Jacked Loft Police, Look Away Now 👀

[Backsticks]

It shows how, despite the annual creativity of their marketing departments butchering of the word 'tech', the sum total of 40 years 'research' into club 'development' 'technologies' and 'progress' has been to forge or cast a 7 instead of a 5 onto a 28° iron.
Impressive though. From the marketing guys and gals.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I imagine they think you’re quite strange quoting the loft

There is no need for them to imagine. Most of the people I play with have known me for a long time.
You are free to imagine whatever you choose.

 

[Bobthesock]

If someone asked me what the loft of the 7 iron I just hit I would rightly think they were a weirdo and have nothing else to do with them

 

[Singlefiguregokfer]

It shows how, despite the annual creativity of their marketing departments butchering of the word 'tech', the sum total of 40 years 'research' into club 'development' 'technologies' and 'progress' has been to forge or cast a 7 instead of a 5 onto a 28° iron.
Impressive though. From the marketing guys and gals.

Are you just salty because they haven’t found an iron use can use well?

 

[Voyager EMH]

If someone asked me what the loft of the 7 iron I just hit I would rightly think they were a weirdo and have nothing else to do with them

What make and model is it?

 

[Voyager EMH]

Ping seemed to stray with the 2008 i10 irons. Just what were they doing, I don't know?
Pleased to see they are back on the right track now.

 

[Crow]

I posted this in another group recently:

Shown are "as measured" lofts rather than specified lofts (I'm not even sure if British manufacturers ever had actual specs for their lofts ).

Dates are to the best of my knowledge.
5 iron length also shown.
Colour coding is in 1 degree steps from my ideal, which are shown at top of the page.

Should be good for insomniacs if nothing else.

 

[AussieKB]

Good selling point, hit the new 7 iron and see how further it goes to the one you have......
but do not mention the loft is 4 degrees stronger.....

 

[Shooter McPowick]

40* wedge - good grief!

 

[Springveldt]

Ping seemed to stray with the 2008 i10 irons. Just what were they doing, I don't know?
Pleased to see they are back on the right track now.

View attachment 52289

They are trying to sell clubs. You can't have people whacking your 34° 7 iron in an American Golf bay and it going 15 yards shorter than Taylormade's or Callaway's 27° 7 iron, you are going to sell zero clubs.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I posted this in another group recently:

Shown are "as measured" lofts rather than specified lofts (I'm not even sure if British manufacturers ever had actual specs for their lofts ).

Dates are to the best of my knowledge.
5 iron length also shown.
Colour coding is in 1 degree steps from my ideal, which are shown at top of the page.

Should be good for insomniacs if nothing else.

View attachment 52291
View attachment 52292

Had a trawl through to see if I had any. There was one set - Ben Sayers Mentor.
Not measured my lofts, but I notice your set seems a bit out of whack somewhere with only 2° difference between the 5 and 6.
Are forged blades more susceptible to loft change through usage over time?

 

[Crow]

Had a trawl through to see if I had any. There was one set - Ben Sayers Mentor.
Not measured my lofts, but I notice your set seems a bit out of whack somewhere with only 2° difference between the 5 and 6.
Are forged blades more susceptible to loft change through usage over time?

They're reputed to move more easily than cast but I think that's comparing them against a Ping type casting, whereas UK castings can be quite soft.

I think the lack of smooth progression in some sets is more down to poor quality control. I can't remember ever seeing a spec sheet for UK made irons showing intended lofts.

A lot of UK clubs were cast and you'd hope that this would lead to some accuracy/consistency in the loft and lie.
Why some are so far out I don't know, perhaps they were adjusted by previous owners, maybe they just got bent through years of being hit, but some just seem to be poor quality control.

A good example would be a set that I didn't include, the Donaldson Greenfinder irons, these have seen very little play as can be seen from the picture below, they start out great at the top end and yet the loft progression at the bottom end is horrific. I do wonder in cases like this, if incorrect blanks were used at the stamping stage? For instance a 9 iron blank was stamped up as an 8 iron and so on. (Although that doesn't explain how they ended up with a 62° SW!)

 

[BiMGuy]

They're reputed to move more easily than cast but I think that's comparing them against a Ping type casting, whereas UK castings can be quite soft.

