Iron Fitting

[rbmercer]

should you fit each ind. iron?

just curious...I was fitted 2 deg. up on my mx-23's.....but, the mizzy rep only checked me on the lie board with the 5-iron....should a person hit each club from the lie board to check each club...will the lie vary possibly??...is this why possibly some clubs you hit better than others? please help....

[villa]

Theoretically the 5 iron should be suffice. If you get fitted correctly on that club i.e 2* up with your normal swing, that's how you should be with the rest of the set.

 

If the clubs are built to your specs then you shouldn't really hit any of them better than the others(apart from the obvious equation that short irons should be easier to hit than long irons).

[hmx3]

My irons was fitted by Mizzuno National Fitting center. The lie of PW-3 was the same. But and this is very important

to fit the lie angle of your wedges. Mine are 1° flatter to the other irons.

[HarboursideTC]

Quite a few people really need to be fit all the way thru the set. I play 3 & 4 irons 1 up, 5, 6 and 7 standard and and the rest 1 flat. Because of a back injury, I have adjusted from a 1 plan swing (with these specs) to a 2 plane swing, but find this difference is still present (I start at 2 up).

[mac94]

Should be done for each club. You can't asume that all the clubs are at their stated lie angle for starters. Most all clubs have +-1* tolerance.

 

I play about half my clubs 1* up and the rest as they came.

[Metz1182]

Your irons SHOULD all be at the same lie angle IF you are at least somewhat fundamentally sound. If you find you're missing certain ways with certain irons, check your lie and loft with each club. Due to the geometry of club design 2 up should carry through all your irons. The wedges can or may be different, and should be fitted with the type of swing that you hit most with your wedges, due to the physics of the shaft and head through different speed swings and different loads. I'm rather interested to know what mr. kwok might have to say on the subject. Personally, I'm yet to fit someone differently for different irons in a set.

[hayam]

Should check most clubs if your stroke is consistent. But usually dynamically 2 months later after you had adjusted with the new lie and get used to the motion.

 

but normally checking one is suffice. But if the stroke isn't consistent, just fit based on alignment is good enough.

[abesarmy]

most oem's have +/- 1 deg in all their spec. If you have the time , check them all. It is also a good idea to check bounce on your wedges.. A little electrical tape on the sole can show if yu hace too much or too little bounce. Good luck

[LowPost42]

most oem's have +/- 1 deg in all their spec. If you have the time , check them all. It is also a good idea to check bounce on your wedges.. A little electrical tape on the sole can show if yu hace too much or too little bounce. Good luck

 

Can you please explain how tape on the sole can show me how much bounce I have/need?

 

Or did you mean lie angle?

 

I'm confused...

[xtianagonizomai]

I'm not sure that anyones has fully answered your question...

 

It it NOT necessary to hit every club off the lie board. Once you know what you need on your 5i you know what you need throughout your set. The ONLY difference would be if you have a different swing with one iron over another (which you should not, fundamentally speaking).

 

It is TOTALLY necessary that you spec check every club, do not assume that they're right.

 

So, if you fit for 1° upright don't just bend each club 1° up, make sure they fit the paradigm of the set.

 

The reason that it is not necessary to hit every club in that, as you go through your set each club is 1/2 inch shorter and each lie is (typically) 1/2 degree more upright. As long as the clubs are the right length (1/2 difference between each club) the lie angles will match the paradigm too.

[LowPost42]

I'm not sure that anyones has fully answered your question...

 

It it NOT necessary to hit every club off the lie board. Once you know what you need on your 5i you know what you need throughout your set. The ONLY difference would be if you have a different swing with one iron over another (which you should not, fundamentally speaking).

 

It is TOTALLY necessary that you spec check every club, do not assume that they're right.

 

So, if you fit for 1° upright don't just bend each club 1° up, make sure they fit the paradigm of the set.

 

The reason that it is not necessary to hit every club in that, as you go through your set each club is 1/2 inch shorter and each lie is (typically) 1/2 degree more upright. As long as the clubs are the right length (1/2 difference between each club) the lie angles will match the paradigm too.

 

I largely disagree (and so believe that every club should be hit off the board) - for most of your reasons that support your argument.

 

I dare anybody to take a set of clubs off the rack and find every club perfectly in spec. As stated before, manufacturing tolerances make that highly unlikely. To follow, lie angles do follow some progression, however, none is typical. It's been a while since I've seen a set of specs where each club is to follow a set step for lie - most have some off angle in the progression (eg 59, 60, 61, 61.5, 62, 63 etc), I assume in an effort to get to a 64° PW lie.

 

Now, all that said, if someone wants a set of clubs done, I don't think they should hit test clubs for every length. Hit a test club, determine length and lie for the build club in that set, build and bend the set based on the test club info. From there, every club in the built set should be tweaked. Differences in swingweight/MOI, shaft FLO planes/spines, etc can all influence the way a club is swung. Ergo, each club has to be tested before the client heads out the door. Ideally, the lie board would be left in the closet, as the client hits balls on the range. Ball flight is king.

[bosoxfan]

I'm certainly no expert on this, but I know my guy usually has me hit a shorter iron and then a mid to long iron. They have always come out the same, but I would assume that if there was a difference he would have me hit some of the other irons to get it right.

 

I also remember reading that some pros have their clubs adjusted differently between the short and longer irons, Scott Hoch for one I believe, so it while it may be a bit unusual, it is worth checking more than one imo.

KH

[xtianagonizomai]

I largely disagree (and so believe that every club should be hit off the board) - for most of your reasons that support your argument.

