Graphite irons for smooth tempo suggestions

[bellsy13]

My goal is to feel as I'm barely swinging and making sure I hit every shot as close to center as I can with consistent yardages (duhh... the goal of most golfers). I play a set of wilson fg59's and won't be changing - I just love the look and feel. Looking to switch from steel to graphite. I have a smooth tempo, just tried some p790's with steelfiber i95 Stiff flex, the only blade-type club I could hit and shocker they felt awful for me. Clunky regardless of the decent numbers and dispersion. Could it just be the heads? I've tried recoils, mmt, steelfibers (all different weights 90/95/105/110/125/130g) and flexes r/s/x) but only in cavity backs.  I was center face on almost every strike with a 6i - carry between 180 and 190yds. I'm very comfortable with those numbers with the 790's and know that my yardage will suffer with the fg59's - I'm shocked how they felt. My dgpro's felt 10x better. Suggestions for a smooth tempo, 8i 155yds, 7i 170yds, 6i 180yds, 5i 190yds, 4i 200yd carry numbers. I currently play dgpro r300 irons but swing speed puts me into stiff or stiff+. This is why I'm looking for some smart guy to tell me what to try out 🙂

[SwooshLT]

Nippon Zelos 8 stiff..... raw about 90ish in weight , steel but built to replicate graphite. 

[Stuart_G]

18 hours ago, bellsy13 said:

My goal is to feel as I'm barely swinging and making sure I hit every shot as close to center as I can with consistent yardages (duhh... the goal of most golfers). I play a set of wilson fg59's and won't be changing - I just love the look and feel. Looking to switch from steel to graphite. I have a smooth tempo, just tried some p790's with steelfiber i95 Stiff flex, the only blade-type club I could hit and shocker they felt awful for me.

18 hours ago, bellsy13 said:

Clunky regardless of the decent numbers and dispersion. Could it just be the heads?

 

Could be a lot of things.

 

Can you be a bit more specific.  Feel can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  In what way did the shafts feel awful?  Too stiff, too soft, too light, too heavy?

 

Impact will not feel the same with graphite as with steel.  You'll get a lot less feedback about the quality of impact.  That's just part the package when going to graphite so not really any getting around it.

 

Also, why are you looking to switch to graphite?

 

[bellsy13]

On 5/21/2023 at 9:25 AM, Stuart_G said:

 

Could be a lot of things.

 

Can you be a bit more specific.  Feel can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  In what way did the shafts feel awful?  Too stiff, too soft, too light, too heavy?

 

Impact will not feel the same with graphite as with steel.  You'll get a lot less feedback about the quality of impact.  That's just part the package when going to graphite so not really any getting around it.

 

Also, why are you looking to switch to graphite?

 

I found it harsh, maybe heavy might best describe what I was feeling.

 

You saying that graphite won't feel the same as steel may have just saved me some coin tho. I love the feeling of knowing where my ball goes without even looking at the ball after contact. I have put so many swings into my current sticks I know when its left/right/short/long with pretty good precision. So if I go to graphite, I lose the thing I like most about older steel iron sets - you know a bad shot from an ok, and a good strike to a perfect one.

 

Reason I am wanting to make the switch is for longevity. I'm in BC and I practice a lot at the range - mostly off mats.

 

Other than improving my strike  would there be a way to "soften" the blow I take if I hit down on a mat? Sensicore inserts were tried but I don't know if they did much. I'm pretty close to a sweeper but have the odd hit on the mat.

[Stuart_G]

17 hours ago, bellsy13 said:

I found it harsh, maybe heavy might best describe what I was feeling.

 

You saying that graphite won't feel the same as steel may have just saved me some coin tho. I love the feeling of knowing where my ball goes without even looking at the ball after contact. I have put so many swings into my current sticks I know when its left/right/short/long with pretty good precision. So if I go to graphite, I lose the thing I like most about older steel iron sets - you know a bad shot from an ok, and a good strike to a perfect one.

 

That loss is usually temporary.  It doesn't go away completely, it's just a lot more subtle than you're used to with steel.  It takes a little bit of time but most people can re-learn to read or interpret the reduced feedback.

 

 

17 hours ago, bellsy13 said:

Reason I am wanting to make the switch is for longevity. I'm in BC and I practice a lot at the range - mostly off mats.

 

That graphite might prevent injuries and increase longevity is really (at this point) purely speculative.  It's certainly possible but there is no actual proof that it's the case.

 

As I understand it - graphite doesn't really "soften" the initial impact force or stresses on the hands/body.  It really just dampens the high frequency response from impact that tend to aggravate sensitive (e.g. already inflamed) tissue.    So "softer" isn't really the term I might use.

