Set shrinkage.

[Voyager EMH]

Nobody but the player is interested in what number is on the sole or how old the club might be.

Good point, but not true sometimes.

"What did you hit there?" gets asked a lot in social games, AmAms, etc.
When I get asked that, I reply with the degree of loft, if I know it.

For my next game on Tuesday, I'm going with 21, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 45, 50 and 58.

 

[Starter]

Good point, but not true sometimes.

"What did you hit there?" gets asked a lot in social games etc.
When I get asked that, I reply with the degree of loft, if I know it.

For my next game on Tuesday, I'm going with 21, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 45, 50 and 58.

Must be just me because if I was playing with you I would have absolutely no interest in what club you or anyone else took.

It's completely irrelevant to me. But then I have no interest in the "I played today...." thread.

I appreciate the good play of others and can sympathise with playing partners who might be having a bad day but ultimately I am not interested in their score or how they have played.

 

[Crow]

What is duff about it? Surely it is a matter of opinion/preference or manufacture's description. Why did you specify 52?

Golf Monthly says: Typically, a pitching wedge loft will be somewhere between 42° and 46° but they can occasionally vary either side of this range.

56° SW
52° PW
48° 9 iron
44° 8 iron
40° 7 iron
36° 6 iron
32° 5 iron
28° 4 iron
24° 3 iron
20° 2 iron

 

[Starter]

A pitching wedge should be 52 degrees.

Where is that specified in the Rules of Golf?

 

[rulefan]

56° SW
52° PW
48° 9 iron
44° 8 iron
40° 7 iron
36° 6 iron
32° 5 iron
28° 4 iron
24° 3 iron
20° 2 iron

Wat was your source?
I have quoted 3 different sources.
What about the other wedges, Gap Sand & Lob

 

[Orikoru]

I completely agree.

When I posted originally I was merely reflecting on how the make up of many players' bags has changed in the 50 odd years I have been playing.

I certainly wasn't trying to reignite the tired old argument about lofts and lengths clubs should be.

If you need to hit your bal a given distance just pull from your bag whatever club you feel will achieve that.

Nobody but the player is interested in what number is on the sole or how old the club might be.

It's just that that is the literal reason iron sets don't include 3 or 4 irons anymore.

 

[Orikoru]

56° SW
52° PW
48° 9 iron
44° 8 iron
40° 7 iron
36° 6 iron
32° 5 iron
28° 4 iron
24° 3 iron
20° 2 iron

I've just discovered my pitching wedge is a 7 iron and my 7 iron is a 4 iron.

 

[Crow]

Wat was your source?
I have quoted 3 different sources.
What about the other wedges, Gap Sand & Lob

Where is that specified in the Rules of Golf?

My source is common sense.

I quoted pitching wedge and sand wedge, all other wedges are just marketing fluff sold at inflated prices to massage the egos of wannabe pro golfers and to make more money for club manufacturers.

For what it's worth the pitching wedge could just be stamped as a number 10 iron, the sand wedge does have a special flange to ride through the sand so deserves its special name.

 

[Starter]

My source is common sense.

I quoted pitching wedge and sand wedge, all other wedges are just marketing fluff sold at inflated prices to massage the egos of wannabe pro golfers and to make more money for club manufacturers.

For what it's worth the pitching wedge could just be stamped as a number 10 iron, the sand wedge does have a special flange to ride through the sand so deserves its special name.

Certainly isn't common sense.

Do you drive a 50 year old car? Watch a black and white TV?

Or is your obsession purely golf related?

By all means play the clubs you want but don't be dismissive of others for not sharing your love of outdated clubs.

Remember some of us were also playing at the time those were current and based upon
experience don't hold all of them in such high regard.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Wat was your source?
I have quoted 3 different sources.
What about the other wedges, Gap Sand & Lob

Page from The Golf Handbook 1998 by R. Bradbury and I. Morrison. ISBN 1-86147-006-1



An earlier book, The Encyclopaedia Of Golf (1991), ISBN 0-86318-637-8

has the same lofts for 2 to 9 iron, but PW 50° and SW 56°

 

[Voyager EMH]

Must be just me because if I was playing with you I would have absolutely no interest in what club you or anyone else took.

It's completely irrelevant to me. But then I have no interest in the "I played today...." thread.

I appreciate the good play of others and can sympathise with playing partners who might be having a bad day but ultimately I am not interested in their score or how they have played.

Do you ever play in a betterball, AmAm or Scramble?
Consultation about club selection with team mates is very much part of the game in those.

 

[Crow]

Certainly isn't common sense.

Do you drive a 50 year old car? Watch a black and white TV?

Or is your obsession purely golf related?

By all means play the clubs you want but don't be dismissive of others for not sharing your love of outdated clubs.

Remember some of us were also playing at the time those were current and based upon
experience don't hold all of them in such high regard.

