Chris Austin, on 17 December 2012 - 04:43 PM, said:
The Tours look pretty good, but I just dont get the point in making the lofts so strong, is it because everyone is so obsessed with knocking it 190 with a 7 iron?
This practise is going to create another problem, average golfers not being able to hit a 5 iron straight as it's actually not far off a traditionally lofted 3iron. Oh well at least hybrid sales will increse!
Surely this also creates problems with short iron yardages/ gaps?
I think what it boils down to is simply the manufacturers are able to get the ball to launch higher with the same loft as a club from 20 years ago. In order to adjust for that, they lower the lofts. The guys that went on the TM trip talked about this and referred to it as a "launch window". It makes sense considering how much things have improved over the past 20 years.
I haven't found it to cause problems with gaping. The bag might "look" a little funny, but if you know how far you hit each club, what it says on the bottom doesn't make a big difference. For example, when we were in Carlsbad hitting these, from longest to shortest, I went with a 17* XHP fairway wood, 16* XHP hybrid, then an 18* X Utility. Sure, the lofts say they're only a degree a part, but all three of those are very different clubs. Because of that, they all go different distances.
The wood went around 240-245, the hybrid going around 225-230, X Utility going around 210-215 and the 4 iron was going around 200-205.
The 7 iron in the XHP probably goes about 165-170 (I hit within 3' of a 175 laser sighted pin with a little downwind helping), the 9 is probably right around 145-150, PW will probably be about 130-135, followed up by my gap wedge (52*). If I hit a full gap wedge, it'll travel around 115.
So what if I'm 125 away from a pin? Simple...take a little off a PW. I don't know anyone who takes a constant (choose your percentage here, 80%, 100%) shot every time they step in front of a ball.
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