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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2006 (Part 5)

The Fear Factor - Choosing the “Right” Irons

by Leith Anderson

The current trend in golf clubs is for players to go with “game improvement” irons. The selling point is “forgiveness” - the possibility of getting an acceptable result from a bad swing. Golfers are also choosing softer flexes and lighter weights in their shafts thinking that might deliver more distance. Recently, I’ve begun to think that the promise of game improvement clubs is a false promise. Many players will be better off with much smaller, unforgiving “players’ blades”. The reason? Golfers elevate their game when faced with a challenge. The “Fear Factor” is the improvement in concentration and performance when the odds are against you. Small, forged players’ blades demand precise ball striking. If you MUST hit it better, you WILL hit it better.

The most satisfying of all shots are the ones that start out looking hopeless. Your ball finds a deep divot in the middle of the fairway. You plug in a bunker. You have a seventy five yard blast to a back pin. A delicate lob from a downhill lie in the rough. When you come out of nowhere and make birdie - it’s evidence that the Fear Factor is real. Great golfers rise to meet whatever challenge they face. Who really wants an OK result from a bad swing?

Over the years, I’ve thought of myself as a forged blade player. That goes all the way back to my very first set of irons - a used set of 1959 Walter Hagen’s that I loved from age 13 until I got my first brand new set - as a sophomore at Stanford University and last man on the golf team. I agonized over that purchase for at least six months and finally settled on a set of Wilson Staffs 1” over length with extra stiff shafts. (Arnold Palmer was our hero in 1964.) In those days no one ever thought about custom fitting irons. You just made your best guess and bought a set you could afford. Then, you learned to play what you bought and that was that. My Hagen’s were good enough to win a few junior tournaments, a team high school state championship and get me a tryout at Stanford - before you had to be really good to get on the team.

For years, my favorite blades were those 1963 Wilson Staffs. That model was one of the first game improvement designs. If you look closely, you will notice that Wilson expanded the back muscle pad toward the toe - moving the center of gravity ever so slightly toward the center of the clubface. They also cut the hosel a little short and took more weight out of the hosel with their innovative bore through hosel and red rubber plug. In later years, Callaway would borrow that trick. The sweet spot in early forged blades was dangerously close to the hosel. If you examine irons that were owned by good players in the 60’s and 70’s, you will see that the dime-sized wear spot was well inside the center of the face. Ralph Maltby did a lot of work to document his “Playability Factor” and a lot of that was to map the sweet spot of irons as it changed over the years. Players do better with irons where the sweet spot is closer to the center of the clubface.

When the MP-32’s came out, our Mizuno sales rep said that it was the first time that Mizuno designed an iron where the sweet spot was consistently in the middle of the clubface on all of the clubs. You might find that to be a pretty surprising admission for a company that’s been making forged irons for a hundred years. Why wouldn’t the sweet spot be in the middle of the clubface?

My affection for blades doesn’t mean that I haven’t tried dozens of game improvement irons. One of the sorriest trades I ever made was my old Wilson Staffs for a set of worthless Confidence stainless steel game improvement irons twenty years ago. That’s one deal I wish I could take back. Along the way, I’ve played every model of Ping and most Callaway’s. The only way you can ever know how a certain model will play for you is to play it. Never trust a stranger’s opinion.

Your Iron Choice Depends on Your Goals as a Player

The first question you’ve got to ask yourself is “What are my goals as a player?” Are you playing for fun or are you competing in tournaments? Are you trying hard to improve or are you content to keep from getting worse? As a shot maker, are you trying for the best average shot or the best single shot? Are you looking for a set of irons that’s good enough or are you on a quest to find the “magic” clubs? Think about those questions for a minute.

My personal goal is to compete and to improve. At 61, I’m playing as well as I ever have - thanks to modern equipment and thinking about golf all day, every day. I’m willing to pay the price in practice. I get my kicks from the one or two really good shots that I might hit in a round. Visualizing my shot has been second nature to me for fifty years. I get excited when I hit the shot that I imagined.

