Bending lofts to 2 degrees stronger

[00bolt]

Can someone please discuss the advantages and disadvantages of increasing loft on an iron by 2 degrees?

[g8a_golf]

Lower launch, lower flight (generally) but you lose some bounce and add offset

[dlygrisse]

Lower launch, lower flight (generally) but you lose some bounce and add offset

 

More than likely you will hit the ball a bit farther as well, potentially close to 1/2 a club. Unless of course it's a long iron and you have a hard time elevating it in the first place.

 

Generally bending lofts on irons unless you are tweaking them to even out a gap. You will see it often when a pro, for example, will eliminate his 4 iron from the set and they may strengthen their 5 iron a degree or two and weaken their 3 iron a degree or two to even out the gaps. This happens probably most frequently with wedges, when a person wants to play 3 instead of 4 wedges for example.

 

The main reason it is done on GolfWRX is so people can brag how far they hit their irons, generally with a passive brag. "so, any advice, I keep air mailing greens with my PW from 140, this is really hurting my score. I bent them 4 degrees strong to keep my flight down as I hit moon balls with my X700 shafts hardstepped X3 "

[Dpavs]

OP, which is it you are asking about.. making a club 2* stronger or increasing loft? The two things are diametrically opposed in meaning of course.

 

When you make the club loft stronger you decrease loft, when you make it weaker you increase the loft.

 

Generally though as you decrease theloft of a club by one degree, you reduce its bounce a degree at the same time and if you increase the loft by one degree you increase the bounce by a degree. Lower lofts will travel a bit farther and a bit lower, higher lofts will travel a bit less and fly a bit higher.

[00bolt]

sorry, didnt mean increase loft. I meant decrease loft and make stronger. i realize the distance and ball flight. But i am talking more along the lines of the bounce, leading edge, etc. I have read that it can create "diggers"... is this true? is 2 degrees enough to mess up a club?

[Nessism]

Bending strong 2* decreases bounce by 2* and increases offset by about .75mm.

 

Low bounce irons can become more digging prone from this change. High bounce irons absorb a change like this more easily.

 

Sorry to be a jerk but this topic comes up quite regularly so there are dozens of threads in the archives discussing this same topic. You may want to try searching if you need more info.

[dlygrisse]

Bending strong 2* decreases bounce by 2* and increases offset by about .75mm.

 

Low bounce irons can become more digging prone from this change. High bounce irons absorb a change like this more easily.

 

Sorry to be a jerk but this topic comes up quite regularly so there are dozens of threads in the archives discussing this same topic. You may want to try searching if you need more info.

 

Correct.

 

My advice would be to start by making sure the lofts are set to manufacturers specs. Then if your wedge gaps are off you might tweak them a degree. Changing the loft on clubs can really screw with the visual look of them at address and change the playing characteristics. And why really do you need to do it besides being able to brag about hitting the ball farther?

[Sean2]

I will only add that I don't see what the benefit would be to strengthening loft. Not only does it mess with the bounce/offset, but it's only a number on the sole if the club. I wouldn't feel comfortable messing with the bounce/offset/loft. The club was designed and built with certain characteristics. I wouldn't feel comfortable messing with the bounce/offset/loft. It

 

In any case one can't really compare clubs anymore with respect to asking what someone hit. For example, the first generation M2 5-iron has a loft of 21.5º. Some 5-irons are 27º. That is a two club difference. Anyway, the scorecard couldn't care less what club you hit. :-)

[Nessism]

I've bent tons of clubs. Usually weak, but occasionally strong, and if done intelligently where you don't hurt the clubs playability it's no big deal.

 

Oh, and Jason Day is reputed to have bent some of his irons strong and I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with ego.

[Gem]

At a club fitting it was pointed out that I had about a 0° aoa and was launching a bit higher than ideal.

I always found it a bit strange that I could be 20-40 yards ahead of some friends yet hit the same distance with mid to short irons.

It was suggested that I would bring my launch and spin down a bit with making my irons 1-2° stronger.

I did this with my current set and the results are great.

I don't have any problems with the slight increase in offset and the lower bounce but if needed you could get someone to grind the leading edge a bit to put some bounce back.

 

It wasn't so much the distance I was concerned with but that I hit it a bit too high with a normal swing and it caused some issues on windy days.

[crperry00]

At a club fitting it was pointed out that I had about a 0° aoa and was launching a bit higher than ideal.

I always found it a bit strange that I could be 20-40 yards ahead of some friends yet hit the same distance with mid to short irons.

It was suggested that I would bring my launch and spin down a bit with making my irons 1-2° stronger.

I did this with my current set and the results are great.

I don't have any problems with the slight increase in offset and the lower bounce but if needed you could get someone to grind the leading edge a bit to put some bounce back.

 

It wasn't so much the distance I was concerned with but that I hit it a bit too high with a normal swing and it caused some issues on windy days.

 

Late to the party but I was just searching this topic and saw your post, I just bought an old set of mizuno's that are bent 2* strong for the exact same reason as you stated above. Distance is fine, but I have an overly high flight in the wind. I haven't built them yet, i was wondering if the results are still working out a year or so later?

[AbSWFPGA]

Will bending irons 2 degrees strong promote more of a draw ball flight?

[NRJyzr]

Will bending irons 2 degrees strong promote more of a draw ball flight?

 

 

no

[PoeKingShankspeare]

just trying to learn/understand.....

 

1 for 1, loft for bounce.... On GI long irons vs players irons have different width soles, are the effects of bounce differ between the two if the loft is a degree stronger?

 

If a golfer was a digger, will he/she still get somewhat better turf interaction with the GI irons vs. with a players irons? Or, is the bounce all the same?

