"What kind of irons should I play?"

As I referenced in an earlier post (HERE), one of the most difficult decisions to make when buying new clubs is what type of irons to buy.  Part of the problem is that if you ask ten people, you're going to get ten different answers.  In this post, I'll discuss what your choices are, the two major competing theories on what you should play, and, of course, I'll give you my thoughts.

Types of Irons  

For those of you that read Golf Digest's "Hot List" (I'll tell you why you should stop doing that some other time), you're probably familiar with their categories for irons.  Though my disdain for the Hot List is immeasurable, I will give them credit for creating some useful categories: Players Irons, Game Improvement, and Super Game Improvement.  Here are the characteristics you can expect to see in each type of iron:

Players Irons

Generally, these are going to be the smallest (heel to toe) and thinnest (top line and sole) irons, and they will have the least amount of offset.  These are going to be the least forgiving type of irons, they feature shallow cavities or none at all, so missing the sweet spot will be penalized with a loss of distance.  The advantage of these clubs is that they make it easier to shape your shots: high, low, left, or right.  These irons are favored by "players" or those with lower handicaps.

Game Improvement (GI)

This is that "just right" middle that most of the irons on the shelf fit into.  GI clubs will have some offset, a medium sized face, sole, and top line, and they will have cavities of medium depth.  These clubs won't cover up your mistakes as well as the SGI clubs will, but they give you more ability to control your ball flight.

 

 

 

 Super Game Improvement (SGI)

These are the clubs designed with the beginner or high handicap player in mind: lots of offset, thick sole, deep cavity, and big, forgiving club faces.  They are designed to go the same distance no matter where you hit the ball on the face, and they encourage a high, straight ball flight. 











***Please understand that this is just a rough framework.  Irons exist on a continuum, not in discrete categories.  I provide the categories simply to give you a basis for thinking about iron selection.

Two Schools of Thought: "No Pain, No Gain" vs. "Make the Game Easy"

Go to any golf equipment forum (I strongly recommend MyGolfSpy.com) and you'll find that the longest, most heated discussions involve who should play what kind of irons.  Read enough of those threads and you'll see that people fall into one of two groups.

"No Pain, No Gain"

"I grew up playing blades and that's how I learned be a good player," is the oft-heard refrain from this group.  They believe that if you want to be good, you need to play blades or players clubs so that you can see and feel your misses more acutely.  They believe that being penalized in this way will force you to focus on your shots and hit the center of the face.  According to this group, playing GI clubs, or, God forbid, SGI clubs, will cause you to be a sloppy ball striker.

Fun fact: these guys all have shrines to Ben Hogan somewhere in their houses.

"Make the Game Easy"

These are the guys trumpeting the fact that KJ Choi has won millions of dollars playing clubs that other would deride as "shovels" (big, chunky SGI irons).  They don't buy into the notion that you need blades to play high level golf (and they have the evidence on their side).  These guys claim that they can feel a miss on their oversize irons just as well as they can with a butter knife blade...they'd just rather not suffer the consequences in terms of distance loss.

My Approach to Iron Selection

First, neither of those two camps is entirely right, neither is entirely wrong.

There's no debate about the fact that playing with blades will give you more feedback on your mishits than any other kind of club.  Whether or not that's valuable is very much debatable.  If hitting bad shots led you to hit good shots, there would be a lot more good golfers out there.  Unfortunately, the reality is that getting bad feedback is only useful if you know what to do with it.

With regard to the shovel-lovers: yes, absolutely there are guys who play SGI clubs on tour.  It's also true that at that level, they could play with brooms and tennis rackets and still score better than most of us.  If someone wants to learn about high level shot making, they will need a club slightly smaller than a minivan to do it.

Second, it's your damn game, do what makes you happy.

As with so many things in golf, you need to start by figuring out what you want to accomplish:
*Are you buying a new set because you want the clubs to fix your problems?  Then you probably want the biggest SGI clubs you can find.

*Are you buying new clubs as part of a game-improvement plan that includes lessons and practice?  In this case, go ahead and buy something that's a little ambitious.  If you currently play GI clubs, dive into the players irons and figure out how to make them work...if that's what you want.

*Do you want to shape your shots or would you be happy hitting nothing but high draws?  If the former, you will want a players iron.  If the latter, buy something bigger.

Another thing to consider is that most of us should be playing some kind of combo set.  The idea of playing an old school 3-PW set is dying, and manufacturers are making it easier than ever to pair more forgiving long irons with short irons that offer more control.  Many sets are even built with this idea in mind.

Conclusion

Selecting your irons is one of the toughest equipment choices because you'll likely be married to them for a number of years and they can't be changed, unlike length, lie, loft, or shafts.  The biggest thing I can recommend is to decide what you want out of your new irons and be very demanding in finding a new set that will fulfill those desires.


