Iron loft and lie adjustment – not all clubs can be modified for your swing!

by mhofstrand under CC BY-ND  with WPSEOPix

 

 

It used to be that you could only adjust iron lofts and lie angles for forged golf clubs.  But these days, there are many metals used in cast iron clubs that can easily be adjusted for loft and lie.  However, golfers cannot know for sure if the irons they purchase can be bent so that the lie angles fit the way they set up to and swing the golf club.

Last week I received a call from a golfer who had a set of OEM irons – cast heads – and he wanted me to bend them 2 degrees upright from the standard iron specifications.  He assured me that he was told that these irons could easily be bent as much as 4 degrees for lie adjustment.  His old irons were more upright, and he was not having good success hitting the new irons.

So…….I brought these irons to my shop, and put the first one into my loft/lie adjustment bending machine.  Crunch, tug, ug…………after about 15 minutes of attempting to bend the club I was able to get a lie angle change of about 1.5 degrees.  I had to really WORK to get this much bend in the club.  Are 4 degrees of lie change possible – not by me!  I called him up and said that he should send these clubs back to the manufacturer (name withheld) and let them modify them for lie.

What was MORE interesting is that about 20 minutes later I checked the lie angle again – and it had relieved back to almost what it was at the start!  So this iron head cannot be bent without some intervention by a higher power.

Now my question is WHY? – why make a golf club out of a material that cannot be adjusted for loft and lie?  What a shame for this golfer, because it is going to be very difficult – if not impossible – for him to get his irons more upright.  Maybe he can get the manufacturer to send him a new set that is built 2 degrees upright – who knows.

Today – in contrast – I had to bend a few irons for a set of custom cast heads – absolutely no problem, very easy to bend.  Custom club manufacturers know that loft and lie adjustment is important to optimizing golfing performance, and they use materials that are easy to bend.

Golfers deserve clubs that can be adjusted for their golf swing!

The Fit Is IT!!

Tony