Silly Question Wear marks on irons

[williamevanl]

How long does it take to develop a noticeable wear mark on your irons? I have been hitting the same ones for a few years now now and I just have a couple scratches near the center of the club. I noticed some used wedges at play it again sports that had wear marks that looked like this: *How many balls does this take?*

[mx6262]

I use a drill to get the same look on all my clubs......Nick price stated that he hit so many balls with his wedges that they had a dent on the face.....Lots of balls....

[mat562]

A lot.

A few thousand at least. Sandy soil and, particularly, practicing with balls that have sand stuck to the covers will accelerate the process markedly. To get a proper bullseye mark you've got to wear right through the chrome plating, through the nickel (or copper) underlayer and down to the underlying steel. It doesn't happen overnight. Needless to say, it helps if you're a decent striker and consistently hitting the same spot on the face. Divot takers (I take whoppers) seem to wear them in more quickly than pickers, too.

I've got several sets where the bulk of the irons look like that 8 iron (and worse) and none of them are less than three years old - and that's three years of pretty much daily golf and lots of practice as a competitive amateur when I was younger. My current set have got probably 30 months of cumulative golf, playing and practicing a lot less than I used to, and the worst of the clubs have nowhere near a proper, pronounced bullseye mark yet. Some browning, but no proper marks.

Hit enough balls and you'll see browning at first and then a nice distinct bullseye mark. Eventually, you'll see the grooves shallow out completely and the concavity that Price talks about. Sadly, as nice as it looks, a club's knackered then.

[freshprince99]

the set of titleist 681's i have in my office that i used from when i was 18 to 20 have that look on the face (my circle on the sweet spot is a little bigger than tigers though!). i used those clubs for 2.5 years, i played and practiced every day, hit a lot of balls on turf with sand underneath, and just beat them to hell. long story short, it takes a long time to do that.

[taskerc]

So in that picture above, that is what a good iron wear pattern should look like? I always thought it should be higher on the face, but now I am releieved as my pattern is strarting to look like this, although quite a bit more side to side dispersion :-)

[reg1900]

I wouldve thought tigers ball mark would be a bit higher on the face as well.

Forged irons will create marks like that, cast wont. Forged will wear very quickly when you hit lots of balls and dont clean the face. Practice range at my course has terrible dirt thats really harsh. Thats why I bought an ex demo 6i of my set and just hit balls with that, saves the face of my gamers.

[hayzooos]

I saw a WITB for Luke Donald and he had something very, very similar on his CB2 3/4 wood. I was quite surprised this happened to a fairway wood.

Like posted above, it takes a long time and a lot of balls, probably on sandy ranges. None of us hit as many balls as Tiger does, his practice regimine was nuts back in those days, and probably still is.

My older irons have some browning in them, but nothing like that. If you want a good way to speed it up, here it is:

Wait until a really hot and humid day, and clean your clubs outside with really cold water. Even after you dry them off, there will still be some moisture left on them due to the humidity and the cold water which makes the face a bit cold as well. Give them a good clean, then put some iron head covers on there and put them in your trunk. This will lead to you going right through the chrome and everything as stated above. I wouldn't know this from personal experience or anything.........

For the record, I put iron head covers on because I was going to by flying my clubs the next day, and that's the only time I use those things. I mean, uh, a buddy of mine. Yeah, that's it.

[GVo55]

[quote name='taskerc' timestamp='1285153917' post='2708286']
So in that picture above, that is what a good iron wear pattern should look like? I always thought it should be higher on the face, but now I am releieved as my pattern is strarting to look like this, although quite a bit more side to side dispersion :-)
[/quote]

For what its worth, I've always thought (and I believe Johnny Miller has mentioned it on air) that the perfect shot is centered on the third groove, so I'd guess the wear pattern of a great ball striker would also be centered on the third groove (like this one).