Golf - Today’s Irons vs. Yesterday’s Irons
Every now and then I happen to play with people who brag that they can hit a pitching wedge 150 yards.
Seems impressive, right? On two occasions I asked to see their clubs (more modern than mine). I took my older vintage Staff blade 8-iron and put it side-by-side with their pitching wedges and challenged anyone to tell me if there was any difference in loft. Everyone said the lofts looked about the same. I usually hit my 8-iron 150 yards, so that explains it. Today’s modern irons generally have less loft than yesterday’s irons. In a recent tournament it was reported that Tiger was using irons with “older” lofts. Why the difference between old and new? It may be a good marketing gimmick to say a brand-x 5-iron will hit the ball farther than an older 5-iron, but if the lofts are different, you are not comparing apples to apples. After doing a little research on the loft angles of irons, I found the older specs were uniformly 4 degrees apart, starting with the sand wedge at 55 degrees, so the older pitching wedge should be 51 degrees. However, on their web site, Cleveland’s modern pitching wedge is only 45 degrees. No wonder it goes as far as my 8-iron, the loft is almost the same! That means, if you have a lesser-lofted pitching wedge, you might want to carry an extra wedge (a “gap” wedge) for the distance between the pitching wedge and the sand wedge. Those marketing guys are pretty clever, aren’t they? They made you buy an extra club, which may or may not match your other clubs. Then, also, you might have to get another extra club, a Lob wedge, because the extra “bounce” on the sole of your sand wedge may make it more difficult to hit that club from the fairway grass. With all these extra clubs (4 wedges) in your bag, you may have to decide which other clubs to remove (long-irons?) to stay within the 14 club limit. (see www.geocities.com/golfwithjoey)