If you’re a Hogan fan, you know that he never claimed more than one or two “very good” shots a round. After fifty years of going dry on holes-in-one, I’ve had the thrill of seeing two perfect shots disappear into the cup this year. If you’re locked indoors because of bad weather, pick up a dart board and some fancy new darts to practice your visualization. A bull’s-eye is the same in darts and golf. They’re both Zen sports.

The Fear Factor

This theory isn’t for every player. If your index is north of fifteen and you’re not at least a moderately consistent ball-striker, you’re probably better off with a nice big offset iron and working to get your center-strike average up.

My commitment came from wanting to play Miura irons. After meeting Mr. Miura and realizing that Miura is widely recognized as the world’s best iron head, I resolved to try to understand the “Miura mystique”. I’d been gradually moving down the size scale - my Bridgestone “Joe Blades” were at least spades if not full-blown shovels. I worked through the Mizuno MP-32’s and then MP-60’s - forged blades that are fairly described as “mid-sized”.

The trigger was the Miura Limited Edition “Baby Blades”. Miura only made 100 sets worldwide. They might be the smallest muscle back blade that was ever created. If you can hit the sweet spot, the very best performance you can get is from the smallest, most compact blade you can find. All iron heads weigh almost the same. If the chunk of metal at the end of your shaft is tiny but the same weight as a larger head, the mass behind the ball will be more concentrated. The result: a muscle back blade will go farther and feel more solid than a cavity back blade. A smaller club head will go farther than a larger club head. But I repeat; you’ve got to strike the ball on the sweet spot.

Off-center hits will be penalized. The forgiveness in irons is measured by how much distance you lose if you miss the sweet spot by half an inch or more. With a shovel, that might only be five yards. With a small muscle back blade, that might be ten yards. That’s the bottom line: your good shots are better, but your misses are worse. Since golf is a “game of misses”, therein lies the dilemma. If you mostly miss, you’d better play shovels. Meantime, I’ve got a set of the Baby Blades set aside for myself. As they say: “Hope springs eternal”.

My own “Playability Factors”

It’s a pretty outrageous claim that golfers should consider “retro” (small, forged, muscle back) irons. With all of the millions of dollars going into research and development by the major companies to produce irons that are easier to hit, why would you choose to go back in time? The answer is in your personal goals. If you dream about Hogan-like perfection, you’re only going to reach that state of nirvana with forged, muscle back blades. If you want to try an experiment, here are some ideas to get the job done with class and without spending a lot of money. Besides, nothing says you can’t have a couple of sets of irons so you can choose your clubs to suit the course and your mood.

New or Classic?

Practically every player who chooses forged blades buys them with S-300, X-100 or Rifle 6.5 or higher shafts. If you do that, your experiment is likely to be short and not so sweet. Those shafts are fine if you’re under 30 years old and thinking about going out on Tour. For average amateurs, those shafts are too heavy and too stiff. In five years of launch monitor testing at the Golf Lab, we have never found a normal amateur player over thirty years old who got better performance from stiff, heavy shafts. This is especially true if you’re a senior player. For lightweight steel, we like Nippon - particularly the 1150 Tour. For graphite, we like Aerotech. The 110 gram Aerotech Steel Fiber shaft is great for better players who want to play graphite. Their lighter weight shafts can be good choices for seniors and women.

If you’re buying new, some custom departments have good lightweight shaft options. Mizuno offers the Aldila NV iron shaft in 105 gram weight. They also offer Nippon - though not all weights.

If you want to be successful with your forged blade experiment, you must update the shafts. It’s not a fair test to take an old, heavy, stiff set of S-300’s to the course.

You can take a different route if you want to have fun and maybe save a little money. You can choose from the best classic designs from the last forty or fifty years. With the possible exception of some of the latest Mizunos and Miuras, there is very little difference in forged blades that were manufactured decades ago. If you’re a Hogan fan, you can use the same model that Hogan played - updated and tuned for your game today. How about a set of Palmer’s famous 63 Wilson’s updated with a modern graphite shaft?

Choosing the “Right” Model

Ideally, you’re going to choose a model that falls into the class called “Playable Classics”. That means that they’re not too valuable to reshaft, rebalance and play. I’ve been watching that market for at least fifteen years and have seen a lot of models come and go. If you’re thinking about investing in upgrading a set of classic forged blades, here’s the secret to choosing the right model.

