Retiring my Taylormade P790's and Not Losing Distance

[CBearse]

In winter of 2022 I got fitted for a set of TaylorMade P790's in Oban CT-100 S shafts at Club Champion. I was playing TaylorMade 2019 M2 irons prior to that and after I got the irons in I noticed I had lost about a club length in distance. TrackMan during the fitting said I was gaining 5yds distance, but in real world scenarios I was consistently 1 club length shorter. I went back to CC and they adjusted lofts of the P790's to match the lofts of the M2 irons, then verified spin numbers were still ok. This corrected the issue and have loved the irons ever since.

 

At the time of the fitting I was probably a 12-13hcp and am now in low 7's trending downward (last round was 3.1 differential). While I do like the 790's, I feel like every now and then I catch one that comes hot off the face and can hurt me at times with consistency in distance. I have read that this is a known problem with those irons. I am looking to switch more towards something like the P770's, P7CB, or maybe Titleist T-150's. My concern is that I will end up losing considerable distance when doing this because the lofts will be so different from what I am currently gaming. Any thoughts on how I should approach this?

Edited July 28 by CBearse

[gdb99]

If you play irons with less loft, you will probably loose distance. It’s the trade off. Irons for accuracy and control. 

[Gr8Balls]

Question - are you someone who misses on the heel side of the face with irons?

 

I only ask as I've found the aggressive foam filled players/distance irons really tend to punish heel side vs toe side.  

 

As someone who lives heel side of center I've seen it myself when I demo'd some p790's.   I would hit a mix of great long ones and then a handful of much shorter ones.  I realized if I strayed heel side of center the distance punishment was high vs my gamer blades.  Average 7i came out about 3-4yds shorter vs the blades when including the heel miss.

 

Might be nothing, might be worth looking into for you.  

 

[Pnwpingi210]

4 hours ago, CBearse said:

In winter of 2022 I got fitted for a set of TaylorMade P790's in Oban CT-100 S shafts at Club Champion. I was playing TaylorMade 2019 M2 irons prior to that and after I got the irons in I noticed I had lost about a club length in distance. TrackMan during the fitting said I was gaining 5yds distance, but in real world scenarios I was consistently 1 club length shorter. I went back to CC and they adjusted lofts of the P790's to match the lofts of the M2 irons, then verified spin numbers were still ok. This corrected the issue and have loved the irons ever since.

 

At the time of the fitting I was probably a 12-13hcp and am now in low 7's trending downward (last round was 3.1 differential). While I do like the 790's, I feel like every now and then I catch one that comes hot off the face and can hurt me at times with consistency in distance. I have read that this is a known problem with those irons. I am looking to switch more towards something like the P770's, P7CB, or maybe Titleist T-150's. My concern is that I will end up losing considerable distance when doing this because the lofts will be so different from what I am currently gaming. Any thoughts on how I should approach this?

All of those clubs will fly shorter no matter what you do.

 

cobra 3dp is your answer.  Similar in size to the irons you’re looking at, but with the distance of those older gen 790s.  They don’t spin much and are pretty hot, but launch high.  If you liked the older p790 distance and were okay with that spin profile the cobra 3dp is will be similar, more forgiving, and a smaller package 

[CBearse]

18 minutes ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

All of those clubs will fly shorter no matter what you do.

 

cobra 3dp is your answer.  Similar in size to the irons you’re looking at, but with the distance of those older gen 790s.  They don’t spin much and are pretty hot, but launch high.  If you liked the older p790 distance and were okay with that spin profile the cobra 3dp is will be similar, more forgiving, and a smaller package 

The forgiveness is not the issue. I love everything about the 790’s, except I get those fliers every once in a while that come out screaming off the face. Actually happened to me yesterday during what ended up being my lowest round ever at my home course and caused me to air mail a green leading to a bogey.

 

I don’t believe it is a heel strike issue FWIW.

 

I guess the solution may be to get some 770’s and get serious about the stack system lol.

[Pnwpingi210]

1 minute ago, CBearse said:

The forgiveness is not the issue. I love everything about the 790’s, except I get those fliers every once in a while that come out screaming off the face. Actually happened to me yesterday during what ended up being my lowest round ever at my home course and caused me to air mail a green leading to a bogey.

 

I don’t believe it is a heel strike issue FWIW.

