How to Fill Out a Bag That Has Strong Irons

[Whalensdad]

I recently had a fitting and purchased new irons, Calloway Mavriks. While I hit them extremely well, and they felt great doing so, I was not aware they were strong lofted. This has thrown off the rest of my clubs. These are the clubs/lofts I got.

• 6 - 24
• 7 - 27
• 8 -31.5
• 9 - 36
• PW - 41
• AW - 46

I have a GBB Epic (10.5), Titleist 917 F2 (15 & 18), Titleist 916 H1 (21) on the one side, and an old (almost non-conforming) pair of PureSpin wedges (52 &56).

1. I don't hit my 3 or 5 woods or the 6 iron particularly well.

2. I need to replace my wedges with something a bit more forgiving and conforming.

At the top end do I go with 5 wedges (PW, AW1, AW2, SW, LW) or change the lofts on the 2 wedges from 52 & 56 to 52 & 58 and have 4 wedges(PW, AW, SW, LW)?

At the bottom end do I switch to a hybrid for my 6 iron and possibly my 5 wood?

I'm just looking for suggestions. I'm a high handicapper, but getting better.

 

[cnosil]

5 minutes ago, Whalensdad said:

I recently had a fitting and purchased new irons, Calloway Mavriks. While I hit them extremely well, and they felt great doing so, I was not aware they were strong lofted. This has thrown off the rest of my clubs. These are the clubs/lofts I got.

• 6 - 24
• 7 - 27
• 8 -31.5
• 9 - 36
• PW - 41
• AW - 46

I have a GBB Epic (10.5), Titleist 917 F2 (15 & 18), Titleist 916 H1 (21) on the one side, and an old (almost non-conforming) pair of PureSpin wedges (52 &56).

1. I don't hit my 3 or 5 woods or the 6 iron particularly well.

2. I need to replace my wedges with something a bit more forgiving and conforming.

At the top end do I go with 5 wedges (PW, AW1, AW2, SW, LW) or change the lofts on the 2 wedges from 52 & 56 to 52 & 58 and have 4 wedges(PW, AW, SW, LW)?

At the bottom end do I switch to a hybrid for my 6 iron and possibly my 5 wood?

I'm just looking for suggestions. I'm a high handicapper, but getting better.

 

Lofts are really meaningless.   Generally when looking at clubs you should look at the carry distances for each club and try to get about 15 yards between each one.    Once you know your gaps you can then start tweaking lofts and getting clubs to fill the gaps from the top to bottom of your bag.  

 

[Whalensdad]

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess I'll hold off for now and just spend my time practicing with what I have and go for a gap fitting next year.

[Nateyeight]

I got new irons and spent time working out the new yardages. Pretty much my set AW is now the PW from my old set. Got 3 wedges, another gap that was 10-15 yards different, only 2 degree difference due to how hot my irons are compared to my wedges. A wedge for around the greens, and a wedge with a grind to help me in thick lies and fluffy bunkers. The set AW is 48, and my wedge set up is 50F, 54S, 58K (Vokeys). Then with my 6 iron distance, worked out my gapping to my driver. So I ended up with a hybrid, 7 wood and 5 wood. Once you know your irons distances the rest will fall in place. 

[Hoyoymac]

The same thing happened to me when I put a set of AP3 irons in the bag a few years ago.  The stronger lofts caused me to play 5 wedges because my PW was 43, the gap wedge was 48 so I added a 52,56 & 60.  The top end of my bag was creating problems too because they were all running together.  I needed a higher trajectory with more carry distance.  Ended up taking my 4, 5 & 6 iron out of the bag and replacing them with a 21 degree 7 wood, 25 degree 5 hybrid and a 28 degree 6 hybrid.  

Recently I put in a new set of irons that have a PW with 46 degrees of loft and I switched my wedges to a 50, 54 & 58.   Now Playing a 30 degree 6 iron down to PW and still using the 7 wood, 5 & 6 hybrids.  I have a 19 degree 5 wood lofted down to 17 that I use mainly off the tee and a 10.5 degree Driver lofted down to 9.5.

