The guys I play with think I'm crazy....

[Chief]

because I have gone from Callaway Big Bertha 2004s to Mizuno MP 32s. I played 9 today and shot better than my last 2 outings. There were some flubs, but not any worse than with my BB 2004s. I got the MP 32s with DG R300s for $320.00 4-pw. I usually only carry 8,9,pw with 4 Halos, but I left them at home today and took 4-pw. How can this be? I am not a good golfer, usually shoot in the nineties. Has anyone else exp. this? :drinks:

[watson]

Playing with more "player" orientated irons would have made you conentrate more and you more than likely paid special attention to the basic fundamentals eg grip, stance and aim.

 

Well done on your round and I hope the new irons continue to be kind to you.

[ICANPUTT]

I like you have dropped my long/mid irons...........I only carry a 7,8,9,PW and hit the 7 rarely. I carry lofted fairway woods and hybrids. However, I am and hopefully will continue to be a respectable player. I am a 8 handicap and have shot many seventys rounds in competition with this setup. I will have agree with the previous poster that you most likely concentrated more and fough harder for every stroke. It could also be that you weren't expecting to do as well and felt less tense over the shot. The question you have to ask youself is are the MP32s going to help your overall score drop on a consistant basis? I would rather average a 78 with my hack old man clubs than average 83 with my players clubs. Not saying you shouldn't convert if you really want to.........I would just not be in a hurry to throw out the forgiveness.

[NPVWhiz]

Many might argue otherwise, but I think one of the absolute truths of golf is that there is a set of blades out there for just about every player that will feel and play better than the "worst" set of cavity backs. That's not a really strong argument for playing blades, but I think the pearl of wisdom is that these things are maddeningly unpredictable. Honestly, the best set of irons I ever owned were a set that I would likely have never tried except for plain luck. They felt right for my swing from the first time I played with them, and they got better the more I used them. My natural tendency is to try to hit the ball hard, and I have a quick tempo, but a fitter would never have put me into D-5 X100 shafted irons at that time.

 

With all the modern designs and weighting, the old saw still holds very true for players that are below 15 hndcp, and that is that the iron/shaft combination that allows you to hit the ball most consistently is the best set for you, design elements aside. If you're hitting a set of cavity backed irons, and the ball marks are all over the face, then yes, the cavity back design is probably helping you. And if you're hitting a blade all over the face, that particular design is probably hurting you. But if you're looking at two sets and you know in your mind that you actually feel more comfortable and play better with set A over set B, then the design aspect shouldn't have any bearing on which set you play.

 

The real problem for most players is that few golfers really know what they should be looking for in a set. It's like panning for gold when you've never seen a fleck of it in your life, and there's no one around to ask. If left to your own devices, you might end up with a bag full of quartz. Pretty to look at but it won't pay for the mule.

 

I just remember hitting 5 irons on the range with that set of Mizuno 203 blades and thinking, Wow, this is what "right" feels like for me.

 

I still have a theory that many junior golfers have the potential to be scratch players, regardless of swing eccentricites, but few juniors or adults ever latch onto that certain combination of flex and weight at the top that allows you to transition correctly into the slot. This is because few ever happen to find a set of irons that have the right combination of swingweight and flex. Most people, especially juniors, get one set and set out to figure it out with that set. I've always believed that you can't learn how to hit a driver. You can get to a point in your second bucket of 90 balls where, standing on the range, you think you can hit it. But on the fifth tee shot on the course that day, you know in your heart that it just isn't the right one for you.

 

Nowhere is this more true than in the bags and on the range at PGA Tour events. People think that pros can hit anything and play at that level, and it's the farthest thing from the truth you can believe. Prior to the last few years where driver shafts have come out in so many combinations of flex profile and weight, many Tour players were reluctant to switch from a driver that was producing >60% fairways hit. They are the ones that can, however, take one iron out of a set and say, this one just isn't right. They're looking for clubs that match their swing, not to match their swing to a club.

 

It's even more true for fairway woods. The one place in the bag aside from the putter where you'll see older trusty clubs is the strong fairway wood, because it makes money (or at least it used to back when you actually hit a fairway wood to reach a par 5 and there were golf courses where hitting a fairway meant something...but that's another story).

 

I often wonder how well I'd be playing today if I had just stuck with my 976R Driver, the old TM 5 wood that I used to really like (it turned out to have an X-100 shaft in it as well) and those MS203 mizunos.

[zojo]

hey man, whatever gives you the confidence to hit the ball, go for it. I remember when i first got my mizuno mp30s, i was criticized by not only a few others, but mainly myself. They felt so pure when you hit them dead center, but mis-hits rock your hands off. But they looked so good from address that going back to offset game improvement irons only made me hit fat shots every single time. So I worked on my ballstricking, got a ton better and can play these irons. I think they were more of a practice aid at first and forced me to concentrate more, but it worked out in the end