Loft Cranking - I'm all for it!

[duncan mackie]

This is a tip someone told me about a couple of years ago, and it seems to work for me. If you need to go over something, say a tree, which is infront of you, take the club out you wish to hit and place it sole flush on the floor, shaft facing the tree. If you hold it in place with your foot and look at the line from face to grip, if it extends up and beyond the tree, you can hit that club knowing you'll clear it. If the line only goes say 3/4 of the way up the tree, take a different club and do the same again. Obviously you'll have to hit the shot well, but do that and you should clear the tree.

I find this works well for me.

Itmay bethedescription, but if you have the sole on the ground and the shaft towards the tree you are measuring the lie rather than the loft; principles sound but to get the loft you need the club face flat on the ground (back to the ground - shaft to the tree) and then the shaft is indicating the natural loft of the club.

The big but in such considerations are that the natural loft assumes that your club is returned to that position at impact with a 0 angle of attack....which won't be the reality for many, if any!

Ultimately it comes down to both experience and implementation - but knowing the actual loft number of the club is even less useful

 

[Region3]

This is a tip someone told me about a couple of years ago, and it seems to work for me. If you need to go over something, say a tree, which is infront of you, take the club out you wish to hit and place it sole flush on the floor, shaft facing the tree. If you hold it in place with your foot and look at the line from face to grip, if it extends up and beyond the tree, you can hit that club knowing you'll clear it. If the line only goes say 3/4 of the way up the tree, take a different club and do the same again. Obviously you'll have to hit the shot well, but do that and you should clear the tree.

I find this works well for me.

It shouldn't work in theory. A 6 iron will be around 30° of loft, but should launch around 20° on a good hit.

If it works though, then carry on

Edit: Too slow again!

 

[delc]

A traditional matched set of irons was 3-PW plus a Sand Iron. The PW had a loft of 48, or maybe 50 degrees, and would hit the ball about 100 to 110 yards for a full swing by an average player. The clubs would then progress down in 4 degree increments of loft, giving about an extra 10-12 yards, which gave a good spread of distances through the set. These days a PW is likely to be about 44 degrees of loft and about an inch longer, so it's basically pretty much the same as an old time 8-iron and will hit the ball about 130 yards. This leaves a huge gap between the PW and the SI, which still needs 55 or 56 degrees loft to fulfill its primary function of getting out of bunkers. Hence you need one or more gap wedges. So a modern set of irons has become 5-GW, but does pretty much the same things as the traditional sets, but with different numbers on the bottom of the clubs! It's a con by club makers to make their clubs seem longer hitting than they really are! I note that many better players' forged/blade clubs are more lofted than the mid range game improvement irons, because such players can hit the ball a long way anyway, and are more concerned about distance control with the shorter irons. Little to do with technology IMHO! Golfers are probably fools to themselves, because they are impressed with how far great players can hit wedges and short irons, so if they try out various clubs and find that the Brand X 7-iron (usually the demo club you are given) hits the ball further, they will be impressed and buy the full set. However they will then find they need to buy a gap wedge for short shots around the green, and one or more hybrids, as even 5-irons are getting hard to hit due to lack of loft! :angry:

 

[Maninblack4612]

A traditional matched set of irons was 3-PW plus a Sand Iron. The PW had a loft of 48, or maybe 50 degrees, and would hit the ball about 100 to 110 yards for a full swing by an average player. The clubs would then progress down in 4 degree increments of loft, giving about an extra 10-12 yards, which gave a good spread of distances through the set. These days a PW is likely to be about 44 degrees of loft and about an inch longer, so it's basically pretty much the same as an old time 8-iron and will hit the ball about 130 yards. This leaves a huge gap between the PW and the SI, which still needs 55 or 56 degrees loft to fulfill its primary function of getting out of bunkers. Hence you need one or more gap wedges. So a modern set of irons has become 5-GW, but does pretty much the same things as the traditional sets, but with different numbers on the bottom of the clubs! It's a con by club makers to make their clubs seem longer hitting than they really are! I note that many better players' forged/blade clubs are more lofted than the mid range game improvement irons, because such players can hit the ball a long way anyway, and are more concerned about distance control with the shorter irons. Little to do with technology IMHO! Golfers are probably fools to themselves, because they are impressed with how far great players can hit wedges and short irons, so if they try out various clubs and find that the Brand X 7-iron (usually the demo club you are given) hits the ball further, they will be impressed and buy the full set. However they will then find they need to buy a gap wedge for short shots around the green, and one or more hybrids, as even 5-irons are getting hard to hit due to lack of loft! :angry:

I was out of breath when I finished reading that! I really don't think the manufacturers are trying to con the customers, much more to do with the perceived view that average golfers can't hit a 3 iron when, due to advances of design, they can.

