Lead Tape on irons

Oregon Golfer

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I have been having trouble launching my 5 iron high enough to get the carry I need so I decided to experiment with adding some lead tape low & back in the iron to promote a higher launch. As you can see on the pic I didn't use very much, just a small triangle in each lower corner. I just played my 1st round with it and I only had an opportunity to hit it twice but I did see a small improvement. Both times I got to hit it was off the tee on par 3's so it is hard to tell how much the tape worked because I was able to tee up the ball.

Have you used lead tape on irons before and what is you thoughts? I was skeptical to add too much as I didn't want to throw the swing weight off too much.

leadtape.jpg
 
I haven't done it to my irons personally but I have hit irons with lead tape on them that were the same model as mine, and I must say they were easier to get up. I asked him about it actually and he said that he had to tinker with it for a while before he found something that worked.
 
I'm not a pro on this topic by any means, but googled this and feel like the article on ask.com sounds pretty legit.

http://golf.about.com/od/faqs/f/leadtape.htm

by line states Tom Wishon, and if that's true, then even better!

I would think if you want a higher launch with your 5i and you like the head... then changing shafts (or rebuilding your swing) are the only real options you have...
 
I'm not a pro on this topic by any means, but googled this and feel like the article on ask.com sounds pretty legit.

http://golf.about.com/od/faqs/f/leadtape.htm

by line states Tom Wishon, and if that's true, then even better!

I would think if you want a higher launch with your 5i and you like the head... then changing shafts (or rebuilding your swing) are the only real options you have...

Interesting article, thanks for posting that.
 
what course around here do you need a 5i for a two par threes? meriwether?
as for the topic, i can see how putting lead tape on would help you have to swing slower/smoother, but i'd say you gotta put more than that on there.. that doesn't look like much at all
 
I have tried lead tape on all variety of clubs from driver through putter. In my head, I think it has had some effect but I really can't say much changed.

I am about to try a change of shaft from regular steel to regular graphite. I will post results in a thread I have already started (graphite shaft experiment).
 
I have some lead tape on my 54* and my 3W.
 
Lead tape won't change much of anything as far as the launch is concerned. It will only affect the swing weight of the club, not the center of gravity. To actually alter the center of gravity, you'd have to add somewhere near 20g of lead tape; however, that not only can change the COG for the bad, but it will also move the swingweight up to much. Like someone mentioned earlier, changing shafts is your best bet.
 
my dad put some on his putter for weighting but as for a driver/iron/wedge...can't honestly see how (as others mentioned) it would do more but add weight to the head.
 
my dad put some on his putter for weighting but as for a driver/iron/wedge...can't honestly see how (as others mentioned) it would do more but add weight to the head.

Adding lead tape to the heel/toe of a driver/fairway wood can change the ball-flight (left to right / right to left) a little bit. Similar to the way the R11 and stuff works with the movable weight technology.
 
Mulligan, keep in mind that the MWT is significantly more weight than throwing tape on a driver. also, using MWT you keep the same weight of the club, but manipulating the placement...when you add tape, it's adding to the overall weight...it's not weight neutral anymore. i understand the idea on a driver, however, to most golfers, hell, i'd say any golfer outside of pro status would you even notice it unless you put a substantial chunk on your driver. call it the placebo effect.
 
Well I'm nowhere near a tour player, but I saw a difference when I added lead tape to the toe of my Ping driver. You don't need that big of a chunk to see a difference. I used 3 1.5 inch long strips on the toe and the ball flight was definitely different than without the lead tape.

I'm curious, when you add a 14 gram weight to a club when previously the heaviest weight was a 6 gram weight, how does the overall weight not change?

So I 100% disagree with you on only professional golfers noticing the difference. But that's the beauty, we are each entitled to our own opinion.
 
Well I'm nowhere near a tour player, but I saw a difference when I added lead tape to the toe of my Ping driver. You don't need that big of a chunk to see a difference. I used 3 1.5 inch long strips on the toe and the ball flight was definitely different than without the lead tape.

I'm curious, when you add a 14 gram weight to a club when previously the heaviest weight was a 6 gram weight, how does the overall weight not change?

So I 100% disagree with you on only professional golfers noticing the difference. But that's the beauty, we are each entitled to our own opinion.

with MWT there are 4 weights in the case of my superquad... let say that's a total of 25g's of weights...no matter HOW you move them aside from putting different weights in, it's still 25 g's (thus overall weight neutral). when you add tape, you add weight, period. adding your tape is adding weight and sure, you can feel if a club is heavier or not, but i'm glad you can feel a difference and relate it to your changes in ball flight.
 
