Blades vs. Game-Improvement Irons: Pros and Cons - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Blades vs. Game-Improvement Irons: Pros and Cons - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

As you start to do some research and start to look into the types of golf clubs that you’d like to purchase, you probably come across two very distinct categories, words that people use to describe clubs. So you’ll have blade golf clubs, now a blade describes a golf club here that doesn’t really have much of a hollowed out back, it’s more of a straight up and down like a knife. This is how golf clubs were originally made just for the straight forward back profile here.

A lot of better golfers might prefer a blade, but when we look down on the golf club, we see a narrower top line, a thinner top edge, maybe less offset on the front of the golf club as well. Not quite such a kink back into the neck here, and like I said around the back, less weight around the edges, more weight around the center of the gold club. Now the playing characteristics of this golf club are that when you strike the ball very well the feedback is very good but it has quite a small sweet spot. It’s a sweet spot maybe about the size of a sort of ten pounds piece right in the center but around that area, the feedback isn’t quite so good. It feels a bit roughly and the distance is reduced.

Because the golf club when you look down, it has quite a thin top edge. It’s almost like it gives you a bit less confidence, so what a better players would be described as the people that would prefer to play with blades, maybe professionals, scratch handicap, up to sort of six, seven, eight, nine handicap and anyone that’s playing with blades above a nine handicap is really not doing themselves any favors at all. As people’s handicap go up and their skill level decreases slightly, we tend to use a golf club that would certainly recommend the golf club that has a little bit more of a carroty back, something that might be described as even perimeter weighted. So there’s a big hole in the back of the golf club and the weight is positioned around the back of the golf club and deep into the sole of the club.

That’s going to help you get the ball up in the air a lot more; simply when you hit the ball, the club has more weight underneath the ball helping it fly higher. You might also notice when you look down on the golf you have the thicker top edge and maybe a little bit more offset in the neck where the leading edge is behind the leading edge of the shaft or the nozzle. That’s again from a slightly higher ball flight.

Now a good question that a lot of people ask me is why do better players want a harder to hit golf club, why does everybody use this really easy to use perimeter weighted golf club? I guess the answer is a difficult one to explain to a non golfer, maybe it’s something to similar to have if you drive a sort of an SUV or a big 4x4, it’s a very comfortable car but it doesn’t give you the same feedback and the same responses as to something like a racing car. A racing car is far harder to drive, far seat of hard or through the seat, through the steering wheel but the control is a little bit higher and is little bit quicker to drive and the racing driver has more feedback and more feel. So a better player or professional wants to feel what the club is doing, wants to feel how to stroke it, and wants to be able to shape the ball better.

Whereas for the novice or the beginner golfer just simply getting the ball up in the air and having some less off sense hit, the more forgiveness is the biggest difference. So unless your handicap is into the single figures and you’re coming down and improving as a golfer down towards a scratch handicap, try and avoid the blades. Maybe go for something with a little bit more of a cavity in the back, that’s going to be a slightly more helpful club for you to use.

 2012-06-06

As you start to do some research and start to look into the types of golf clubs that you’d like to purchase, you probably come across two very distinct categories, words that people use to describe clubs. So you’ll have blade golf clubs, now a blade describes a golf club here that doesn’t really have much of a hollowed out back, it’s more of a straight up and down like a knife. This is how golf clubs were originally made just for the straight forward back profile here.

A lot of better golfers might prefer a blade, but when we look down on the golf club, we see a narrower top line, a thinner top edge, maybe less offset on the front of the golf club as well. Not quite such a kink back into the neck here, and like I said around the back, less weight around the edges, more weight around the center of the gold club. Now the playing characteristics of this golf club are that when you strike the ball very well the feedback is very good but it has quite a small sweet spot. It’s a sweet spot maybe about the size of a sort of ten pounds piece right in the center but around that area, the feedback isn’t quite so good. It feels a bit roughly and the distance is reduced.

Because the golf club when you look down, it has quite a thin top edge. It’s almost like it gives you a bit less confidence, so what a better players would be described as the people that would prefer to play with blades, maybe professionals, scratch handicap, up to sort of six, seven, eight, nine handicap and anyone that’s playing with blades above a nine handicap is really not doing themselves any favors at all. As people’s handicap go up and their skill level decreases slightly, we tend to use a golf club that would certainly recommend the golf club that has a little bit more of a carroty back, something that might be described as even perimeter weighted. So there’s a big hole in the back of the golf club and the weight is positioned around the back of the golf club and deep into the sole of the club.

That’s going to help you get the ball up in the air a lot more; simply when you hit the ball, the club has more weight underneath the ball helping it fly higher. You might also notice when you look down on the golf you have the thicker top edge and maybe a little bit more offset in the neck where the leading edge is behind the leading edge of the shaft or the nozzle. That’s again from a slightly higher ball flight.

Now a good question that a lot of people ask me is why do better players want a harder to hit golf club, why does everybody use this really easy to use perimeter weighted golf club? I guess the answer is a difficult one to explain to a non golfer, maybe it’s something to similar to have if you drive a sort of an SUV or a big 4×4, it’s a very comfortable car but it doesn’t give you the same feedback and the same responses as to something like a racing car. A racing car is far harder to drive, far seat of hard or through the seat, through the steering wheel but the control is a little bit higher and is little bit quicker to drive and the racing driver has more feedback and more feel. So a better player or professional wants to feel what the club is doing, wants to feel how to stroke it, and wants to be able to shape the ball better.

Whereas for the novice or the beginner golfer just simply getting the ball up in the air and having some less off sense hit, the more forgiveness is the biggest difference. So unless your handicap is into the single figures and you’re coming down and improving as a golfer down towards a scratch handicap, try and avoid the blades. Maybe go for something with a little bit more of a cavity in the back, that’s going to be a slightly more helpful club for you to use.