Use blades to improve your handicap....

[McTear]

Hi,

For years I played off 11 with Mizuno blades, they were great clubs but a tad unforgiving, as you would expect. I decided to change to something a bit more forgiving in the hope of getting my handicap down a bit. I opted for Ping I3 Blades (which aren't blades at all). Initially I did see an improvement in my scores, but gradually this tailed off and I was duffing and shanking more and more shots. I went back to my Mizuno's for a while and found that I could hardly hit them anymore, basically I had stopped concentrating on making decent swings, I just assumed the Game Improvment clubs would get the ball there.... and the chunky top line put me off...

In the end I ditched the I3s and went for Ping s59s. Since going back to the blades and putting in some decent practice I've seen my handicap go down to 10 (had gone up to 13)

I also find the blades are much easier to work e.g when I get stuck behind a tree (which happens a lot) it is much easier to draw and fade the ball or control the high of the flight when playing in the wind.

Has anyone else had the same experience?

Cheers...

 

[mansell]

Hi,

For years I played off 11 with Mizuno blades, they were great clubs but a tad unforgiving, as you would expect. I decided to change to something a bit more forgiving in the hope of getting my handicap down a bit. I opted for Ping I3 Blades (which aren't blades at all). Initially I did see an improvement in my scores, but gradually this tailed off and I was duffing and shanking more and more shots. I went back to my Mizuno's for a while and found that I could hardly hit them anymore, basically I had stopped concentrating on making decent swings, I just assumed the Game Improvment clubs would get the ball there.... and the chunky top line put me off...

In the end I ditched the I3s and went for Ping s59s. Since going back to the blades and putting in some decent practice I've seen my handicap go down to 10 (had gone up to 13)

I also find the blades are much easier to work e.g when I get stuck behind a tree (which happens a lot) it is much easier to draw and fade the ball or control the high of the flight when playing in the wind.

Has anyone else had the same experience?

Cheers...

I'm not experienced enough to answer, but welcome to the forum

 

[RGDave]

Has anyone else had the same experience?

Nope....then again I've never owned S or U G.I. irons.

I can bend the ball with my irons when I have to. I'd always swap straighter regular shots to being able to shape a very few per round.

Horses for courses.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Welcome to the forum. As a blade user back in the 80's (real butter knives with pea sized sweetspots) and having increasingly gone upwards in handicap and cavity size, I'm pretty certain I'd never get the maximum benefit again from using them.

There are plenty of clubs on the market that aren't out and out blades and are forged to give a soft feel that will allow you to move the ball and still give a bit more forgiveness. Are you sure it was the switch to blades that dropped the handicap or more dedicated and constructive practice.

 

[haplesshacker]

Hi. Welcome to the forum.

Interesting read. Though I'm at the other end of the golfing h'cap ladder. I've recently tried some 'player' clubs, and was surprised at how well they went. Another forumer did suggest that I was possibly concentrating a bit more whilst hitting these. But I can honestly say that I wasn't. Despite being watched by my pro and the TM fitter chappie, I was quite relaxed.

Does having better clubs make you play better? I guess there's an argument on both sides regarding that one. However I'd probably say that (after my demo day revalation), don't assume that just because you're a certain h'cap level means that you have to have 'X' type of club.

I was hoping that my MX19s would last me 5 years or so. They were fab when I was slicing as a rank beginner, but my natural swing and hand action has given me a left flighted ball. And after trying a club with less offset, I'm wondering what I can sell to get a more suited (players) set of irons.

Each to their own I guess.


I suspect that some might think it's a bit like this.

Almost anyone can sail one of these. In fact I could teach someone whos never sailed in their life to sail one in a week. Okay you won't be an Olympic champ, but you would be able to sail it.

However this is a different kettle of fish! Once up to speed the boat 'flies' on foils in the water. The boat is a bit like the Euro Fighter. It is essentially unstable. You'd struggle to learn anything in this, and even as a seasoned sailor, most won't get to grips with it!

Are golf clubs any different? After last week. I'd say, yes, very different.

