Disadvantages of game improvement irons?

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slicer79

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What are the downsides to using game improvement irons?
Realistically why doesn't everyone use them if they make the game so much easier.
I presume distance control is the major one.
It's definitely something I'm interested in at the moment, I'm giving serious consideration to going with something as forgiving as possible
 
Aesthetics and ego come into it to an extent.

Better players also talk about workability of the ball and how that is not as easy with that type of club. Now, for most amateur golfers workability is a pipe dream or an aspiration. Most want to just hit it straight or have a consistent shot shape. For those who can work the ball, apparently, they act against you (don't know why before you ask. I'm in the group that just wants to hit it cleanly in the direction I'm aiming)

I'd disagree with distance control. If you hit them consistently, they go a consistent distance. They don't occasionally jump 20yds.

I've gone for the Cleveland Halo XL irons, right up the top of the tree for forgiveness. I'm loving them, great decision to change to them.

Edit : just seen you are a 4hcp. You won't need my level of forgiveness but a decent GI iron, why the heck not?
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Aesthetics and ego come into it to an extent.

Better players also talk about workability of the ball and how that is not as easy with that type of club. Now, for most amateur golfers workability is a pipe dream or an aspiration. Most want to just hit it straight or have a consistent shot shape. For those who can work the ball, apparently, they act against you (don't know why before you ask. I'm in the group that just wants to hit it cleanly in the direction I'm aiming)

I'd disagree with distance control. If you hit them consistently, they go a consistent distance. They don't occasionally jump 20yds.

I've gone for the Cleveland Halo XL irons, right up the top of the tree for forgiveness. I'm loving them, great decision to change to them.

Edit : just seen you are a 4hcp. You won't need my level of forgiveness but a decent GI iron, why the heck not?
Click to expand...
Yeah I think traditionally this is something that better players stated, that you would get trampoline effect sometimes and it would jump an extra 15 yards. But I'm not sure if this is really the case anymore with today's GI irons. A lot of them don't even look as chunky as the GI irons of 10-15 years ago. Essentially I think a lot of the perceived negatives are no longer true.

Maybe a disadvantage is that with the strong lofts and added distance you end up needing 4 or 5 wedges in the bag. But now that I have my bag set-up for that it's not a problem really, I'm used to it. I don't particularly care if my 41° club is called a PW, a 10 iron or what, I just like that it's easy to hit.

There are plenty of options nowadays for irons that are very forgiving but not quite full GI chunky things, if the look of them offends you.
 
Why make the game harder than it is?
As forgiveness with golf clubs is finally the in thing, forget ego's and play with whats going to give you most enjoyment.
 
I’m sure you know but there’s game improvement irons and then there’s game improvement irons

At the time my GI cobra fly-z irons were definitely a step forward from the 15-year-old king II’s I was using (also GI) but switching to mizuno jpx923 last year was just another level in design, build quality & performance as well as aesthetics. I didn’t go for the out and out GI mizuno irons (HL’s) but I think the regular is still a game improvement club & I’m sure better players than me could still use them and not be disappointed

I think GI clubs at the top end are a world away from those closer to the entry/lower costs end and when I watch youtubers like Shiels etc ripping GI’s so well in tests then they end up shoving some blade set in the bag that we see them all season hitting with too much draw/fade on the course, I do wonder why more often they don’t play a more forgiving club. Are low handicapper club golfers really getting that much more out of having a blade/MB set ?

Maybe I just cant appreciate what blades etc give the better player (I’m off 12) and the shots they need to play to get into low single figures
 
I've only been playing properly for 5 years and have been wrestling with GI versus not for most of that.
There are benefits and drawbacks of both and I struggle to find the sweet spot, literally and figuratively.

Unlike LT, when I had Ping G425 irons I did find that the occasional sweet strike went 20 or more yards further than expected. Probably happened at least once per round.

I've found a relatively happy medium with some 12-year old Mizuno irons that are forged CBs but very much GI forgiveness.

