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Biggest Benefit to New Irons, Forgiveness or Distance?


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You won’t get more distance unless the lofts are jacked up. Hitting a 5 iron with a 7 on it.

 

Clubs aren’t any more forgiving now than they were 20 years ago.

 

The big advantage would be getting clubs with the right shaft and lie angle for you. If you don’t already have that.

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I tend to agree with BrianMcG on this. The only things that have "significantly" changed is the shafts. There might be some casting differences of material changes to the iron, but if you put a crappy swing on a new iron and the same swing on a 20 year old iron, you'll get the same results. Again the shaft and construction of the club might help somewhat but don't look for any big changes.

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You won't get more distance unless the lofts are jacked up. Hitting a 5 iron with a 7 on it.

 

Clubs aren't any more forgiving now than they were 20 years ago.

 

The big advantage would be getting clubs with the right shaft and lie angle for you. If you don't already have that.

 

 

This is an excellent answer. I'd rather have consistent 12-15 yard gaps throughout the set than brag to by buddies about the 195 yard 7-iron that I hit.

 

 

I'm working on gapping the following for my irons

 

80 - LW

92- SW

104 - GW

116 - PW

128 - 9i

140 - 8i

152 - 7i

164 - 6i

176 - 5i

188 - 4i

200 - 3i

220 - 4w 17*

250 - D

 

Obviously, in a perfect world this would be a no-brainer for me, and my yardages vary a few yards plus or minus. One giant problem (a good one actually) is that I've been really working on loose hands, wrists, shoulders and hips. I've been incorporating these with a huge effort at holding lag as long as possible. The problem is that I've been launching my irons a full club longer with less effort and more clubhead speed. I'm going to have to keep working on this and revisit my distance and gapping. I may end up canning my 3i and picking up a 4-hybrid. Without changing my lofts (36* 7 and 48* PW) I'm slowly getting jacked-loft distance without having to de-loft them. Another added bonus is that I've saved potentially tons of money by not necessarily needing to go out and pick up new clubs. That being said, I'm becoming a ho, so no doubt my wallet will eventually be drained anyway.

 

The best way, in my humble opinion, to approach this is to really take stock in how many 180 or 190 yard shots you actually take vs. how many shots from 140 and under.

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They say these new irons are more forgiving but JP really does not believe that very much.

You still have to put a sound swing on the most forgiving iron ever made if it’s going to work for you.

He feels improved distance is something to consider but as noted, you are now venturing into jacked irons

Which have their plus and minuses. If he was having distance issues, he’d consider some of these new irons.

 

Personally, he’d like to get a Mizuno mmc flihi 2 iron as it is meant to be bombed in an open ended sort of way.

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Shininess is the benefit.

 

If you need a lot of forgiveness, the Ping Rapture irons came out how long ago?

 

 

The biggest change & benefit over the years has been the much wider range of shafts available, so find the shafts that suit you best and stick to them.

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I don’t know if the overall forgiveness is any better but what I can say is a player of my ability (not great) is able to play a smaller, better looking iron now and get the same level of forgiveness I used to get out of SGI irons. So for that reason I’d say forgiveness. I don’t hit my irons any further than I did 10 years ago but I sure enjoy being able to play something I enjoy looking at and not be penalized so harshly on mishits.

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Looking for opnions from the knowledge base here. Would you say the biggest benefit to new irons is increased distance or forgiveness and accuracy. I dont see real big gains in distance when demoing new irons personally, so I am starting to believe that its more about the forgiveness factor. Thoughts?

 

 

Ability for manufactures to increase distance was tapped out long ago. Confidence is all there is to gain.

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It's not about forgiveness on terrible swings. No club will cure a dead shank or cold top. Forgiveness is about that 3/8" miss performing like a 1/16" miss. Newer clubs are better at that in general - imo.

Ping G400 @ 10.5° (Ping Tour 65S)

Ping G400 5 wood @ 16.5° (Ping Alta CB 65S)

Ping G410 7 wood @ 20° (Ping Tour 75X)

Titleist 818H2 @ 22° (PX 6.0)

Ping i210 PowerSpec 5-U (DG S300)

Titleist SM7 54° F / 60° K (DG S200)

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I was thinking about this same topic recently. I have Rogue Pros which I really like but want to play around with another set. I have my old Bridgestone J36 CB's and was wondering if it would be worth re-shafting them or going to something like a Srixon Z765 which I really like. Or maybe a 716 AP2. I would think the newer sets are more forgiving, better weighting, tungsten, etc.

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I guess it depends on your handicap and what you're currently playing. Like everyone said, a bad swing on 2018 super game improvement irons are gonna give you a bad result just like it would on 2010 blades. For me though, I have been playing blades and took a long break from the game, so I've been struggling to hit them (maybe also because they aren't fitted to my new rusty swing). I have found in hitting some GI irons, it was easier to hit. Definitely getting fitted with the correct shaft is the biggest.

 

Also, confidence is huge. If you feel like a club is going to make you play better, it probably will. Find a club that you like the way it looks at address and the ball flight it produces. I hit one Apex CF 16 7 iron and it went about 10 yards higher than my current blades. I have been searching on ebay and the classifieds ever since!!!

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I am interested in the Rogue Pros. I have a fitting for them Monday morning. What is it about them you like... And what if anything do you not like? Thanks.

