Players irons for non elite golfers

Dr Devious

Does anybody here use so called players irons as against what the reviews would suggest you play, Handicappers above 15 should play game improvement irons, if you follow. I personally hate thick soles on my irons, (hit them fat) prefer thin soled forged clubs but those are usually usually so called elite player irons, Currently play off 14 with Wilson FG Forged which i really like and can play. Loking at ping i500, Taylormade P718 TitleistAP2 718 Srixon 785 All of which the reviewers claim should be left to the elite players. Experiences with similar clubs please.

moycullen14

Dr Devious wrote: »

Does anybody here use so called players irons as against what the reviews would suggest you play, Handicappers above 15 should play game improvement irons, if you follow. I personally hate thick soles on my irons, (hit them fat) prefer thin soled forged clubs but those are usually usually so called elite player irons, Currently play off 14 with Wilson FG Forged which i really like and can play. Loking at ping i500, Taylormade P718 TitleistAP2 718 Srixon 785 All of which the reviewers claim should be left to the elite players. Experiences with similar clubs please.

I'm very far from being an elite player (Hcp 12 and increasing), but I found Titleist AP2s to be great irons. Very easy - for me - to hit

slave1

Don't think there is any hard rule, plenty of pros use so called improvement cavity irons, Shane uses them, Westy has almost a full set of them from memory and I've seen them using them myself.
I'd go for a fitting and see how you get on, even if you don't buy you're only down the fitting fee and you'll know better

GreeBo

I used players irons for years and then moved to a set of cavities as i got them free.
I got to 8 with the mbs and 5 with the cavities..they are deffo more forgiving but the mbs are 20 years old and the cavities are the same TM RACs in both cases.

I'm at the point now where the ball flight is too high with the cavities so will likely change, but unlikely to go back to mbs I'd say.

Btw fat soles aren't making you hit the ball fat... if anything they are fixing that problem...

Benicetomonty

slave1 wrote: »

Don't think there is any hard rule, plenty of pros use so called improvement cavity irons, Shane uses them, Westy has almost a full set of them from memory and I've seen them using them myself.
I'd go for a fitting and see how you get on, even if you don't buy you're only down the fitting fee and you'll know better

Lowry's irons wouldnt be regarded as game improvement irons. His Srixon 785s (6-pw) are forged players irons, with small heads and only a very thin cavity. He has 585 model 4 and 5 irons in the bag also, or at least that was his Open set up.

I think anybody lower than 18 has to weigh the benefit of an iron's forgiveness up against how they look and feel to the player. Im off 2 and cant stand the look of big headed irons with deep cavities so have a combo set of cobra cb and mbs in the bag. Iron play is still the weakest part of my game but having tried ping eye 2s for a good 2 years and never being able to get comfortable with them, I switched to something I liked and simply worked, and continue to work, on improving.

slave1

Benicetomonty wrote: »

Lowry's irons wouldnt be regarded as game improvement irons. His Srixon 785s (6-pw) are forged players irons, with small heads and only a very thin cavity. He has 585 model 4 and 5 irons in the bag also, or at least that was his Open set up.

I think anybody lower than 18 has to weigh the benefit of an iron's forgiveness up against how they look and feel to the player. Im off 2 and cant stand the look of big headed irons with deep cavities so have a combo set of cobra cb and mbs in the bag. Iron play is still the weakest part of my game but having tried ping eye 2s for a good 2 years and never being able to get comfortable with them, I switched to something I liked and simply worked, and continue to work, on improving.

His 585 is the one that stuck in my head, quite big cavity and big sole, you can see it in this vid from around the 4.21 mark

BigChap1759

If youre talking about the tm p790s then I think they look pretty large when compared to an AP2 which is essentially the same size as a blade.

You have to be comfortable looking down on your irons - after playing blades for a couple of years I couldn’t go back to irons with offset, it just melts my head. Loads of forgiveness in both the p790 and i500s as they are both hollow bodied I think.

tropics001

moycullen14 wrote: »

I'm very far from being an elite player (Hcp 12 and increasing), but I found Titleist AP2s to be great irons. Very easy - for me - to hit

+1 love the AP2s

GreeBo

Benicetomonty wrote: »

Lowry's irons wouldnt be regarded as game improvement irons. His Srixon 785s (6-pw) are forged players irons, with small heads and only a very thin cavity. He has 585 model 4 and 5 irons in the bag also, or at least that was his Open set up.

