Custom Fit finally - Orka or something else

[Ethan]

Just got back from the fitting at Southport Golf Academy. James was the fitter and to be fair he was superb, but my swing wasn't!

I'm not interested in hitting the club's any further, but at the same time don't really want to hit them any less! If I end up hitting a 6iron when I would be hitting a 7 then it becomes a harder shot just with the change of number at the bottom of the club ?. What I want is more consistency.

Tried a couple of different heads and found the RS10MB was the best with a similar shaft to the one I have now. I was getting all the numbers, spin, peak hight, launch angle, but it was around half to a club shorter. But my current 7iron is 31° and the Orka is 36°, so its always gonna be hard to get the same distance. The clubs look good and feel good but because I was swinging poorly I never felt totally sold on them. James was very good though and never tried to push me for a sale and was the complete opposite really. He's said I could go back and try them again on the range with the launch monitor if I like at no extra cost. I think I will take him up on this.

My dilemma is that I also have a fitting booked at Scottsdale which will cost £100. I'm sure the fitting would be great and I would be able to try a wide range of clubs, but if the swing is the same Im not gonna get fitted very well and that money will be wasted. I also don't think I would get anywhere near the after sale service from Scottsdale as I would from James.

All in all I'm more confused than I was before, but I would highly recommend James at Southport Golf Academy.

So you hit the Orkas a club shorter, but they are 5 degrees weaker than your current club, which is at least a club's worth. 36 is rather weak for a modern 7 iron. A Cally Apex 7 iron is 30.5 degrees, Apex Pro 33, Titleist T-100 34, TM P-770 (good players club) 33, Ping i210 33.

 

[tigerwes]

Orka's have what they call "true lofts". Basically what a 7 iron was years ago before they got stronger and stronger to get more distance.

I could possibly get them bent a couple of degrees stronger which would get me the distance back. But my swing was so poor I don't think I could have got a proper fit for anything.

 

[tigerwes]

What the Orka's were though was consistent. The decent shots I did hit has all the same numbers, launch, spin, carry, peak.

 

[Ethan]

Orka's have what they call "true lofts". Basically what a 7 iron was years ago before they got stronger and stronger to get more distance.

I could possibly get them bent a couple of degrees stronger which would get me the distance back. But my swing was so poor I don't think I could have got a proper fit for anything.

"True", not sure about that. Did they have "true" shafts of hickory too?

Old school, perhaps, but you couldn't possibly have expected them to keep up with clubs 5 degrees stronger.

You can choose distance or consistency, but perhaps not the two. I think a set that you can hit where you want them to go plays better than one where you might get the odd hot one off the face.

 

[fundy]

Just got back from the fitting at Southport Golf Academy. James was the fitter and to be fair he was superb, but my swing wasn't!

I'm not interested in hitting the club's any further, but at the same time don't really want to hit them any less! If I end up hitting a 6iron when I would be hitting a 7 then it becomes a harder shot just with the change of number at the bottom of the club ?. What I want is more consistency.

Tried a couple of different heads and found the RS10MB was the best with a similar shaft to the one I have now. I was getting all the numbers, spin, peak hight, launch angle, but it was around half to a club shorter. But my current 7iron is 31° and the Orka is 36°, so its always gonna be hard to get the same distance. The clubs look good and feel good but because I was swinging poorly I never felt totally sold on them. James was very good though and never tried to push me for a sale and was the complete opposite really. He's said I could go back and try them again on the range with the launch monitor if I like at no extra cost. I think I will take him up on this.

My dilemma is that I also have a fitting booked at Scottsdale which will cost £100. I'm sure the fitting would be great and I would be able to try a wide range of clubs, but if the swing is the same Im not gonna get fitted very well and that money will be wasted. I also don't think I would get anywhere near the after sale service from Scottsdale as I would from James.

All in all I'm more confused than I was before, but I would highly recommend James at Southport Golf Academy.

if it was me id give it a week and take the fitter up on his offer to come back and hit again, hopefully on a better day for your swing!

if you asked for consistency and thats what you got then go for it, if not having the distance because the lofts are weaker (or youre worried about resale values) dont. what i would say is think about the whole bag and coverage of the distances you want (ie 100-220 with 12 yard gaps for eg) and make sure what you buy fulfills your need rather than getting too hung up on the number on the bottom of each club

fwiw Ive had orka irons for many years now, not worried about being able to resell, the product and service ive had from Alex has been utterly first class

 

[tigerwes]

if it was me id give it a week and take the fitter up on his offer to come back and hit again, hopefully on a better day for your swing!

if you asked for consistency and thats what you got then go for it, if not having the distance because the lofts are weaker (or youre worried about resale values) dont. what i would say is think about the whole bag and coverage of the distances you want (ie 100-220 with 12 yard gaps for eg) and make sure what you buy fulfills your need rather than getting too hung up on the number on the bottom of each club

fwiw Ive had orka irons for many years now, not worried about being able to resell, the product and service ive had from Alex has been utterly first class

I think I might have another go with them on Friday. What did suprise me was my ball speed which was only 104mph, I thought it would have been a little higher. My current 7 iron I would use for 160-165yds with soft green and fairways. The Orka was coming out at 145carry 155 total, which is maybe a between a 9 and 8 for my current Cobras.

The resale doesnt really bother me as I would expect to have these clubs for maybe 10 years. The current ones are coming up to that.

Very annoying that my swing was upto scratch today though, maybe if I try it on the range rather than the fitting room I could do better...

 

[sweaty sock]

Your swings not going to be up to scratch everyday, really the point of fitting is to allow you to cope with thenot so great days. I would be more worried if i went to a fitting and striped everything, if that happens the fitter never see's your true miss tendancies and cant really diagnose or fix any issues. As long as your swing speed wasnt hugely out of sorts (which is rare) then you probably got close.

