The continued strengthening of lofts is something that bothers me with most newer iron models. I don’t think this will help many golfers. In order to produce higher ball flight and lower spin, hybrid technology was introduced into the irons. This includes thinner faces, tungsten inserts, and polymer material. Is that really what you want?
This technology has made the lower lofts easier to master and given confidence to many golfers with their 5-, 6-, and maybe 5-irons. Are higher launch and lower spin desirable for shorter irons? I have always believed that clubs with 35 degrees or more should be designed to provide precision distance control. Full swings, which are when you “take something off”, are when you do this. I don’t see how a hollow, low-CG design can achieve that.
Worse, modern game improvement sets often have lofts as low as 42-43° loft. Iron brands encourage you to get an “A-club”, to fill in the gap between your gap wedge and the loft.
As you consider these new iron technologies, there’s one thing to remember. . . Think about it.
You have 13 clubs to use when you play golf. You have a driver with 10-12 degrees loft and a wedge with 58-60 degrees loft. This gives you a spread of 46-50 degrees. The middle point of this spread is around 35 degrees. This iron bag, which probably has an 8 on the bottom, may have a “8” at the bottom.
Consider this: From the 35-degree 8 iron down, you have a succession of clubhead designs. These range from the iron design to hybrids to fairway woods and your driver. You might even consider a “driving Iron” design to bridge your low set-match irons to your hybrids. There are at least four to five completely different clubhead designs.
In the opposite direction, 35 degrees from the highest lofted wedge, there are only two options – your set match irons or your wedges. They all look almost identical, regardless of loft. It is certain that nobody in golf history has ever said this:
“I love my 6-iron. Can you make me a 3-wood with the same look?”
Do you know that the loft difference between your 6-iron iron and your 3-wood is only 12-14 degree, and even less than between your 6-iron or “P-club”. If you can’t optimize iron designs to perform at 28 and 15, how can you expect one design to perform at 28 and 43 degrees?
You won’t be able to perform at your best if you apply 6-iron technology to an “A club” of 48-50 degrees.
This is why there are so many “blended” sets of irons in bags. A golfer may have a high-tech iron design at the lower lofts and a traditional or “near blade design at the higher lofts. This is much better than playing pure blade long irons in the higher lofts.
My column posts tend to address a specific problem in your game. But this one is not. So long as everyone in the industry still believes that all irons are the same, it’s hard to see how anyone can get the best set of golf irons. It takes a lot of trial and error to find the right set for you.
You can see the way an elite player did this for his game by reading “What’s in the Bag” for Bernhard Langer. It’s very interesting.