 

I guess the solution may be to get some 770’s and get serious about the stack system lol.

I don’t think the 3dp is prone to fliers.  It’s very consistent across the face.  
 

I’d anticipate all of the cbs mentioned to be a club shorter (t150) to club and a half shorter (p770 or p7cb) on well struck balls.

[rsballer10]

11 hours ago, CBearse said:

The forgiveness is not the issue. I love everything about the 790’s, except I get those fliers every once in a while that come out screaming off the face. Actually happened to me yesterday during what ended up being my lowest round ever at my home course and caused me to air mail a green leading to a bogey.

 

I don’t believe it is a heel strike issue FWIW.

 

I guess the solution may be to get some 770’s and get serious about the stack system lol.

Other people may explain it better than I, but here's my take on this. Clubs don't hit fliers, people do. With the right lie, wind, and strike you will get a flier with any club. The problem is, a lot of people want their irons to go as absolutely far as possible without considering the downsides. Lots of distance irons depend on ball speed to get the ball high enough, to stop a ball using descent angle. When you live on the low side of spin with irons, anything about the lie/strike that lowers spin ends up producing some wacky results. Thin strikes tend to be OK just because when you live on the low end of spin, spin can go up a bit and you'll be OK.

 

The best results I've had were always trying to find that middle ground - for each person that may be different. For ME, inside of a matt a 7i that spins 6,000 and a peak height of 90-100 is about right. My guess is that's about 6,500 rpm on a golf course. I've got a little room for error on both sides of the launch/spin spectrum. Catch it a groove or two up/down and the ball flies within an acceptable range. 

[Leftygilmore]

 Going from a 12 to a 7 it is amazing btw!  Now to gage your strikes.  Srixon 5s are excellent....Possibly 7s if your ball striking is good to great (hit tape or foot spray test)  Titliest 150 are always good.  Taylormade never been a fan of but the 790s gotta go 😆.   770s you can try they are similar to 7s in srixon or T100 in titleist.

[Drivingrangehero]

39 minutes ago, rsballer10 said:

Clubs don't hit fliers, people do. With the right lie, wind, and strike you will get a flier with any club. The problem is, a lot of people want their irons to go as absolutely far as possible without considering the downsides. Lots of distance irons depend on ball speed to get the ball high enough, to stop a ball using descent angle. When you live on the low side of spin with irons, anything about the lie/strike that lowers spin ends up producing some wacky results.

Agreed

 

. If you have a traditional lofted iron, it may spin around 7,000 if you have the speed to do so, and 6,000 with a 28.5° lofted 7 iron, if you have the speed to do so, but most people playing those are looking for added distance, so they don’t have that type of speed, so many may sit around 5,000 rpm with a 28.5° 7 iron under optimum conditions, couple that with a fluffed up lie, wet conditions, maybe some grass behind the ball and you are looking at possibly 4,000 rpm or less with a higher launch, it’s a recipe for a flyer. 
 

 

[rsballer10]

6 minutes ago, Drivingrangehero said:

Agreed

 

. If you have a traditional lofted iron, it may spin around 7,000 if you have the speed to do so, and 6,000 with a 28.5° lofted 7 iron, if you have the speed to do so, but most people playing those are looking for added distance, so they don’t have that type of speed, so many may sit around 5,000 rpm with a 28.5° 7 iron under optimum conditions, couple that with a fluffed up lie, wet conditions, maybe some grass behind the ball and you are looking at possibly 4,000 rpm or less with a higher launch, it’s a recipe for a flyer. 
 

 

Yup. What I don't like about that is some people may prefer a bigger/more forgiving iron but still deliver the club somewhat effectively. A 28 degree 7 iron almost requires the user to add loft at impact. If someone gets better #'s with an iron like that it's almost bordering on a cause for concern technique wise.

 

I'd suggest OP pick a middle ground iron like a T150/250 or ZX4/5 combo and consider bending them a degree weak if it gets them the right launch/spin.

[Drivingrangehero]

IMHO  the manufacturers did the hollow bodied goo filled irons right when they didn’t jack the lofts, so you had the added bonus of ball speed retention on miss hits, but still were able to maintain a good launch/spin window 

 

Titleist T-MB 716/718

PXG Gen2 0311T

Mizuno HMB

TaylorMade P770

 

I’m sure there are others, but I know those all had 32-33° 7 irons