knowledge of the game and it's equipment, neglecting to mention those indicates a willful bias on his part to me. That being said, he's spot on for Myth #2... except that he fails to mention how much driver spin affects carry and distance, which again is a major factor overall. I'm going to read through the whole thing, but I'm definitely bringing along a lot of grains of salt for the read.

I'm picking up my new clubs today and they're going to be about 2* stronger than my last clubs. I'd agree with previous posters that this is a result of improved weight distribution in game improvement clubs to increase launch angle on lower lofts. However, not everything has gone this way. In particular, I think that drivers have more loft than 20 years ago. I know I had a Titleist driver at about 7* of loft back in the mid 90's. Now I have an M1 with a 10.5 head and generally will have a little more loft added to it through adjustments. I still have a TaylorMade Tour Preferred CB 3i that wasn't in my bag when it was stolen. I also still have an old DCI 962 2i. If I'm playing somewhere pretty windy, I'll bring one or both of these in place of a hybrid to help keep the ball down. On calmer days, I buck the hybrid trend and carry a 1, 3 & 5w, then 3i through PW with a GW, SW, LW. Generally my buddies and I play from the white tees - we're not masochists - so I'd much rather have 4 wedges to allow for more full swing scoring club approach shots.

Some pretty cool stuff there. Thanks much for the links!

I gave up on hitting the K-Sig lottery and ordered 6 dozen of the MTB's last Friday. I figure that should keep me stocked up for a year or more... Just received my shipping notification that they'll arrive Friday - in time for a round or two this weekend. I'm excited to try them out, although since everything in the bag will be new (posted elsewhere about this), it's going to be hard to isolate changes to one item or another...

Anyone know where Snell ships from? Just wondering when I might expect mine to arrive...

Were you hitting off mats? I get that kind of thing all the time on my irons if I'm off mats at the range...

Good read - been meaning to try these balls out and with the Kirkland Signature Ball such an unreliable unicorn in the availability department, I think now is the time.

I've been a big fan of Star Grips since they were GripTec back in the mid 90's. Great feel and amazing longevity. Pretty much no shops in my area carry them, so they used to be a special order item, but I'm pleased to have found recently that you can buy them directly on the website now. I'd highly recommend them.