Players with speed - using GI irons and swinging super smooth?

[me05501]

4 hours ago, SollyinGA said:

I have a slower ball speed OP (average mid 150s) and have just concluded my experiment using Mizuno JPX 923 HMPs for a month. 
 

It just doesn’t work for me. Hitting a smoothed out PW 150 yards is fun, but not very practical. My last straw was air mailing greens by 20 yards while 150 yards out with a smoothed out 9 iron with flyer lies. Yeah it’s kinda fun until you start noticing your scores at the end of rounds.

 

I will say, it does make the game much easier hitting 230 yard 4 irons off the tee straight down the middle of the fairway. Long iron play is really fun with the more forgiving clubs, but 230 yard tee shots still put you behind the 8-ball for your second shot. For tight holes, it’s a no brainer in my book now.

 

I will also add, that the experiment did cause me to have a longer putts than I’m used to having. If I was hitting  with an iron on approach shots,  you do get a little more roll out even with +45 degree landing angles. I also was not as accurate on approaches.  I definitely missed more greens than I normally did.

 

Clubs like the Z5 series, Miz 223, Ping i230 would be much better for this than the HMPs that I used. HMP were probably to hot for my experiment, but the forgiveness was unlike anything that I had ever used.

 

The best of both worlds is having a combo set of irons. You do have to put in a little work closing all of your gaps between clubs, but it is so worth it.

 

Currently I’m gaming T100s from 6i-P, 5i is a T200, 4i is a U505. So far so good for me.

 

 

I think this result is probably pretty typical for players who already find the middle third of the clubface. 

 

The better players I know who use irons like the 923HMP definitely aren't taking anything off their shots. They're smashing everything and wondering why someone *wouldn't* want a PW that goes 160 or a 4 iron that rolls out to 220.

 

I'm never going to argue that they're wrong, especially when they're beating me! They don't seem to care that their 4 iron has the same specs as a driving iron from the 90's, so why should I? I just hit my hybrid instead and keep trying to make more putts. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by me05501

[Nessism]

A playing partner of mine, who's an excellent iron player, recently switched from AP2's to Ping G2 irons.  He constantly talks about swinging smooth and slowing down.  Mind you, this guy flies his G2 3 iron 200 yards, in part because he strikes it so pure most of the time.  His G2's have regular shafts too.  

 

I'm quite certain that most guys on tour swing well within themselves most of the time.  Whether one would benefit from doing this using GI irons vs. something smaller is a separate discussion.  My friend does talk favorably about the extra forgiveness of the Ping shovels.  From the way he strikes it, most would say he doesn't need the forgiveness, but regardless, it's been working great for him.

[Mikey_HACKilroy]

16 minutes ago, Nessism said:

A playing partner of mine, who's an excellent iron player, recently switched from AP2's to Ping G2 irons.  He constantly talks about swinging smooth and slowing down.  Mind you, this guy flies his G2 3 iron 200 yards, in part because he strikes it so pure most of the time. 

 

 

+50 to that second sentence! Nobody ever listens to that, though. 😄