Do Blades lead to Loss of Distance???

Sup guys, Im just wondering if blades lead to a loss of distance. Im going to be buying a set of Taylormade Rac Musclebacks (2004) and Im just wondering what the deal is in terms of distance. I was told that if you hit it solid, the ball will go farther than a standard cavity back, but if you mishit it, it will go substantially shorter than a cavity back or a standard club. I tested these clubs out today and it seemed like I wasnt hitting as far, but I also was hitting it thin, therefore probably leading to lack of distance. Other than that though I was hitting them mint, and they go dead straight with my slight draw, whereas my graphites are sometimse all over the place. I dont know, do you think if i get used to these clubs Ill be able to hit them as far as my graphites that I have?

Hi Mate,

You are quite right with what you said about hitting blades, as your swing has to be perfect & consistant to get the best out of these clubs. With cavity back irons there is a lot more forgiveness and you can get a way with a lot of tiny errors in your swing to get a great shot. If your swing has these tiny errors then blades will become your worse nightmare on the course.
I dont know what you play off but with what you said, "that you dont get consistant shots with your graphites and causing you to hit the ball all over the place", then it does tell me that your swing is still in need of more work to get you in hitting shots straight and consistant.

Also if you are going to go for blades its best to know that most of them are forged. What this means is that the metal is a softer composite alloy than cavity backs, these are cast alloy. This means that you have to take good care of them as they will mark easily and also wear quicker so you will have to get your club maker to adjust the club lies for your needs once in a while and dont use them on an artifical driving mat as this will wear them even quicker.

My advice would be what do you want from the club. Then look at how you can achieve your goals with them and does it help or hinder your play.

Personnally I play with cavity back irons as my goal is to hit consistant shots and make my game more easy as my swing does have errors and 80% of the time I can get away with them when striking the ball.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Mark

I have those clubs and if you are having an off day it can be a case of taking an extra club than you would like for that distance, but I have to say that I still really like them.
When you have playing well they are a dream, just so nice to hit.
Blading them isnt much fun though, ouch.

Just another vote for extra distance for an on-center hit (due to more mass behind the ball), but a much larger penalty for missing the center (when compared to cavity backs).

GreeBoman sums it up quite nicely, and Mark gives you a lot of the wherewithal of dealing with forged clubs.

Thanks for the response guys. Mark, what I meant to say is that with my graphites is that I think im starting to wear them out. I tried these forged blades yesterday and I actually hit them really straight with a nice draw. I dont think I leaked one of them right. Its just that I didnt connect on all of them, I kinda hit them thin, although I seemed to be getting away with it. I shoot in the low 80s-high70s so Im at that point where im starting to get close to being a well rounded, consistant golfer...just not yet. So thats why i wanna get these, is because this guys is selling to me for cheap and theyre in great condition (other than a couple marks on the backs of the clubs).

I have never heard that before, can anyone concur to what ricky says about graphite being less acurrate?

do blades hurt less if hit thin? I have a cavity back, because I had the genuis idea to tee up an iron real high and swing real hard and I ended up hitting the top of my iron face and instantly severly bruised the pad of my pointer finger and a few other joints. I couldn't golf for weeks! LOL But seriuosly, thoose mishits hurt!

The matter that we're discussing now is torque. Most graphite shafts have a torque rating of 2.5° or more. Virtually all steel shafts have a torque rating of 0°.

It's this twisting that can cause inaccuracy in your shot. However, IIRC, any torque rating of less than 3° doesn't effect accuracy.

Now, back in the day that graphite was first introduced, torque ratings were almost double digit. This caused HUGE inaccuracy, as sometimes the shaft would recover, but often it would either stay twisted open, or snap shut long before impact. We rarely see this nowadays.

Now I know what you're thinking - you've seen shafts with torque ratings of 5° or more. But if you'll look, these shafts are also for slower-swinging golfers, who don't have the swings to force the club to be 'over torqued', leading to inconsistency.

But if you're truly worried about it, you'll play steel in all your clubs - including your driver, which probably has a torque rating of between 3 and 4.

I think if I have you two clubs that were equal in every way except one was graphite and one was steel, you'd be hard pressed to notice an accuracy problem.

__________________
True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

thanks lowpost, very informative. I do have all graphite irons cavity backs, and I love my p-8 but after that, I need more of a distance iron instead of accuracy irons.

oh fantastic, look who is back.

The primary determiner of distance is club loft, followed by club length. Either get your clubs bent stronger, made longer, or increase your swing speed.

10 yards or more? Do you think thats actually the case?

I donno, now your giving me second thoughts on whether to get them or not. I mean he bought them for 1100 new and hes selling em for 500 to me (canadian dollars). I mean if you are right, I wont buy them. The thing about the X18's is that they have such a big head. I like looking down at the forged blade and seeing the smaller head.

Don't get too worked up. I've lost 10 yards on a bad toe hit off my cavity back 600XC's.

However, we're discussing physics here. In the perfect cavity back iron, the weight is evenly distributed about the face. Therefore, the same force is applied to the ball, no matter where you hit on the face. Now, obviously this creature doesn't exist, but the theory is what cavity back irons are based on. Since there's more perimeter mass, there's more distance from mis hits.

Conversely, in a blade, the weight of the club is low and more centered in the middle. This means that when you hit the ball with the most mass (sweetspot) you get the most distance. However, since the mass falls off the further away you get from there, there is less distance from mis hits.

So to go with the blades, you'll give up distance on mis hits, but be longer (and trajectory should be higher) than corresponding cavities.

Some people think their ball striking improves with blades, as you have to focus more for a great result.

I say, I don't want to be penalized for not finding the sweetspot. This is the difference between being on the green, and having a 15 yard chip.

__________________
True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

u think he would let you use them on the course one time, see if you can use them while under the pressure of a round

Yep He already did. I really liked em, even though I didnt connect on all of them, I really felt like i could control them and they just felt awesome. I loved looking down at that small head. Im not a fan of looking at the huge heads with the big cavity.