Forged vs. Cast

[fixyurdivot]

So I've now been playing my first set of forged irons (ZX5's) for nearly a year and, while I love their look and that they have "forged" stamped on the hosel, to be brutally honest I'm not "feeling" the difference as compared to my G410's.  Yes, I know, these aren't MB irons and perhaps that is where the real difference is felt?  I am playing composite shafts and perhaps that too makes a difference? That switch was all about saving my shoulder and elbow and, by design, composite shafts reduce vibration.  Pure strikes between the two don't feel or sound that much different.  Perhaps like wine, I just fall into that "blue-collar" golfer pool that cannot appreciate the difference in quality? 

Forged vs. Cast Irons – What’s the Difference? Who Are They Suitable For? (jimfuryk.com)

Articles like this frequently speak to the merits of forgings for "better players" and "feel" being a primary factor.  I'm curious how many of you who have switched from cast to forged did so for the "feel" aspect and/or based on LM data?  As some know from my getting new irons chronicles, my decision came down to choosing the ZX5's or G425's.  Data wise they were a push - slight edge to the Srixon's.  But, having played PING cast irons for over 3 decades, I thought it time to try another brand... but I'm not going to lie... that they were stamped "forged" (and at the same facility who makes Miura) was a factor. 

So be honest, did that "forged" stamp play a factor in your decision? 

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

Feel for me is about how the overall feel is in my hands, arms body at contact. This is as much about the shaft as it is the head. Two steel shafts from different brands can have different feels on identical strikes based on how the shaft is designed. I prefer the feel of $ taper or modus 120 over s300. 
 

What many consider feel is actually the sound of contact. A shaft can have an influence on this too, but I’ve played 2 different miura cb sets, have hit the baby blades, have bad forged, forged face and cast iron clubs form several brands they all produce different sounds on pure shots, good contact shots but not quite flushed and off center strikes. 
 

The sound is where to me they get separated and not in performance. Now does that sound and feel impact how someone plays, which then impacts performance? I think for some that’s possible, someone who doesn’t like a clicky sound isn’t going to play as good with that club as one that has a sound they prefer 

[Hook DeLoft]

I  was once all about forged irons but over the years I've come to believe that feel and sound come down to design and materials.  For example, a cast iron made from soft carbon steel should feel the same as the same design made with the same steel but forged.  I have also played cast irons that felt and sounded great.  Also, there are a lot of clubs on the market now that have "forged" stamped on them but are made of a combination of forged and cast steel (and plastics).  I like the idea of a fully forged iron that is made with a lot of hand work.  There seems to be an art involved in that (think Miura) but I don't think it makes any difference in performance.

[Kansas King]

Feel is not determined by forged vs. cast. It's determined by the materials, design, and largely, the center of gravity (CG) in relation to the ball strike. The "solid" feel from iron shots is when you strike a ball with the CG at or below the midpoint of the ball (0.84"). Every iron will have a different "solid" feeling assuming the direction of the club's CG is below that of the ball's. I've personally, always found that cast irons felt softer than forged. Look at cast Cleveland wedges as an example. Those are generally regarded as some of the softest feeling. Some of the firmest and least pleasant irons I've ever hit (IMO) are the Miura 501CB irons. Miura fans will claim they have a "dense" feel or straight up claim the metal is more dense and that's when my BS meter just about explodes. Miura makes pretty irons that are well made to tight tolerances but in no way do the foundries in Japan somehow impart any real magic on golf clubs. 

I personally like forged irons. However, the whole mystique of them being soft is generally utter BS. The softest forged irons I've ever played were the 2007 Callaway X-forged irons. However, those never felt as soft as my cast Callaway X-20s did on good shots. I do think most traditional forged irons (not goo filled hollow bodies) give better feedback on how good a strike was. Cast GI irons can sometimes feel a little "numb" IMO where you just don't feel anything.

Going from a G410 to a ZX5 is a pretty big change but I wouldn't expect the ZX5s to feel any softer or better, per se. Just different.

