What would realistically happen is a 20+ handicap played blades

n3gativ3

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Would they just have an extra 5 strokes per round? I feel like people say that you have to be under this or that to play blades and you'll be punished off the toe and heel, but what would actually happen?

did anyone play here play blades as a high handicap?
 
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Depends on the player. Some would adjust and find some success, others would struggle with contact issues.
 
In my limited experience with blades:
Scores did not improve.
My hands and wrists were always sore from the mishits.
 
They would probably regret the decision pretty quickly. Blades are "easier" to hit than they use to be, but blades are still hard to hit. When I was down to a scratch while in my college playing days, I had some blades. I loved them, but I didn't even keep my 3 iron in my bag. Now I'm still a single digit, but other than an 8 through wedge, I wouldn't carry blades. Not a chance.
 
A 20 handicap struggles to find contact with any club of any design. The benefit of more forgiving designs is maybe less loss of distance and tighter dispersion. With a blade there is no such benefit. What that translates into score wise is a bit tougher to say.
 
My 1st set was a set of blades from my Grandfather 35 years ago. Terrible golf ensued! My hands hurt just thinking about those clubs.
it would be interesting to try playing 9 with them. Are we talking Permission drivers also?
What would the average drives be for THPers with those?
 
Why would they drop 5 strokes per round by playing less forgiving clubs?
I just completely used the wrong words, I meant gain 5 strokes per round, so doing worse.
 
Like @JB said, it depends on the player. I used them when I first started playing. I hurt all over after a round trying to keep the ball in play or even a playable lie. Not forgiving at all. The best I did was to stop playing them. My game is much more enjoyable and WAY less stressful. Cheaper too....less lost balls in the woods or water.
 
Man.. their short game would get a life lesson real fast
 
I don't notice much of a scoring difference when I take the Nike blades out
 
It is worth the experience to just have it and see what it's like. Feel the pleasure of a flushed shot, but when you move off the quarter size sweet spot then you will know the real issues of blades.
I won't every play them as I enjoy what I have. A few rounds with them was enough to understand it.
 
As far as I’m concerned, handicap has nothing to do with whether you can hit a blade. My buddy plays off 22. He hits his irons with a much better strike than I do and I currently play off 11. He plays a an old 2 iron not a blade, but a real old small cavity) and he crushes it. Where he loses his shots are when he misses the fairway, he misses it with a massive slice or hook, and his course management is pretty poor.
 
What was the hypothetical 20 handicap playing prior to this experiment?

I have a casual friend that is around that. Maybe 18-ish. Plays a set of blades all the time. Obviously not much difference.

I have a good friend who bounces around between 8 and 12. Plays mostly GI's. From what I've seen he plays to about a 28 with a set of my blades. I could ask him to total those rounds up to give us an exact number, but he'd likely tell me to f**k off. :LOL:

Others might score a little worse, others directional misses might not be as bad because of less distance or focus better and benefit sometimes. It would be pretty individual while still trending towards worse I think.
 
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I'm a little better than average handicap. I'm getting ready to purchase a set of blades.

I tried out a borrowed set of ill fitted blades late last year. Gave them 30 days of extensive practice, and play. I was happy with the results.

I also have an old Hogan 5i, forged, mb blade that I practice with, off very thin lies. I sometimes do the same thing with an unknown 2i blade. I just don't have the swing speed to do the 2i justice.

My encounters with these blades were more positive than negative. At the very least, after some getting use to them, I shot the same scores. I also found when I put a good swing, and club contact on the ball, I was seeing more draw ball flights, and a few more yards.

The one negative was if I mis hit a ball off the club face, the feed back was immediate, and hand jarring.

Now on a good swing and ball contact, it was like cutting butter with a hot knife. Just a pleasant feeling.

My thought is, once fitted to a set blades, I will expect a 1-2 (3?) stroke saving per round.

I don't need new clubs. I'm quite happy with my current set of cavity backs. I just have one of those wild hairs bothering me.
 
I think it depends on why you're a 20+. Are you a terrible driver, good driver, bad putter, etc. My guess is you'd shoot a similar score, but your hands would hurt more.
 
Would they just have an extra 5 strokes per round? I feel like people say that you have to be under this or that to play blades and you'll be punished off the toe and heel, but what would actually happen?

did anyone play here play blades as a high handicap?
Story time.

When we did the first Ultimate Testing event with Callaway in 2013 for the Apex irons, I told the fitter from Callaway I was a 20 handicap then proceeded to mash two 6 irons that probably landed right on top of one another. He asked to clarify that I was in fact a 20 handicap, and I confirmed. He then said that I must really suck at putting. I let him know that was not the case, and then followed up my two masterful 6 iron shots with a comedically heavy impact. In my case then, my misses were so poor, it didn't matter what I was hitting. I didn't lose extra shots around the green or putt particularly bad, I just had an inconsistency that would lead to blow up holes, keeping the handicap from falling as quick as the progress with my good swings might have suggested. I ended up going with a combo set with the Apex Pros in the short irons since I visually prefer a slimmer topline. I could have gotten away with a full set of Pros then, and have played cavity backs for the last several years, sporadically trying different, more helpy type irons, with mixed reseults.

Now, I'm only a sample size of one, but I don't believe the strict hierarchy of club head types for certain players. That being said, while my misses are still spectacularly bad, I still want the forgiveness provided by less bladey type irons as I believe in wearing down the majority of the face evenly, to avoid browning like that dime sized spot on Tiger's irons.
 
I think the average 20 would have more shots they felt in their hands and they’d have more shots that flew low and came up short of their target.
 
Would they just have an extra 5 strokes per round? I feel like people say that you have to be under this or that to play blades and you'll be punished off the toe and heel, but what would actually happen?

did anyone play here play blades as a high handicap?

Im a low 20's handicapper and use a blend set of Cobras. 7-pw are mb's. I personally have or feel I have better contact with those than the cavity back irons. I don't feel my scores suffer at all using the blades.
 
Like @JB said I think it would depend on the player. I've seen 20+ caps that had pretty good iron games but couldn't keep the ball on the planet off the tee. In that case they would probably be ok. If overall ball striking is a challenge though than there's probably going to be some struggles.
 
I would probably play so bad that I might just quit playing at all. I'm so happy that they had 460cc drivers and sgi irons when I started playing.
 
When I started playing golf, blades were all that there was. No such thing as cavity backs. You learned to hit them. Some better than others. lol My first full set of clubs were Spalding Topflite. Then, I switched to Wilson Staff Dynapower. I used those clubs while on the HS golf team. 2-PW plus SW. Then, switched to MacGregor Tourney in college.

Without a relatively consistent swing, a high handicapper is going to make bad shots whether using blades or cavity backs. But, the blades will generally be less forgiving on hits that elude the sweet spot.
 
Depends on the player and depends on the blade. Not all 20 handicappers are the same.
 
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