I think anybody lower than 18 has to weigh the benefit of an iron's forgiveness up against how they look and feel to the player. Im off 2 and cant stand the look of big headed irons with deep cavities so have a combo set of cobra cb and mbs in the bag. Iron play is still the weakest part of my game but having tried ping eye 2s for a good 2 years and never being able to get comfortable with them, I switched to something I liked and simply worked, and continue to work, on improving.

fwiw I was originally the same, my mbs were tiny and thin and sexy, the OS looked like saucepans beside the ball...i hated the fat top line when i looked down.
I took one iron to the range one day with my own clubs and alternated shots...i couldn't get over the consistency of the results with them. Good & bad strikes pretty much ended up together.
Now the downside was that the perfect shots didn't feel that much better than the average ones and obviously there is some loss of workability, i find low and faded shots harder now. The ball just likes to climb when hit hard and same for a hard fade, hence the upcoming change.
But I'm off 5 so they certainly are not a blocker to a higher handicap and again, mine are almost 20 years old now... and have regular, graphite shafts!

Russman

GreeBo wrote: »

fwiw I was originally the same, my mbs were tiny and thin and sexy, the OS looked like saucepans beside the ball...i hated the fat top line when i looked down.
I took one iron to the range one day with my own clubs and alternated shots...i couldn't get over the consistency of the results with them. Good & bad strikes pretty much ended up together.
Now the downside was that the perfect shots didn't feel that much better than the average ones and obviously there is some loss of workability, i find low and faded shots harder now. The ball just likes to climb when hit hard and same for a hard fade, hence the upcoming change.
But I'm off 5 so they certainly are not a blocker to a higher handicap and again, mine are almost 20 years old now... and have regular, graphite shafts!

Totally agree with this. I remember my "ah ha" moment back in the day, when trying a set of old Mizuno T Zoid Oversize XV irons against my TP9 blades. It was like legal cheating. Invested in a set of MX20 and for 4 or 5 years they were the best irons I ever played. Never had an issue hitting a knock down or a fade with them, but the offset was pretty minimal.

Of course I then got notions and went to a set of MP60 and a few other MP sets and the handicap started drifting out...........:D


Bottom line, IMO play the most forgiving clubs you can bear the look of, KJ Choi once played Ping G15 irons (at The Masters I think), I don't think he had an issue working the ball.

Greebo, could it be a shaft issue that makes low fades a bit difficult ?

GreeBo

Russman wrote: »

Greebo, could it be a shaft issue that makes low fades a bit difficult ?

It probably is to be fair, I normally play a "stiff" steel shaft and these are old, flexy, graphite shafts so the ball certainly has a high flight, which has pro's and con's.

I think fade and stinger issue is a combination of the shaft and the lower COG. They clubs are trying to get the ball up into the air all the time, thats what they were designed to do, so I can't really fault them for that.

Mantis Toboggan

I started golf a few years ago with blades! They were an ancient hand me down set.

Got to 11 and decided to reward myself and get fitted for irons. Ended up with Ping g400 irons, lovely clubs, very forgiving. I'm currently off 13 and drifting

Dr Devious

I once heard Lee Westwood saying in an interview that you should put away a club after 3 or 4 shots because if you don't get along with it by then you'll only end up adjusting your swing to suit the club. Could be more than a grain of truth in it.

dan_ep82

BigChap1759 wrote: »

If youre talking about the tm p790s then I think they look pretty large when compared to an AP2 which is essentially the same size as a blade.

I played AP2's for a long time and spent a few weeks with the MB's and hit other blades, AP2s don't look like blades at address. The CB's can alright



The best thing to happen in the last few years are more forgiving smaller club heads ( JPX Forged,i500,p790,AP3 ) being produced. I tried moving away from AP2 but just couldn't get used to the look down by the ball of the thicker top lines/offset. The JPX Forged were a bit bigger but I thought the trade off was much more palatable and a lot of irons like mentioned are doing a good job of filling the same category

kopkidda

moycullen14 wrote: »

I'm very far from being an elite player (Hcp 12 and increasing), but I found Titleist AP2s to be great irons. Very easy - for me - to hit

Agree 100%, I'm off 9 and going lower and have had ap2 716 and now ap2 718, smashing clubs and very easy to hit, esp the long irons, 4 iron is probably my favourite iron in bag.

willabur

I got fitted for the ping i500
Really like them although they do take a little getting used to

I tried out alot of the other clubs in its category and its the one that fitted me the best.