 

[delc]

J

I was out of breath when I finished reading that! I really don't think the manufacturers are trying to con the customers, much more to do with the perceived view that average golfers can't hit a 3 iron when, due to advances of design, they can.

3-irons were quite easy to hit in the old days, when they had about 21 degrees of loft. Now my TM 4-iron has less loft than that to maintain reasonable gapping from the jacked down PW! The longest club I can hit with reasonable consistency in the TM set is the 5-iron!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I can still hit good long irons (4 iron to three feet on the 4th at Blackmoor). I really don't get your fascination with how it use to be in the "good old days". Lofts are stronger and while that is seen as progression by the manufacturers that won't change. It's very simple. Ignore the lofts on your clubs and concentrate on how far you hit each one. Know your yardages and work back from there. It isn't hard and these cranked lofts aren't some hocus pocus trickery from the manufacturers unless you are daft enough to buy into all that marketing hype

 

[delc]

I can still hit good long irons (4 iron to three feet on the 4th at Blackmoor). I really don't get your fascination with how it use to be in the "good old days". Lofts are stronger and while that is seen as progression by the manufacturers that won't change. It's very simple. Ignore the lofts on your clubs and concentrate on how far you hit each one. Know your yardages and work back from there. It isn't hard and these cranked lofts aren't some hocus pocus trickery from the manufacturers unless you are daft enough to buy into all that marketing hype

IMHO, you should be able to buy a matched set of irons and be able to play the full range of shorter shots with them, without have to buy additional wedges!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

IMHO, you should be able to buy a matched set of irons and be able to play the full range of shorter shots with them, without have to buy additional wedges!

You can. No one is forcing you to buy a gap wedge. There was always a big gap between PW and SW even back 20 years or so before the lofts started getting cranked. As I said and you chose to ignore, it's about finding a set of clubs to suit your own game, learning the distances and that includes how far you hit half and three quarter shots. It makes no difference what loft is on it.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

IMHO, you should be able to buy a matched set of irons and be able to play the full range of shorter shots with them, without have to buy additional wedges!

You can - simple as that.

 

[garyinderry]

3 irons have never been easy to hit.

 

[delc]

You can. No one is forcing you to buy a gap wedge. There was always a big gap between PW and SW even back 20 years or so before the lofts started getting cranked. As I said and you chose to ignore, it's about finding a set of clubs to suit your own game, learning the distances and that includes how far you hit half and three quarter shots. It makes no difference what loft is on it.

I would struggle around the greens if I didn't have a 50 degree gap wedge, which is about the loft a PW used to have! The PW in my 1980's Titleist irons (which I still have) is 48 degrees, which is near enough the same.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I would struggle around the greens if I didn't have a 50 degree gap wedge, which is about the loft a PW used to have! The PW in my 1980's Titleist irons is 48 degrees.

That's more down to ability as opposed to clubs that are made

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I would struggle around the greens if I didn't have a 50 degree gap wedge, which is about the loft a PW used to have! The PW in my 1980's Titleist irons (which I still have) is 48 degrees, which is near enough the same.

My PW in the I25 is 46 degree so it has moved 2 degrees in 30 years compared to your clubs. Hardly earth shattering. You struggle (by your own admission) around the greens. Maybe too many wedges is muddying the waters and a simple chip and run with a 7 iron is the go to shot

 

[delc]

My PW in the I25 is 46 degree so it has moved 2 degrees in 30 years compared to your clubs. Hardly earth shattering. You struggle (by your own admission) around the greens. Maybe too many wedges is muddying the waters and a simple chip and run with a 7 iron is the go to shot

http://ping.com/clubs/ironsdetail.aspx?id=16359

Ping i25's are better player's clubs and have slightly more loft than certain other irons I can think of. Even then there is a 5 degree gap between the PW and the 9-iron.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

http://ping.com/clubs/ironsdetail.aspx?id=16359

Ping i25's are better player's clubs and have slightly more loft than certain other irons I can think of. Even then there is a 5 degree gap between the PW and the 9-iron.

So what? My average 9 iron yardage is 122 and my average PW is 103 so a neat 20 yard gap I can cover with a grip down nine or a firmer wedge. In fact I've got a consistent space between all my clubs so I don't care a jot what the lofts are. It's not important except perhaps to you.