In recent history, golf equipment companies have had their ups and downs - lately, more downs. I mentioned Wilson in the 60’s. In those days, Wilson, Hogan and MacGregor were the top dogs. They dominated the PGA Tour when you could only buy name brand clubs in pro shops. Ironically, in constant dollars, golf clubs were much more expensive in the 60’s than they are today. In the 70’s and 80’s there was a wave of acquisitions that caused companies in every industry to be bought up by conglomerates that thought they could implement business school tactics of “line extension” and make their shareholders a lot more money.

That happened to Wilson, Hogan and MacGregor. Once proud companies were subjected to the humiliation of finding their products for sale in cheap, poorly engineered designs on the shelves of mass merchandisers. Golfers lost faith in the formerly leading brands. Meantime, the cost of entering the golf industry plummeted as China brought prices down. The last American foundries withered away. Casting irons cut a lot of cost out of producing new designs. A bunch of new companies came into existence. Some even survived.

If you’re looking for a classic style to play and want to choose one that will hold its value, be careful to find out when your model was manufactured. The models that hold their value are the ones that were produced during the glory days of each company. That’s why the 60’s blades from Wilson were great. They were played by Palmer, Casper, Middelcoff and Boros. By the 70’s, Wilson was mired in its serial acquisition hell. Today, Wilson is owned by a Finnish conglomerate and no one in America cares about them. At the end of this article, I’ll mention some of my favorite designs from the “right” eras. Here are some considerations if you’re thinking about finding a set of forged blades that fits your game.

Head size

In my opinion, the single most important feature of an iron head is size. “Size matters”: the larger the size, the easier the iron will be to hit - until it gets too big. Only you will know where that boundary is for your game. If you look closely at any of the companies that specialize in forged blades, you will see a size progression. Mizuno has the MP-37 for their small, compact, muscle back blade. Classics are now called “Signature” models. This year they have updated the MP-37 with the MP-67 that is the same size but has the cosmetics of the newer and larger MP-32. If you’re not too certain about your ability and your commitment to suffer frustration, go with the slightly larger models. Just this year a couple of component companies, KZG and Wishon have brought out very large size forged blades. I think you could look at that as a trend toward players’ desire to play forged irons - whatever their ability.

A benefit of smaller heads for players who enter tournaments (play it as it lies) on good courses - where lies in the rough can be nasty - is that the smaller the blade, the easier it is to dig a recovery shot out of long grass. Shovels are much more susceptible to grabbing and twisting. Smaller blades are also much better chipping clubs.

Offset

A key design element of forged blades is the amount of offset. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, offset is the little crook at the hosel, where the shaft meets the blade. The effect of offset is to give players with flawed swings a chance to hit a solid shot by forcing a player’s hands ahead of the blade - essential for a solid iron shot. Many modern designs utilize a concept called “progressive offset”. That means that the long irons are offset enough to see, the mid irons just a bit and the short irons not at all. Making long irons a bit easier to hit is an advantage - so good players should not disdain offset in long irons.

My main criticism of game improvement clubs: Offset in short irons. As players improve and play more difficult courses under more difficult conditions, they need to become shot makers. That means hitting partial shots, especially knockdowns when the wind blows. I have found that it’s nearly impossible to hit reliable knockdown shots with short irons that are offset. The offset results in a compound angle at address that is very difficult to judge and nearly impossible to hit where you want it to go. Most “mixed” sets - cavity back in the long and mid irons and muscle back in the short irons - are designed with a progressive offset.

To make the decision about offset, you have to know your swing path. It’s axiomatic that good players have consistent, inside-out swing paths (except Trevino) somewhere between 2 and 8 degrees. If you cut the ball, or if your swing path isn’t consistent, you’re going to have a hard time hitting those cute little knock-downs so you might as well go with offset through your set.

