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Why Blades?

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JB

JB

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While at the PGA show we got the chance to speak with tons of club makers and quite a few professionals as well. One question kept coming up over an over again to the PGA professionals. "Why play cavity backs?" and it got me wondering. Most of the tours play some sort of cavity back irons yet many of the amateurs still rely on blades. We had two PGA professionals (Duffy Waldorf and Trevor Immelman) tell us that any amateur that plays a pure blade is borderline crazy and could immediately help their game by switching to a "players club" with some forgiveness.

As someone that learned the game on blades I had a tough time switching, but I am curious as to the people that play blades out there, why? We have heard for years because of feel, but that has since changed since the forged players cavity backs came out as most that we spoke to said the "feel" is the same. Thin top line? The players cavity have those too.

Not looking to start a fight here, it is just an honest question.
 
depends on where you play JB... on tour if you aren't a long hitter you're hitting a great deal of approach shots with longer irons. For your average amateur, 6700 yards simply isn't a long challenge if you're a strong player off the tee. After playing with me JB you know I'm not that long off the tee but longer than your average player and long enough to have short irons in my hands.

I understand where this argument comes from... a traditional muscle back (like my last set, McGregor Pro M blades and say a 695MB) are a true blade and tough to hit. I had a hard time hitting a 5 iron with the McGregors. Yet with technology, the blade has also changed... the Nickent ARC is a perfect example. It has the forgiveness of a cavity back IMHO and its why I play them. A number of issues come into play as well, such as confidence at address and aesthetics.
 
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But DD. "if" the club makers are correct and you will get the same feel from a players cavity back as you do from a blade why not have the extra forgiveness. The PGA players said so. So did the clubmakers.
 
I know for me I went with blades for a couple of reasons. I have been playing players irons for the last year. They are good clubs and they preformed well for me. I went with the arc blades for a couple of reasons. The Arc blades are the most forgiving and easy to hit blades that I have ever tried. With the design of the head and the "foam" they use they are more forgiving. I love the look and feel very confident looking down on the thin clean top line. The biggest reason I made the change is that they are easier to work that traditional players clubs. I know that you can work the forged cavity backs but I have more control and more options with shots with the blades. I had a hard time playing low shots with the players irons and have no trouble at all with the blades. For me the arc blades are the best irons I have ever hit and that is why I put them in my bag.
 
honestly... technology has changed the way blades play, the blades we have today (such as the arcs for Andy and myself) are not the McGregor blades from the 70's... there is much greater forgiveness with the clubs.

edit: he said it well!
 
workability

workability

honestly, i don't play blades but i can and used to. I feel that with the blades you have more workability and its easier to control the flight and direction of the ball. At the same time though i feel that i lose a little bit of distance and lose a lot of forgiveness. Blades are more difficult to hit, you really get to see your misses, and that's why i switched back to my cavity backs. I mean, blades have great feel when you hit that sweet spot, but with a blade, the sweet spot is so small. I always thought that cavity backs provide more feel and forgiveness.
 
It's all ego JB, mostly juniors as well. They play blades because to them it shows other players how good they are. They think they are acheiving something better and are better than the rest if they play Blades. they all fool themselves.
 
Dent said:
It's all ego JB, mostly juniors as well. They play blades because to them it shows other players how good they are. They think they are acheiving something better and are better than the rest if they play Blades. they all fool themselves.
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there is certainly some ego involved...
 
I wasn't looking for blades (are S57's blades?) but these are so gorgeous, and really do feel good to hit.

Mostly, I find them attractive.
 
Gummi Bear said:
I wasn't looking for blades (are S57's blades?) but these are so gorgeous, and really do feel good to hit.

Mostly, I find them attractive.
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no, the s57 is a micro cavity players iron

965mb_i_large.jpg

ping_s57_irons.jpg
 
Gotcha. I'll call them a micro-split cavity. :D Thanks for the clarification, fellas.
 
See, there's another one for my Iron Classification thread.

Micro-split cavity? WTF?
 
Grogger,
Just assume they are players cavitys to make it easier.
 
what would these be? a players cavity? these have super thin toplines, but also a shallow cavity....

3215804331_f853dc119c.jpg
 
That is exactly what they are.
 
I've got a couple of buddies that play true blades, one plays Tommy Armour 845 M's
TA845mLG.gif


And another plays Nike blades from a couple of years ago
product_327119.jpg
 
Dent said:
It's all ego JB, mostly juniors as well. They play blades because to them it shows other players how good they are. They think they are acheiving something better and are better than the rest if they play Blades. they all fool themselves.
Click to expand...

DDBowdoin said:
there is certainly some ego involved...
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Dent said:
Just how I feel about it. I guess it's not all ego, but why play Blades anymore is right. There really is not much of a reason besides looks.
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I concur, ego is a huge part of it. I get the old answer from some folks "I can work the ball better with blades", yup you sure worked that ball right into that big ole group of trees.

The game is hard enough as it is, why not give yourself a break & use some nice cavity irons?
 
dynarider said:
I concur, ego is a huge part of it. I get the old answer from some folks "I can work the ball better with blades", yup you sure worked that ball right into that big ole group of trees.

The game is hard enough as it is, why not give yourself a break & use some nice cavity irons?
Click to expand...

That is exactly what the pros were saying.
 
i never try to "work" the ball anyway. i can only remember a few times where i had to do that to get around a tree or something. i always try to hit the ball straight, lol....
 
RocketSauce said:
i never try to "work" the ball anyway. i can only remember a few times where i had to do that to get around a tree or something. i always try to hit the ball straight, lol....
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It's good to know that working the ball isn't a prerequisite for a single digit handicap.
 
and playing a relatively easy course the majority of the time doesnt hurt either :)
 
I'm still trying to figure out what exactly these would be classified as, since there really is no cavity since it's all filled in and kinda rounded outwards a little, but they're definitely not a blade either. Nickent calls the style a hybrid iron, so maybe it's an addition to the iron classification thread?

3dx_rc_med.jpg
 
THey are considered their game improvements. They do have a cavity back, just slightly filled in.
 
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