Blades versus Cavity Backs

swingking

I am in the process of choosing a new set of irons and I was wondering whether I should stick with cavity backs or should I move towards a bladed iron. I play to a handicap of 7 and I feel that Mizuno mp 37 or Titleist 690mb should suit me fine. At present, I am playing with a set of Callaway X-16 irons and the lack of workibility in these clubs tells me that I should consider a new set of low-offset clubs.

Any opinions, on whether blades are hard to use, would be great

Halo

i have a set of mp 37's myself. beautiful club. very little margin for error tho. you really want to be striking the ball well with irons like these. ive heard good reports about the 690's. havent hit them myself! personally i think you should move on to blades. the new taylormade tp's are savage irons. beautiful feel off them.

halo

okden

these look nice.
at which iron do you start thinking "birdie opertunity"

ive seen on ebay a lot of people are mixing mb's with cb's

TheDoc

Well you can get the mizuno mp30's which are a wonderful iron. I have to say if your having a problem shaping your shots, perhaps you are doing it wrong. Today i tried out the x-16s which my mate bought (posted in another thread) and i found them vry easy to draw and fade, and i find my rac reasonable to shape too.

You need to consider the pros and cons. I think cavity are at a point these days where blades have little more to offer, and you will lose distance of them. I say stick to your x-16s, they are a wonderful club. Blades are seriously falling out of fashion because of cavitys are just all round brilliant.

My advice would be not too change.The cb mb mix is a good goer, RAC has a combo set which is nice, cause after all the long irons are a bitch of blades

swingking

Thanls for the replies:

When I said that I find it hard to shape the ball, I meant that working the ball for me will produce a shape that is over exaggerated. In other words, I don't want to just hit a ball 30 yards offline and find it coming back in, I want to maybe hit a 5-10 yard shot that either fades or draws.

I have hit the mizuno iron, and I found that it was possible to do this very well. The feel was very good and I had no trouble hitting the sweet spot (as demonstrated by impact tape).

I am very interested in the idea of a combo set, but I do not like the nike pro combo set. I never knew that TaylorMade made a combo set and I was wondering whether it was forged or cast.

TheDoc

It is forged i think, you have to get them re shaped every few months, if that is what forged is im not sure. They are nice but not popular so you should get them cheap enough.

TheDoc

Just that i have a friend who was using them and was off 7 at the time and wasnt moving much, he then straight swopped a guy for the x-16's and now plays of 3 and has a good golfing career ahead of him.

Just make sure you have a full round or two with a blade set before purcahse, because they are not what they used to be, because the good ol norm irons have all the benefits.

swingking

as a matter of interest, do you play blades or cavity backs doc?
I practise with an old ben hogan apex 5 iron everytime I go to the range and after many practice sessions, I am getting very good at hitting the sweet-spot.

How would it be possible to get a hold of a demo blade iron that I could take to the course; do many golf shops let you take one of their irons?

okden

have you tried the pro version of any of the callaway x series
less offset, smaller head

i asked about your "birdie op" iron as i think everyones handicap is an average of about 10 diff handicaps,
putting chipping pitching ........driving
you might be scratch or teens with your irons, esp if your very strong or weak in one area

the biggest prob with blades for the better player is offcenter shots loose distance rather than accuracy

swingking

I find that the callaway irons give ridiculous distances. I don't think it is right that my 8 iron gives me a 160 yards. I have heard that callaway put stronger lofts on the irons in order for the beginner to hit better shots with his irons.

In answer to your question okden: the best part of my game is my driving accuracy followed by my iron game; my short game is well above average. The let down in my game is that my irons don't finish close enough to the pin and I find myself making 40-50 foot birdies

I apprectiate what you said about the different irons; as well as this I have been reccomended by my club pro to invest in a set of forged irons: preferably blades.
I'll keep you updated

okden

callaway stock shafts are a little more flexable than they claim aswell, with 160 8 irons youd be between stiff and xtra stiff refits, ( ...closer to xtra stiff if theyre stock shafts ). if you had regular it might account for loose irons, just a thought.

im shootin similar score/distance an im thinkin the only way get the handicap any lower is to choose a shot shape, draw or fade and stick with it, rule out half the course, no straight shots either

TheDoc

I'm using the RAc oversize. If you like have a friend who has blades, dont think shops let you use em, although some driving ranges have demo irons and you can have some pops.

Dr_Colossus

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote:

It is forged i think, you have to get them re shaped every few months, if that is what forged is im not sure. They are nice but not popular so you should get them cheap enough.

Hi Doc, can you advise what you mean by having to get the irons re-shaped? Never heard of this before and seems rather strange.

TheDoc

The metal in the irons is so soft is is easly cheaped and put out of shape. Some clubs are required to be re shaped every 6 months or so. I know this because when i was going to buy the RAC combo set (half blades half other) i was told id have to come back every 6 months or less for them to be reforged or recast whatever its called.

Halo

:eek: dats ridiculas!! how much does it cost??

Halo

have a look at these

http://www.titleist.com/golfclubs/irons/735cm.asp

Dr_Colossus

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote:

The metal in the irons is so soft is is easly cheaped and put out of shape. Some clubs are required to be re shaped every 6 months or so. I know this because when i was going to buy the RAC combo set (half blades half other) i was told id have to come back every 6 months or less for them to be reforged or recast whatever its called.

