Golf Equipment 5

Maybe you didn’t realize it but there are many different designs for irons these days. Each type is made for a different kind of golfer. Some clubs are for advanced players that need maximum feel and responsiveness from their clubs. Thankfully, others are made for golfers that need a little help and forgiveness from their clubs…and make it easier to find the sweet spot and get the ball up in the air easier. Which type is right for you?

First you have to ask yourself some questions. And be honest now.

Do you hit the ball with the center of the clubface consistently?

Do you tend to hit the ball fat?

Do most of your shots go left to

right (slice)…when you don’t want them to?

Do you play less than once a month?

Do you have trouble getting the ball up in the air…even when you hit it solid?

If you answered yes to any of these questions you are a good candidate for game improvement clubs.

So what makes a golf club “game improvement”?

A game improvement club offers features that help golfers with many of these problems. These features include perimeter weighting, wide sole width, hosel offset, thick toplines and a low-back center of gravity. How do these features help? Lets take a closer look at each of these features.

Perimeter Weighting
All golf iron clubheads weigh about the same and have for many years. The

5 iron head of a Callaway, a TaylorMade, a PIng or even a clone iron all weighs about 255 grams (give or take 5 grams). How that weight is distributed is the key to making any iron head more forgiving. If the weight is distributed more towards the “perimeter” of the club…the toe, sole, heel, and topline…the club will have a higher Moment of Inertia (MOI) and will have less of a tendency to twist on mishits. In other words, when the ball is hit on the toe, the clubhead won’t twist as much. That and the added mass will mean the ball will still fly just about as long and as straight as if was hit on the center of the face.

To create this weighting, club head designers move weight from the middle of the clubhead. This creates a “cavity” behind the face, thus the term cavity back iron. The details of where the weight is moved is were the “science” of iron head design comes in. Suffice it to say that the center of gravity (CG) and the MOI are both affected by the details.

Wide Sole Width
A wide sole does two things. It adds more weight to the bottom of the club lowering the CG. And it makes the club less likely to dig in to the turf causing fat shots and lowering the clubhead speed through the ball. Wide sole clubs tend to make the

ball fly higher.

Hosel Offset
The feature were the clubface is slightly behind the hosel (where the shaft enters the clubhead) is called offset. The advantage of offset is that the face of the club will strike the ball a fraction of a second later than a non-offset face. The face will therefore be a bit less open to the target line causing less slice spin being applied to the ball. If a golfer has a tendency to leave the the face open then shots should fly straighter with an offset hosel.

Thick Topline
The advantage of a thick topline is not only added perimeter weight and more MOI but also more confidence. Clubs with thick topline just look easier to hit.

That effect may be mostly mental but who cares as long as it works.

Low-back Center of Gravity
The lower the center of gravity the easier it is to strike the ball below the center. This always helps get the ball up in the air and will also impart more backspin to the ball. The more back spin the less the influence of side spin. The result is…the shot should fly higher and straighter.

So what if you feel you don’t need these features?
If you are a player who has no problem hitting the center of the clubface and gets the ball up in the air easily then these features might not be right for you. So called “players clubs”

are made by most every manufacturer and feature less of the the design characteristics above. But we all should realize that even the pros are moving to cavity back irons with game improvement design features. The handwriting is on the wall.

So how do you find game improvement clubs?
Any good golf store will display clubs by various manufacturers. Typically each manufacturer will have a selection of clubs ranging from “players clubs” to “super game improvement”. The Callaway Big Bertha irons, the Ping G5s, the Taylor Made CGB irons and the Nike Slingshot OSS clubs all fall in the category of game improvement. But there are really many great forgiving clubs to choose from.

Golf Digest has a great

yearly evaluation of clubs and the 2006 Editors Picks divide irons nicely into Players, Game Improvement, and Super Game Improvement. Go to their website at http://www.golfdigest.com and click on the left on Equipment: Hot List to learn more.

It’s a great time to be a golfer. 40 years ago the big manufacturers only made clubs for the best players. Today, you can find clubs for any level of golfer. That means that golf can be more fun. And more of those great shots we love are within reach. Give Game Improvement clubs a try and you’ll see for yourself.

Rick Hart is a long time golfer and owner of Golf Club Revue where he puts the spotlight on golf clubs.
www.golf-club-revue.com