Very steep swing hitting thinner blades better than a wide sole game improvement iron?

[tincupflipper]

I'm 6'2 and a very, very, very step swinger. I will take the longest and deepest divots you have ever seen. I have worked my way down to a 1.8 handicap so I'm not looking to adjust my swing or change my technic. My strongest part of my game is my putting. My weakest part is I sometimes catch my irons fat or on the toe. I have worked in the golf industry for 18 years and my clubs are fully fitted to the exact number and specs. My thought was to try a larger more game improvement iron with a larger sole, verse my blade irons. So, I bought a cheap set of Adams Super S irons to test my theory, and I found that I hit the larger sole iron fatter and crappier than my blades. I understand that they aren't fitted to me, but I can adjust to accommodate the irons. I know all about bounce and turf interactions. I just never thought I'd hit a smaller, sharper iron better than a larger sole club. I'm just curious, are there any other tall golfers who are very steep dealing with this same thing. It goes against all of my years of fittings, but all of the 10,000 fittings I did in my life where indoors in Launch Monitors. I don't believe I would have noticed this issue without being outside and on the grass to see the turf interactions. Any info would be helpful. 

Edited August 7 by tincupflipper

[revkev]

Sleepless night for me with lots of stuff going on in my life - mostly good especially since we have the resources to combat sone challenges that have come our way due to Debby - read new roof time.

 

I’m surprised you’d have this issue being a fitter but then again you’re a golfer and even when golfers know a lot we still wonder. I’m neither tall nor a steep swinger but I do have a suggestion for you to consider.  Instead of blades how about something in the players distance category? They will have a thinner platform to benefit your swing type and the necessary help built in to benefit a mid capper. I’d even suggest starting with Edel or Srixon because of the unique soles that those two brands offer.

 

Good luck, let us know what you decide and how it works out. 

[Hook DeLoft]

Interesting results.  Just goes to show that there are no absolutes.  Normally, we think of wider soles as being more forgiving for diggers, which you most assuredly are.  However, you get along better with thinner soles.  It might be better to say that wider soles are more forgiving of slightly fat strikes.  In your case, you don't get to be a 1.8 hcp golfer without consistently hitting the ball first, so it's not surprising you don't need the wide soles.  Also, something about the Adams irons is causing you to mishit the ball. 

[McGolf]

maybe these?

1 the lie angle was so bad you could not hit a good shot, an upright swing usually needs an upright lie angle. 

2 Total weight, Adams super S are or were nice clubs but the total weight can and will make a difference in the timing of the swing ans since you are low HC'r catching the ball then the turf is paramount to a good round. As you said the misses are fat and toey. 

3 and this is a guess. is that the wide sole clubs were bouncing you out of the turf preventing the divot providing a feedback unfamiliar and because of that it was received negatively. 

 

[DukeStKing]

4 hours ago, McGolf said:

maybe these?

1 the lie angle was so bad you could not hit a good shot, an upright swing usually needs an upright lie angle. 

2 Total weight, Adams super S are or were nice clubs but the total weight can and will make a difference in the timing of the swing ans since you are low HC'r catching the ball then the turf is paramount to a good round. As you said the misses are fat and toey. 

3 and this is a guess. is that the wide sole clubs were bouncing you out of the turf preventing the divot providing a feedback unfamiliar and because of that it was received negatively. 

 

I’m 5’11, so average height, but I am steep. I’ve made divots so long and deep I could sell them as sod. I got PING i525 under the same theory that a wider sole would be good for me- especially because I play a very soft course. They have been a disaster for me. So many thin shots from the fairway- I just could not get under the ball. They were great from the rough or a tee. I could not consistently hit them off mats at the range. I came from a set of Apex 19 combos that I hit well- iron play has always been my strength. Well, I sold the PING’s and put in an order for Apex 21’s from CPO- lucky that PINGS have a great re-sale. It may be that diggers like us gotta dig and we need clubs that will let us. 

[wely324]

I'm on the steeper side of the spectrum and take big divots and have found blades or players cb irons fit me best. I have been playing bleprint S irons this season and even they have a tad too much bounce i have found at times. Unless you want to change your swing etc. to take a much shallower smaller divot or learn to pick the ball off the turf a small players iron is what you want to stick with. If you are cutting through butter with a knife, a thin razor will glide through much better than a dull thick blade. 

Edited August 12 by wely324

[McGolf]

On 8/12/2024 at 11:09 AM, DukeStKing said:

I’m 5’11, so average height, but I am steep. I’ve made divots so long and deep I could sell them as sod. I got PING i525 under the same theory that a wider sole would be good for me- especially because I play a very soft course. They have been a disaster for me. So many thin shots from the fairway- I just could not get under the ball. They were great from the rough or a tee. I could not consistently hit them off mats at the range. I came from a set of Apex 19 combos that I hit well- iron play has always been my strength. Well, I sold the PING’s and put in an order for Apex 21’s from CPO- lucky that PINGS have a great re-sale. It may be that diggers like us gotta dig and we need clubs that will let us. 

For those of us that are steep in the swing I would also suggest a shorter club. Then the wider soled club might work better, since we are spitballing