Do you find thin top lines intimidating?

[DukeStKing]

Nope… pleasing. 

[jayjay0808]

I love the look of a thin topline. It makes me focus on making a good balanced swing in order to make solid contact

[bens197]

I grew up on thin Wilson blades...always will love the look of how they frame a ball at address.

[Shankster]

On 8/3/2021 at 2:11 PM, russtopherb said:

I'm the exact opposite. The more chunk and thick lines, the better. I still every now and again want to go find some Diablo Edge irons, when I had those I don't think I was ever more confident over the ball, and that was when I was still only a year or two into playing. 

Then again, my brain sees a hybrid and goes into all sorts of contortions. So who knows. Don't listen to me. I'm just weird. 

My mom has a set of orlimar clubs that resemble the HB Launcher…  I had to use them once… they were interesting for sure. I hit the “SW” so well one time it landed on the back of a green and spun all the way off the front… never done that in my life.

 

No one is weird man, everyone has something that fits their eye.  Same reason I basically have to close my eyes when im hitting driver because the balloon on a stick makes me sick….

[PMookie]

Yes!!! I cannot get past a thin top line! I don’t know why it is, but we have a lot of thin, dry lies where I play and if I look down and see “tiny” I just can’t get down into the ball. WAAAY back when I did my only club review here, three years ago, the Ft Worth Black irons gave me the heebie-jeebies looking down at address so I just couldn’t get along with them. I need something with just a LITTLE thicker top line, but not really thick. My Honma Tour P, Apex, T200, JPX 921 Forged, MMC, etc are in the line of what I like to see.

[KurtActual]

So what is a "high handicapper"?
Only like 3 of us in this thread with a 20+ handicap.

I think most times when you see a review mention high handicap, they do not mean 10-20. I think they mean those guys that play twice a month and do not even have a handicap.

[chisag]

1 hour ago, KurtActual said:

So what is a "high handicapper"?
Only like 3 of us in this thread with a 20+ handicap.

I think most times when you see a review mention high handicap, they do not mean 10-20. I think they mean those guys that play twice a month and do not even have a handicap.

 

... Yup, I imagine we all have our own interpretation of what a high index golfer is, but I have always considered anyone shooting in the 90's and above. That said, Handicaps are so misunderstood by those that do not have an official Handicap. When I put together outings for forum members back in Chicago the common reply for an official handicap would be something like "I usually shoot in the mid 80's so my handicap is a 15." It was hard for me to convince them they were probably about a 10 as of course with 20 scores only the lowest 10 are used for index purposes and then multiplied by 0.96 which drops it a little more. Handicaps have little to do with "average scores" and everything to do with how do you play at your very best.

... I have never been a fan as obviously it is intended to thwart cheating or sandbagging instead of giving a true handicap for any given individual. If you have a golfer that consistently shoots in the mid 80s and another that shoots in the low 80's to mid 90's due to inconsistency that golfer will have a lower handicap since his top 10 scores are not counted yet 50% of the time will shoot a higher score. 

[CarlH]

1 hour ago, chisag said:

 

... Yup, I imagine we all have our own interpretation of what a high index golfer is, but I have always considered anyone shooting in the 90's and above. That said, Handicaps are so misunderstood by those that do not have an official Handicap. When I put together outings for forum members back in Chicago the common reply for an official handicap would be something like "I usually shoot in the mid 80's so my handicap is a 15." It was hard for me to convince them they were probably about a 10 as of course with 20 scores only the lowest 10 are used for index purposes and then multiplied by 0.96 which drops it a little more. Handicaps have little to do with "average scores" and everything to do with how do you play at your very best.

... I have never been a fan as obviously it is intended to thwart cheating or sandbagging instead of giving a true handicap for any given individual. If you have a golfer that consistently shoots in the mid 80s and another that shoots in the low 80's to mid 90's due to inconsistency that golfer will have a lower handicap since his top 10 scores are not counted yet 50% of the time will shoot a higher score. 

Probably even lower now with the GHIN change and only counting 8 of the last 20.  Most mid handicap players really saw their "course handicap" drop since the change.  What I dislike most about the new GHIN system is the soft capping when your handicap rises over 3 points over the previous 52 weeks.  While I understand the concept to minimize the sandbagging, it penalizes the guy who legitimately had a handicap rise because of injuries or moving to a new and more difficult home course.  Oh well!   

I used to play with a guy that had the same handicap as me.  We'd always have a $5 Nassau and I'd win 7 of 10 times.  My scores were typically fairly constant while his were all over the place.

[funkyjudge]

On 8/2/2021 at 4:14 PM, Hook DeLoft said:

Reviewers like to mention that mid and high cappers find thin top lines to be intimidating to look at, but I don’t find that to be the case for me. Now, if an iron has a very small blade and an extremely thin sole I expect it to be unforgiving, but since you don’t hit the ball anywhere near the top line, I just don’t see that as intimidating. 

One word answer: YES. I do find super-thin top lines to be intimidating, even though I played Hogan Apex Redlines and Golden Ram forged blades, plus a variety of Wilson Staff forged irons “back in the day”.  I also do not find thick top lines and wide sole profiles to be very confidence-inspiring.  Just give me irons with a medium top line width and normal width sole with some trailing edge relief, and I am very happy.

[Doug21]

I love the thin top lines. I prefer them over the GI irons thick top line. The thinner the better. To me it easier to line up. 

