DEBATE: Blade Irons vs. Player CB's

[Richie3Jack]

Curious to know what people on the board prefer and think is better to go with...the muscleback 'blade' style irons or the player cavity backs?

According to the Manzella forum, Stanford physicist professor Dr. Aaron Zick has shown scientifically that blade style irons are designed to promote better ballstriking. However, there's always the risk of poor shots resulting from mis-hits.




3JACK

[gmbtempe]

I have player cavity backs in the Mizuno mp57's.

I am not married to them but I wanted to go from pure GI's in the Ping G2's. I would love to get a set of 32's or something to play around with.

[chunkylover77]

Well I play the Adams Pro Blacks and hit them pretty well. I think those are considered MB's.

[pavaveda]

Just how bad is it for a high-handicapper to play blades? (I ask, never having hit a blade.)

I really love the looks of blades over cavity-backs, and I'd really love to get a set. Part of me says that your swing has more to do with how well you play than the club, and if I learn with blades, then I might not benefit from having some of my bad shots not be so bad. But on the other hand, having a blade will force me to put a premium on ball-striking. How bad can that be?

I know there are some CB's out there that aren't that bad looking and are almost a cross between MB's and CB's. I like the look of Mizuno MP-30's well-enough, and the newer Mizunos seem to be available in a combo-style. But they start to get pretty expensive.

And how about the difference between old blades and newer ones? Is there a year out there where the technology really crossed a threshold to the point where it's just not worth owning a blade older than that? I really like the look of some of the older Mizuno clubs, and they're much cheaper generally (MP-14's seem to be the exception.)

[Richie3Jack]

One of the things I've learned thru TGM is how important the brain plays a role in the swing and how a golfer tends to adapt to hitting a golf shot properly.

A good example is the awful OTT move. Golfers tend to start out losing shots dead to the right, usually because of a wide open clubface. So to combat that, their brain tells them to come way OTT so the ball will start out to the left and then slice right.

I think blade irons are excellent for beginners and even experienced hackers, but I would suggest getting some old blades off of eBay for cheap and use them for practice and may 25% of your playing rounds with your buddies.

Whole Brain Planet gets a bit into this as well, if you stop testing yourself and your brain to be precise, then you'll lose that ability to be precise.

I was thinking about this the other day, and ALL of the greatest ballstrikers that I grew up playing with all started playing the game with blade style irons. There was one guy, arguaby the greatest iron player I ever saw, that played with Pings for quite some time and struck it great, but I remember him also telling me that he played with MacGregor blades from when he first started, and thru college.

Of course, there's great ballstrikers like Kenny Perry who use player CB's. Even Jeev Milkha Singh used some Callaway GI irons and strikes it quite well. I am curious to what they used growing up, but I also tend to think they are rare exceptions to the rule.

It's another reason why I don't like hitting off of mats. It's not that it completely ruins my swing, but the feedback is vastly different. I can certainly tell when I hit it fat off the mat and it still went well, but when it feels pretty good off the mat that's where I run into problems because on grass that may have been a poor shot.

As begolfpro stated, 'feedback is the breakfast of champions' and I would say that everybody should have some blade irons *available* and use them at the very least for practice.




3JACK

[kevcarter]

Jan 21, 2010 14:00:19 GMT -5 Richie3Jack said:

One of As begolfpro stated, 'feedback is the breakfast of champions' and I would say that everybody should have some blade irons *available* and use them at the very least for practice.

3JACK

I like that idea a lot 3Jack.

Then for playing, whatever gives you the most confidence and pleasure. There is not as large a difference between blades and game improvement as some would think. If a high handicapper feels good with blades, go for it. If a low handicapper feels good with game improvement, why not!?!?!?

Player preference.

Kevin

[fearlessgolfer]

Darn it Richie,
CB's are like a main squeeze, and Blades are the sexy side squeeze, IMO.
Numerous iron sets I owned, I loved playing with set of Mizunos over Titleist, Hogan,Spaldings,Top-Flites,and MacGreggors. Hardest irons to hit them consistently was those Murifields from MacGreggors, IMO.

"According to the Manzella forum, Stanford physicist professor Dr. Aaron Zick has shown scientifically that blade style irons are designed to promote better ballstriking. However, there's always the risk of poor shots resulting from mis-hits."--this is interesting because good players react to the clubface.

I have also used to practice with an old blade, and played with newer, shiner blades. For the most of scratch players to low single players prolly have done that.

Having said that, when we play, we play to get best score! If U look at the trend at PGA tour, most of them has hybrid clubs in their bags. They are simply easier to hit as so CB irons.

Personally, I have had love and hate affair with CB for years, but they are simply easier to score with for me.

fearlessgolfer

[jerryg]

In '70 I worked in a shop at a golf course and got a set of PowerBilt Levelumes. They were heavy, stiff, small heads, sharp edge... I'd give my right knee cap to have them back.
In the early '90's I picked up a couple sets of Tour Edge blades and they came with Nippon stepless shafts. Matched them up to a set of Joe Powell persimmon woods. One set of the irons were terribly difficult to swing so I took off the heads. The hosel depths were very inconsistent from head to head. I gave those heads to a friend--well, he used to be.
Now I have a set of Bridgestone J-36 Combo irons. I got rid of the PX 5.5's and installed DG S300's. I like everything about them other than the offset.

[jerryg]

A few years ago I purchased a set of forged blade heads from KZG. They are quite offset and I would easily hook them, even with a 6.5 Rifle in them. Has anybody had any success with these?

[vjsinger]

I have some old blade Hogans that I just bought and put the KBS Tour shafts in..I really like them. The feel and sound of a solidly struck shot is so cool. It's funny, but before I came across Lags site and this forum I had a feeling that heavier irons would be better for me and after hitting about 30 different models, I proved to myself that the heavier iron is far better. I guess it just smoothes me out more and allows me to sense the clubhead a little better. I don't have that same feel with the newer equipment, specifically the players Cavity Backs.

[gmbtempe]

Had a full practice session with the MP14's and man these things are really heavy compared to my MP57's. I brought a 57 along to hit side by side and it was like using a momentus when I went from the 14's. I also had some trouble hitting the 14's solid coming in as steep on the TSP in comparison to the 57's. I have no idea why but I see a little what Richie might be saying with the heavier club and design they seem to promote more of a shallow plane, at least these ones did.

[joec]

Jan 18, 2010 17:06:37 GMT -5 chunkylover77 said:

Well I play the Adams Pro Blacks and hit them pretty well. I think those are considered MB's.

as of today i can buy the same club, i went to nevada bobs and they said they could only bend the lie to about 2 degrees flat. every thing i am reading says to bend to about 5 degrees. what is up with that? my other question, to myself is , should i spend the money on the module system or clubs? any suggestions?

[Richie3Jack]

joec - if you want to get into the module system and still get more blade irons, you can. You can easily buy some vintage blades, really good ones, for less than $100. The problem with a place like Nevada Bob's is that they are deathly afraid of snapping a club, but you can certainly bend them more than that. But they would probably want you to sign a waiver. That's why I like getting vintage blades off of ebay, if by some chance the club snaps, I'm only out $50 or so. That and I love the feel of the vintage Hogan irons.




3JACK