 

[RGDave]

There are plenty of clubs on the market that aren't out and out blades and are forged to give a soft feel that will allow you to move the ball and still give a bit more forgiveness. Are you sure it was the switch to blades that dropped the handicap or more dedicated and constructive practice.

Did the OP say "gone back to blades"?

Ping S59.....Blades, right, and I'm Sergio Garcia!

Seriously I was eyeing up a set of these last week. They are a "camouflaged" Game Improvement iron.....

 

[Golfmmad]

Is that you in both pics Hapless?

Golfmmad.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I thought that when I read it but assumed it was Pings answer to a blade. Definitely not a blade in the true sense of the word but also a club aimed at the better player. I'm still not sure how much of the handicap reduction is down to playing a workable club and how much is down to the extra practice.

 

[haplesshacker]

What's their MDF number!? Or whatever it is? Seems silly to argue about blades, soft blades, better player GI clubs, cavity backs etc. Pure blades are rare beasts nowadays. Even the top notch Mizuno jobbies have 'muscle backs', but we'd probably call them blades. It's just terminology and marketing hype.

If I hit a 'shovel' better than 'X' iron, I'd play with a shovel or whatever you want to call it!

(Now there's a thought! Wonder if they'd let me on the Belfry trip with 'shovels!!)

 

[RGDave]

I thought that when I read it but assumed it was Pings answer to a blade. Definitely not a blade in the true sense of the word but also a club aimed at the better player.

Would it surprise you to hear that S59s have almost the same MPF as Mizuno Mx-17s and Mx-25s (not that I remember the 25s).

MacGregor 565 and Ping S59 are within a gnats whisker....I'm not claiming I'm playing with Blades.....

 

[RGDave]

What's their MPF number!? Or whatever it is?

Hapless, you know me too well!! 660.....G.I.

 

[haplesshacker]

Dave.

So what's the MPF for the TM Tour Preferred irons I tried last week compared to the ever so tempting MP52s?

Cheers

 

[RGDave]

Dave.

So what's the MPF for the TM Tour Preferred irons I tried last week compared to the ever so tempting MP52s?

Cheers

Dunno, the old Tour Preferred models were around 550.

I'm not sure I can find the MP52s BUT I do know that (on the most recent chart) either the 52s or the 57s came out quite a bit lower than the other.....I think the 52s were the more "friendly".....actually, I'd bet my last £ on it.....

 

[medwayjon]

Blades only make things harder as I found with my 690MB blades.

The OP isnt actually using true blades so the question is somewhat irrelevant.

 

[USER1999]

(ignoring the mpf for the moment) I can't see why changing away from GI clubs is going to make you play better. It might, but only if your game is totally unsuited to GI clubs. This can only be relevant for a very small percentage of people. Tiger maybe?

 

[Parmo]

I would have thought the natural progression would be from game improvement irons to cav backs to musel backs to blades but nothing in stone.

 

[medwayjon]

When you consider that many of the best pro's dont use blades that sort of tells you something I think.

They can work the ball just aswell with a set of shallow cavities as they can a full blade.

I learned a lesson and that was not to make a hard game even harder.

 

[haplesshacker]

Is that you in both pics Hapless?

Golfmmad.

Nope. Though I have owed both of them at some point or other. But my version of the lower one didn't have foils. It's 11 foot long, 7 foot wide, of with only 12 inchs of that was hull in the water. The rest were wings! The boat weighed less than 60kgs!

 

[McTear]

fair points.... and yes S59's aren't really blades through GM do class them as blades when they do their Iron Reviews.

Think it would be an interesting feature for GM to run... Give a 20 handicapper a set of better players irons for a few rounds and see how it affects their game and a 2 handicapper a set of Game Improvements irons to see if it improves their game any..

suppose at the end of the day it's more about what you feel comfortable with.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Assuming the player is a higher handicapper due to the quality & consistency of the ball strike, then the only reason I could think that blades could help is that they will get immediate feedback of the quality of individual strikes from the club face. ie rather than being some what masked by the cavity and big offset of a game improvement club.
Otherwise I can only think that blades would make life harder for them.