Sole Shape and Grind

Players from Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods have been quoted as saying something like “It’s all in the dirt.” It’s arguable that the shape of the sole, or “sole grind” is the most significant “feel” feature of any iron club. The shape of the sole that works best for a player is determined by the kind of golf course he normally plays and his swing mechanics. Old style blades tend to be straight across the leading edge and have a flat sole. This design was a result of the way golf courses were maintained years ago. Fairways were hard, irrigation was spotty and if you wanted to get the ball high on the face, you had to dig down. Hence, sharp leading edges and flat soles are commonly known as “diggers”. If you’re playing a course that gets hard in the summer where they cut the fairway short, diggers could be a good design for you. Quintessential diggers are the Tommy Armour 985 by MacGregor and the original Snake Eyes by Ernie Vaderson, forged at Smith and Wesson.

More recently, iron designers have opted to go with a sole design that is a bit more rounded on the front edge - “radiused” in designer jargon. The front edge of the iron is then ground away - “relieved” to create a little bit of bounce. The idea is that on softer golf courses, you need to keep your divot a little shallower and a bit of bounce helps accomplish that. Finally, there is the question of sole width. The wider the sole, the more forgiveness in the iron head. The drawback of a wide sole is that it’s more difficult to get the ball up on the club face.

A little radius can also be handy for getting the ball out of the rough as opposed to the straight leading edge. It pays to have a close look at the sole shape of your irons.

Cavity or Muscle Back?

This question is a huge determinate of ball flight. One of the best purchases you can make is an inexpensive tool that allows you to balance an iron head on a pin and mark the balance point. That’s a good indicator of the center of gravity. I like to mark my irons with a pin prick before I assemble them. You can circle the pin prick with a magic marker so you’ll always know where the club wants you to hit the ball.

Good players like short irons with a higher center of gravity. A higher center of gravity produces a lower shot that is usually described as “boring”. That requires you to contact the ball higher on the clubface. The benefit is a shot that holds its line in the wind and is less likely to come up short. That’s easier to do with diggers, slightly more difficult with forged blades with a little bounce and nearly impossible with game improvement irons with wide soles. That’s also the rationale for “mixed” sets of irons, with muscle back designs in the short irons and cavity back in the long irons. The idea behind shaft “flighting” is that long irons should go higher and short irons should go lower.

To some extent, the long iron question is becoming a moot point for most amateurs. Three and four irons are rapidly being exchanged for 21* and 24* utility woods that are easier to hit, go high and land soft. 1 and 2 irons are collectors’ items.

Material

Iron material is pretty much a religious argument. Most forged blade players think that the softest possible carbon steel is desirable. Here’s where science conflicts with opinion. Over the years, there have been a number of tests in which Tour players attempted to distinguish soft forged blades from harder cast look-alikes. They couldn’t do it. The point is the metal probably doesn’t matter. But, given the choice, I’d go for the softest carbon steel available - even if I know I can’t feel the difference. One thing you will see is that soft carbon steel blades pick up “bag chatter” very quickly. If you walk, be careful to carry a towel loosely wrapped through your club heads to avoid excessive damage. Riding in carts is very dangerous for soft forged blades - act accordingly. Head covers? Don’t even think about it. If you think your irons need to be protected that way, you shouldn’t be playing them.

Finish

Forged blades are available in Chrome, Satin Chrome, Raw and Black Oxidized. The argument in favor of satin chrome is that they reflect sunlight less. Many of the best players prefer satin chrome. The MacGregor Customs - the apex of the forged blade family - was more frequently produced in satin. Nicklaus preferred satin when he was the brains behind MacGregor. I prefer bright chrome. It holds up better. I have also had a few sets of “raw”. The argument in favor of raw is that the rust that forms will yield better spin. If so, it’s probably not detectible. Raw blades tend to look bad very quickly and I don’t like wasting too much time maintaining my golf clubs. The argument in favor of raw is that they make most people think you’re a hack. If you’re looking to hustle up a little bet that you plan on winning, raw could be the ticket. Black oxidized clubs are a cosmetic trick. The black wears off quickly and there’s no good reason for that finish other than glare reduction. If that’s what you want, choose satin.