[Middler]

17 hours ago, Kansas King said:

Feel is not determined by forged vs. cast. It's determined by the materials, design, and largely, the center of gravity (CG) in relation to the ball strike. The "solid" feel from iron shots is when you strike a ball with the CG at or below the midpoint of the ball (0.84"). Every iron will have a different "solid" feeling assuming the direction of the club's CG is below that of the ball's. I've personally, always found that cast irons felt softer than forged. Look at cast Cleveland wedges as an example. Those are generally regarded as some of the softest feeling. Some of the firmest and least pleasant irons I've ever hit (IMO) are the Miura 501CB irons. Miura fans will claim they have a "dense" feel or straight up claim the metal is more dense and that's when my BS meter just about explodes. Miura makes pretty irons that are well made to tight tolerances but in no way do the foundries in Japan somehow impart any real magic on golf clubs. 

I personally like forged irons. However, the whole mystique of them being soft is generally utter BS. The softest forged irons I've ever played were the 2007 Callaway X-forged irons. However, those never felt as soft as my cast Callaway X-20s did on good shots. I do think most traditional forged irons (not goo filled hollow bodies) give better feedback on how good a strike was. Cast GI irons can sometimes feel a little "numb" IMO where you just don't feel anything.

Going from a G410 to a ZX5 is a pretty big change but I wouldn't expect the ZX5s to feel any softer or better, per se. Just different.

If all that's true, and casting is cheaper than forging in manufacturing - why are there essentially no cast muscleback irons or similar? If feel was just materials and geometry, a club manufacturer should be able to make a killing in the players iron category with a cast muscleback. Why do all club makers even bother with forging at all, it's just adding unnecessary cost if that's true. There's no doubt shaft, geometry, sound, etc. are all part of feel for some/many - it's not as simple as forged vs cast. But a metallurgist will tell you a forged part and a cast part made of the same metal are not the same...

One of the perennial debates here, like loft jacking.

[Kansas King]

17 minutes ago, Middler said:

If all that's true, and casting is cheaper than forging in manufacturing - so why are they essentially no cast muscleback irons or similar. If feel was just materials and geometry, a club manufacturer should be able to make a killing in the players iron category with a cast muscleback. Why do all club makers even bother with forging at all, it's just adding unnecessary cost if that's true. There's no doubt shaft, geometry, sound, etc. are all part of feel for some/many. But a metallurgist will tell you a forged part and a cast part made of the same metal are not the same...

One of the perennial debates here, like loft jacking.

I'm not arguing one over the other. In the world of golf, one will not yield any better real world results on the scorecard. Almost all Ping irons, including their S-series, were all cast up until they came out with the Blueprint irons. Bubba Watson won his Masters using cast irons (Ping S59). I'm simply stating that design is more important in golf over manufacturing method. I like forged irons but that doesn't make them better than cast even if the clubs are vastly different from a metallurgical point of view. Golf does put quite a bit of stress on components but a golf ball is a marshmallow relative to how hard any cast or forged iron is. So does forged or cast matter in golf from a performance point of view? No. They may feel a little different but that is about it. Face hotness and consistency all comes down to design and manufacturing quality whether cast or forged. 

[BIG STU]

10 minutes ago, Kansas King said:

I'm not arguing one over the other. In the world of golf, one will not yield any better real world results on the scorecard. Almost all Ping irons, including their S-series, were all cast up until they came out with the Blueprint irons. Bubba Watson won his Masters using cast irons (Ping S59). I'm simply stating that design is more important in golf over manufacturing method. I like forged irons but that doesn't make them better than cast even if the clubs are vastly different from a metallurgical point of view. Golf does put quite a bit of stress on components but a golf ball is a marshmallow relative to how hard any cast or forged iron is. So does forged or cast matter in golf from a performance point of view? No. They may feel a little different but that is about it. Face hotness and consistency all comes down to design and manufacturing quality whether cast or forged. 

