Why do most iron sets not have the same loft spacing through the whole set?

[giogolf]

Most sets start with 3* then space to 4* why??

Why isn't there the same loft spacing in iron sets? Most sets start with 3 degree spacing then around the 4 iron it goes to 4 degree spacing. Why not 4 degree spacing through the whole set?



Anyone adjust there set tp have the same loft spacing through the whole set? If you did, did it produce even distances gaps?



Thanks

[makaveli]

i have wondered this myself and dont know why either. I always think of Ryan Moore and how he had them scratch irons with just the lofts on the heads instead of the club number. Not sure if its true but his were 5* apart instead of the normal 4*

good question, wheres the wrx'ers?

[gmetcalf18]

its because with a higher loft the ball stays on the face longer adding more spin on shots just like how you get more bite on your pw than your 8i. In therory you should space your long irons 3* until 4-5i then get to the 4* and then from your 9i down you can go 5* and aslong as youre making solid contact you should have even spacing, but then comes the issue of wedges generally being blades, compared to most cb iron sets that the average golfer plays as well as the generally different shaft flex so that can cause different spacing. Don't worry about the exact loft and go out and play, if your distances are off you have to figure out what clubs have to go farther and what clubs have to go shorter and then bend according to that. I tried to get my set all perfect, had 4* through everything then found out my gap and my pitching wedge were only 10yds off, swapped it out for a 53 and now they're almost 20yd apart but they have different shafts, now I'm having a 52 built with the same shaft and matching the length progression of my irons to turn my gap wedge into a 10 iron and hopefully keeping the distances consistant. If not, I can bend it a degree one way or another and then I know it'll be between my 100yd 56* and my 130yd 48*p, hoping for my 52* to come in right at the 115yd gap


good luck I can almost guarentee you that you won't end up with exact spacing if you want perfect yardage gaps

[makaveli]

right on, i never thought another reply would show up so fast to such an old thread. well done!

[baseballfrk8998]

I've only been playing for a year and a few months or so but I've always wondered why you wouldn't want larger gaps in your long irons and smaller gaps in your short irons. This seems like it would make it much easier to dial in an exact yardage with a short iron. You normally don't need to be nearly as precise with a long iron.

Either way, the way the manufacturers space them works great, I've just always wondered that.

[TomWishon]

[quote name='gioGolf' timestamp='1313985436' post='3508572']
Why isn't there the same loft spacing in iron sets? Most sets start with 3 degree spacing then around the 4 iron it goes to 4 degree spacing. Why not 4 degree spacing through the whole set?

Anyone adjust there set tp have the same loft spacing through the whole set? If you did, did it produce even distances gaps?

Thanks
[/quote]

They used to have an even 4* between all irons, but that was back in the old days before the big golf companies felt the pressure of competition for sales and began to drop the lofts for each iron number in a set as a means to convince golfers to buy their clubs because they hit the ball longer. For most of the 20th century through the early 80s, from the #2 to the PW, the lofts from EVERY COMPANY went 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52.

Decades of all the companies successively dropping lofts on their irons resulted in things almost getting out of hand in terms of making lofts get so low no one could hit the long irons in a set. Once the 5 iron loft hit 26*, if you were going to stay with a 4* loft increment between all clubs, that would put the loft of the 3 iron at 18* and the loft of the #4 at 22*. Even the golf companies know that VERY FEW golfers have the skill to hit an 18* or even a 22* loft iron. So to try to make the long irons even remotely hittable for the majority of golfers, the loft gaps shrunk down from 4 to 3. . . and nowadays its even less, down to 2 between the #3 and #4 irons in these strong loft sets.

Doing only a 2* spread between any of the irons is ridiculous - even for a really good ball striker, that makes for too little distance between those irons. but the companies do this simply so they can still try to sell their sets in an 8 club set makeup of a #3 to PW. In doing that, they are making golfers buy three clubs that most of the golfers cannot hit very consistently - a 19* #3 iron, 21* #4 iron, 24* #5 iron. So after getting to pay good money for three irons that they can't hit, then these golfers get to pay more money to buy either high loft woods or hybrids so they can have a club(s) they can hit to cover the distances of these low loft irons.

Loft spacing between irons is based on the golfer's swing speed AND then based on the golfer actually hitting shots with every iron so the clubfitter can know if there are any little differences in the golfer's angle of attack into the ball with each different iron that would require the loft spacing to be slightly altered to end up with similar distances between each club.

4* loft spacing works well for golfers who have a 5 iron swing speed in the area of 70 to 85mph. But if the golfer has a slower speed, such as 55 to 70, this is when a 5* spacing offers a more useable distance difference between irons.

TOM

[3 putt Charlie]

Some of the answer could be due to geometry. If you consider the force applied to the ball as the cosine of swing speed for the angle of loft of the club, the force applied to the ball is only about 70% at 45 degrees of loft, but it is about 90% at 25 degrees of loft. So to get consistent distance gaps you need a smaller change in loft. Or maybe that's just some mis-remembered physics from way too long ago.