I don't drive a 50 year old car and nor do I watch a black and white TV.

I'm not obsessed with golf, well maybe I am or I wouldn't be frequenting this forum.

I haven't once mentioned "outdated" clubs in this thread, which is a rather dismissive term if I may say so.

I merely said that a PW should be 52 degrees as, in the example of lofts shown, this gives a perfect progression through a set of irons and negates the need to buy expensive "specialist" wedges.

I admit to being sceptical of the whole obsession with buying handicap improvement these days through advances in technology.
Many of the manufacturers' claims should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Well that's my opinion anyway.

 

[Voyager EMH]

A set of 10 irons that includes only one wedge.

 

[Backache]

Do we need that many clubs?

Many can get by with a Driver a baffie a couple of niblicks and a putter.

 

[Golf is fun]

Do you ever play in a betterball, AmAm or Scramble?
Consultation about club selection with team mates is very much part of the game in those.

Unless everyone hits their clubs the exact same distance you would be working to an offset (calculated consciously or otherwise) anyway, different lengths and lofts of clubs would just add or subtract from that offset.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Unless everyone hits their clubs the exact same distance you would be working to an offset (calculated consciously or otherwise) anyway, different lengths and lofts of clubs would just add or subtract from that offset.

It generally just takes place as a chat where we would do our best to help one another and understand the not-exact-science that you describe.
"Dunno, can't help you, because..." with respect to those differences, would not be good for the team.

 

[D-S]

Do you ever play in a betterball, AmAm or Scramble?
Consultation about club selection with team mates is very much part of the game in those.

Personally, unless it was someone I played a lot of golf with and it so happened that we regularly used the same clubs for shots or there was regular 1 or 2 club difference, I wouldn't bother ever asking what club someone hit. I might ask if they thought it was playing longer or shorter, due to wind or elevation, than expected - but club? No.

Even if I knew the make and model of their club, I would still then have to know what length and loft they had (e.g. is it Ping Retro, Standard or Power loft?), also what ball they were playing with, normal launch angle and smash factor. Them just giving me whatever is stamped on the bottom of the bat they were swishing is properly meaningless.

 

[Golfnut1957]

When I started playing, a set was 3 to PW, sometimes SW. Later, the manufacturers started producing rescue clubs (later to develop into hybrids). Unfortunately, these clubs had the same loft as my long irons, why would I want two clubs for one job. Before then, nobody had told me that I didn't have the ability to hit a 3 or 4 iron.

But then something changed, all of a sudden a lot of people started telling handicap golfers that long irons were too difficult and that they had to be replaced with hybrids. This was soon followed by manufacturers removing the long irons from sets as we didn't need them.

They didn't replace the long irons with hybrids, nor did they reduce the price to reflect the now smaller size of a set. No, they now wanted us to pay for the set of irons and the hybrids that were completing our set. And as the lofts of irons get stronger, so the number of irons in a set get smaller, being replaced by hybrids at the top and specialist wedges at the bottom. All to be paid for.

I've heard that next year Taylormade are going to produce a set of irons with 7 Gap Wedges, all with appropriate lofts and numbering.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Certainly isn't common sense.

Do you drive a 50 year old car? Watch a black and white TV?

Or is your obsession purely golf related?

By all means play the clubs you want but don't be dismissive of others for not sharing your love of outdated clubs.

Remember some of us were also playing at the time those were current and based upon
experience don't hold all of them in such high regard.

I don't have a 50 year old car, but I live in a 60-year old house.

I watch a colour TV, but occasionally I will watch 50 year old films and TV programmes.

I like to listen to 50 year old music occasionally.

I play golf with 21st century clubs most of the time, but occasionally I will play with 50 year old clubs - I find it very enjoyable to do both.

What I have found is that there is very little difference between a 1970s 34° iron and a 2020s 34° iron if the shafts are the same length. The number on the sole is different, however.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Personally, unless it was someone I played a lot of golf with and it so happened that we regularly used the same clubs for shots or there was regular 1 or 2 club difference, I wouldn't bother ever asking what club someone hit. I might ask if they thought it was playing longer or shorter, due to wind or elevation, than expected - but club? No.

Even if I knew the make and model of their club, I would still then have to know what length and loft they had (e.g. is it Ping Retro, Standard or Power loft?), also what ball they were playing with, normal launch angle and smash factor. Them just giving me whatever is stamped on the bottom of the bat they were swishing is properly meaningless.

But I play with chaps I have known for a very long time. We know each others' games inside out.
A chap I have known for 50 years has some Mizuno 221s. He doesn't know the lofts - so I leaned them, just to be helpful in these situations.
His 5-iron is 25° and mine is 27°. Par 3 club choice can be an interesting discussion. We have played in one members only AmAm already this year.