Differences between blades and cavity backs

[James Marshall (Hogan1953)]

Given the same off-centre hit with the same degree of face error either left or right is there very much difference in the resultant ball flight if the shot were struck with a blade or a cavity back?

 

[jeffgladchun]

A lot of stuff relating to your question was discussed recently here:

http://www.brianmanzella.com/forum/golfing-discussions/13616-equipment-question.html

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

depends on the cavity back and the blade and how forgiving they are; can't just lump them together

 

[fronesis]

depends on the cavity back and the blade and how forgiving they are; can't just lump them together

+1

I played blades for a long time in the late 80s/early 90s, then switched to cavity backs. I switched back to blades 2 years ago, but the blades I play today are nothing like the blades I used to play. The sweet spot is in the center, not next to the hosel, and the clubs are dramatically more forgiving. The biggest difference I notice between a "player's" CB club and today's blade is that with the blade it's sometimes easier to flight the ball lower, and if you hit the ball high on the club face with a blade it will penalize you more than with a CB club. Toed shots also feel a lot worse with the blade, but I'm not sure the result is that much worse.

 

[Richie3Jack]

There was a test done a long time ago in Golf Digest, IIRC. I have the scanned pics of the article, but the forum garbles it up. Anyway, this test was not very scientific, but I don't think it was entirely inaccurate by any stretch and it showed that mis-hits with CB's went all over the place, but would go much further than blades. OTOH, mis-hits with blades would go shorter, but with a much tighter dispersion.

I think better golfers are better off with blades because I know I can mis-hit a blade pretty bad and still find the green pretty easily. Getting the ball up in the air with blades just isn't a problem for me. OTOH, with the higher handicappers, a mis-hit with a blade won't go anywhere which could me shots that find the bunker, the drink, etc.

Having played my fair share of CB's and more than my fair share of blades (I currently own 7 sets of different blade style irons), I find the study to be pretty accurate as my mis-hits with blades are much more tightly dispersed than those with CB's, but I cannot hit them as far on average.







3JACK

 

[aaron_lohan]

When tested on trackman I actually hit blades striaghter and longer than cavity backs, and im only off 9.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

When tested on trackman I actually hit blades striaghter and longer than cavity backs, and im only off 9.

must be because you tried harder as the urban legend goes....lol