It can be very subjective--- Remember in a CB the weight placement is very low. A solid forged head is more dense in the striking zone. A lot of feel has to do with propriety blends of the metals themselves and the process technique used in forging them. Mizuno comes to mind here as they have their "Grain Flow Forging" patented. I have also been told (by a Miura dealer) that they test and are very selective on the ingots they use. Another subjective point can be some balls react different with different irons too. Everyones feel is different and I think it is subject to the type of clubs you learned the game with.

[RickyBobby_PR]

2 hours ago, Kansas King said:

I'm not arguing one over the other. In the world of golf, one will not yield any better real world results on the scorecard. Almost all Ping irons, including their S-series, were all cast up until they came out with the Blueprint irons. Bubba Watson won his Masters using cast irons (Ping S59). I'm simply stating that design is more important in golf over manufacturing method. I like forged irons but that doesn't make them better than cast even if the clubs are vastly different from a metallurgical point of view. Golf does put quite a bit of stress on components but a golf ball is a marshmallow relative to how hard any cast or forged iron is. So does forged or cast matter in golf from a performance point of view? No. They may feel a little different but that is about it. Face hotness and consistency all comes down to design and manufacturing quality whether cast or forged. 

You literally spent a whole post talking about feel and why it is and so on and mentioned nothing about performance, then @Middler asks questions on your statements about the materials and you switch the conversation to performance aspect. Why not answer his reply with something related to his reply?

[RichL85]

We are talking about 15 years ago the last time I got new irons, but I switched from cast to forged (Cobra to Srixon). Had nothing to do with the fact that they are stamped with "Forged". It had more to do with the fact that the Cobra irons had too much offset and were too thick for me. I am still playing a cavity back and they are decently forgiving, but mostly they appeal to my eye more. Performance wise, they are shorter than the Cobras were, but the lofts are also 2 degrees weaker. Feel is kind of subjective. I would say the Srixon feel "better" but "more" might be a better description. The Cobra irons had some urethane dampening material so there wasn't really a lot of feedback. The Srixon don't have that dampening material so there is feedback. I prefer having that feedback, but I don't feel that being forged vs. cast has anything to do with that aspect. I haven't hit many newer irons so don't have much to compare to there, but I still absolutely love my old Srixon irons and they would be the last clubs in my bag to get replaced.

[fixyurdivot]

Good responses thus far but, interestingly enough, no one has mentioned that their forged irons are in the bag primarily due to ball flight performance.  I do agree that "feel" and "sound" are very subjective and that more current cast design/technology has narrowed the difference from cast irons decades ago. I also believe that the "forged mystique" is alive and well. I've been looking for a 6i or 7i G425 and even possibly a MCB (TDB... maybe a Cobra MIM) that I can re-shaft with the MMT80 or Recoil ES780 and test H2H. 

[Shankster]

I actually wish the PING i59 was more like the iBlade 2.0… being cast rather than forged.  I’m sure no one expected me to say that, but danged if cast clubs don’t hold up better and probably last longer.  With all of the technology today, you’d think they would be able to make a club like that feel as good as a forged blade.  The softness of forging gets dents and dings just sitting there…

 

Nah, never mind.  That’s a bunch of B.S.

[Shankster]

11 hours ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Feel for me is about how the overall feel is in my hands, arms body at contact. This is as much about the shaft as it is the head. Two steel shafts from different brands can have different feels on identical strikes based on how the shaft is designed. I prefer the feel of $ taper or modus 120 over s300. 
 

What many consider feel is actually the sound of contact. A shaft can have an influence on this too, but I’ve played 2 different miura cb sets, have hit the baby blades, have bad forged, forged face and cast iron clubs form several brands they all produce different sounds on pure shots, good contact shots but not quite flushed and off center strikes. 
 

The sound is where to me they get separated and not in performance. Now does that sound and feel impact how someone plays, which then impacts performance? I think for some that’s possible, someone who doesn’t like a clicky sound isn’t going to play as good with that club as one that has a sound they prefer 

True story.  I much prefer the C-Taper’s over most other shafts.  Paired with the T100•S on a pure shot is just what dreams are made of.  Do not like the Tour-V though, Tour’s are a close second to the C-Taper.