Wow are you sure about that. That sounds ridiculous and as Halo said how much does it cost?
That doesn't make any sense at all to me. What you are saying is that every six months or so they re-forge or cast your irons? In order to re-forge or cast which is basically the same thing you'd have the melt the steel and re-cast the irons. In melting iron you loose a portion of the original bulk due to moulds and therefore the company would have to top this up with metal of their own. After the process they would then have to re-chrome the irons and re-shaft them with the original shafts which esentially means that you would be getting new irons every six months. Who told you this or where did you read it? Can't believe it for a second.

Halo

doesnt make sence to me at all!!

swingking

those irons look sweet! Are they new on the market?

In regards to the forged question that was posed on this thread; forged irons can bend very easily and after a long period of use, the lie angle or the loft angle can change a full degree.

The golf clubfitter will just be able to reset the lie angle or loft angle in order to make sure that the specs suit the golfer. I don't think for a minute that the clubs are reforged or whatever the guys were saying.

okden

yeah loft and lie checked but to do it every six months youd want to be like vj singh, hittin 1000 balls hard every day.
never bang forged heads off the ground in temper though

some pros tweak loft an lie so they can split up the distance between each iron to their liking, so if one is suddenly going a couple of yards longer/shorter theyed get em checked, we'd never notice, wed just adjust to the loft and lie like we did when we bought them first.

TheDoc

Just telling you what i was told guys. Every six months to bring them in to be checked up, cause the metal does get out f shape and chip etcetc. As far as I know it is free, covered by the original cost of the irons.

TheDoc

and swingking it seems your weak spot is your approach game, which is the usualy the worst part for players above a 9 handicapp.

A) How many wedges do you have. I have 4, 60* 52* p wedge and s wedge. I rarely have to half swing or 3/4 during approach shot i take full ones. This gives me A) more comfort and b) more spin and height so i can attack pins.

Get to know your distances with your wedges. Then you know when to attack pins.

swingking

at the moment I am carrying 3 wedges: 46, 56 and 60. I usually don't have much of a problem controlling my distances and I find that I would generally get to the pin on my approach.

The problem arises when I am say 180 yards to the pin and I find that my accuracy isn't all that great from that distance. While I would reach the green (maybe) the shots don't land accurately enough to the pin.

I was in golfworks spawell yesterday and I sampled 3 irons: Mizuno mp37, Taylormade rac LT and Nike pro combo. I found the taylormade very good as they were a cavity back and I had the ability to hit high and low shots that were either draws or fades. The Mp 37 were also a dream to play with when the sweet-spot was hit; the shots were much more penetrating. I didn't like the Nike pro combo as I didn't like the look and feel of the longer irons.

As things stand, I am strongly influenced in buying the Taylormade RAC LT irons as I think I am getting enough workability and I don't suffer forgiveness.

TheDoc

lol talk about MR.Pro. Hitting the green from 180 in enough man you dont need to be getting close. But you really shouldnt be 180 from a par4, unless your course is super long or your a super short hitter. I can only think of maybe 3-4 180 shots on my course and they are par 5's.

If you have a good approach game you will be fine, what do you play off?

swingking

I play off 7 at the moment and it happens when I'm faced with a dogleg hole. I wouldn't dream of drawing or fading a ball around a dogleg, I simply play a 3 iron. BTW, I meant shots from 150 yards not 180

TheDoc

a thats more beleiveable im in the same kinda boat. I'm trying to get the hang of curling round dog legs. Today for the first time i hit a proper draw with my driver that when measured was over 320 yards =D .

What people need to learn is to play to their strength. Not even does or needs to hit the ball straight, very few pros hit straight, its golfs hardest shot after the low fade.

If you hit a fade, you get pros and cons. The ball gets more height and some cut spin, and you can attack more pins, the downside is the ball travels shorter and is more affected by wind.

If you draw the ball you hit a much longer ball with a low flight which penetrates wind. But the ball generates serious topsin and is hard to control on approach shots.

I recently played against two lads from the Island golf club who purposly put draws on their drivers and fades ontheir irons, bastards =D But play to your strengths.

I personally hit a fade and am longe nough of the tee but can consistantly hit green from long to short distances. Problem arise when i miss greens since my chipping reeks ass.

Halo

you can constantly hit greens :eek:
what do ya play off????

TheDoc

like i said they can very often miss and then i **** my chips. I play off 12 but i must say im a very good 12. As far as I know im lower now but our golf club has been told to play of our handicapp we started at on the month of august due to some errors.

And when i say i hit greens i dont mean every shot i hit touches the dance floor, but a vst majority of the time, good ol Dave O'Connor here will tell ya, went out to Donabate with him and hit like 16/18 greens, love that course =D

swingking

well today I finally took the plunge; I bought a set of second-hand set of Mizuno mp 37 irons with DG s300 shafts. They are the f***in sweetest irons on the planet and the feel is amazing. They are the ferrari of irons.

They cost me 400 euro in total; appenently the guy who bought them couldn't hit them, so they were in sweet condition. So now I have Callaway X-16 irons and Mizuno mp 37 irons.

Played with them on the course and I shot 77 strokes, which was well good for what I play to with handicap.

My best advice when it comes to blades is to try them; you might be suprised; cavity back game improvement irons don't cut the chase when you want to take your game to the next level.

TheDoc

Are the 37's the new model? I'm going to wait till i get to about 8, constantly shooting i nthe 70's and have a regular swing pattern till i change to blades.

but at the end of the day blades look ****ing class =D