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For the fans of cavity irons...proof the tour players are with you!?

SuperStroke
paulthewitt

paulthewitt

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I know that many people on this site are huge believers that really, there is no reason for most people to be playing blades. But that most people should be using some form of cavity back with at least a little forgiveness.

Well it appears that the pro tour agrees, according to this link 70% of those players use em:

http://www.golfdigest.com/golfworld/columnists/2009/05/golf_cavity_back_irons_johnson_0515

Suprised me as i thought most pro players used blades....at least for the pw-6/7 iron. Apparently not!

Just thought you may find this interesting
Paul
 
I was reading this earlier and this just proves how player iron has changed over the years and helped even the pro's with forgiviness without sacrificing feel and playability.
 
Yup, the notion that you SHOULD be playing blades if you are serious about golf is a bunch of nonsense.
 
I have been giving that same stat here for months. It is ego and nothing else.
 
JB said:
I have been giving that same stat here for months. It is ego and nothing else.
Click to expand...

Yeah i can remember you saying a number of times that more use the CB irons than blades. Couldnt remember seeing the statistic though, so found the article quite interesting.
 
I'd have to a agree, I have hit blades before and it seems to me that one would have to hit it perfect(or pretty close to it) to get to ball to do what one intends for it do. Seems that I can miss toward the toe on my X'20's and get a favorable ball flight. I LOVE technology!
 
Don't forget most Oem's don't offer many choices of blades any longer.
Adams 0
Cleveland 1
Callaway 1
Taylormade 1
Titleist 1
Mizuno 1
Nike 1
Cobra 1
 
How many more types do they need. Most OEMs only offer 1 type of CB that a tour pro would use as well. In fact not much has changed in that aspect.
 
did any of the major oems ever have 2 types of blades?
 
BigLeftyinAZ said:
Don't forget most Oem's don't offer many choices of blades any longer.
Adams 0
Cleveland 1
Callaway 1
Taylormade 1
Titleist 1
Mizuno 1
Nike 1
Cobra 1
Click to expand...

Actually, Adams has the Idea Pro Black Muscleback irons.

RocketSauce said:
did any of the major oems ever have 2 types of blades?
Click to expand...

Before the Mizuno MP-62s and 52s came out, Mizuno had the 67s and the 32s offered at the same time.
 
RocketSauce said:
did any of the major oems ever have 2 types of blades?
Click to expand...

Exactly, sort of hard to market two blade designs...not that much can be radically different.
 
I just disliked the tone of that article- you should play cavity backs and you are wrong if you don't. I like the ballflight I get from my irons. I also know what I do wrong when I mishit a ball, and it helps me work in certain things. I feel that I have improved my ballstriking since I started playing blades. I am sure there is ego involved with most people, but I just didn't like the black and white tone of that article.
 
If you want to play blades, do it. If not, don't. It's that simple.
 
I think the point of the article was that modern cavity backs can offer just as much feel and workability as musclebacks, but with added forgivability . . . and if the vast majority of the best players in the world are shunning musclebacks, why would an amateur consider playing them?

If you want to play musclebacks, by all means, do. I mean, it's just a game and if that's what makes you happy or confident, who is anyone else to tell you how to play the game, right? But I tend to agree with the article that most amateurs would improve their score if they bagged cavity backs.
 
My faults with my irons would be faults with cavity backs, too. A push with a blade is a push with a cavity back- not to mention, as I said, I love the ballflight that I get from my irons. Don't get me wrong- I would love a set of the MP-52s or MP-62s, but it is just a money issue. I just don't think that blades are so impossible to hit as is the common conception of them. I don't reccomend them for most people, but they work for me, and I am sure there are plenty of amateurs for whom they work as well.
 
I agree with harry here, take the MP-62's vs the MP-67, unless your a plus handicap you can't tell me you can do more with the 67's vs the 62's. The only way an article like that offends you is if it bruises your ego.
 
It doesn't bruise my ego or anything, it just has a "this is right and if you disagree, you are wrong" tone to it. Like I said, perhaps I would be better off with a set of 52s or 62s, but am not going to spend the money (I paid 200 bucks for my 32s in darn good shape just last year). For now, they force me to try to correct my mistakes, and that hurts nobody. It doesn't hurt my scores, either. I make good contact with my irons, the misses are just pushes or pulls. If I had a spare grand laying around, I would have a new set of either of those or the Titleist AP2s, but I don't.
 
The thing is though, that with CBs you are penalized less for your mishits, so you dont have to be as precise with your ballstriking.
As the others said, if you like your blades, cool; but the vast majority of amateur golfers would benefit from playing CBs.
No matter what club you play, you still have to make a decent swing in order to get good results from it.
 
