Irons with Consistent Distance

[DHoch]

When I came back to golf about 18 months ago after a 4 year layoff, I traded in my Cleveland CG4s for Cleveland CBXs. After 18 months and tons of practice, I'm finding that my carry distances are all over the place. I've done a lot of work on my ball striking, so I don't think that's the main culprit. Are there any irons on sale right now that have a reputation for consistent carry distances?

[Kale_m]

Blades....

[Jeff58]

If you have a decent swing speed and purchased the CBX’s with the stock shafts, the main reason for your distance variation is the shafts, not the heads. That said, as irons become smaller, more solid, and less stable, in other words closer to a blade as @Kale_m states, the more consistent they will tend to be. At the cost of forgiveness, distance, and ball flight in most cases.
An intermediate solution is the ‘player’s cavity back’. Two prior year models with excellent reputations and saner pricing are the Ping i200 and the Taylor Made P770. Either is a fine choice of a player at any level IMO.

[20six]

King Forged Tec 2020 are, for me, reliably consistent on distance.

[rxk9fan]

Players CB's and blades are as consistent as the players swing. I am a believer that consistency in yardage is way more important than an iron helping a player on bad strikes. A club that gives you repeatable distances on full swings also gives you repeatable distances on partial swings, chips, etc..

Hope you find the perfect set for your game!

[LeoLeo99]

As mentioned, the less the technology the greater the distance consistency.

[Tree Levino]

One piece forged of some kind whether it be a CB or blade.

[PuffyC]

A couple different golf sites which I won’t name have done tests and found that when you look at the data, blades are no more consistent with distance than GI irons and typically less accurate. You can question their methodology I suppose but from the non-anecdotal evidence I’ve seen I’m guessing the ‘blades are more consistent/accurate’ myth came from the same place as ‘sitting too close to the TV will make you go blind’. Regardless, odds are it’s not the clubs that are causing your woes but that may also depend on how you define “all over the place”.

[seve1972]

uh...handicap???

[MtlJeff]

Any set of irons on the market will provide you consistent distances if you hit it solid. Worst case the differences will be negligible at best, again if you are making center contact....If you are "all over the place" it is you and not the clubs.

Not the answer you want to hear, but many low indexes, scratches and even pros use SGI clubs...

[Nessism]

Which clubs are giving your trouble? The 8 iron and shorter don't have the cup face for spring effect so if those irons are problematic it's not due to spring effect throwing you off.

[chinaski]

I think forgiving irons are vastly overrated. But you should check your swing first Have access to trackman? Is your angle of attack consistent?

[PedronNiall]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfKbkytvpmMVery small sample set so you could say it's slightly anecdotal, but these guys do great job of doing it by the numbers by using forged clubs they can set to the exact same specs. You can skip to 15:20 or so to see the overall numbers but the short version: both are relatively consistent, though the blades have a slightly lower standard deviation in spin numbers and slightly more consistent distance numbers--1 yard SD with the Miuras vs 3 with the Srixon. Even the "worse" offering of the Srixon isn't something that should be leaving you all over the place in terms of distances. If you're alternating between flying the green and coming up short again and again then it sounds like there's a swing fault that needs correcting unless you're playing some very old clubs made with poor QC during the casting or forging process.

 

[JonnyKrasnodar]

Strike is King. If the carry distances are all over the place then strike must be all over the place. Given the nature of the CBXs there will be the odd flier due to lofts but even at that, the dynamic loft you present at impact will dictate consistency of carry, spin, launch angle.

[RogerinNewZealand]

Bought MP63 a year ago easy to hit no flyers Consistent Distances for sure.

Just bought bladed also and saturday practice balls lined up in a row left centre right all three at same distance....OK centre impact naturally

Lovin Them.....

[bvanlieu]

This is my first year working with any type of radar, both an indoor facility and trackman with my teaching pro. One thing that has come to my attention is how although I am swinging 'full', I can easily not swing full speed if that makes sense. Same strike and path, but 5mph slower and voila, why did that 8i only go 143y? It was middled...oh right, look at the SS and most important, ball speed off club. The numbers don't lie. Dmn you trackman and your numbers. :D

[Joelsim]

I have to say my Ping G410 irons, and the G400 before them, go very consistent distances. Unless I hit it a really bad shot. Absolutely no complaints at all. And IMO, unless you nail a shot right out of the centre every time then cavity backs will beat blades every time on consistency, that’s what they’re designed to do, minimise inconsistency due to poor strikes.

[braincramp52]

This^ If you're getting inconsistent distances it's your strike, not the irons.

[DHoch]

Thank you everyone for the responses. I'm completely comfortable with the idea that it's me and not the clubs. My thought is that as I improve my strike, the clusters would get tighter with more consistent irons.

What I meant by 'all over the place' is that there is a 20 yard dispersion in my distances at times, but the flights are the same. I've been using impact tape to see where I'm hitting the ball, and it's typically in the lower middle in the clubface.

If it helps, the source of this question was I hit Srixon 785s with midsized grips and stiff rifle shafts at 2nd Swing, and my dispersion was so much better. I went out to my car and got my clubs so I could test the two directly against one another. My CBXs produced their normal results and the Srixons stayed tight. I was probably in the bay (indoors with Trackman) for 45 mins lol. I actually switched my CBXs to midsized grips afterwards bc of the results, and I'm really happy with the change.

