Launch angles

[HPIMG]

I have never really looked at my launch angle’s except with the driver but after a recent wedge fitting the fitter said as a rule of thumb you want half of the loft for launch when it comes to wedges.
What about the rest of the bag ? What should irons launch at say a 30degree 7 iron I’m guessing it should launch more than 15 degrees and then driver you wouldn’t want a 10.5 driver launching at 5 degrees.

 

[harpo_72]

Irons and woods need to be looked at separately due to strike. Woods you try to add launch to so loft plus attack angle I think and irons are downward blows so loft minus attack angle .. but both have their limits and I cannot imagine you could shed 30 degrees of loft off a 60 degree wedge.. maybe 8-10 max ? I really don’t know it’s not anything I have considered I know how to compress and drive the ball with an iron and I also have a soft floaty one and it’s all related to shaft lean which affect club loft at impact

 

[SteveW86]

I have never really looked at my launch angle’s except with the driver but after a recent wedge fitting the fitter said as a rule of thumb you want half of the loft for launch when it comes to wedges.
What about the rest of the bag ? What should irons launch at say a 30degree 7 iron I’m guessing it should launch more than 15 degrees and then driver you wouldn’t want a 10.5 driver launching at 5 degrees.

Lots of variables will affect the launch angle, AoA, dynamic loft etc.

Driver “should” be a positive AoA, my 10 degree driver I launch at approx 14 degrees. 7 iron at 21 launch approx.

The 30 launch on a wedge has been spoken a lot that I’ve seen with the likes of TXG, Tyler McGhie, Raflewski etc, at approx half the loft of the wedge. This isn’t just due to shaft lean, strike location on the face will help keep the launch low and the spin high if you hit lower on the face. If you can launch your 56-60 wedge a 30 degrees consistently you are doing pretty well, but that’s just 1 of a number of wedge shots potentially needed to be played.

 

[Springveldt]

I have never really looked at my launch angle’s except with the driver but after a recent wedge fitting the fitter said as a rule of thumb you want half of the loft for launch when it comes to wedges.
What about the rest of the bag ? What should irons launch at say a 30degree 7 iron I’m guessing it should launch more than 15 degrees and then driver you wouldn’t want a 10.5 driver launching at 5 degrees.

Depending on your swing speed, then yes, you might actually want your 7 iron launching at around 16º. Mine is 30.5º and when I was flippy with it I was launching it at 22º or even 23º with 92mph clubhead speed, it was going 150 feet in the air and spinning at over 7K. Now it's more like 18º, my clubhead speed is slower at around 85-87mph on 7 iron but it carries further than the old swing due to the launch conditions.

With driver you want to be hitting up and not adding that much loft, everything else is level or down.

Trackman released new updated PGA Tour averages, you can see that the men launch a 7 iron at 16.1º but I'd guess most of them have a 7 iron in 34º loft or higher.

It might be better to model our game on the ladies numbers though.

 

[Orikoru]

My last Trackman session was like 18 months ago, but my 7 iron was launching at 16° average. But the club is 27.5° of loft, I don't really think I would want it launching half of that because it would be a missile. My driver launched at 15.7°, although the longest drives were at 14° launch so I guess that would be optimum for me. 50° wedge was launching at 30. All my irons and wedges were a little higher than half the loft of the club.

 

[VVega]

I flip, so struggle to get 7i lower than 20+. Just accepted that my 7i is a PW equivalent, it goes tour distances for PW too

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

If I want a higher launch angle I use a higher numbered club…