Okay, we obviously disagree here, so I will just add one more statement that is meant to be comical- when I pure one of my iron shots, it feels so good I can't even describe it to you. You start to look forward to your iron shots just to try to get that feeling again- it is like a heroin addict "chasing the dragon".

But, yes, I am aware that many current cavity backs, especially the part cb, part muscleback have all the advantages of both. I would probably spring for one, but its a money issue. And yes, like bake said, you have to swing well to hit the ball well regardless of the iron.

So, morals of the story

1)- Swing well
2)- I am poor
 
askthejak said:
Okay, we obviously disagree here, so I will just add one more statement that is meant to be comical- when I pure one of my iron shots, it feels so good I can't even describe it to you. You start to look forward to your iron shots just to try to get that feeling again- it is like a heroin addict "chasing the dragon".
Click to expand...
I started out playing an old set of Ben Hogan blades and you get that same feeling with any iron.
IMHO, the notion that blades have so much more feel is a bunch of nonsense.
 
I have tried Cb's and always find my way back to the blades.I have no issues finding the sweet spot.My misses are not cause from off center hits.
 
I never have an issue with people's selection of clubs, but I must say after meeting with every club manufacturer out there, it is impossible to have the same view as I used to about blades. I grew up playing them, but the club makers are now only making them for amateurs that feel "they want to play them". They do not make them for pros anymore and in speaking with two of the best club makers ever including the guy that designed your irons (now with Nike) he said "there is not amateur on the planet that should be playing blades with todays technology available."

He quickly stepped back and said some blades are created differently, but the fact is that if you mishit a blade and a cavity back, two different things happen.

We have heard the same thing from every club maker and pro we speak with.
 
There are so many different types of players that you CANNOT generalize that because the pros are playing them they are right. AskthJak gets the ballflight he wants out of his irons and he is one of those guys that do not "mishit" irons it is just a matter if his hands get square late, on time or early. NO Cavity back will not fix this type of miss.

I have a buddy exactly the same way, his blades and shafts work together(without tweaking his lofts) keep his ballflight down. Cavity backs make him hit it higher, which he does not need. He hits the ball solid most of the time and does not need the forgiveness. So he plays blades, not because some pro does or it feeds his ego(they are some no name blade), he plays them because he scores better with them.

All pros are looking at two things when they are fitted into today's player cavities, money and will they play the same as the last set I was playing. Obviously companies want their pros to play clubs that will be better for the average player because if the pros play it then the amateurs will. If the amateurs can be coerced into playing cavities "most" of them will play better and then that brand will look better in that amteurs eyes because they are hitting them better, farther whatever.

This is the same reason companies started "lying" about driver lofts, if amateurs hit them farther then they will buy more and tell their friends.

Very very simple marketing and business plan.

I do agree that I see many amateurs that have no business playing blades. Shoot I am almost one of them, but my blades are not "true blades" in every sense of the word. The Arc blades have a "hidden cavity".
 
Chris,
WHile I agree with your thoughts on a lot of this, you too are generalizing a little bit. Not ALL PROS are looking for money and if they hit them as well as the last set. Do you think Greg Norman thought that when he switched to TM irons this year? Out of his own mouth, he said he could have played anything, but he tried everything and these gave him the most forgiveness with added distance. Every company would have signed him. Nike did not care which of their irons their players went to, yet with the exception of Mr. Woods, almost all play the splits.

We can not generalize why pros pick irons, because most of them do so for different reasons. Most of them can go to a different company if they would like to. Duffy W was a Titleist guy and left and had his choice of 4 different companies. He made his choice based on which irons felt the best.

Its not always about the sponsorship dollars, because most can get it from any company.
 
askthejak said:
Okay, we obviously disagree here, so I will just add one more statement that is meant to be comical- when I pure one of my iron shots, it feels so good I can't even describe it to you. You start to look forward to your iron shots just to try to get that feeling again- it is like a heroin addict "chasing the dragon".

But, yes, I am aware that many current cavity backs, especially the part cb, part muscleback have all the advantages of both. I would probably spring for one, but its a money issue. And yes, like bake said, you have to swing well to hit the ball well regardless of the iron.

So, morals of the story

1)- Swing well
2)- I am poor
Click to expand...

Seems this article has got pulses going a bit!!

Whilst i do believe that CB's are simply a better option, a point was made to me a while back that almost got me to switch to blades. If you push a blade...the CB will be a push.......if you pull a CB the blade will be a pull.

If you hit it out of the centre there will be no difference really, even on the bad shots. Same distance, same error.

The only time CB's really help is if you hit it in the correct direction, but dont hit the same spot on the club face every time. This basically sums up my game, and probably a lot of other amateurs out there. Hence why CB's make so much sense.
 
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