Numbers on golf clubs!

[delc]

These days you can buy a 4-wood, a 4-hybrid or a 4-iron and they will all hit the ball different distances. Must be desperately difficult for beginners to the game to get their heads around this. Even if you are not a beginner the numbers seem to mean less and less, because manufacturers keep strengthening the lofts on their clubs so they go further (for a given number), so a modern 8-iron is more like a 6-iron of 25 years ago. Wouldn't it be better if they just put an accurate number of degrees of loft on their clubs, so then you would know exactly what you are buying? :mmm:

 

[tsped83]

These days you can buy a 4-wood, a 4-hybrid or a 4-iron and they will all hit the ball different distances. Must be desperately difficult for beginners to the game to get their heads around this. Even if you are not a beginner the numbers seem to mean less and less, because manufacturers keep strengthening the lofts on their clubs so they go further (for a given number), so a modern 8-iron is more like a 6-iron of 25 years ago. Wouldn't it be better if they just put an accurate number of degrees of loft on their clubs, so then you would know exactly what you are buying? :mmm:

No.

 

[TheJezster]

I'd rather a standard myself.

 

[tsped83]

Wouldn't putting lofts on clubs make it more confusing for beginners? If you pull an iron that says 30 degrees or some such, who knows what that is? A set of irons, whilst lofts maybe cranked, will be relative to one another so shouldn't be a problem.

 

[bobmac]

It's not only the lofts that are different, an 18 deg hybrid, iron and wood would all have different length shafts

 

[delc]

Wouldn't putting lofts on clubs make it more confusing for beginners? If you pull an iron that says 30 degrees or some such, who knows what that is? A set of irons, whilst lofts maybe cranked, will be relative to one another so shouldn't be a problem.

I have an old set of Titleist clubs that have a number and the degrees of loft stamped on their heads. I agree that perhaps there should be an industry standard as to what the numbers actually mean. At least this would stop the space race to try and make every manufacturers' 7-iron go further than their competitors by continually jacking down the lofts!

 

[Foxholer]

There already IS a standard for irons - the number!

The only thing consistent, therefore standard, about an iron is the weight of the head. A 7-iron is 270/271 grams and there's a 7gm difference for each step.

Both woods and hybrids tend to use the loft. There can be a vast difference in size/weight of hybrids depending on what they are designed to favour. With wedges, loft is the logical measurement.

Scratch actually marketed a set of 'loft labelled' irons for a short time.

 

[garyinderry]

It matters not what is written on the bottom of the club. You have to hit it to really find out how far you hit the club.

 

[delc]

No.

Would you care to expand on that?

 

[bluewolf]

These days you can buy a 4-wood, a 4-hybrid or a 4-iron and they will all hit the ball different distances. Must be desperately difficult for beginners to the game to get their heads around this. Even if you are not a beginner the numbers seem to mean less and less, because manufacturers keep strengthening the lofts on their clubs so they go further (for a given number), so a modern 8-iron is more like a 6-iron of 25 years ago. Wouldn't it be better if they just put an accurate number of degrees of loft on their clubs, so then you would know exactly what you are buying? :mmm:

Would you not be assuming that loft is the only factor in how far a club hits the ball?

 

[delc]

Would you not be assuming that loft is the only factor in how far a club hits the ball?

Length, weight and whippiness of the shaft also comes into the equation. Manufacturers have also made their clubs about an inch longer for a given club number. As I said before, a modern 8-iron is pretty much the same as an old time 6-iron, so no wonder it goes further. Problems come at the short end of the range where there is often now a 10 degree gap between a PW and a SI, and at the longer clubs where a 3 iron is now impossible for a club golfer to hit because it's really a 1-iron!