For wedges… the KBS 610 is by far my favorite.

[RichL85]

1 hour ago, fixyurdivot said:

Good responses thus far but, interestingly enough, no one has mentioned that their forged irons are in the bag primarily due to ball flight performance.  I do agree that "feel" and "sound" are very subjective and that more current cast design/technology has narrowed the difference from cast irons decades ago. I also believe that the "forged mystique" is alive and well. I've been looking for a 6i or 7i G425 and even possibly a MCB (TDB... maybe a Cobra MIM) that I can re-shaft with the MMT80 or Recoil ES780 and test H2H. 

For what it is worth, at the time I ordered my Srixon irons, I had one other set in the running and it was a cast iron. Performance was practically the same between the two for me, but the Srixon rep had visited the store I was working at and offered to let me buy at a pretty steep discount. I could have easily gone with the other set, but it would have cost me (at the time a college student) about 70% more. The ball flight and performance of my Srixon irons are better than my Cobra irons ever were, but certainly not because they are forged. The cast Pings that were in the running were right there for performance. 

[dlow206]

13 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

So I've now been playing my first set of forged irons (ZX5's) for nearly a year and, while I love their look and that they have "forged" stamped on the hosel, to be brutally honest I'm not "feeling" the difference as compared to my G410's.  Yes, I know, these aren't MB irons and perhaps that is where the real difference is felt?  I am playing composite shafts and perhaps that too makes a difference? That switch was all about saving my shoulder and elbow and, by design, composite shafts reduce vibration.  Pure strikes between the two don't feel or sound that much different.  Perhaps like wine, I just fall into that "blue-collar" golfer pool that cannot appreciate the difference in quality? 

Forged vs. Cast Irons – What’s the Difference? Who Are They Suitable For? (jimfuryk.com)

Articles like this frequently speak to the merits of forgings for "better players" and "feel" being a primary factor.  I'm curious how many of you who have switched from cast to forged did so for the "feel" aspect and/or based on LM data?  As some know from my getting new irons chronicles, my decision came down to choosing the ZX5's or G425's.  Data wise they were a push - slight edge to the Srixon's.  But, having played PING cast irons for over 3 decades, I thought it time to try another brand... but I'm not going to lie... that they were stamped "forged" (and at the same facility who makes Miura) was a factor. 

So be honest, did that "forged" stamp play a factor in your decision? 

 

In that article, they are defining forged irons as: "A solid metal piece is used for creating forged irons... Now, this solid piece of metal is then stamped to form the required, correct shape and loft"

However, not all "forged" irons these days meet the definition above. 

The ZX5's are multi-piece construction. 

One thing i do know from a club building perspective, its so much easier to bend a forged iron made from carbon steel than a cast stainless steel iron. Though there are also cast carbon steel irons as well, which aren't terrible to bend as well. 

[dlow206]

9 hours ago, Middler said:

If all that's true, and casting is cheaper than forging in manufacturing - so why are there essentially no cast muscleback irons or similar. If feel was just materials and geometry, a club manufacturer should be able to make a killing in the players iron category with a cast muscleback. Why do all club makers even bother with forging at all, it's just adding unnecessary cost if that's true. There's no doubt shaft, geometry, sound, etc. are all part of feel for some/many - it's not as simple as forged vs cast. But a metallurgist will tell you a forged part and a cast part made of the same metal are not the same...

One of the perennial debates here, like loft jacking.

Cast muscleback = Vokey wedges

[BIG STU]

14 hours ago, Riverboat said:

No question that the differences are nowhere near as big as they used to be. I played forged in my early years and when I first tried cast, I swore I'd never play them. HARSH!!! But now... I'm in hollow PXG 0211DCs and they have fantastic feel, forgiveness, and distance. What they've done with weight distribution, inserts, and now injected polymers is truly amazing.