 

 

I guess I neglected to say that Lie Angle tests should be done with YOUR OWN ACTUAL golf clubs clubs, not test clubs. They should be set for length, your length, before doing the lie test. In most cases I don't even check lie angle until I've already built the clubs.

 

However, once you know what you need on one, you know what you need on every club in that set. It doesn't matter if their 6i is 59, or 61; it's a system, a pattern, or a paradigm. You'll need the same amount of change on every club.

 

The only time you'll see the lie board give different results is when:

 

1. The clubs are out of spec, which is the builders fault because he/she should have set them on the right paradigm for the golfer.

1. Your swing is different with certain clubs in your iron set

2. You're trying to manipulate your clubs to make you hit the ball straight (i.e. you fade or slice your long irons so you bend them more upright to let the ground help you close the club)

[villa]

I know for a fact (and maybe someone like dansrixon can speak up on this) that Henrik Stenson's Srixon irons were built purely around his 5 iron. After they got the right length, loft, lie, shaft and flex, he hit shot after shot at their Japanese test range and after each shot they ground a little bounce off the sole to ensure he got the perfect divot. The rest of the set were built around the specifications of this one club.

 

I agree that you should have every club properly checked that it's the right lie angle in the first place due to manufacturers tolerances and their individual take on standard lies but there's no need to hit every club off a board. The lie of your irons should be set to your perfect and most consistent swing. It shouldn't be altered to accomodate what must be a swing fault with individual irons.

[jcosjrgolf]

I check all my irons and wedges through dynamic testing (lie board) and ball flight observation. It is my opinion that checking one iron and applying this across the iron set is wrong.

[rbmercer]

thanks guys...I did have my mx-23's checked to mizunos lie specs and then bent to 2 degrees upright which I was fitted with the 5-iron....so I should be OK

[joey3108]

Dynamic lie fitting is the only way to do this of course.

 

In most cases, Lie angle should progressively more up right toward the longer iron due to softer flex thus it will have more toe droop that will bend the shaft more during loading on the down swing. Providing the club spec build consistently ( Blueprinted basically ).

 

Most cases, OEM long iron are way to up right IMO. It's good for 20-30 handicaper to help them not to slice to far but not for a consistent pro level/ low handicap players's swing.

 

If your swing and striking ability is pretty consistent and the club build also consistent, the lie angle should be within 1/2* from the spot base on how i bent the club ( not every body is the same base ).

 

To me standard lie is start from PW at 63.5* and progressively end up 58* on 3 iron if I build for a PRO, a little more up right for higher handicaper per special request.

 

Joe

[dmgcal]

The way I do my set is this. First, I measure the length of the shafts and compare them to the manufacturers specifications. This is important because this is what determines the correct lie second from one's individual swing. Now I noticed that many iron sets have a different specification not only from brand to brand, but also from model to model from the same manufacturer. Never use a standard, for example, the Ping standard loft and lie's. All irons are different and I highly recommend to call the manufacturer for the particular iron specifications.

Usually, one or two irons are off by a quarter of an inch and I cut accordingly. Then, I check the lofts and lies to see if they also match the manufacturers specifications. Again, those are usually off by a degree or two and I adjust accordingly. Afterwards, I then hit all the clubs with marking tape on the sole. I feel because I'm hitting all the clubs, I should be able to see a progression of a correct lie to adjust to, because I have a given progression of length of all the clubs from the manufacturer. Then, after I adjust all the clubs, I again check the markings on the tape for a second time and from there, you could make a judgement to see if the long irons or any of the other irons need to be tweek even more or make a judgement if a mark was caused by a swing flaw, therefore, should be ignored.

I don't believe with some repair guys to hit all the clubs and randomly tweek each club to adjust from the resulting mark on the sole. I believe that the manufacturer placed a lot of thought and energy to designing an iron set to a particular specification and that shouldn't be ignored, but used as a guide when customizing a set.

 

PS

 

Anybody have any suggestion on how to minimize the knicks or markings from a loft and lie machine when bending. I have a Golfsmith Professional Loft and Lie machine and I noticed a consistent mark on the sole towards the toe and also on the hozel from the bending bar. I was thinking about putting lead tape on the soling brass pieces and beveling the bending bar with my Dremel tool.

[es1]

avoid marks on the hosel by using a soft copper sleeve. the rest is down to a three dimensional matrix that will void the "coupling effect". the first consideration is always flight. using flex to control lead lag or vertical deviation is kind of pointless when you could start by PUREing the shafts once selected for flight alone." electrical "tape is a good call to check lie and bounce. as i have cutting facilities i have never tried it . theoretically the methodology described will certainly highlight contact points, on the sole, accordingly. as for manufacturers taking time and effort, that is rare to say the least. if you will not PURE them there is nothing wrong with one club at a time lie adjustment. spending time doing it will not be wasted. without the correct tools for analysis you would be assuming that the vertical deviation or droop ,was consistent throughout your set. TT did a test on 100,000 pieces and found the variance to be as much as 2" in spread. the differnce between an ascending top and an out and out top.

[mcburbn]

We take a little from most of the posts.

 

when building a new set of clubs fitting lie angle is used with the 5 iron. The remaining lie angles are built into the set for a progression. I. E. 62, 62.5, 63 degrees as the set gets shorter.

 

secondly, when a golfer bring a set to me we check each club. because as stated before the tolerance for the lie angle can be such that 2 degrees may be on one club and .5 degrees on another club.

 

However, I also beleive that once the 5 iron lie angle is obtained the remaining set could be bent into the same progression as when building a new set. I just like the individual testing.