 

 

[Johnnypenso]

I've watched a lot of club reviews, both individual clubs and head to heads and I've yet to see where blades and more blade like irons have ever shown to be less consistent than GI irons. Most open with the reviewer talking about mishits and how the clubs aren't forgiving and then they drop them all on the green from 175 despite hitting them all over the face according to the software. I think the effect of mishits on blade like irons is massively overstated.

[RogerinNewZealand]

What shafts in CBX?

85gram traction? If so too lite for you quick

Guess.For me light = less control more dispersion.Simple.

[tgreen22]

Nothing with a speed pocket or any other tech in the face. I played 690 Mbs and knew what I was getting every time even though I only hit a 5 iron 190. Tried some r7 TPs and my 6 iron would go anywhere from 180-210 with spin i could never figure out. Play Miura CBs now and everything is predictable. Just get a solid hunk of metal with no bells and whistles and learn your ball flights with full swings, punch shots, draws/fades etc. Now if I could only find a driving iron/hybrid I love to bridge the massive gap between my irons and woods...

[Itsjustagame]

As an 8 handicap my irons distances are pretty consistent, but the inconsistencies are clearly about contact not the clubs.

[BrendanH]

I've been down this road too many times and the end result is always buy a set of blades or minimal player's CBs. When well struck, a blade will pretty much give you the same numbers over and over. When playing GIs I have far too often suddenly found an extra 10 yards from a strike that feels no more pure than the one hit just before. I never airmail a green with my blades, but I have done it far too often with GIs in my hand. Anything with flex in the face runs that risk.

All that said - a bigger question is whether or not you would play better with GI vs Blades. Many would say you get less distance drop-off with a mishit GI, although I have not really found that to be true. I think a mishit blade will FEEL a lot worse than a mishit GI, but I have found the actual results to be similar. The more honest feedback you get from a blade will help you improve strike. I can totally understand not wanting to feel that though. Many just want to enjoy the game and not worry too much about strike. I often wish I could take that approach! lol.

It's also important to get the sole design and turf interaction right for your swing. A repeatably clean pass though impact can work wonders for consistency. Combine that with more centered strikes and it's birdie time :-) In other words try to go for a high quality iron fitting and see what they come up with for you. I once spent a couple hours outdoors with Cool Clubs at TPC Scottsdale and my distance dispersion with Miura blades was 4x tighter than the best we could get with GI. It was staggering really, and I have seen it again and again since. Every now and then of course I get sucked in by the 'forgiveness' of GI heads, only to switch back again within a season. I'll probably never learn ... :-)

[tgoodspe1991]

Sorry OP, but swing and strike determine distance consistency, not iron head design. Outside factors like lie and wind will play a factor as well.

If you're determined, then to have piece of mind you'll want to move to a one-piece forged CB or MB. However, you'll still get carry inconsistencies because, again, it's the Indian and not the Arrow...

[ChaosTheory]

Some soft golf balls create the problem too.

 

[chisag]

... As others have stated, if you are a consistent ball striker, any iron will produce consistent distances and dispersion. My P790's are just as accurate as my Z Forged. The difference for me is when missing the center, the p790's are more accurate and have a tighter dispersion compared to the same miss hits with my Z Forged. To be fair, I am not talking about a night and day difference, but one that is certainly noticeable.

... The above said, those with very high swing speeds will find more variance in distance control because there is more variance in their swing. This reminds me of a friend of mine that played with Tom Weiskopf in a Firestone Pro Am and warming up Kev was hitting his pw 150 and Tom was hitting his 135 but as Kev told me they were landing in an area the size of a hole hoop, while Kev's were all over the place. Kev said "Tom, you only hit your pw 130? Wow, I hit mine 150". Weiskopf replied "Well ... I can hit my pw 150 too, but then what would I do with my 9 iron? Iron play is about consistent distance, not maximum distance." Obviously there are a handful of guys that can hit their 7 iron 190 with a repeatable swing but they are very rare and most will hit a thin faced iron 180-200 our more. So like most things in golf there is not a one size fits all but a repeatable swing cures a lot of problems.

[DHoch]

I'm not arguing that ball striking doesn't have a major impact on dispersion, but club construction has to matter too. For instance, right now my CBX 7 iron with 30 degrees of loft goes about 160. The Titleist T200 7 iron that I borrowed from my pro shop is also 30 degrees, but only goes about 150, but has a much tighter dispersion. My thought is that whatever is giving me the 10 extra yards in the CBX might have something to do with the variance in dispersion I'm seeing, but I don't know enough about club construction to say for sure. Thoughts?

[northernmi]

It could be spin? I am not a particularly high spin player so some of the irons that are particularly low in spin fly inconsistent distances for me.

[Stuart_G]

Unfortunately it could be a lot of things. Same shaft? Same grip size? Same playing length? Same swing weight? Lots of potential differences that may be influencing the results that may have nothing to do with the head. Without more detailed numbers (club specs, ball and club data) comparing the two results we can't do anything more than guess.