Blades and the search for "game improvement"

[farmer]

Blade is a single hunk of metal with NO perimeter weighting of any kind. ;)

This is an accurate description, but modern blades have moved the cog further toward the toe, which makes them more forgiving than retro blades. I owned a classic set of Hogan's back in the early 70's, and you had to flirt with a shank to hit them really solid. Modern blades are a different animal.

[chisag]

Still hitting the 790s?

 

... I am. I have never owned irons I have enjoyed playing more than these 790's, especially the 6-4 irons. I find them more accurate than hybrids and almost as long. Just a joy to hit.

[anth]

... We obviously associate with a different class of golfers. You must play with friends and in tournaments. While I won't say it has been many times, I have certainly seen players using vanity MB's, that have no business hitting them from a performance perspective. I am in Phoenix for the winter and play almost everyday as a single. Played with a guy two weeks ago using MB's that shot near 100 as best I could tell and maybe hit 5 solid shots all day. Might have hit 3 iron off the tee 4 times and none of them found the fairway. I have also seen newish used MB's in the PGA SS with ball wear almost completely off the grooves and a pristine center. And when I taught full time I had probably around 10 students in 5 years playing MB's that could not hit them well enough to play them. Sure, I had some using them well and 1 student in particular that hit them poorly but hit GI's even worse so we kept him in them. Lots of different players out there.

 

Ya know, man...to be fair...I don't think anybody, anywhere is advocating that a 30-handicap hacker use blades. What you describe is a figure that doesn't seem worth commenting on IMHO.

 

We shouldn't let the conversation plummet to those depths. Instead, I think we take it on good faith that we're discussing competent players who practice and who might actually benefit by some, small fraction in their scoring.

 

... I had 205 to a front pin on 18 yesterday with water left of the green, fairway sloping into it. There are mounds down the right side so the play was land about 5-10 yds short of the green and let the mounds hopefully take the ball on the green. My 4 iron left me a 10 footer and I would have hit that same shot with the smallest MB. But earlier in the round I had 185 with water right and came out of a 5 iron, hitting it low and toey. A MB would have found the water as the face would have definitely turned with that kind of toe hit, but my 790 5 iron lost a little trajectory and distance while pretty much keeping it's line and finding the bunker instead of the water. Out of the bunker I could stop it near the hole and saved par. Dropping where I would have entered the water meant I would have a 20yd shot over a bunker to a very firm desert green and would have been looking at a 5 or 6. I usually have a few of those type shots a round and that's why I play cb's.

 

I've always said that the longer your shots, the more forgiveness becomes a factor. Last year I carried MB long irons because I only ever hit them off the tee and I enjoyed having the consistency of feel and weight. I actually implemented my 3-iron really well as a kind of fairway finder on shorter holes.

 

At the same time, who's facing shots where they have to carry their longest irons over hazards on the regular? Maybe you are, but where I play I have a couple long Par-3s (where I get to tee it up). On one I typically use 5-iron (if the tees are way back). On the other, I am forced to use an 18-20⁰ club of some sort as the hole is often 210-ish carry. It's a very challenging Par-3 indeed given there is a creek guarding the front and right sides of the green.

 

But after that, those long irons are mostly fairway finders and lay-up clubs. All the Par-5s are long enough to demand not only a powerful drive but a fairway metal or hybrid in.

 

So unless we're talking about regular-length players playing Tour-style Par-4s that are 430 or more yards I don't really see how 3-iron and 4-irons are dictating score. On the contrary, players need to worry about the mid- and short-irons more than anything else (assuming they can drive it reasonably).

 

And again, with adequate practice, Joe Schmo can learn to hit whatever 7-iron he wants.

 

Excellent post.