Playing implications to ordering irons a degree or two stronger?

Daddio

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My scheduled iron fitting is finally almost here and I'm batting around the idea of possibly having the lofts strengthened if whatever I'm fit for peaks too high. I'm assuming it will be another game improvement offering or possibly a players distance set? My current set (Cobra King F6 with stock graphite) peaks quite a bit higher than most I play with, but they're also designed to do so. I'm older, and distance challenged and inconsistent so I'm not the right candidate for players irons IMO. So I'm debating possibly lowering lofts even further on a new set of rocket launching GI (or PD) irons. Another bonus would be to expand distance from irons at the top of my bag to hopefully eliminate another club up there. Biggest pro would be more distance and less wind interaction due to lower flight.

My assumptions are the cons to strengthening (ranked worst to least) are:
Reduce land angle and backspin making it tough to hold some greens
Expand dispersion ovals because less backspin = less control
Screw up designed turf interaction and make irons more 'diggy'
Adds offset making irons more prone to pulls and hooks (that's my miss)
Might need another wedge (debated calling that a pro :love: vs con)

I plan to discuss this stuff with my fitter but am I missing anything else?
 
Newer, stronger lofted irons fly higher and land softer than the clubs with similar lofts of before. Today’s 4 iron might have a stronger loft than the old ones did, but it will still fly as high but go farther at the same time. Try to get rid of your preconceived ideas and just watch the numbers that show up during your fitting. Not all GI irons have a lot of offset or become ”diggy“ Keep an open mind. I recently went in search of more distance and bought Titleist T300 irons. Not much offset, stronger lofts, more distance, and they hold greens very well with no loss of control. Didn’t break the bank either. A good fitter will find the club that suits you.
 
Newer, stronger lofted irons fly higher and land softer than the clubs with similar lofts of before. Today’s 4 iron might have a stronger loft than the old ones did, but it will still fly as high but go farther at the same time. Try to get rid of your preconceived ideas and just watch the numbers that show up during your fitting. Not all GI irons have a lot of offset or become ”diggy“ Keep an open mind. I recently went in search of more distance and bought Titleist T300 irons. Not much offset, stronger lofts, more distance, and they hold greens very well with no loss of control. Didn’t break the bank either. A good fitter will find the club that suits you.
Bigtime thanks @Scott F . I'm firmly in the camp that believes the way these clubs are designed mandates that they be lofted more strongly than players irons. I was more asking what the implications might be to having a set like T300 built a degree or two stronger than standard. BTW T300 is definitely my top candidate going in. Love all I've learned about them except how high they fly for most.
 
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Newer, stronger lofted irons fly higher and land softer than the clubs with similar lofts of before. Today’s 4 iron might have a stronger loft than the old ones did, but it will still fly as high but go farther at the same time. Try to get rid of your preconceived ideas and just watch the numbers that show up during your fitting. Not all GI irons have a lot of offset or become ”diggy“ Keep an open mind. I recently went in search of more distance and bought Titleist T300 irons. Not much offset, stronger lofts, more distance, and they hold greens very well with no loss of control. Didn’t break the bank either. A good fitter will find the club that suits you.
You might be able to keep the standard lofts and be fit for a shaft that will have the attributes you are looking for. Something with a lower launch if you are ahigh ball hitter might give you more distance and not effect the turf interaction and offset.YMMV :cool:
 
You analyzed it pretty well and Scott rounded things out. One more item to consider. Gapping. These are your scoring clubs. Minimum dispersion in all directions and an even distance gap between them is essential. Just blanketly ordering the clubs with the same degree stronger loft may screw up your gapping between clubs.

Also, what is your longest iron? 3, 4, 5? It matters because with the lower numbered irons tweaking a degree or two you are going to see a lot more problems with holding greens and would probably be better served with hybrids or woods in those slots.
 
You analyzed it pretty well and Scott rounded things out. One more item to consider. Gapping. These are your scoring clubs. Minimum dispersion in all directions and an even distance gap between them is essential. Just blanketly ordering the clubs with the same degree stronger loft may screw up your gapping between clubs.