Most of my pals are SF golfers. A couple have recently moved away from players irons towards something a bit more friendly to mishits.
 
slicer79 said:
What are the downsides to using game improvement irons?
Realistically why doesn't everyone use them if they make the game so much easier.
I presume distance control is the major one.
It's definitely something I'm interested in at the moment, I'm giving serious consideration to going with something as forgiving as possible
Click to expand...
Mostly ego or aesthetics imho. You see Rick Shiels reviewing GI irons or player irons that he hits miles better than his current irons but he never puts them in his bag because he uses the aesthetics excuse of liking looking down at something that resembles a butter knife. Personally I'd get over that in a heartbeat if it made me play better golf.

Distance control can be another issue, I've seen it personally with a good golfer who's been a plus golfer for years. He had Mizuno player irons and every so often he would just get a low spin bullet that would go 15 yards further than he was planning, usually with his 8-PW irons. He's went back to his more blade like irons and the flyers have gone. I remember Crossfield talking about this and his theory was that the wider sole stops the club digging in so if you catch it a tiny bit heavy you hit higher up the face on the club, knocking spin off and get a flyer.

On a more positive note for them one of my mates has took his handicap down from 9 to 5 after going for a fitting and coming away with GI irons. He's very happy with them.
 
Personally, GI irons worked for me when I started, but the transition to non-GI clubs has made me a better player. I put it down to more concentration required due to lesser hitting area.

The distances reduce massively, as more traditional irons are strong lofted, so gapping has been essential. My GI 7 iron went 170 yeards, by current os 140 yards. I'm happy with my current distances.

That said, I have a blended set with T200 long irons and they're players distance, with decent forgiveness.
 
I often wonder about the flyer thing, people blame the club but in reality is it just a bad strike? Was that ball going to fly the green no matter what type of club was in the hands
 
I started playing with bladed irons, because that is all that seemed to be available. We did not call them blades.
Twenty two years later, 1992 I got my first perimeter weighted irons, Ram Laser Fx forged 1-SW.
ram fx.jpg
Looking down at address, they did not look very different from my 1977 Maxfli International 2-SW.
I can't say there was much difference apart from the 1,2, and 3 irons. They certainly flew a little higher and longer.
I did not notice any "forgiveness" which is not to say that there wasn't any, merely I did not notice.

Through the 1980s and 1990s I had paid attention to a heck of lot of very good amateurs playing Ping irons. It was this era that seemed to produce the differing opinion of "cavity" vs "blades". Ping Eye2 were the real innovation with a clubhead that was more than perimeter weighted - back then, it looked like a small tube from the back.

So in 2008, I took the plunge and went for G10 3&4 irons and i10 5- PW & 52°W. This is what I have mostly played h'cap qualifying golf with since.
I like to use blades as well, Daiwa TCS and a rare-to-the-UK set of Reid Lockhart.
Last year I acquired a set of 1984 Beryllium Copper Ping Eye2 3-SW and did my lowest h'cap qualifying round SD= 1.0 with those.

I think the difference between blades and cavity backed irons is over emphasised. "workability" and "forgiveness" are marketing terms to me.
I could find some models of either blades or cavities that won't suit me and some that do. I can't really say that I have a preference for either.

There are a great deal of choice in looks.
Try some of all types and make a personal choice. No need to justify your choice to anyone else.

As for mis-hits doing this that or the other - that's just swings and roundabouts.
 
Last edited:
Voyager EMH said:
I think the difference between blades and cavity backed irons is over emphasised. "workability" and "forgiveness" are marketing terms to me.
I could find some models of either blades or cavities that won't suit me and some that do. I can't really say that I have a preference for either.

There are a great deal of choice in looks.
Try some of all types and make a personal choice. No need to justify your choice to anyone else.

As for mis-hits doing this that or the other - that's just swings and roundabouts.
Click to expand...
I think there's a difference in the effect for good ball strikers like you and presumably the OP compared to worse players like me.
If I smash my Mizuno blade 7i into the ground an inch behind the ball then the massive divot and ball will both go about 30 yards.
With a Ping G425 7i the bounce and wide sole will stop it digging and the ball will still go 100 odd yards.
That's my idea of forgiveness, rather than a 10% drop off for a slightly off centre hit (numbers made up for purposes of illustration).

