7 iron numbers

[dhatcher]

tl;dr

Look at my best and worst 7 iron strikes from my range session and suggest what I might work on improving based on my numbers.

 

Earlier this year my bday present was a new set of irons with custom fitting. I’m a 27 handicap so, I am not great at the game but love playing and hadn’t had new irons in 9 years. The fitter wanted to put me back into a big game improvement type head but I opted for Taylormade P770’s because I wanted more feedback on mishits. I find the game improvement irons don’t seem to transmit the feeling that lets you know when you hit the ball incorrectly. Fast forward, I love the irons, got my handicap down from 33 to 27 with lots of practice (maybe even lower with a couple rounds left to play this year, *fingers crossed*).

 

My question is, what can you tell me from my numbers about my swing and how my irons were fit? I take a Flightscope Mevo with me to every range session and lately I have been having some pretty solid contact with my iron strikes. I put my worst & best 7 iron strikes from tonight. Ball flight for both was pretty good, the worse one turned left a little more than I wanted but wasn’t horrible at all. I work in tech and data has become a small obsession of mine. I’m really curious what everyone thinks of the spin rate? I’m trying to understand if I need to work on compressing my iron strikes more or if I’ve hit a good spot and can think about working on other things.  

 

For context, I am 6’1”,  wrist to floor is 34.75”.

 

The custom fit specs for my irons are: 

- Project X LS 6.0 shafts

- E + 1/2” EOG

- 3 degrees upright

- 2 degrees strong

 

Hopefully, that’s enough info for everyone to make some observations. Sorry this post is quite lengthy. I appreciate any help I can get. 🙂

Edited December 8, 2021 by dhatcher

[Valtiel]

I question the accuracy of some of these numbers as that is a very high swing speed with a very low relative smash factor/ball speed. These things will go hand in hand when club speed is incorrectly measured (in this case high). Do you know your normal speeds as measured by any other device? 

Aside from that, if the spin numbers are accurate then they suggest a few possible issues. Assuming the 5096 shot was the bad one that went left then that suggests poor face control (expected for a 27hdc) as you've delivered much less loft, likely due to a shut face. Hard to say anything else without more data though, and seeing video of your swing is infinitely more useful when it comes to commenting on it than making guesses based on a couple data points. Without video we'd need data for angle of attack, club path, and dynamic loft to even begin to speculate about your swing.  

[Howard_Jones]

You are simply "trying to hard"...slow down a bit, and use swing tech, NEVER give it the "whole arm", we cant use club speed for anything ff we dont make a good impact, and you dont, because you use to much power to gain speed.
(we have all been there)

Slow down, and make sure you hit DOWN on the ball (hands a bit forward the ball at impact)
At the moment you are close to flipping it, with a angle of attack thats too shallow, and thats why your launch is too high, so you cant compress the ball good enough (with your impact and angle of attach), and you loose power transfer (smash factor and ball speed) and launch becomes about 4* higher than what it should be on your club speed.

Simply slow it all down a bit and use swing tech, NOT power, and you will save energy, and move the ball even longer with better dispersion.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Howard_Jones

[dhatcher]

Hey thank you for the responses! I will try to get a video of my swing in this thread in the next few days. The 6555 spin rate shot is the one that went left. The 5096 spin rate shot was straight and what I would like to see myself hit more of. 

 

As for accuracy of the Mevo, I don’t know about most of the numbers but I have used my rangefinder to check the carry distances and it seems pretty accurate between the two devices. That is mostly why I got the Mevo so that I could understand my average carry distances better and I think it’s a large part of the reason why I’ve been able to get my handicap down as much this year as I have. 

 

Howard_Jones you’re not wrong at all. I have always tended to want to hit the ball really hard and it’s been a big focus of mine to try to reel that in and work more on tempo. I’ll keep at it.

[Howard_Jones]

43 minutes ago, dhatcher said:

Hey thank you for the responses! I will try to get a video of my swing in this thread in the next few days. The 6555 spin rate shot is the one that went left. The 5096 spin rate shot was straight and what I would like to see myself hit more of. 

 

As for accuracy of the Mevo, I don’t know about most of the numbers but I have used my rangefinder to check the carry distances and it seems pretty accurate between the two devices. That is mostly why I got the Mevo so that I could understand my average carry distances better and I think it’s a large part of the reason why I’ve been able to get my handicap down as much this year as I have. 

 

Howard_Jones you’re not wrong at all. I have always tended to want to hit the ball really hard and it’s been a big focus of mine to try to reel that in and work more on tempo. I’ll keep at it.

Like i said, we have all been there, and have been surprised when we can hit it longer and better with less effort. The club head is designed to do that job, all we have to do is to swing the club right, and deliver the club head to the ball like we should, and it will look like magic"...
To swing it right, focus on delivery, NOT use of power, and you will make it. When you get better and improve your swing tech, club speed will follow for that reason alone, so slow down a bit, and your MEVO will help you to judge when you made it like you should.

Example PGA has a club speed with their #7 iron (average) of 90 mph, their smash factor is 1.33 who gives them a ball speed of 120, a launch of 16.3 with a AOA of - 4.3
As carry they get 172 yards

You have quite a bit higher club speed than PGA average, but DONT get value out of it due to a impact thats not so good since you use to much power, so your distance becomes shorter and dispersion will suffer

PGA average is NOT "ideal or optimum" numbers, but simply the average among PGA players, but its a good guideline for you to judge if your numbers is good or bad.

 

[Valtiel]

3 hours ago, dhatcher said:

Hey thank you for the responses! I will try to get a video of my swing in this thread in the next few days. The 6555 spin rate shot is the one that went left. The 5096 spin rate shot was straight and what I would like to see myself hit more of. 