[funkyjudge]

2 hours ago, CarlH said:

Probably even lower now with the GHIN change and only counting 8 of the last 20.  Most mid handicap players really saw their "course handicap" drop since the change.  What I dislike most about the new GHIN system is the soft capping when your handicap rises over 3 points over the previous 52 weeks.  While I understand the concept to minimize the sandbagging, it penalizes the guy who legitimately had a handicap rise because of injuries or moving to a new and more difficult home course.  Oh well!   

I used to play with a guy that had the same handicap as me.  We'd always have a $5 Nassau and I'd win 7 of 10 times.  My scores were typically fairly constant while his were all over the place.

AMEN, brother!  My handicap index has risen 3.3 strokes since the end of 2020.  This is because I had prostate surgery in November, 2020, followed by a bone, spine, and blood infection that kept me hospitalized for a month and in PT rehab for another 5 months.  I am pretty sure that my ‘cap will come back down, as it is starting to do (it has dropped 0.3 strokes in the last few weeks); however, without the “soft cap”, I would probably have risen 4 strokes, rather than 3.3 since May of this year.

Edited August 6, 2021 by funkyjudge

[Zivl3]

I never gave top line appearance much thought until I demo'd a Hogan PTx PRO.  Everytime I looked down at the club at address the top of the club looked really chunky and industrial.  That was not what I was expecting at all.  I ended up not really getting along with the club and sent it back.  I'm not saying the top line influenced my opinion of the performance of the club, but that heavy-looking top line is all that I remember about it.  Similarly, I'm not a fan of how SGI clubs look at address either.  They look like hockey sticks and they have a big top line.  A friend plays Miura baby blades.  Those are intimidating but that's due to the toe-heel length.

[Franc38]

I have a hard time playing an iron with a thick topline or a thick sole. Give me something with a thin, really thin topline, a thin-ish sole and no offset, THAT's what fills me with confidence. Give me a thick topline and I'll fear sending my ball too high, a thick sole will amplify that, and add offset to the mix and I'll anticipate a towering hook, coming from the sky with snow on it and "straight" to that left OoB.

I've never really understood the phrase about "confidence inspiring thick topline"... or sole for that matter. What's worse is that most of the reviewers saying that play blades or "players' CB" with thin toplines.

[Mikedb26]

My cousin in the mid 90's had Big Bertha irons, and I swear the topline was the same width as the sole!  I had TM RSi2 irons, as a factory replacement from broken junk Speedblades, and those things were chunky monkeys.  Didn't have them for too long, as the "face slots" tended to partially remove themselves, gave those to my brother who plays maybe a couple times a year.  But with all that being said, thin topline blades of today are not the same as they once were.  Thin topline + short blade length = high anxiety and "CLANK"!! In the olden days.  Think the blades of yore were just cut from sheet metal and stuck on a stick, unlike today's models that have some sort of weighted cavity in the bottom.  Can deal, actually like a thinner topline as long as the sole isn't, JPX900, 919, 921 size with a thinner top would work for me.  If I wanted to wield a shovel, I would have been a ditch digger.

[vagabon68]

Prefer a thin top line. The only game improvement iron I’ve ever liked was the Mizuno JPX Ez 2014. The other ones that I have tried I can’t keep a constant distance. So in other words it me.

[obiwan45]

I never paid much attention to the top line of my clubs until all the low handicapper reviewers started mentioning it. Now I do find small club faces intimidating....the larger the face the better I like it!

[TDubbGolferGuy]

I grew up hitting irons with thin lines, so I’m pretty well accustomed to that look. In fact, I find it far more reassuring than looking at something akin to a brick. 

[Golfspy_TCB]

10 hours ago, KurtActual said:

So what is a "high handicapper"?

Anyone without a "+" in front of the handicap index.

[Subdiver1]

On 8/3/2021 at 11:53 AM, Kansas King said:

I generally prefer thinner lines but everyone is going to be different. The problem most golfers don't realize with blades and thinner irons is the lack of forgiveness from the sole. Yeah, you may get more feedback with blades but where amateurs really lose strokes is when the sole doesn't impart any forgiveness. I would love to see more SGI designs with thinner top lines but the reality is that it's just not going to happen. Most people would agree that a thick topline is more visually appealing than seeing the sole stick out the back of the clubhead. 

You REALLY confused me here.  Forgiveness comes from numerous aspects of design, not just "from the sole." I believe the entire 'perimeter weighing' factor contributes overall.  Just having a wide sole to help put the weight lower in the club head and possibly move it back provides an opportunity to engineer in better launch characteristics and a "larger sweet spot," but if all it took to have a more forgiving club was a wide sole Nike might still be making clubs.  Swing type and conditions play a role in whether a player should consider a wider or thinner sole.  A thinner sole has less chance of bouncing off the turf allowing players who hit the ball first to 'pick' the ball cleanly; thick soles may be advantageous where you find fluffy lies or the ball sits up, but God forbid you have wide soles and thin/tight lies.  A sweeping swing may do better with a wide sole where there is less chance the sole will 'bounce' and cause thin contact.   

When I started playing it was pretty hard to find anything but blades (except maybe Spalding's Executive irons; anyone remember those?).  I played a set of '86 Titleist blades until the early 2000s, now those heads look so small next to a ball I wonder how we ever hit them pure.  The Rescue club was a great development and they are great for many shots, including long shots out of a fairway bunker, but I still cannot get into a thick top line and wide soles; for me they bounce like a saucer sled skidding across the snow causing more skulled than pure shots.  But again, that is my preference.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Subdiver1
Fixed the j" to just

[Jhamby]

If the alternative is thick soles and heavy clubs, no thank you.  I may be a hi-handicapper but I do not prefer super game improvement clubs.  The more a game improvement club resembles a players club, the better.