 

I assume this was to me...

 

Biggest plus is forgiveness in a small package. I have no problem looking at these at address, they are not much like a game improvement from the topline but I cannot remember a harsh hit at all over a few months play. The ball just seems to fly and I know I'm not hitting dead center every swing. My biggest problem was at first figuring out the gapping to my wedges but I seem to have figured that out now. And I also like to chip with my PW and 9i but that has been an issue because the ball just trampolines off the face, same thing when trying to punch out into the fairway from a blocked shot/in the trees. I've flown it through the fairway to the other rough multiple times.

 

Overall for a compact size with forgiveness I don't think it gets any better.

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It's not about forgiveness on terrible swings. No club will cure a dead shank or cold top. Forgiveness is about that 3/8" miss performing like a 1/16" miss. Newer clubs are better at that in general - imo.

 

 

Mishit forgiveness is largely driven by MOI, resistance to twisting on those off center hits. Surfing through the various clubhead MOI numbers on Maltby's site can be illuminating.

 

Can also show some interesting things, such as how marginal the differences between some clubs truly are.

The Ever Changing Bag!  A lot of mixing and matching
Driver: TM 300 Mini 11.5*, 43.5", Phenom NL 60X -or- Cobra SpeedZone, ProtoPype 80S, 43.5"

Fwy woods: King LTD 3/4, Rogue Black 75X -or- TM Stage 2 Tour 3w, NV105 X -or- TEE E8 Beta 12*, Rogue Silver 70X
Hybrid:  Cobra King Tec 2h, MMT 80 S -or- TEE CBX 17*, HZRDUS 85 6.0

2 iron:  Arias D-23, Modus3 120 S; Mizuno MP-20 HMB, NS Pro 950 R

Irons grab bag:  1-PW Golden Ram TW276, NV105 S; 1-PW Golden Ram TW282, RIP Tour 115 R; 2-PW Golden Ram Vibration Matched, NS Pro 950WF S; testing: Arias D-23 5i w/Modus 120 S
Wedges:  Dynacraft Dual Millled 52*, SteelFiber i125 S -or- Scratch 8620 DD 53*, SteelFiber i125 S; Cobra Snakebite 56* -or- Wilson Staff PMP 58*, Dynamic S -or- Ram TW282 SW -or- Ram TW276 SW
Putter:  Snake Eyes Viper Tour Sv1, 34" -or- Cleveland Huntington Beach #1, 34.5" -or- Golden Ram TW Custom, 34" -or- Rife Bimini, 34" -or- Maxfli TM-2, 35"
Balls: Chrome Soft, Kirkland Signature 3pc (v3), Wilson Triad

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It depends on what you mean by forgiveness. If your swing path is off or your face to path is off, no club is going to help you. If you hit it super thin or super fat, no club is going to help you. But modern game improvement clubs do help when all of that stuff is reasonable and you miss the center of the club face. Their higher MOI keeps the club from twisting so your shot starts more online. The lower and further back CG will help get the ball up even on shots that were slightly thin. The thinner, hotter face will keep a consistent ball speed across the face so that missing the sweet spot doesn't result in a ton of distance loss. If that's what you mean by forgiveness, then modern clubs are more forgiving.

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Distances haven't really changed with irons. But some of the new spring face irons can launch the ball higher with the lower lofted clubs. So now a 3 iron might be more playable for some.

Cobra King LTD Black

Callaway Epic Flash 3w

Callaway Mavrik 5w

Callaway Mavrik Pro 4h

PING iBlade 5-PW
PING Glide 50°
Titleist Vokey 54° s

Ping Glide 58° es

Bettinardi BB1

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One thing I desire in irons is predictability. When I hit X club I want it to carry a certain distance. When I hold a club in my hands and look down on it I like familiarity.

Driver - Cobra LTDx LS - 8*

Woods - Cobra LTDx 14*

Hybrids - Ping G425 19, 22, 26, 30

Irons - Maltby KE4 Max 8-GW

Wedges - Maltby TSW 54, 60

Putter - Scotty Cameron Futura X Armlock

 

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I loved myJohnny Palmers of 50 years ago and my PIng Eye 2's of 30 years ago. But my G700's go farther and are generally more accurate. Maybe my swing is more consistent now but I'm also a lot older and not in better shape (to say the least). The G700s are bigger, have a higher MOI and so are more stable, have a hotter and more consistent face, and though they have different lofts, the G700 shots fly higher and land relatively steeper. They also have graphite shafts.

 

I can still hit bad shots--witness the 155 yard bad hook with an 8 iron that was supposed to go 140 this last Sunday. So I agree with some of the above posters that new irons don't correct all swing flaws. A really bad swing will generally give you a really bad result no matter the club in your hand. But my small misses come out a whole lot better and a lot closer to their intended destination. It's silly to argue that the Ping Eye2s were as forgiving as the G700s are now.

 

As for those who insist there hasn't been much difference in how irons are designed and built over the years, save perhaps for changing lofts, that's also silly. You may love your old irons and play them well, you may not care about the changes in design and build, and certainly not all contemporary irons have been built with features that add value. But I daresay very few golfers of my advanced vintage (66 years old) would choose to play with the irons they used when they were 15 years old, 35 years old, and probably 50 years old.

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