Lead tape in and of itself will not change ball flight. It will change the feeling of the club in your hands which may change your swing enough to produce different results, but putting a little square of tape in the corner of the irons won't change anything.
 
with MWT there are 4 weights in the case of my superquad... let say that's a total of 25g's of weights...no matter HOW you move them aside from putting different weights in, it's still 25 g's (thus overall weight neutral). when you add tape, you add weight, period. adding your tape is adding weight and sure, you can feel if a club is heavier or not, but i'm glad you can feel a difference and relate it to your changes in ball flight.

I realize that if you only have 4 weights that the overall weight doesn't change, however there are more than just the 4 that came with the club that are available which would allow you to change out the weights.

I never said you weren't adding weight to the club with lead tape, but to think that the placement of the tape has no effect on the ball-flight is a little short-sighted in my opinion. As I said it's similar, not exact, to the MWT with the various clubs that have it. While yes lead tape adds weight to the club, placing it out on the toe versus placing it on the heel can change the ball-flight the exact same way that positioning the heavier weights in MWT does.

Sorry OP got off topic with the driver discussion.

I would just experiment putting different amounts of lead tape on your clubs. It can always be taken off.
 
Oregon golfer, I had the same problem as you. I couldn't get my 5 & 6 irons up very high at all.

I now use the Project X Flighted shaft and the ball flight is amazing! I would strongly suggest trying that shaft in your longer clubs. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the effect.
 
Oregon golfer, I had the same problem as you. I couldn't get my 5 & 6 irons up very high at all.

I now use the Project X Flighted shaft and the ball flight is amazing! I would strongly suggest trying that shaft in your longer clubs. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the effect.

Yeah, I know that a shaft change would help for sure but I LOVE my KBS customs. It would mess with my mojo to have 1 shaft in the set that didn't match. I guess that feeling might go away if I hit much better shots though. :)
 
I realize that if you only have 4 weights that the overall weight doesn't change, however there are more than just the 4 that came with the club that are available which would allow you to change out the weights.

I never said you weren't adding weight to the club with lead tape, but to think that the placement of the tape has no effect on the ball-flight is a little short-sighted in my opinion. As I said it's similar, not exact, to the MWT with the various clubs that have it. While yes lead tape adds weight to the club, placing it out on the toe versus placing it on the heel can change the ball-flight the exact same way that positioning the heavier weights in MWT does.

Sorry OP got off topic with the driver discussion.

I would just experiment putting different amounts of lead tape on your clubs. It can always be taken off.


It will not affect ball flight unless it changes the center of gravity on the club. You need roughly 20g of lead tape to adjust the ball flight and even then it's going to be noticeable, but not a huge change. When you change out the 10g and 1g weights on an R11 you aren't changing the weight by 9g, but instead removing 9 from the heel and adding 9 to the toe... so yes, it's a 18g shift to move the center of gravity and it's not a ton, just enough to notice a difference in ball flight.
 
I've done it. Personally I don't think adding tape does enough to effect the swing at all. Placebo effect maybe but for me, nothing.
 
I was thinking of trying some lead tape on my irons just to see if it improves my feeling the clubhead and maybe help with tempo.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks
 
I was thinking of trying some lead tape on my irons just to see if it improves my feeling the clubhead and maybe help with tempo.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks

I add two 1.5" strips of lead tape to my irons to get to my prefered D-4 swingweight and then fine tune from there. I haven't noticed any changes in ball flight but for me the extra weight in the head gives me the feeling my swing is going to be smoother and stay on line. The extra weight in the head just feels better in my hands and does give me confidence. Whether it's tennis or golf I've just always preferred some extra heft in the heads. If I believed that small amount of tape could change ball flight I would have started on the sole of the 4-iron and progressively moved the tape higher as the clubs got shorter. Maybe I'll try that next time to use as a conversation starter.
 
I add two 1.5" strips of lead tape to my irons to get to my prefered D-4 swingweight and then fine tune from there. I haven't noticed any changes in ball flight but for me the extra weight in the head gives me the feeling my swing is going to be smoother and stay on line. The extra weight in the head just feels better in my hands and does give me confidence. Whether it's tennis or golf I've just always preferred some extra heft in the heads. If I believed that small amount of tape could change ball flight I would have started on the sole of the 4-iron and progressively moved the tape higher as the clubs got shorter. Maybe I'll try that next time to use as a conversation starter.
I was wondering if there was a best spot on the clubhead to put the tape? I was originally thinking just inside the cavity.

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I was wondering if there was a best spot on the clubhead to put the tape? I was originally thinking just inside the cavity.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

That's where I would put it. That way when you take swings the impact won't remove a little at a time. I put mine too close to the soles and some lead tape is missing from each. Not looking forward to scraping that all all away and reapplying.
 
That's where I would put it. That way when you take swings the impact won't remove a little at a time. I put mine too close to the soles and some lead tape is missing from each. Not looking forward to scraping that all all away and reapplying.
Thanks for the insight, much appreciated.

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