For club fitting or consultation, please contact MattSaternus@gmail.com

What should come first: Lessons or New (Fitted) Clubs?

As someone who has, at various times, taught exclusively, fit exclusively, and done both together, I've been asked many times, "When should I get fit?  Should I take lessons first or get the clubs first?"  This is a topic I plan to write about at length, and I'm going to get started on it by answering that question.

The short answer: Clubs first, assuming they are fitted for you.

The long answer: If you're planning to start playing golf seriously or are re-committing to improvement, there's no reason to play with clubs that are too long or short, too stiff or soft, too upright or too flat, or have the wrong size grips. All of these things will cause you to start building compensations into your swing: things that you will later have to work to remove.  For example, someone who is very tall, very short, or just uniquely proportioned might end up with a very odd posture if they played standard length clubs.  There's no reason for that.

On the other hand, does the beginner need to be fit to the highest level?  Of course not.  Someone who doesn't know their swing yet probably doesn't need to be dialing in spin rates with different high end shafts.  It is likely that they will be changing a number of things about their impact conditions, so that's not going to be money well spent.  For now, a decent stock shaft should suffice, as long as it's the right flex.

The toughest question is, "What type of irons should I get?"  There are lots of ideas about who should play what type of clubs, so I will address that question on its own at a later time.

If you have any thoughts or questions about this topic, please feel free to share them in the comments section.

Club Fitting: Method Fitters

While discussing club fitting on MyGolfSpy.com, I was inspired to coin a term: "method fitters."  Just as golf is cursed with many "method teachers" it has just as many "method fitters."

Let me define my terms: a method fitter is someone who tells you what you should play without asking many, or any, questions.  He tells you, "This is what you should play.  Buy it and leave."  Just as a method teacher is convinced that everyone should swing the club a certain way, the method fitter thinks that he knows the right club for every golfer.

Why do we have method fitters?  I think there are two primary reason.

1) Too much technology, not enough knowledge.  Over the last five to ten years, the advancements in launch monitor technology have been nothing short of amazing.  Flightscope and Trackman can tell us everything we would want to know about what the golf ball and club.  What's more, these technologies are more accessible to the average golfer than ever before.

Here's the catch: the machine can't fit anyone.  The machine is just a tool, no different than a hammer or a saw.  Without a skilled fitter operating it, the machine does nothing more than flash numbers and pictures across a screen.  It is the fitter's responsibility to take all the data and use it in a conversation with the player.

Unfortunately, what happens more often than not, is that the fitter uses the machine as a shield: "Here are your numbers, these numbers are good, these numbers are bad, buy this club."  The golfer, likely already intimidated by the setting and his own lack of knowledge, is left to nod and accept the recommendation, playing an utterly passive role when he should be no less than an equal partner in the decision making. 

And why does the fitter use the technology in this way?  I don't ascribe any malice to his actions, just ignorance and sloth.  Depending on the setting, the fitter's "training" may have consisted of watching a PowerPoint presentation and filling out a quiz.  He is likely as overwhelmed by the information as the golfer!  And why doesn't he get active and educate himself?  Because he doesn't have to...he has a shield.

The problem of too much technology and not enough knowledge contributes to the second cause.

2) Fitting is seen as a science, not an art.  There are many things about fitting that are scientific.  For example, we know exactly the best combination of launch and spin, at any given ball speed, to produce the longest drives.  But does that mean that a fitting should end the moment those numbers are achieved?  Absolutely not.  What if those ideal numbers are achieved with a club that the player hates the look, sound, or feel of?  What about accuracy; how much distance should we give up to be in the fairway?

The ultimate goal of club fitting should be to find a club that allows the player to perform his best.  The fitter doesn't know if he's reached that point without input from the player. 

There are many levels of custom fitting

While still not the norm, custom fitting is becoming much more common.  I would guess that if you're reading this, you have had your clubs fit.  What I hope you take away from this post is that there are many levels of custom fitting, and the next time you are in the market for clubs you should look for a "better" custom fit.

A bare bones, method fitting is still better than buying off the rack.  Even the most uneducated fitter can get you into a club that is the right length with the right grip size, and that's a start.  But the next time you are buying clubs, I would suggest finding someone who not only has the tools to fit you, but also the knowledge.  Finding a fitter like that might be a little more difficult (though if you're reading this, you've found one), and working with them might be a bit more expensive, but when you consider the cost of clubs and the frustration of playing badly-fit equipment, I think the difficulty and expense are worth it.

For a custom-fitting or club consultation, I can be reached at MattSaternus@gmail.com.