I am on the fence having an uncanny feel and being a Forged blade player all my life. I do have a set of rather new (for me) 2017 TM TP CBs and they have the polymer in them 7 iron up. I do a lot of 5 iron bump and runs and I can tell the feel is different. Lately I have been hitting my friends Ping 425 some and they hit great but the feel is not there for me. PXG I am on the fence with. I have only hit a first gen 50* wedge on full shots and it hit and felt ok to me. Now I did not hit any touch shots with it. I do have 8 sets of vintage Macgregors enough to last me if I live to be 100 so honesty I can not justify buying new stuff

[BIG STU]

8 hours ago, RichL85 said:

For what it is worth, at the time I ordered my Srixon irons, I had one other set in the running and it was a cast iron. Performance was practically the same between the two for me, but the Srixon rep had visited the store I was working at and offered to let me buy at a pretty steep discount. I could have easily gone with the other set, but it would have cost me (at the time a college student) about 70% more. The ball flight and performance of my Srixon irons are better than my Cobra irons ever were, but certainly not because they are forged. The cast Pings that were in the running were right there for performance. 

Right now I am going to put away all the factors forged versus cast blade versus CB 3 piece versus 1 piece forged or cast. The main factor here is what shaft a club is set up with plus sole grind and turf interaction for the individual player. For me and this is just me a lot has to do with modern sole grinds. I like the ZX5 Srixons but do not like the sole grind. But then again another factor for me is how we learned the game and the equipment we learned with. But yes any iron or any club for that matter has to do in how it is set up for an individual player. 

[Nevin]

I have a big shed where I store my farm equipment as well as mat and net to hit golf balls. I always use ear plugs when I use the tractor.  The other day, I forgot to take them out when I decided to hit a few balls into the net with some forged irons.  I was shocked at how completely the feel of these clubs was due to the sound they made.  Without the sound there was little feedback from impact aside from a very dull feeling in my hands.  When I switched to a cast club, the feel was identical.  After that accidental experiment, I have come to the conclusion that for me, feel really is 95% the sound made by the club and that the difference is minimal between a forged and cast club.  

Edited May 24, 2022 by Nevin

[Middler]

17 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

Good responses thus far but, interestingly enough, no one has mentioned that their forged irons are in the bag primarily due to ball flight performance.  I do agree that "feel" and "sound" are very subjective and that more current cast design/technology has narrowed the difference from cast irons decades ago. I also believe that the "forged mystique" is alive and well. I've been looking for a 6i or 7i G425 and even possibly a MCB (TDB... maybe a Cobra MIM) that I can re-shaft with the MMT80 or Recoil ES780 and test H2H. 

I bought my current forged irons with first and some forgiveness in mind, not distance or trajectory. I was put off by early cast game improvement irons as they felt truly awful even when hit dead center - and they sounded awful as well. I'm aware cast irons have improved since then, and maybe they've improved even more recently. I tried Mizuno Forged vs Hot Metals (cast) when I bought my current set, and the Hot Metals felt harsher - though I have no way of knowing if the difference I chalked up to forging might have been part or all sound, geometry or whatever else. Obviously I prioritized feel as the Hot Metals were longer, more forgiving and cheaper but I didn't buy them...

More recently I hit the Mizuno MP225's (side by side with my old JPX forged), with forged mentioned in the ad copy, though it's a hollow body - so nothing like a one piece forged iron. They felt almost as good as my JPX Forged. [Distance, trajectory and consistently were statistically similar BTW - so no compelling reason to buy]

Again, when club makers feature cast players irons (not just wedges) as their preferred models, not just niche one offs that don't sell nearly as well, we'll know they've matched forged irons.

 

[BIG STU]

53 minutes ago, Nevin said:

I have a big shed where I store my farm equipment as well as mat and net to hit golf balls. I always use ear plugs when I use the tractor.  The other day, I forgot to take them out when I decided to hit a few balls into the net with some forged irons.  I was shocked at how completely the feel of these clubs was due to the sound they made.  Without the sound there was little feedback from impact aside from a very dull feeling in my hands.  When I switched to a cast club, the feel was identical.  After that accidental experiment, I have come to the conclusion that for me, feel really is 95% the sound made by the club and that the difference is minimal between a forged and cast club.  