 

I'm not so much of a digger with long irons, and I thought about getting my rogue 5i bent a degree stronger and not carry a 4. But if it'll mess up the performance or whatnot, I'm not messing with it.

[ChipNRun]

Keep the loft the same and take an extra club for the shot.

 

The MB and CB clubs you have need a bit more loft to get the ball launched well.

[AC168]

Not fact but I do think more offset makes it easier to draw the ball. My irons are bent weak ... partly to get the right launch conditions but also to reduce my draw.

[Johnjong]

I was thinking of bending my irons 3 degrees stronger as my ball flights were too high, but then there would be a big gap to fill between the pitching wedge and the gap wedge, and potentially more side effects of bending the clubs then. So I changed my swing to compress the ball better instead, and just took extra club and swing easy. It has been working really well for me. Now I learned to shape the flight high and low at any given moment. You don’t need to bend the clubs.

[T dogg]

I changed my Apex pro 19 2 degrees strong. They catch a bit but I hit it crispier. I find Callaway irons have to much bounce to begin with esp. on tight fairways. I also don't mind the little more offset I don't over cut it.

[Howard_Jones]

On 7/12/2018 at 3:15 PM, PoeKingShankspeare said:

just trying to learn/understand.....

 

1 for 1, loft for bounce.... On GI long irons vs players irons have different width soles, are the effects of bounce differ between the two if the loft is a degree stronger?

 

If a golfer was a digger, will he/she still get somewhat better turf interaction with the GI irons vs. with a players irons? Or, is the bounce all the same?

 

I'm not so much of a digger with long irons, and I thought about getting my rogue 5i bent a degree stronger and not carry a 4. But if it'll mess up the performance or whatnot, I'm not messing with it.

Dont worry and overthink this like most doo.
-How much do you vary on club delivery for Angle or attack and Dynamic loft?
For most players the answer is - MORE than we normally can bend static lofts (plus minus 2*)

Since loft and bounce is connected, and cant be split no matter what we do.
If you change your AOA and go 2* steeper, both delivered loft and bounce is reduced by 2*
if we move from a "high launch" to a Low launch shaft, who reduce loft by 2* we also lost 2* bounce.

A typical #6 iron on the Tour is 31* on loft but Dynamic loft is average only 20.2
How much of static bounce is positive at impact?.....we have to start from a static bounce of MORE than the difference to have any, and 31* minus 20.2* = 10.8 static bounce is needed to get ZERO.

Still many worries about bending lofts due to bounce changes, and many also think that shafts can lift or lower ball flight by changing dynamic loft, but without anything happening to bounce, but that cant be prevented, bounce always follows loft no matter if loft was changed due to bending, angle of attack, or a different shaft, all 3 scenarios has the same changes.

That means someone who has a ball flight thats too low, he delivers the head with less loft than needed, and by that less than the design of the head is meant to be played with, so he cant go wrong by tweaking lofts weaker. The one with a ball flight too high, is delivering the club head
with more loft than its designed for, so he cant go wrong by bending heads stronger....

That means judging any of this due to the club head alone and isolated makes no sense, we have to include the player and his delivery of the head since thats what matters for if we can / should go weaker or stronger or leave it as it is.

Edited October 6, 2020 by Howard_Jones

[hoganben]

On 5/18/2017 at 12:38 PM, Nessism said:

Bending strong 2* decreases bounce by 2* and increases offset by about .75mm.

 

Low bounce irons can become more digging prone from this change. High bounce irons absorb a change like this more easily.

 

Sorry to be a jerk but this topic comes up quite regularly so there are dozens of threads in the archives discussing this same topic. You may want to try searching if you need more info.

did you know there is a search feature?...if you search you will see there are no new topics in golf. My 1960/70s hogan 4 wood in my garage  is really a modern overpriced adjustable high lofted 3  wood with even the same speed/velocity slot...(like your new taylormade 3wd)....I also see brooks won with an all titanium driver like the 2007 titanium i stuck with because carbon is a just a marketing/cheap manufacturing gimmick...ps...if someone does a search and comments in a zombie thread you might come on anyway and say that they should have started a new thread.

Edited May 23, 2023 by hoganben

[hoganben]

On 10/5/2020 at 11:26 PM, Howard_Jones said:

Dont worry and overthink this like most doo.
-How much do you vary on club delivery for Angle or attack and Dynamic loft?
For most players the answer is - MORE than we normally can bend static lofts (plus minus 2*)

Since loft and bounce is connected, and cant be split no matter what we do.
If you change your AOA and go 2* steeper, both delivered loft and bounce is reduced by 2*
if we move from a "high launch" to a Low launch shaft, who reduce loft by 2* we also lost 2* bounce.

A typical #6 iron on the Tour is 31* on loft but Dynamic loft is average only 20.2
How much of static bounce is positive at impact?.....we have to start from a static bounce of MORE than the difference to have any, and 31* minus 20.2* = 10.8 static bounce is needed to get ZERO.

Still many worries about bending lofts due to bounce changes, and many also think that shafts can lift or lower ball flight by changing dynamic loft, but without anything happening to bounce, but that cant be prevented, bounce always follows loft no matter if loft was changed due to bending, angle of attack, or a different shaft, all 3 scenarios has the same changes.

That means someone who has a ball flight thats too low, he delivers the head with less loft than needed, and by that less than the design of the head is meant to be played with, so he cant go wrong by tweaking lofts weaker. The one with a ball flight too high, is delivering the club head
with more loft than its designed for, so he cant go wrong by bending heads stronger....

That means judging any of this due to the club head alone and isolated makes no sense, we have to include the player and his delivery of the head since thats what matters for if we can / should go weaker or stronger or leave it as it is.

you are a smart guy!