 

As for accuracy of the Mevo, I don’t know about most of the numbers but I have used my rangefinder to check the carry distances and it seems pretty accurate between the two devices. That is mostly why I got the Mevo so that I could understand my average carry distances better and I think it’s a large part of the reason why I’ve been able to get my handicap down as much this year as I have. 

 

Howard_Jones you’re not wrong at all. I have always tended to want to hit the ball really hard and it’s been a big focus of mine to try to reel that in and work more on tempo. I’ll keep at it.

The distances might be accurate, but whether or not it is over reporting speed is important. It is either accurate and your efficiency is very poor, suggesting a strike quality and/or club path issue, or it is inaccurate which makes it borderline useless for reporting efficiency/strike quality since smash factor will always be under reported. Getting numbers from either a Trackman or GCQuad would be more useful and i'd recommend searching for one in your area. 

[dhatcher]

27 minutes ago, Valtiel said:

The distances might be accurate, but whether or not it is over reporting speed is important. It is either accurate and your efficiency is very poor, suggesting a strike quality and/or club path issue, or it is inaccurate which makes it borderline useless for reporting efficiency/strike quality since smash factor will always be under reported. Getting numbers from either a Trackman or GCQuad would be more useful and i'd recommend searching for one in your area. 

 

It's probably reasonably accurate and I am inefficient is my guess. Once in a while I get what I call an "amazing" shot for myself. This probably happens 1/20 swings or so. The numbers seem to be a little more inline with the Trackman numbers that Howard posted. I suspect whatever I do differently in these swings is what I really need to pin down and work on. This was from a range session a couple weeks ago, same 7 iron.

[Marty86]

7 minutes ago, dhatcher said:

 

It's probably reasonably accurate and I am inefficient is my guess. Once in a while I get what I call an "amazing" shot for myself. This probably happens 1/20 swings or so. The numbers seem to be a little more inline with the Trackman numbers that Howard posted. I suspect whatever I do differently in these swings is what I really need to pin down and work on. This was from a range session a couple weeks ago, same 7 iron.

 

This is my swing speed and yea when I nut a 7i 1/25 times this is what I get. I need to be able to do this at least 1/5 though 😢

[Valtiel]

3 minutes ago, dhatcher said:

 

It's probably reasonably accurate and I am inefficient is my guess. Once in a while I get what I call an "amazing" shot for myself. This probably happens 1/20 swings or so. The numbers seem to be a little more inline with the Trackman numbers that Howard posted. I suspect whatever I do differently in these swings is what I really need to pin down and work on. This was from a range session a couple weeks ago, same 7 iron.

Yeah 1.4 is a more ideal smash factor for a 7i for sure. 10mph slower clubhead speed though, would you say that is accurate? This is what i'm referring to when it comes to the importance of club head speed accuracy, because if you normally swing around 87-88 with a 7i and it is over reporting by 10mph at times then even a perfectly struck shot will have a very low smash value, and thus both numbers are useless. 

Regarding the infrequency of the perfect shots and what you need to do to replicate them, that is a different can of worms that will need swing video to start to pin down. The problem that most adult golfers have that are newer to the game (assuming that you are) is the overreliance on hand/arm speed and poor lower body fundamentals. Most people use their bodies backwards like this, and because you'll occasionally hit a really good shot, it traps you into thinking you're actually doing things correctly and you just need to find that little something to put it all together, when in reality your number just came up on the roulette wheel. The goal is not finding your way back to that same number again, but to increase your odds by changing your approach. That gets into swing fundamentals and instruction though, so i'll save any further speculation until you can grab a video. 👍

[dhatcher]

Yeh it does reflect a slower swing speed. As Howard put it, I need to stop trying too hard. Occasionally, I really focus on a smooth tempo and tell myself not to swing hard because it isn’t the focus of what I’m working on. Then I hit one of those amazing shots, get all excited and it’s back to swinging harder. I think I see on the monitor that swing speed was slower and my brain goes “now imagine if you kick that up to your full potential!” …and I know logically that the swing I just made is my full potential because of the numbers but it just feels too easy heh. 

 

Lately I have been focusing more on trying to turn around the left foot (I’m right handed) instead of swaying off of it. This has gotten my striking pattern a lot more consistent and is where I’m at now. Now that I have some confidence that I can repeat that part of my swing I’ll go back to messing with grip and impact position to try to make everything a little more efficient. 

[nsxguy]

"I’m a 27 handicap so, I am not great at the game but love playing and hadn’t had new irons in 9 years."

 

You seem to be suggesting you've been playing for 9 years now and are now a 27 handicapper, yes ?

 

Have you been playing regularly ? Or 2-3 times a year ?

 

Have you ever taken any lessons ?

 

I mean, with all due respect, it seems you're spending money on a fitter and equipment that could be better spent on lessons.

 

Or perhaps posting a few swing videos in the "Instruction" section would get responses to help ?

 

Lotsa guys on here perfectly willing to give you tips/hints to deliver the club more efficiently. Good luck. 👍

[dhatcher]

I’m 42 and have been playing off and on since I was 17. I stopped playing in 2015 (too many life events) and then picked it back up in 2020. I spent about $600 on lessons in 2020 and another $500 on lessons so far this year. Some have been helpful, some have been meh. I’m very much a do it yourself personality but I recognize professional help can go a long way here. I try to correlate what I learn at a lesson with what I feel during practice and how that comes out in numbers on the monitor. I usually get to play golf about once a month and go to the driving range twice a week. This is the method that has gotten me down from a 33 hdcp to a 27. Hopefully a little more to come before end of the year (two more rounds to go :).