It all has to do with the combination of one's senses how ever an individual works. And If you have really sharp hearing you can tell the difference of the sound with different balls. I am not talking a premium ball versus a cheap ball either. There is a difference at least to me between the sound of a Pro V versus a Srixon. But then again I have been blessed or cursed with a total uncanny sense of feel. It is a total perception of how someone's senses works. One of the reasons you will never see me debate what someone else feels or hears. I will not debate against or for CB versus blade or forged over cast. I only know what works for me. As for your statement I can understand it 110%. 

[Hook DeLoft]

Back to the OP’s original question. I think many people still associate “forged” with quality. At one time good irons were forged and cheap department store irons weren’t. That was a long time ago but the association with quality has endured. I find it hard to believe that a forged face welded to a cast body provides any benefit but the marketing departments sure like to be able to tout “forged.”

[GregGarner]

3 hours ago, BIG STU said:

The main factor here is what shaft a club is set up with plus sole grind and turf interaction for the individual player. For me and this is just me a lot has to do with modern sole grinds. I like the ZX5 Srixons but do not like the sole grind. 

When I bought my ZX7's last year, the forging process differences did nudge me towards the 7's over the 5's, since the 5's are a forged face (a la Wilson D7 Forged). But as someone who played Ping i5's until he bought Ping i210's, I have never put a lot of stock in forged vs cast. With my Srixon's, it was just the tie-breaker. What got to me to pick out Srixon over Ping, however, was the sole.   The thinner V-sole is much more suited to my game and the courses I play than the thicker, more rounded soles I had always gamed with Ping. From a feel perspective, I wouldn't say the Srixon ZX7s are softer than the i210s, but the Z-Forged MBs definitely are.

Now if Big Stu has a 4i in that ZX5 and wants to find it a nice home, I think the added forgiveness of the ZX5 might be interesting  

[fixyurdivot]

11 hours ago, dlow206 said:

In that article, they are defining forged irons as: "A solid metal piece is used for creating forged irons... Now, this solid piece of metal is then stamped to form the required, correct shape and loft"

However, not all "forged" irons these days meet the definition above. 

The ZX5's are multi-piece construction. 

One thing i do know from a club building perspective, its so much easier to bend a forged iron made from carbon steel than a cast stainless steel iron. Though there are also cast carbon steel irons as well, which aren't terrible to bend as well. 

Yes, I do realize that a good many of recent "forged" offerings are not solid billet forged and for good reason - they accommodate so few players to include many professionals. I just happened to pick that article as an example of the myriad of similar ones that discuss the pros and cons of forged vs. cast irons... and more specifically the psyche aspects of choosing forged.  The ZX5, like the ZX7's and ZX Forged (the real deal MB) are all produced by the forging house that makes Miura... and that was all I needed to hear .

I'm glad I chose the Srixon's but, based on my experience with a hollow body forged design (which best fits my game), would be much less enamored by having forged stamped on the hosel and influencing my future decisions.  In fact, I had forgotten that the Mizuno Hot Metal (900 I think) were producing slightly better numbers than the G410's I chose simply because I'd been playing PING so long.  

From the comments thus far, it sounds like the sound and feel gap between forged and cast irons of yesteryears has closed a lot... making it much tougher not to choose cast... unless having that forged stamp is important.

[BIG STU]

5 hours ago, GregGarner said:

When I bought my ZX7's last year, the forging process differences did nudge me towards the 7's over the 5's, since the 5's are a forged face (a la Wilson D7 Forged). But as someone who played Ping i5's until he bought Ping i210's, I have never put a lot of stock in forged vs cast. With my Srixon's, it was just the tie-breaker. What got to me to pick out Srixon over Ping, however, was the sole.   The thinner V-sole is much more suited to my game and the courses I play than the thicker, more rounded soles I had always gamed with Ping. From a feel perspective, I wouldn't say the Srixon ZX7s are softer than the i210s, but the Z-Forged MBs definitely are.