Creating a “Test Bed”

I spent over twenty years in the high technology industry as a sales and marketing executive for some of the best high tech companies in the business. Novell, Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase and Hewlett-Packard are on my resume from those by-gone days. When you’re evaluating high tech products, it’s important to establish baseline performance. Golfers can do the same. You can measure performance with launch monitors and electronic gizmos to figure out what you’ve got today. Then, when you test a new golf club, you know how that club compares to the club you’re currently playing. It’s pretty simple. You’re looking for higher ball speed, the right launch angle and perfect spin rate. Electronic testing will also reveal metrics for consistency. You can know with certainty the golf clubs that perform the best for you. Unfortunately, most golfers are content to choose their golf clubs by random chance. The odds for success by that method are low.

If you’re going to test heads you have to test different heads on the same shafts. If you’re going to test shafts, you have to test the same head on different shafts. If you can limit yourself to changing only one variable at a time, you have a better chance of coming out with a meaningful result.

Start by finding the shafts that work well for you. In my case, I like graphite and lightweight steel. The very best irons I’ve played in the last few years is a set of Bridgestone “Joe Blades” with Fujikura Vista Pro 90 gram shafts. Alas, that set has fallen out of favor as the short irons are a bit too offset and soles a bit too “bouncy” for my current taste in heads. If I were going to pick a set tomorrow to play in a tournament, it would be a set of Miura Tournament blades set up with Aerotech 110 gram Steel Fiber shafts. That’s the third set of shafts that I’ve installed in the Miuras. First, I went with the Aerotech “Players Spec”. No love. Plenty of discussion with Chris Hilleary, the president of Aerotech and we can’t figure out why. He’s having a second look atht he engineering specifications. Second, I went with the Nippon 1150 Tour lightweight steel shafts. OK, but I couldn’t get over the feeling that they were going short. Finally, I installed a well-traveled set of the Aerotech 110 gram shafts. There’s another lesson. No matter how cool you think the heads may be, you’ve got to find the right shaft to produce “magic” results. The only way to know is to experiment.

That’s the way I’ve set up my testing to make it efficient. I have several sets of shafts, each one carefully tested and charted for flex and SST PUREd. I mark the “Pure Line” with a permanent magic marker and cover it with plastic. It’s easy to remove the shafts and preserve the correct orientation. All grips are “blown on” with air so changing the grip is no problem and I don’t have any waste.

I bore out all of my iron heads to accept parallel tipped shafts. I like the fact that you can perform slight tip trimming to move the flex a few cycles. That way, I can mount any set of shafts in any set of heads. There is one potential problem. Not all iron heads have the same measurement from the bottom of the hosel bore to the ground line. Therefore, you can’t always be sure that a set of shafts will fit a new set of heads at the proper length.

“Breaking the Code”

At the Golf Lab, we have a chance to meet a lot of competitive golfers who care about their golf games. These are players who are trying to improve and willing to spend what it takes to drop a couple of strokes and win the trophy. Unfortunately, most golfers are looking for the “quick fix”. You know the feeling. If I could only buy a new set of clubs and they were perfect, I’d be home free. It’s not that easy. You’ve got to do the work. Even if your first set of irons were “Pure Magic”, you’d never know it until you tested many more sets to know for sure.

If you really, really, want to know the set of irons that will work best for you, the best way is to invest in a couple of sets of shafts and a few sets of forged heads. Then, you can swap them out and play each combination for a few days. In a month or so, you will absolutely, positively know what set performs the best on the course - where it counts. If that sounds expensive, think about what it costs to buy and sell new sets randomly.

Shafts to Test

Sometimes it’s a good idea to test a certain shaft even if you think it’s wrong for you. If you have always played True Temper S-300 shafts, then prepare a set of S-300’s and you’ll benchmark your starting point. From there, try a set of lightweight steel shafts, Nippon is our standard choice but True Temper is becoming much more active in the light weight area. Then, try a set of graphite. There are many good choices. As I mentioned, we focus on Aerotech recently, but we have all played Fujikura, Aldila, Apache and Graphite Design successfully. To some extent, your choice should be dictated by the lines that your clubmaker has access to - and experience with.

I always take a great deal of care to set up the shafts I’m going to use, test the frequency, mark a slope chart and perform SST PUREing. That way, a single set of shafts can go into several different heads. This method is way better than just going out and buying new sets off the rack where you have no idea exactly what you’re testing.