As for the (ultra weak) true lofts. Your set make up would end up like Tiger 3 - pw, no gap wedge straight into sand and lob. I'd be happy with that ?

 

[OnTour]

The right shaft is more important than the head. moved to right shaft 100% more control. £45 per shaft PW to 6 iron MODUS every time.

Don't get sold on the next marketing project.

 

[Neeko1988]

I don’t get this “true” loft talk. It’s just old school lofts. What makes them better or worse that stronger lofts. For me it’s just a case of going for a fitting and trying different options and going for the ones that give the best overall numbers irrespective of lofts. If strong lofts are better so be it same for weak lofts. Why market one as being “true”

 

[MrC]

I may be alone in this but the number on the club doesn’t matter nor does the distance (within reason). I want consistency and accuracy and to build a set with appropriate gaps.

I wouldn’t mind if a 7 iron went 130, 140 or 150. As long as I can get from 80 to 200 with my set. Plus driver and putter.

But don’t listen to me I also carry a chipper!!!!

 

[garyinderry]

Consistency isnt found standing in a bay on trackman hitting a number over and over.

Consistency is found on the course when 9 /10 shots cover a minimum yardage.

6 flushed shots hitting your number and 4 20 yards short is going to hurt your score in the real world.

 

[tigerwes]

I may be alone in this but the number on the club doesn’t matter nor does the distance (within reason). I want consistency and accuracy and to build a set with appropriate gaps.

I wouldn’t mind if a 7 iron went 130, 140 or 150. As long as I can get from 80 to 200 with my set. Plus driver and putter.

But don’t listen to me I also carry a chipper!!!!

Though I agree with you on this, if im stood over a tee shot which would be a 7 iron with my current clubs and its a now a 6iron automatically it becomes a harder shot menatlly because a 7 iron is easier to hit. Though really its just a 7iron lofted club in a 6iron shaft!!

 

[spongebob59]

Though I agree with you on this, if im stood over a tee shot which would be a 7 iron with my current clubs and its a now a 6iron automatically it becomes a harder shot menatlly because a 7 iron is easier to hit. Though really its just a 7iron lofted club in a 6iron shaft!!

do a gapping session and then just hit the club that gives you the right yardage .
If the orkas give you more consistent yardage then this should be easier.

 

[Ethan]

Though I agree with you on this, if im stood over a tee shot which would be a 7 iron with my current clubs and its a now a 6iron automatically it becomes a harder shot menatlly because a 7 iron is easier to hit. Though really its just a 7iron lofted club in a 6iron shaft!!

A good reason why clubs should just have a loft, not a number. This shot looks like a firm 32-degree iron.

 

[Crow]

I play iron sets from across the years, with differing lofts.
I know that an iron with 48 degrees of loft goes about 105/110 yards, 40 degrees goes about 135/140 yards, 32 degrees goes about 155/160 yards, etc.

To try and help me be consistent on distances I now measure the lofts on each set of irons.

I then write down the lofts for the set I'm playing that week on a piece of card that goes in my scorecard holder and can quickly check how far those clubs should be going.
Say I've got 140 to go, check the card and see which iron is closest to 40 degrees, typically it'll be a 7 or 8 iron.

Here's a section of those I've measured.
The bold lofts at the top are my ideal and the colour coding gives me an at-a-glance idea of how strong or weak a set is. (It also shows that loft creep has been going on for a long time1)

 

[road2ruin]

Orka's have what they call "true lofts". Basically what a 7 iron was years ago before they got stronger and stronger to get more distance.

I could possibly get them bent a couple of degrees stronger which would get me the distance back. But my swing was so poor I don't think I could have got a proper fit for anything.

I thought that the whole thing with Orka was that whilst they don't have lofts as strong as their competitors most fittings result in an increase in distance despite that? At least that's the way they market themselves on social media.

 

[Italian outcast]

I play iron sets from across the years, with differing lofts.
I know that an iron with 48 degrees of loft goes about 105/110 yards, 40 degrees goes about 135/140 yards, 32 degrees goes about 155/160 yards, etc.

To try and help me be consistent on distances I now measure the lofts on each set of irons.

I then write down the lofts for the set I'm playing that week on a piece of card that goes in my scorecard holder and can quickly check how far those clubs should be going.
Say I've got 140 to go, check the card and see which iron is closest to 40 degrees, typically it'll be a 7 or 8 iron.

Here's a section of those I've measured.
The bold lofts at the top are my ideal and the colour coding gives me an at-a-glance idea of how strong or weak a set is. (It also shows that loft creep has been going on for a long time1)

View attachment 37113

My head hurts

 

[Ethan]

I play iron sets from across the years, with differing lofts.
I know that an iron with 48 degrees of loft goes about 105/110 yards, 40 degrees goes about 135/140 yards, 32 degrees goes about 155/160 yards, etc.

To try and help me be consistent on distances I now measure the lofts on each set of irons.

I then write down the lofts for the set I'm playing that week on a piece of card that goes in my scorecard holder and can quickly check how far those clubs should be going.
Say I've got 140 to go, check the card and see which iron is closest to 40 degrees, typically it'll be a 7 or 8 iron.

Here's a section of those I've measured.
The bold lofts at the top are my ideal and the colour coding gives me an at-a-glance idea of how strong or weak a set is. (It also shows that loft creep has been going on for a long time1)

View attachment 37113

In those days, golf balls behaved very differently and club heads were designed pretty differently too, so the combination of club loft and weight distribution and the ball led to a lower launch and flight than you would get now.