I think the lack of smooth progression in some sets is more down to poor quality control. I can't remember ever seeing a spec sheet for UK made irons showing intended lofts.

A lot of UK clubs were cast and you'd hope that this would lead to some accuracy/consistency in the loft and lie.
Why some are so far out I don't know, perhaps they were adjusted by previous owners, maybe they just got bent through years of being hit, but some just seem to be poor quality control.

A good example would be a set that I didn't include, the Donaldson Greenfinder irons, these have seen very little play as can be seen from the picture below, they start out great at the top end and yet the loft progression at the bottom end is horrific. I do wonder in cases like this, if incorrect blanks were used at the stamping stage? For instance a 9 iron blank was stamped up as an 8 iron and so on. (Although that doesn't explain how they ended up with a 62° SW!)

View attachment 52358


View attachment 52357

Wow, the gaps at the bottom end are really off.

 

[Backsticks]

While lofts on woods, fairways, hybrids, and wedges is standard, putting them on irons would be a bit like a magician explaining his trick before he does it at all. There are still people out there who think there is a technological development in irons that enables them to hit it further. Manufacturers have nothing to gain from highlighting the truth. Numbered irons will live on.

 

[Voyager EMH]

While lofts on woods, fairways, hybrids, and wedges is standard, putting them on irons would be a bit like a magician explaining his trick before he does it at all. There are still people out there who think there is a technological development in irons that enables them to hit it further. Manufacturers have nothing to gain from highlighting the truth. Numbered irons will live on.

...But not forever, if we continue on this track.



We will probably get there well before 2064, because the pace of change has speeded up in the last 15 years.
There might be 8 and 9 irons only by 2050.

This is why I advocate a reset now. It can not be a wedge unless it is 50° or more. So the G730 have a 40° 10-iron and a 45° 11-iron.
Manufacturers might then go back to using the numbers 3 and 4 again rather than 10 and 11.
Or they can choose to use 10, 11 and 12 irons and treat us all as halfwits.

 

[Singlefiguregokfer]

When you guys are getting upset about lofts do you also do comparisons of shaft lengths through the generations?

 

[Jigger]

I honestly don't see how this can keep continuing, unless more companies get on the 10 iron, 11 iron bandwagon and we start ordering sets that are 7 to 11 instead of 5 to P or whatever. It's pointless to called them wedges if it's 40° and you need five more wedges after them.

I reckon it’s the titliest setup that’s driving it with vokey wedges but there should be regulations to say that a 9iron for example needs to be between x & y degrees loft. It’s seems pointless delighting the numbers.

 

[AussieKB]

I remember using Tommy Armour 845 Irons over 15 years ago, and they had the degree of loft on the club
were great Irons.

 

[D-S]

I honestly couldn’t care what’s stamped on the bottom of the club, I just need to know the progression of distance and length they go. A, B, C, D, E, F etc would do me - maybe hieroglyphs, ‘I’m always in between an Eye of Horus and a Two Reeds on this hole”.
Given the wide variation in lofts lengths between models and incarnations of irons it is of no help knowing that x hit a 9 iron as that probably has nothing in common with what’s in your bag.

 

[greenone]

They're reputed to move more easily than cast but I think that's comparing them against a Ping type casting, whereas UK castings can be quite soft.

I think the lack of smooth progression in some sets is more down to poor quality control. I can't remember ever seeing a spec sheet for UK made irons showing intended lofts.

A lot of UK clubs were cast and you'd hope that this would lead to some accuracy/consistency in the loft and lie.
Why some are so far out I don't know, perhaps they were adjusted by previous owners, maybe they just got bent through years of being hit, but some just seem to be poor quality control.

A good example would be a set that I didn't include, the Donaldson Greenfinder irons, these have seen very little play as can be seen from the picture below, they start out great at the top end and yet the loft progression at the bottom end is horrific. I do wonder in cases like this, if incorrect blanks were used at the stamping stage? For instance a 9 iron blank was stamped up as an 8 iron and so on. (Although that doesn't explain how they ended up with a 62° SW!)

UK castings aren't 'soft' it's a different alloy being cast which maybe softer than the alloy being used by Ping.

Forged heads will be far more consistent in loft and lie compared to cast heads due to the manufacturing process. Castings have to be cast oversized to allow for shrinkage during cooling and no 2 pieces will cool into the same exact shape.