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 Think before you buy your next set of Irons - You may not be able to customise your clubs to suit your game.By Roger Morton. In August 2006, a customer came into my workshop with 2 sets of good condition second hand irons that he had recently bought on the internet. He is 5’ 10” tall and assumed that the clubs being just standard spec’ would suit him well. One set was Callaway Pro Series X 16 cavity back irons, the other set were Mizuno MP 32 blade irons. Being a reasonably good golfer, high single figures, he was interested to compare the two sets of irons for performance and playability. He assumed that the blade irons would be more difficult to use than the cavity back version. In play he found very little difference between the two types of clubs, except that he pulled the ball to the left with both sets, particularly with the medium to short irons. He also found that he hit the ball a little further with the Callaway Pro Series X 16 cavity back irons. So he came to the workshop to have his angle of lie measured, which was 57º with a No5 iron, and to have the irons flattened to suit, as both sets were too upright for him and pretty useless to play properly with as he was always fighting a pulled shot to the left of target. The Mizuno irons, mild steel The problem arose with the Callaway Pro Series X 16 cavity back irons. They needed to be flattened some 4º - 5º. But as the heads are made from investment cast material, which is so hard and brittle, adjusting the lie by more than the odd degree could result in the heads breaking off. The customer then decided not to take the risk, he decided keep and play with the Mizuno clubs, altered to perfection, and sell the Callaway iron on, as they could not be altered to his angle of lie. Callaway are not the only manufacturer to use this type of material in their heads lots of other companies also do. Investment cast iron heads will be very hard wearing, resisting the type of bag damage and sole damage often seen on the softer mild steel heads. Using investment cast material allows for the creation of exciting cavity back head designs. The problem only surfaces when trying to alter these heads more than a degree or two at the most, for fear of breakage. So a word of warning, don’t buy a set of irons, even a second hand set, just for the name alone. Try and make sure that they sit properly to your angle of lie. Remember we all stand differently to the ball so know if you stand upright, standard or flat. Playing with an unsuitable angle of lie will result in miss directed shots. Always enquire from the retailer what lie the irons have and from what type of material the heads are made and can they be adjusted. So if later they are found to sit incorrectly, you will know that you can have them properly adjusted without fear of breaking the heads off. If you can’t secure a good answer don’t buy them.
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forged, were very easy to bend to the required angles of lie. Noting that the lofts of each Mizuno iron were weaker than the equivalent on the Callaway, they were then de- lofted, made 2º stronger, to give more length, about 6 yards of carry per club.
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