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How has forgiveness helped you?

I think spin on a single axis is the key. Play whatever fits your comfort but my misses are much more playable with forgiveness offered by new technology. For me a playable miss means better scores.
 
I started ~55 years ago with a small wooden headed driver, 3 wood and 4 wood, and small-headed forged blades (2-9). I used a Robt. Jones persimmon 2-wood, as a driver for over 20 years, until it cracked at the neck. There is no comparison between "old" and today's equipment. I still have a 1961 Wilson Staff 2-iron, and the head is barely wider than a golf ball. Grips, shafts, balls, forgiving heads, etc., have made the game more fun, and have kept this "old-timer" playing respectable golf longer than I might have with the older equipment.
 
Something to add to what many have already said... sole design is in the forgiveness category for me. First it was wider soles then it was V Soles. But being able to play in different conditions successfully, not having super thin soles that dig, the versatility and assistance making clean contact with the ball, etc., has definitely helped me.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Something to add to what many have already said... sole design is in the forgiveness category for me. First it was wider soles then it was V Soles. But being able to play in different conditions successfully, not having super thin soles that dig, the versatility and assistance making clean contact with the ball, etc., has definitely helped me.
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I think v sole in total is freaking brilliant. Most everyone can benefit from it too.
 
How has forgiveness helped me? Forgiveness is a factor, but not the number one (or even #3) thing I look for in clubs, especially irons, but it's effect is universal.
Over the years I have gone from Driver, 3-wood, 4-wood, 1-SW to Driver, 15° HY, 18° HY, 22° driving iron/hybrid, 5-LW (including Gap).

There is forgiveness EVERYWHERE and I appreciate it all:
- Driver forgiveness (even with the weights all the way forward in the M1) is ridiculous compared to 10 years ago. I hit some drives today that shouldn't have gone 230, but thanks to technology I'm 250-260 down the middle!
- The hybrid is a monumental change in forgiveness - hitting a 3-iron out the rough, good luck! Hybrid ... no problem.
- My irons definitely have a forgiveness factor, even though they are a "players" iron. Misses aren't nearly as penal and sometimes the "good misses" can be almost as good as an good swing.
- Even though my wedges are forged blades they have forgiveness because of the wonderful way the SCOR V-Sole moves through the turf and the higher CG built into the heads.
- And the ball, don't even get me started. Go play a Titleist Professional and let me know how that works out compared to a Pro V-1.

There's no doubt that the forgiveness factor today is ENORMOUS compared to when I played persimmon woods, blades and balata balls, but it's still golf and that's what counts.
 
Definitely help me with much less distance loss on off center hits. Pretty much across the board with all clubs in the bag.
 
I agree about the V sole. I am a huge fan.

But I am definitely seeing a huge increase in forgiveness in my J15CB vs. the irons I had in the bag 15 years ago. The feel and loss of distance on mishits is a huge difference. I would say there is probably a noticeable difference in the forgiveness from the Cleveland Classic in my bag from 2011 vs a 2016 model.
 
Honestly think it has helped me a ton when I have a bad stroke and hit it off the toe. I remember a few years ago playing the Rocketbladez and switching to the Apexs and it was one of the best things I have ever done.
 
It has definitely helped me in several areas. Driver distance improvement and accuracy, this also might be due to adjustability. Fairway wood distance has been astounding for me as well as dispersion. To the point where I have gone 4, 7 and 9 wood and dropped the 4H. Irons are my strong suit and I do not notice any real distance gains or dispersion improvement but my irons are a few years old.
 
Driver is most effectual for me. I tend to contact a bit toward the toe so forgiveness of this fault is paramount with driver.

But down through the set, not so much. I do play more forgiving 5 and 6 irons (Mizuno MX-200) but that's mostly because I bought a partial set of MP-52's (7-PW) at a great price a while back. If I had the matching 5 and 6 I'd very likely play them too. I have a full set of MX-200's but I very much prefer the MP-52's.

Driver is key for me, I can work with most else.
 
Canadan said:
I got the perception that the thread was about how forgiveness worked for the specific individual. If it took another route then that is too bad because its a really interesting question.

There's no denying the forgiveness factor.... At least I hope there isn't. If there wasn't everyone would have a 1 iron in their bag still haha #GoodLuck
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It did start about how it helped an individual Dan and I probably got it of track by wondering about other things as well and bunny trailing. I'm genuinely curious about things and this is one of them.
 
I'm pretty new to golf equipment, so I can't really say how it's helped because it's all relative. I never had to hit either very penal blades or clubs that demanded a ton of sacrifices aesthetically to get forgiveness. I don't currently play a super-forgiving driver, so I'd be interested to see how my game would change if I did go back to hitting something aimed more toward keeping the ball in play.
 