Now if Big Stu has a 4i in that ZX5 and wants to find it a nice home, I think the added forgiveness of the ZX5 might be interesting  

Don't own any the ones I hit belong to one of our Club Owner's son. Me I am sticking with my old flat bottomed sharp leading edge Mac blades. But you are in the right frame of mine choosing the correct sole for your game. Turf interaction has a important part of the overall picture

[BIG STU]

5 hours ago, Hook DeLoft said:

Back to the OP’s original question. I think many people still associate “forged” with quality. At one time good irons were forged and cheap department store irons weren’t. That was a long time ago but the association with quality has endured. I find it hard to believe that a forged face welded to a cast body provides any benefit but the marketing departments sure like to be able to tout “forged.”

Back in the day some non pro line clubs were forged. Some were Pro Line seconds and some were forged out of cheaper steel.

[cardia10]

On 5/24/2022 at 12:17 AM, dlow206 said:

Cast muscleback = Vokey wedges

If you know how much those things cost as a head casting from China, you would be shocked. Lets just say you pay more for any grip at retail than they pay for the head. 

[HAC]

On 5/23/2022 at 9:59 AM, fixyurdivot said:

 Perhaps like wine, I just fall into that "blue-collar" golfer pool that cannot appreciate the difference in quality? 

 

 

It isn't that hard to learn the differences between better wines and less good wines (not always the same as more expensive and less expensive wines).  One simple way is that one can continue to taste a better wine (in a good way) for a much longer time after you swallow it than with a more pedestrian wine.  Wine loves call this difference as whether the wine has a long "finish."  It is all a matter of learning.

Probably the same with different types of golf club.  You aren't going to learn the differences until you are taught certain things.  My guess is that GI clubs would be better if you want to hit the ball straight while blades are better if you are trying to work the ball right to left, left to right or sometimes one and sometimes the other.

[fixyurdivot]

7 hours ago, HAC said:

It isn't that hard to learn the differences between better wines and less good wines (not always the same as more expensive and less expensive wines).  One simple way is that one can continue to taste a better wine (in a good way) for a much longer time after you swallow it than with a more pedestrian wine.  Wine loves call this difference as whether the wine has a long "finish."  It is all a matter of learning.

Probably the same with different types of golf club.  You aren't going to learn the differences until you are taught certain things.  My guess is that GI clubs would be better if you want to hit the ball straight while blades are better if you are trying to work the ball right to left, left to right or sometimes one and sometimes the other.

Well, I can say for certain that shot swings that I "finish", as in turn through the ball and accelerate all the way around, are almost always better.  I am a hot and spicy nut, so that probably hasn't help in refining my ability to discern the quality of wine. 

[Micah T]

I went from Titleist AP3’s(cast 17-4 stainless steel) to Ping i59’s(“forged” 1025 but with a 17-4 cast face) are the i59’s softer? Absolutely. They already look older after a year than the AP3’s did after 2.

Do the i59’s feel better? Definitely. On flushed shots, on well struck shots, shanks, and thins; all superior feeling with the i59.

What I find the most interesting is I could  never tell where on the face I made contact with the AP3’s. That, and absolutely flushed strikes flew a club longer. Flush one out of a flier lie? 2 clubs longer. 
 

I don’t know if the i59 are superior because they’re “forged” but I do know they are superior for my game because they spin so consistently. Consistent spin = consistent distance: and flushed shots just melt off the face. 

[HAC]

On 11/14/2022 at 7:13 PM, fixyurdivot said:

Well, I can say for certain that shot swings that I "finish", as in turn through the ball and accelerate all the way around, are almost always better.  I am a hot and spicy nut, so that probably hasn't help in refining my ability to discern the quality of wine. 

German Riesling or Gewurztraminer from Alsace would probably go best with hot and spicing food.