[BostonSal]

On 11/28/2021 at 5:25 PM, cnosil said:

Lofts are really meaningless.   Generally when looking at clubs you should look at the carry distances for each club and try to get about 15 yards between each one.    Once you know your gaps you can then start tweaking lofts and getting clubs to fill the gaps from the top to bottom of your bag.  

 

This clearly seems to be the prevailing theory so there must be some validity to it.

It has NEVER worked for me, however.

When I bought my most recent set of irons, I  looked only at models with 42° 9-irons because that seemed to be the weakest 9-iron available.

At least with a 42º 9-iron, I could keep the low end gap down to 6º with a 48-54-60 wedge set.

If I need more than three wedges, including the first one after the 9-iron, I have the choice of going to fifteen clubs or not having every club I might want to hit at the long end of the set.

 

So yes, lofts appear to be meaningless to quite a few players thesse days, so cnosil"s suggestion has to have merit and I've no argument against it.

I personally can't configure the most playable possible set, however, without taking lofts very, very seriously.

Because regardless of clubhead or shaft design, loft has always remained the most influential factor in how far I hit the ball.

 

[cnosil]

3 hours ago, BostonSal said:

 

Because regardless of clubhead or shaft design, loft has always remained the most influential factor in how far I hit the ball.

 

Yes,  loft is very influential in how far a ball will go,  but it is important to recognize that different designs with the same loft will go different distances.  Picking clubs strictly based on loft will most likely result in uneven distance gaps throughout the set.   The main struggle that people have; just like the OP is saying,  they buy new irons and they now have a gap at the top and/or bottom of the bag between the new irons and their existing clubs.   The first thing that they do is blame the lofts not the club design.  When looking at clubs the strategy I was recommending was to configure clubs based on distance and not simply the lofts.    The problem I describe is very prevalent when transitioning from the most lofted set club into specialty wedges.  specialty wedges generally spin more than a set wedge at the same loft.  that increased spin will typically launch the ball higher and result in less distance.   You mentioned that you searched for clubs with the most lofted 9 iron to attempt to avoid the problem I described and to keep the club numbers/type in a set configuration like you prefer.  

The only reason I advocate not worrying about loft is because distance is what needs to be evaluated since we try to hit the ball a specific distance when we choose and iron or wedge from our bag.  

[BostonSal]

20 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Yes,  loft is very influential in how far a ball will go,  but it is important to recognize that different designs with the same loft will go different distances.  Picking clubs strictly based on loft will most likely result in uneven distance gaps throughout the set.   The main struggle that people have; just like the OP is saying,  they buy new irons and they now have a gap at the top and/or bottom of the bag between the new irons and their existing clubs.   The first thing that they do is blame the lofts not the club design.  When looking at clubs the strategy I was recommending was to configure clubs based on distance and not simply the lofts.    The problem I describe is very prevalent when transitioning from the most lofted set club into specialty wedges.  specialty wedges generally spin more than a set wedge at the same loft.  that increased spin will typically launch the ball higher and result in less distance.   You mentioned that you searched for clubs with the most lofted 9 iron to attempt to avoid the problem I described and to keep the club numbers/type in a set configuration like you prefer.  

The only reason I advocate not worrying about loft is because distance is what needs to be evaluated since we try to hit the ball a specific distance when we choose and iron or wedge from our bag.  

Yes, these are reasons why I have no argument whatsoever with your theory.

In the end, my efforts result in relatively uniform distance gaps, but each player must discover this for him/herself.

What we on golf internet forums sometimes overlook is that the opportunity or willingness to look deeply into these things doesn't apply entirely across all demographics of players.   Although the number is possibly reduced in recent years as golf gets more expensive,

 I am sure that there are still hundreds of thousands of folks playing only 9 holes a week in seasonal after work leagues.

For many of these players, they'll get info from published specs or otherwise not at all.

That's not us, but that's lots of casual players.   If they need to fill in a spot in their bag, publiched specs may be better than just guessing when buying a filler club from 2nd Swing Golf.

Still, in fairness, our discussions here are not usually about players in this catagory.