Different perceptions of forgiveness for differing abilities.
Forgiveness for me is more about the sole and what fats and thins do than the benefits of perimeter weighting.
 
id played with blades for the last 13 years and loved them, but changed about 4 years ago to GI. they are ugly admittedly but the ball goes high and straight and further. i gained maybe 10 to 15 yards. true the lofts are stronger. easier to hit. they do as other have said have a bit less workability. i find them difficult to hit dead chip and runs and punch shots as it it comes off the middle they ping off miles. ive still got an old set of blades i kept to play the odd game with but i dont think ive had them out since i changed
 
Burnsey said:
Personally, GI irons worked for me when I started, but the transition to non-GI clubs has made me a better player. I put it down to more concentration required due to lesser hitting area.

The distances reduce massively, as more traditional irons are strong lofted, so gapping has been essential. My GI 7 iron went 170 yeards, by current os 140 yards. I'm happy with my current distances.

That said, I have a blended set with T200 long irons and they're players distance, with decent forgiveness.
Click to expand...
What do you use in the shorter irons? Did you need to adjust lofts to blend together
 
patricks148 said:
id played with blades for the last 13 years and loved them, but changed about 4 years ago to GI. they are ugly admittedly but the ball goes high and straight and further. i gained maybe 10 to 15 yards. true the lofts are stronger. easier to hit. they do as other have said have a bit less workability. i find them difficult to hit dead chip and runs and punch shots as it it comes off the middle they ping off miles. ive still got an old set of blades i kept to play the odd game with but i dont think ive had them out since i changed
Click to expand...
I think this is a major factor in why the "better" player generally doesn't use GI irons..
They're designed to go high and straight...those big wide soles and low CoG see to that.
Which is great if you only want to hit it high and straight....
Low punches and things like gentle fades, that a better player can do, are more difficult with, say, a G430 rather than a i230.
Also, certainly for my swing, GI irons are a disaster waiting to happen.
I have a pretty shallow AoA with irons and wide soles are a recipe for the next shot to be played from 40 yards past the pin.
Narrower soles give me a chance to get the ball in the air....and, generally, GI irons don't have narrow soles.

So it can depend on a few things..many don't care what they loo, down on but golf is about confidence and looking down seeing 1/4 inch of offset only fills me with confidence that the ball is going well left. It means I have to work harder to deliver the face at the right angle to avoid the lefts...
 
Imurg said:
I think this is a major factor in why the "better" player generally doesn't use GI irons..
They're designed to go high and straight...those big wide soles and low CoG see to that.
Which is great if you only want to hit it high and straight....
Low punches and things like gentle fades, that a better player can do, are more difficult with, say, a G430 rather than a i230.
Also, certainly for my swing, GI irons are a disaster waiting to happen.
I have a pretty shallow AoA with irons and wide soles are a recipe for the next shot to be played from 40 yards past the pin.
Narrower soles give me a chance to get the ball in the air....and, generally, GI irons don't have narrow soles.

So it can depend on a few things..many don't care what they loo, down on but golf is about confidence and looking down seeing 1/4 inch of offset only fills me with confidence that the ball is going well left. It means I have to work harder to deliver the face at the right angle to avoid the lefts...
Click to expand...
the one major advantage with a blade ive found apart from all those other mentioned is out of rough, i could easily hit a bladed 5 iron out of rough and whispy fescue are a nightmare for GI far more metal for the grass to grab on too the smaller sharper blade cuts through much easier
 
patricks148 said:
the one major advantage with a blade ive found apart from all those other mentioned is out of rough, i could easily hit a bladed 5 iron out of rough and whispy fescue are a nightmare for GI far more metal for the grass to grab on too the smaller sharper blade cuts through much easier
Click to expand...
I would have thought the opposite would be the case
 
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