 

[bluewolf]

Length, weight and whippiness of the shaft also comes into the equation. Manufacturers have also made their clubs about an inch longer for a given club number. As I said before, a modern 8-iron is pretty much the same as an old time 6-iron, so no wonder it goes further. Problems come at the short end of the range where there is often now a 10 degree gap between a PW and a SI, and at the longer clubs where a 3 iron is now impossible for a club golfer to hit because it's really a 1-iron!

so you can either put all that information on the bottom of an iron, or you can devise some sort of clever numbering system that lets you know exactly which club you are selecting. I would suggest a series of numbers, increasing from 1 to 9, coupled with a naming convention for the wedges

 

[delc]

so you can either put all that information on the bottom of an iron, or you can devise some sort of clever numbering system that lets you know exactly which club you are selecting. I would suggest a series of numbers, increasing from 1 to 9, coupled with a naming convention for the wedges

No problem with that as long as it is consistent between manufacturers. But it isn't. I bought a new set of Wilson irons a few years ago and found that I was hitting my short irons much further than with my previous rather elderly set of Pings. Initially I thought great, but then realised that any shot between 80 and 100 yards was quite awkward due to the lack of loft on the PW, and because I couldn't hit the sand iron more than about 70 yards. Sand irons still need 55 or 56 degrees of loft to fulfill their intended function of getting out of bunkers. Solved the problem by buying a gap wedge, but that performed pretty much the same as my previous PW, and had almost exactly the same loft!

 

[Pin-seeker]

My mate Games Cleveland CG16 irons,they have the loft of each club on the sole as well as the number.
Can't see Taylormade or Callaway doing it anytime soon tho.

Yes I know I said "games"

 

[bobmac]

No problem with that as long as it is consistent between manufacturers. But it isn't. I bought a new set of Wilson irons a few years ago and found that I was hitting my short irons much further than my previous rather elderly set of Pings. Initially I thought great, but then realised that any shot between 80 and 100 yards was quite awkward due to the lack of loft on the PW, and because I couldn't hit the sand iron more than about 70 yards. Solved the problem by buying a gap wedge, but that performed pretty much the same as my previous PW, and had almost exactly the same loft!

Thats because the gap between the long irons used to be 4 degrees. Then someone made it 3 degrees thus creating a gap between the PW/SW so they could sell you a GW. And it worked

 

[delc]

Thats because the gap between the long irons used to be 4 degrees. Then someone made it 3 degrees thus creating a gap between the PW/SW so they could sell you a GW. And it worked

I also quickly stopped using the 3-iron because it was almost impossible to get the ball airborne and it went less distance than the 4-iron. A traditional set of irons was 3-PW, now it's 5-GW, but pretty much does the same thing!

 

[fundy]

These days you can buy a 4-wood, a 4-hybrid or a 4-iron and they will all hit the ball different distances. Must be desperately difficult for beginners to the game to get their heads around this. Even if you are not a beginner the numbers seem to mean less and less, because manufacturers keep strengthening the lofts on their clubs so they go further (for a given number), so a modern 8-iron is more like a 6-iron of 25 years ago. Wouldn't it be better if they just put an accurate number of degrees of loft on their clubs, so then you would know exactly what you are buying? :mmm:

Hasnt it always been thus? When I started playing the game in the 80s my 3 wood and 3 iron went very different distances!

If you dont like it, you could always buy a set of irons that dont have strengthened lofts. lofts of my irons are pretty much the same as sets would have been 30 years

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Far too many variables. Manufacturers have different lofts and as much as you'll huff and puff they're will never be an industry standard. Regular stock shafts for off the shelf sets vary so that will affect distance and flight. Sorry Delc but again, while it's a discussion topic I can't see why you'd want to do this. Learn to hit a club to a degree of consistency, learn how far it goes and go from there. No need to add another variable into an already confused market

 

[rob_golf1]

If we started talking degrees, it would make the game sound far too technical. As such, putting people off even more!

 

[delc]

Far too many variables. Manufacturers have different lofts and as much as you'll huff and puff they're will never be an industry standard. Regular stock shafts for off the shelf sets vary so that will affect distance and flight. Sorry Delc but again, while it's a discussion topic I can't see why you'd want to do this. Learn to hit a club to a degree of consistency, learn how far it goes and go from there. No need to add another variable into an already confused market

It would be nice to have a good idea of how far your shots will go after buying or hiring a set of clubs though!