 

Not really an exact analogy - but it's close enough that it might help.  Think of it more like a bell.   You can hit a graphite bell and a steel bell with the same force - and they would both experience (and transmit) the same amount of stress from the initial impact.  But the steel bell would keep ringing for decent amount - while the graphite bell would not and go silent a lot sooner.

 

If you currently experience actual pain or soreness (chronic or reoccurring) - then I would make the switch.  If not, maybe just stick with something like the prosoft or sensicore inserts.  Also some grips are better at absorbing some of that as well - I like the Lamkin Comfort plus - but the GP CP2's or newer CPX are also pretty good.

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Stuart_G

[bellsy13]

1 hour ago, Stuart_G said:

 

That loss is usually temporary.  It doesn't go away completely, it's just a lot more subtle than you're used to with steel.  It takes a little bit of time but most people can re-learn to read or interpret the reduced feedback.

 

 

 

That graphite might prevent injuries and increase longevity is really (at this point) purely speculative.  It's certainly possible but there is no actual proof that it's the case.

 

As I understand it - graphite doesn't really "soften" the initial impact force or stresses on the hands/body.  It really just dampens the high frequency response from impact that tend to aggravate sensitive (e.g. already inflamed) tissue.    So "softer" isn't really the term I might use.

 

Not really an exact analogy - but it's close enough that it might help.  Think of it more like a bell.   You can hit a graphite bell and a steel bell with the same force - and they would both experience the same amount of stress from the initial impact.  But the steel bell would keep ringing for decent amount - while the graphite bell would not and go silent a lot sooner.

 

If you currently experience actual pain or soreness (chronic or reoccurring) - then I would make the switch.  If not, maybe just stick with something like the prosoft or sensicore inserts.  Also some grips are better at absorbing some of that as well - I like the Lamkin Comfort plus - but the GP CP2's or newer CPX are also pretty good.

 

Really good analogy thx. Prosoft/sensicore + new grips are probably the route

 

No pain currently but my left hands been broken 3 times so I want to guard it a bit now that I'm planning to play more. I should probably lose the leather gridiron grips at least... minus being incredibly tacky they are unforgiving on my delicate little hands. Really enjoy lamkin cord grips so I'll look into the comfort plus 🙂

[Stuart_G]

8 minutes ago, bellsy13 said:

Really good analogy thx. Prosoft/sensicore + new grips are probably the route

 

No pain currently but my left hands been broken 3 times so I want to guard it a bit now that I'm planning to play more. I should probably lose the leather gridiron grips at least... minus being incredibly tacky they are unforgiving on my delicate little hands. Really enjoy lamkin cord grips so I'll look into the comfort plus 🙂

 

I just looked and unfortunately it looks like the comfort plus have been discontinued.  The sonar's would be the next softest grips from Lamkin.

[Is Golf Fun or Work]

17 hours ago, bellsy13 said:

You saying that graphite won't feel the same as steel may have just saved me some coin tho. I love the feeling of knowing where my ball goes without even looking at the ball after contact. I have put so many swings into my current sticks I know when its left/right/short/long with pretty good precision. So if I go to graphite, I lose the thing I like most about older steel iron sets - you know a bad shot from an ok, and a good strike to a perfect one.

 

I found with graphite I can do same as with steel, I know soon as contact is made where it's going.

[Bigmean]

I switched to graphite years ago, love it.  No dispersion issues or feedback.  The first set of graphite I used that was holy crap this isn’t what I thought carbon shafts are were the roddio pentacross i10, which I have in a current set.  To me these are about as good as graphite gets in irons but I also had no qualms with recoils in a GI set and I have attas 10s in another set.  If you get GOOD quality (likely Japanese) shafts in a weight that is 100g or more you will have as much feel as you can handle, you can flight it, you can work it, they perform.

 

Im going build a set of blades with some funky graphite shafts, just not sure what heads or shafts yet.

[gvogel]

Senior here (70), coming off elbow surgery last fall and shoulder surgery the year before.  I decided to go to graphite shafts this year.  I have tried Recoil 65, Ping stock graphite, Tensei AV Blue in T300, Steelfiber fc 90.

 

Working with a Titleist fitter, we settled on Fubuki MV IR 50 (senior flex) in T300 irons 7-9 iron. They felt easy.  I am also going to a 2 or 3 hybrids; I have a few Pings - 5, 6 and even 7-hybrids.  I am also now interested in the Titleist TSR1, as they come in 26* and 29* lofts.  In the Titleist fitting I tried a TSR2 driver (11* set to 12*) with a HZRDUS 50 R shaft - nice flight, easy to hit.  So I am going to try the 26* TSR1 hybrid with the HZRDUS hybrid shaft in R.  

 

I hope to get this all figured out by August!