Side lining the 6 iron.

[GL3]

My clubs are getting older and I’m thinking about doing some loft tinkering.  Here are my loft and lies:

 

Thinking about bending the 4 to 20, 5 to 25, 7 to 30, and pulling the 6.  
 

Anyone see red flags?  I’m thinking 5° of loft between each iron is fine.

 

I never understood why gapping isn’t consistent throughout the set.   Probably marketing to sell an additional club.   

[RogerinNewZealand]

The 6 iron, do you use it much? like it? whats your preferred mid iron? 8,7? It cant be the 6 as you are looking to leave it out. Which irons are Clean and hence were not used in your last round...these are the ones to leave at home.De lofting a 5 and 4 that you rarely use may not work.7 years ago i had some J33 cbs, soft stepped the dgs200, the 4 iron was a weapon...naturally i upgraded....so find the Irons you really like..i just got a 22 hybrid because it doesnt draw....straight or lite fade🙂hope thats helps

[RightHandRough]

You're making gaps that don't currently exist. You'll hit 4 further ideally, but 5 shorter. This will continue until you get to your 8iron. I'd look at your distances not lifts to do your tweaking. 

Edited July 31, 2021 by RightHandRough

[RogerinNewZealand]

Ps..thank you for choosing Mizuno👍

[GL3]

15 minutes ago, RightHandRough said:

You're making gaps that don't currently exist. You'll hit 4 further ideally, but 5 shorter. This will continue until you get to your 8iron. I'd look at your distances not lifts to do your tweaking. 

This is just a fun thing I’m thinking about doing.   There’d def be a break in period to get my distances back in order.  But with everything equal, the distance between each club should be equal with 5° of loft between them right?  Or would spin play a factor? 

[RightHandRough]

17 minutes ago, GL3 said:

This is just a fun thing I’m thinking about doing.   There’d def be a break in period to get my distances back in order.  But with everything equal, the distance between each club should be equal with 5° of loft between them right?  Or would spin play a factor? 

Spin and club length will both play into gaps in distance. At lower lofts you'll get more yards per degree, as you get to higher lofts you'll find less. 1 degree on 4iron might give you 5 yards longer while weakening the 5iron might lose you 4 yard. You just went from a 10-12 yard gap to a 21 yard gap.

That's why I recommend tweaking by distance, not by loft. 

[NoTalentLefty]

Tinkered with this once. But eventually bought a set that has 5 degree gapping. Starting at 29 degree 7 iron on up. Hybrids 6 and below. Mizuno has this with the HM series pro and non pro. 

[GL3]

15 minutes ago, NoTalentLefty said:

Tinkered with this once. But eventually bought a set that has 5 degree gapping. Starting at 29 degree 7 iron on up. Hybrids 6 and below. Mizuno has this with the HM series pro and non pro. 

Do you remember the distance between your higher irons?  

[xmanhockey7]

Do it and see how it goes. Most people need a bigger gap between long irons anyway. 

[azgreg]

I took a set of Tommy Armour 845s and bent a few clubs to get 6° gaps. Worked pretty well. Had about a 15 yard gap between clubs.

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by azgreg

[NoTalentLefty]

57 minutes ago, GL3 said:

Do you remember the distance between your higher irons?  

I was going for a 12 to 15  yard difference. At 4 I was getting a 8 yard , not enough for my sorry swing. 

[Dan Drake]

I’m definitely a fan of this idea and objective look at bag setup theory!

[lefthack]

I would think it would jack your bounce all up and down. That would make turf interaction weird, at least for me to go weak 4, strong 5, weak 7 and no 6.

[DaveGoodrich]

Depending on swing speed, 5* gaps at the long end might makes the yardage gaps too big. If it were me, I might bend the 7 to 30, the 6 to 26, and the 4 to 22, and leave out the 5 iron.   

 

 

 

[uglande]

Go for it. I think it makes sense to expand lofts higher in the irons to make room for other clubs.

 

I currently play most rounds without a 5-iron. There isn't a yardage that I hit that club that I can't cover relatively easily with my 4 iron (which is a graphite-shafted utility). This allows me to keep four woods and four wedges in the bag. 

 

The top of the bag and the bottom of the bag is where you want to have more tools to work with. 

[ChipNRun]

On 7/31/2021 at 5:54 PM, GL3 said:

Thinking about bending the 4 to 20, 5 to 25, 7 to 30, and pulling the 6.  
 

Anyone see red flags?  I’m thinking 5° of loft between each iron is fine.

You are partially channeling Dave Pelz in Chap. 10 of Short Game Bible. He recommended squeezing out the 2i and 6i, and bending the remaining irons so that you had 15-yard gaps between clubs up and down the set.

 

Then, when combined with his Finesse Wedge matrix (clockface), you ended up with three partial-shot distances for each of your four wedges. Idea was to get predictability in longer clubs, and precision with wedges for scoring.

 

Anyone see red flags? Make sure you end up with fairly even yardage gaps. The gap in shaft length from dropping 6i could throw a wild-card yardage gap into mid-set.

 

On 7/31/2021 at 5:54 PM, GL3 said:

I never understood why gapping isn’t consistent throughout the set.   Probably marketing to sell an additional club.

Google elsewhere in WRX. Plenty of discussions on it, some actually knowledgeable.

[Dan Drake]

I love @ChipNRun’s take here, and will offer one small addition for @GL3: gaps do NOT need to be consistent throughout the bag…..

[Mcgeeno]

Without over analyzing too much here, I think it makes sense and you should try it. 

 

 

[Rapidcat]

I don't game a 5I, instead added 1/2 inch to my 6I shaft length and I now gap 12 metres/13.12 yards carry between 7I to 6I to 4I. Perfectly manageable for me.

 

The 6I plays well with no lie adjustment, maybe my favourite iron, and I haven't needed to adjust lofts, but was prepared to (and lie) if needed.

 

Easy enough, works for me and I get a bag slot back, YMMV.

 

Your risk is minimal. Reality is that in a 'scratch' handicap of par a 72 round you will have maybe 30 putts and 14 non- par 3 tee shots so 44 of 72 strokes = 61% of strokes. So get your driver(s)/non-par 3 tee shots sorted and get a good putter and learn how to use it. Ever thought about getting a putter for short putts only if this is an issue for you and game 2 putters? Now you have a bag slot for that.

 

Nice to challenge the norm with this stuff so I applaud the OP's thinking.

 

[iknowbagu]

1° at the bottom of the bag does not equal 1° at the top of the bag.  Without getting too deep down the rabbit hole, things like spin rate, apex, angle of descent, etc. will all play a factor in total distance and that's generally why you'll see larger loft spreads at the bottom than at the top.  Most iron sets will have 3-4° gaps up top and 4-6° on the bottom. 

 

Everyone should be able to anecdotally look at their own bag and see this play itself out.  9° driver goes 275, and 14° 3 wood goes 240 (35 yard gap).  While a 55° sand wedge goes 90 and the 60° lob wedge goes 75 (15 yard gap).  Now I admittedly pulled these numbers out of thin air, and yes, it's a bit hyperbolic, and yes, I cherry picked clubs at the extreme ends of the bag to make the point more obvious.  But they're not far off what can be expected for an average to slightly above average player.

 

Now, all that being said, go for it (and let us know how it goes).  What's the worst thing that can happen?  It doesn't work the way you think it could and you bend them back.  No harm, no foul.