Heads to Test

Classic forged blades are going for cheap prices on eBay. You should be able to pick up a good used set in excellent condition for a couple of hundred dollars. Getting a clubmaker to remove the shafts, bore out the heads and set lofts and lies shouldn’t take more than an hour or so. At shop rate, figure another $100. Or, you might find a set of good blades, ready to go at your club maker’s shop.

Here’s a comparison so you can figure value. Brand new forged heads from quality makers cost between $60 and $75 each. If you pay $300 for a set of classic heads, that cost is going to be less than a brand new set of forgings. You’ll be up a few bucks.

The catch is that the better producers don’t want their forged heads sold as components. That’s no problem. If you order a custom set of KZG forged blades you might pay $1200 for the set with decked out, premium, SST PUREd shafts. Get the shafts marked so you can swap them into other clubs easily. That’s a good way to get a set of shafts for your test bed. Or you might find a classic set of forged blades ready to go, decked out with premium shafts for around $800 if your clubmaker made a good trade for the heads.

Mizuno irons with stock shafts sell for around $100 per club at street price. Custom shafts bring somewhat more - Project X shafts, for example are a $30 up charge from Mizuno. Overall, a fair price for a nice set of custom clubs is between $900 and $1200 - usually a little extra for SST PUREing. At the high end, there’s Miura at $175 and up, per club.

If you only buy a set shafts you’ll spend more. If you chart them and test them for flex, SST PURE them and mark them so they can be swapped out they’re going to cost between $60 for standard models and $80 for exotic brands. You’ll spend $500 to $600 per set. Even that’s not a real bad deal. A nice set of shafts can be played in many sets of clubs and will last for years. To be fair in comparison, the shafts should be frequency-tested and SST PUREd ª.

Good Bets

One of these days I’ll put together a complete list of my favorite heads and the reasons I love them. Meantime, here are a few ideas if you’re thinking you’ll try a set of forged blades.

If you’re buying new, the most economical choice is to go with components. (Or, as Jennifer King, the president of KZG insists we say: “Custom Pro Line”.) My personal favorite is the KZG Zero Offset model, a smooth muscle backed design. KZG’s newer versions have tended to get a little bigger so if you want a slightly larger size for “forgiveness”, you might like the Evolution. The new Forged III is a forged shovel.

If money is no object, you can buy just about any Mizuno head, new or used. The MP-32’s and 60’s were the most popular among forged models for the last couple of years. If you’re thinking retro, you can go all the way back to the MP-14’s and 29’s from when Tiger was an amateur. Bridgestone released a couple of very nice forged heads in 2006 - the J33. They come in pure muscle, cavity and mixed. I like the pure muscle blades but the mixed set probably has the most interesting sole grind of any current iron.

I get a little more excited thinking about the classic forged heads that have been proven winners. In addition to the models already mentioned, you would do well to find a set of Wilson Progressives from the early nineties. That was Payne Stewart’s favorite when he was winning US Opens. There were a few years when Founders Club made great forged irons - the pedigree was OK. Look for the 200’s or the cavity backs. My absolute favorite is the old Taylor Made TPF from 1984. You might also consider the Cleveland Byron Nelson blades from the same era. That’s the only true forging that Cleveland ever made. A sleeper is the MacGregor Nicklaus JNP. That’s a forged head that doesn’t get any respect, selling for a pittance on eBay but a very good design. It’s a little longer heel to toe.

The ultimate Playable Classic is the Hogan Personal Model. It might be a little too valuable to retrofit, but compare the Hogan to the Mizino MP-14 and MP-29. There will be no doubt where Mizuno got their “inspiration”.

That’s an overview of a few of my favorites. I’ve still got a personal collection of another hundred models so I’m not about to run out of material or test subjects. If you’d like to discuss your opinions about or are thinking about trades, I’d be happy to make your acquaintance.

Meantime, stop selling yourself short. Build out a set of forged blades, as small as you can hit and play golf the way it was meant to be played.

Leith Anderson is a Partner in the Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
He will answer any and all questions relating to club fitting and club making. Contact: Leith@calgolftech.com.