Also, what is your longest iron? 3, 4, 5? It matters because with the lower numbered irons tweaking a degree or two you are going to see a lot more problems with holding greens and would probably be better served with hybrids or woods in those slots.
Thank you. I go up to 4i in my current Cobra King F6 set. The 4i holds greens pretty well despite it's design (hollow GI iron lofted on the stronger side at 20? or 21? degrees). I don't have trouble getting it to fly high but that could be shaft too? That 4i currently gaps about 12-14 yards shorter (total yards) than my next club, a GAPR Mid #3. I'm kind of hoping that if I got a little more out of my new irons I could eliminate either the GAPR or get close enough to it with a new 5i to eliminate the need for a 4i in the new set. Problem is the iron fitting will be with 7 irons only and then they are supposedly going to make a best guess as to how that translates up and down the bag:unsure:
 
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Bending a club strong:

Ball

1. Increased Ball Speed
2. Less spin
3. Lower launch angle

Club

1. Slightly more offset
2. Reduced bounce, change in turf interaction

Ball (need to test)

1. Change in peak height. Some people will have a higher peak height due to the higher ballspeed and lower spin. Others lower due to the lower launch angle.
2. Change in Descent Angle. Again with the peak height differences some players may have a steeper angle of descent in mid irons and others a shallower one. Again test to see playability.
 
My scheduled iron fitting is finally almost here and I'm batting around the idea of possibly having the lofts strengthened if whatever I'm fit for peaks too high. I'm assuming it will be another game improvement offering or possibly a players distance set? My current set (Cobra King F6 with stock graphite) peaks quite a bit higher than most I play with, but they're also designed to do so. I'm older, and distance challenged and inconsistent so I'm not the right candidate for players irons IMO. So I'm debating possibly lowering lofts even further on a new set of rocket launching GI (or PD) irons. Another bonus would be to expand distance from irons at the top of my bag to hopefully eliminate another club up there. Biggest pro would be more distance and less wind interaction due to lower flight.

My assumptions are the cons to strengthening (ranked worst to least) are:
Reduce land angle and backspin making it tough to hold some greens
Expand dispersion ovals because less backspin = less control
Screw up designed turf interaction and make irons more 'diggy'
Adds offset making irons more prone to pulls and hooks (that's my miss)
Might need another wedge (debated calling that a pro :love: vs con)

I plan to discuss this stuff with my fitter but am I missing anything else?

The stock Cobra shafts for the F6 model have a low kick point, and some of the heads in the set have very low CG's. These are built for a high ball flight.

2 degrees strong isn't going to make much difference.
 
Definitely pay attention to shafts in your fitting. You can get get more variation in dynamic loft with a shaft than you can bending a head 1-2 degrees.
 
I believe @Canadan can probably give you the lowdown as he’s written about this before and plays his this way IIRC.
 
Great advice above and one of the reasons I always played forged cavity backs in past was they were bendable in nature. This year I got a serious fitting PXG and end up with 0211s that come strong and replaced 4 iron with an adjustable hybrid. Still thinking of going back and getting a 4 iron perhaps in an even more forgiving head. 63 and I have lost a lot of club speed so shafts the real key and ended up in Accras and love them for great fight and less dispersion other shafts tested. I also got 3/4” long (have shortish arms) and have regained a lot of distance. Enjoy the process! If you might be a Veteran consider PXG got almost half off that way, and fitting was stellar on live range with monitoring. They were running same deal to all but have not checked in a few weeks.
 
Great advice above and one of the reasons I always played forged cavity backs in past was they were bendable in nature. This year I got a serious fitting PXG and end up with 0211s that come strong and replaced 4 iron with an adjustable hybrid. Still thinking of going back and getting a 4 iron perhaps in an even more forgiving head. 63 and I have lost a lot of club speed so shafts the real key and ended up in Accras and love them for great fight and less dispersion other shafts tested. I also got 3/4” long (have shortish arms) and have regained a lot of distance. Enjoy the process! If you might be a Veteran consider PXG got almost half off that way, and fitting was stellar on live range with monitoring. They were running same deal to all but have not checked in a few weeks.
Thanks @Rummpd. My fitter does have the PXG fitting assets too and as a veteran (USAF retired) I always include their offerings whenever I get fit there. Their discounts are excellent.
 
Tell the fitter what your objectives are and put yourself in their hands. There are lots of combinations of heads and shafts that may get you what you want without substantially changing the lofts and therefore the bounce impacting turf interaction.

I would guess you are more of a picker of the ball who releases a bit early (otherwise you don't hit shots high and short). If that is the case then reduced bounce probably won't have a big negative effect.
 
Biggest issues are: 1) you will have a wedge gapping problem with anywhere from a 6 degree (or greater) gap between your PW and your sand wedge. 2) in the other end, your five iron may duplicate one of your hybrids.
 
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