Personally, I would find it difficult to say as I am not one for hitting lots of different clubs and, until my current set, I was never fitted for the clubs I have played. The biggest thing I found after getting fitted was that my bad scores were nowhere near as bad as they were with my previous irons. The fact these were fitted would have had an impact on that, but I still feel that these clubs help me a bit more than I sometime realise

I would still say that a mishit with my old clubs (Ping i3 O-size) would certainly not travel anywhere near as far or straight as a mishit with my Z545 irons, and I definitely agree with the comments about how good the v-sole is on the Z545's

I will say that the GBB driver is pretty good at saving me when my swing isn't quite on song, I know that no club will ever save a bad swing but I can definitely get away with more than I would expect when not swinging too well - I have actually considered trying to find a few Bridgestone e6 balls and see how many fairways I can miss in a round, as the GBB with those balls off the tee has the potential to feel like cheating :D
 
All of it has absolutely helped me, with every club in the bag and the ball. Probably where I notice it the most is with my driver. I am often amazed at where certain tee balls end up when I know how bad I hit them. It really is remarkable how far clubs have come, even in the 20ish years I have been playing.
 
It has helped but is not the end all answer to the issues with my golf swing. If my swing was consistent, I wouldn't need the help.
 
In my experience, mainly distance gains and mishits go farther. Direction wise? I can still be all over the place with a bad swing.*

*Disclaimer: I still think it would be worse with older tech, but I just don't notice the forgiveness in direction as much as the distance.
 
For me, more forgiveness on my driver along with better distance than ever. And ball technology has helped my game over the years.
 
I love it when I hit the ball off the toe and it still goes straight, with my old blades those hits would end up in the adjacent fairway or tee box, GI irons are great.
 
I'm a "mid-capper/bogey golfer". I have 2 sets of irons, an MC and a "GI/SGI". I love the look and playing the MCs but the GI set is so much more forgiving and I simply score better when I'm gaming them.
 
Trout Bum said:
With all the new technology out there, a lot of clubs are being built with forgiveness in mind.

How has that forgiveness worked for you? mishits go further? ball goes straighter? massive distance gains?

Are you hitting more fairways and greens?
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If it weren't for the forgiveness in my newer clubs my game would suck much more than it already does
 
I tried hitting a couple different clubs yesterday, I got the m2 6 iron free in the mail a couple weeks ago, I hit an ap1 6 iron, and a callaway Apex 6 iron. out of the three, the only one I could marginally hit was the apex, I hit it higher than my blades and about a half club further, the m2 and the ap1 were horrible, I couldn't get the ball in the air with either one and man they felt dead, just terrible, the opposite of the spectrum was the callaway and I couldn't feel anything which was pretty strange. I give the Apex forged a go and the new Srixon as well.

Ive been thinking about the vr pro combos as well, they're on the cheap right now
 
The forgiveness helps with ball striking a bit, but it doesn't effectively lower your score because the short game and putting are where most of your strokes come from.


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Trout Bum said:
I tried hitting a couple different clubs yesterday, I got the m2 6 iron free in the mail a couple weeks ago, I hit an ap1 6 iron, and a callaway Apex 6 iron. out of the three, the only one I could marginally hit was the apex, I hit it higher than my blades and about a half club further, the m2 and the ap1 were horrible, I couldn't get the ball in the air with either one and man they felt dead, just terrible, the opposite of the spectrum was the callaway and I couldn't feel anything which was pretty strange. I give the Apex forged a go and the new Srixon as well.

Ive been thinking about the vr pro combos as well, they're on the cheap right now
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I could definitely see you gaming some old school VR Pro Combos!
 
It's obvious that forgiveness is real and indisputable in the fact that it works. It's scientific as JB has eluded to, however I would be curious what the average handicap was say 20 - 15 - 10- 5 years ago to what it is now. Has it gone down? Has it gone up? No matter how forgiving the club or clubs are, one still has to put the ball in the hole in as little strokes as possible.
 
I would say mishits for me do not go as far off line as before, its still off line, but not by as much, so say instead of being 40 yard right, its like 30 or 25 or 20 or so, much easier to recover from that.

Ive also found for me, that the new irons I got a year and a half ago, really do not perform too much different than my old titles clubs, they do feel better on the mishits, where I don't get the jumble through my body, and has helped witht hat aspect as well, but distances also due to loft difference in the clubs have improved, and hitting a 4 iron is definitely easier than hitting the old clubs.
 
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