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Strengthening loft: how much is too much?

Nippon Shafts
Pkielwa

Pkielwa

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Club builder question here. If one strengthens the loft of a club, for every degree of loft change there is a degree of bounce change, 1:1. Strengthening a degree lowers bounce a degree. So, on say a 6 iron, how much change to the bounce will truly start to cause digging or issues??? A degree is nominal, but is two where the issue starts? Curious.

Thanks for the help.
 
No hard and fast answer, it will depend on the Swing from person to person.
 
Jman said:
No hard and fast answer, it will depend on the Swing from person to person.
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Turns out, it's 2 degrees... Anything greater than that becomes a problem. I talked to an old friend back in Charlotte that spent 20 years on Tour "vans" for various OEMs.
 
Yup. I play my irons 2* strong and have never noticed an issue with digging. I had one builder tell me that I was going to mess up my bounce angle if I did 2* but I've never noticed.


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This might be a dumb question but why do you want to bend them strong?
 
BeefCake said:
This might be a dumb question but why do you want to bend them strong?
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Not a dumb question at all. I do it to bring the launch down and add a little carry distance. It was something I started messing around with a couple of years ago and liked the results of what I saw.
 
When you have to carry 6 wedges... Some of these new sets are crazy low loft. Today's 8i are approaching yesterdays 6i. Should just stamp the loft on every club and get rid of the numeric system..:comp:
 
Wyzyguy said:
When you have to carry 6 wedges... Some of these new sets are crazy low loft. Today's 8i are approaching yesterdays 6i. Should just stamp the loft on every club and get rid of the numeric system..:comp:
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Its funny, I play strong lofted clubs and they gap into my 2 wedges just fine.

In fact, every set I have ever gamed/reviewed has.
 
Pkielwa said:
Turns out, it's 2 degrees... Anything greater than that becomes a problem. I talked to an old friend back in Charlotte that spent 20 years on Tour "vans" for various OEMs.
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I have played and seen greater than 2* with zero issues.
 
Jman said:
Its funny, I play strong lofted clubs and they gap into my 2 wedges just fine.

In fact, every set I have ever gamed/reviewed has.
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Very happy that it has worked out for you.
 
Jman said:
Its funny, I play strong lofted clubs and they gap into my 2 wedges just fine.

In fact, every set I have ever gamed/reviewed has.
Click to expand...

Makes two of us, but maybe we are weird
 
Wyzyguy said:
When you have to carry 6 wedges... Some of these new sets are crazy low loft. Today's 8i are approaching yesterdays 6i. Should just stamp the loft on every club and get rid of the numeric system..:comp:
Click to expand...

A iron number is supposed to launch at a certain degree and with the tech and movement of weight lower the loft has to be increased to maintain that LA and spin. If this wasn't done then you'd launch a new 6i that was the same loft as one from 5yrs ago like a PW and spin it out of this world.

I've not had any issues with gapping at the bottom end of the bag.


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Jman said:
Its funny, I play strong lofted clubs and they gap into my 2 wedges just fine.

In fact, every set I have ever gamed/reviewed has.
Click to expand...
Curious on this. Is this playing the same iron make up such as 4-pw for every set? Or sometimes switching it up 5-gw etc.? Is this playing the same wedges and wedge make up for each set? I know it can be done but it is interesting to me if you gain distance off your irons (which we all know happens depending on the iron set) how can the gaps with your wedges stay the same without changing some things up? Or are you hitting more half shots with your PW on some sets than others etc.

I don't want to start a debate about lofts or anything like that I am just curious how people are getting around the extra distance some new iron sets are producing.

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lightningbolt44 said:
Curious on this. Is this playing the same iron make up such as 4-pw for every set? Or sometimes switching it up 5-gw etc.? Is this playing the same wedges and wedge make up for each set? I know it can be done but it is interesting to me if you gain distance off your irons (which we all know happens depending on the iron set) how can the gaps with your wedges stay the same without changing some things up? Or are you hitting more half shots with your PW on some sets than others etc.

I don't want to start a debate about lofts or anything like that I am just curious how people are getting around the extra distance some new iron sets are producing.

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If a set makes a GW, I'm in the camp that believes 95% of golfers would benefit from playing that wedge, AND it eliminates the concern about gapping.

This is an area that SO many overthink and get petrified of so they have create an issue before they even really give the setup a chance to see if there is a legit issue. I'm not a short knocker and have played sets literally all over the spectrum and gapping into the scoring clubs has never remotely been an issue.

Is it an issue for some? Sure. We are all different, but I believe wholeheartedly its not near the issue some make it.
 
Jman said:
If a set makes a GW, I'm in the camp that believes 95% of golfers would benefit from playing that wedge, AND it eliminates the concern about gapping.

This is an area that SO many overthink and get petrified of. I'm not a short knocker and have played sets literally all over the spectrum and gapping into the scoring clubs has never remotely been an issue.
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This is my thought as well. GW is usually 50-52 in which case it will fit just fine with my SW and LW. Partial swings at the bottom of my bag are pretty frequent regardless of set makeup
 
Jman said:
If a set makes a GW, I'm in the camp that believes 95% of golfers would benefit from playing that wedge, AND it eliminates the concern about gapping.

This is an area that SO many overthink and get petrified of. I'm not a short knocker and have played sets literally all over the spectrum and gapping into the scoring clubs has never remotely been an issue.
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Agreed so I guess where I am going with it is at times depending on the iron set (not even just lofts other things as well) would you say take something out of the top end of the iron set (3,4 iron etc) to add in the aw,gw etc to properly gap the bottom end ?

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lightningbolt44 said:
Agreed so I guess where I am going with it is at times depending on the iron set (not even just lofts other things as well) would you say take something out of the top end of the iron set (3,4 iron etc) to add in the aw,gw etc to properly gap the bottom end ?

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I've never had to sacrifice anything in the top end to gap the wedges, and hell I play 3w, HW, and 3 hybrids up top. Either a set AW or a 50* wedge (if there is no set GW) are always in my bag as well and never a distance issue into them.
 
Jman said:
I've never had to sacrifice anything in the top end to gap the wedges, and hell I play 3w, HW, and 3 hybrids up top. Either a set AW or a 50* wedge (if there is no set GW) are always in my bag as well and never a distance issue into them.
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Do you then have instances where that gw or 50 is covering a broader range of distances from iron set to iron set?

I just can't wrap my head around sets like the Adams xtd or Wilson C200 (good set) where the distance increase I see is HUGE in my head I need to cover the gap somewhere

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lightningbolt44 said:
Do you then have instances where that gw or 50 is covering a broader range of distances from iron set to iron set?

I just can't wrap my head around sets like the Adams xtd or Wilson C200 (good set) where the distance increase I see is HUGE in my head I need to cover the gap somewhere

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Nope. I have never had an issue, and I have played a lot of true distance sets.
 
Only issue I have found is when switching from a strong lofted set like the xr pros back to wilson fg tour v2 I have to adjust my wedge gapping but its nothing that requires anything but either buying a new wedge or swapping to a different one.
 
I vote 2 degrees for the safest limit. Must check the lie angle after delofting.
 
xhail said:
Only issue I have found is when switching from a strong lofted set like the xr pros back to wilson fg tour v2 I have to adjust my wedge gapping but its nothing that requires anything but either buying a new wedge or swapping to a different one.
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Funny that you mention these two sets because I went from FG V2's to XR Pro's. I swapped my 56* for a 54* wedge and all is well. I've also learned how to choke down on my XR Pro GW and shave 7-10 yards off it's normal 124 yd carry distance.
 
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