News: Be Aware of the Problem with New Irons

Companies are spending millions of dollars on advertising to promote the sale of golf clubs and components in the golf industry. This is all part of any business to influence or convince you and me (the consumer) to purchase their products.

As the golf industry & technology continues to grow, there is one change that I feel is wrong and misleading to the consumer. That is the reduced loft on major manufactures sets of irons, so you can hit the ball farther with the same # iron. For example, they are reducing the loft so people think they are hitting the ball as far with their New 7 iron, as they were with their old 6 iron. If this is happening to you, I hate to take the wind out of your sail, but the fact is that your New 7 iron has the same loft than your old 6 iron, and you probably thought that you were hitting these New Irons farther than your original irons, but that is not the case. Your New PW is the same as your old 9 Iron, etc. etc.

As a Club Maker, I will also tell you what the dilemma is for the manufacturers to reduce the loft in your iron set. When you buy a New set of irons, it usually consists of 3-PW (now a days, more likely a 4 or 5-PW). The problem is nearly all wedges come in 52, 56 & 60 degree, give or take 2 degrees, so here is dilemma.

Your original set of irons consists of a PW (48 degrees), 9 iron (44 degrees), 8 is 40, 7 is 36, and so on, which gives you a consistent 4 degree loft (face angle) difference throughout your set of Irons.

Your New Irons consists of a PW at 44 degrees, a 9 iron at 40 degrees, and so on, so you now have an 8 degree loft difference between your PW and to your 52 degree approach wedge and no Iron in between.

I can adjust the loft on your irons and wedges so you will have a consistent 4 degree loft difference on your set of irons and wedges.

I just finished making 2 sets of irons (5-PW, wedges & hybrids) and the 9 iron heads I used were 40 degrees and the PW heads were 44 degrees of loft right from the factory, so I adjusted the loft on the irons and wedges to end up with a very consistent set of irons.

Before I made these 2 sets of irons, as well as the wedges, and hybrids, I talked to my supplier about the irons having a loft reduction of approx. 4 degrees.  My supplier then called the factory to see if there was a mistake with the degrees of loft, but they were told No, that’s the loft they now use for their New Irons. My supplier asked if they made a 48 degree iron to fill the gap between the 44 degree PW and 52 degree wedge, but they were told that they don’t make one for these sets, but have a gap wedge available in a couple of styles which is still going to leave you with an 8 degree (missing an iron) gap on the wedges.

The bottom line is they are giving false information about being able to hit these New Irons farther and they are just selling to the masses and not caring about their Customers.

If you have bought New Irons in the last couple of years you no doubt have this problem and don’t even know about it because it is not detectable from the naked eye.

Give me a call and will check the Loft on your Irons for you, at no charge, so you can see for yourself if you are missing an iron with this 8 degree dilemma.