'If You Just Hit Clubs That Flatter All Your Mis-Hits, You Will Not Get Better' - Should More Golfers Play Blades?

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It’s a subject that frequently comes up, especially during our testing days, when players of all levels come together to hit product (and talk about their ball-striking troubles).

Recently, the topic of hollow-body irons versus blades came up, leading to another debate: should more golfers play bladed irons?

WATCH: Dan and Joe from Kick Point discuss whether more golfers should play with blade irons (from 22.23)

You might be thinking that’s not necessarily an easy question to answer.

Well, it led to another test, carried out by pro and club fitter Joe Ferguson, co-host of Golf Monthly’s Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show - and you can watch the full episode above.

Before we reveal the results, how did Joe conduct his latest test, and what exactly was he trying to prove/disprove?

THE TEST: TAYLORMADE P790 VS TAYLORMADE P7TW IRONS

For this head-to-head, Joe put the TaylorMade P790 “nukes” up against the TaylorMade P7TW irons, a blade he refers to as “not only a triumph of engineering, but also a thing of genuine beauty.”

A crucial part of this test was to establish whether hollow-body irons (the P790s) and blade irons (the P7TWs) go the same distance at the same loft.

It wasn't a TaylorMade test as such, which is something we should stress - and Joe will be continuing his testing with other models and brands.

“What I really wanted to see was what the difference would be like for like in lofts between something that didn’t have a hollow body and a flexing face versus something of the same loft that was just a standard, solid forged blade,” explains Joe.

First, our club builder needed to do some tweaking. There’s a 4° gap between the 7-iron in the P790 and the 7-iron in the P7TW.

Given this was the case, Joe opted to use a 6-iron from the P7TW and a 7-iron from the P790 (to cut a long story short, he got them to meet in the middle at 30.5° and took the length of the P7TW down to 37½ inches.)

Then, it was a case of adding subsequent head weight to get them back to D4 swing weight. Both irons had the same Dynamic Golf X100 shafts, Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips, and the same lie angle.

Finally, the testing was carried out using the same golf ball on the same launch monitor on the same day.

Still with us?

Right, here are the results…

What Does This Data Tell Us?

With the TaylorMade P790 irons, the center of gravity is much lower, so you're impacting above it, which increases the launch and reduces spin.

As the results above show, this is exactly what Joe saw.

“So much is done with the P790 irons to lower that CG,” explains Joe, who had the good old foot powder spray out to check on his strike (every golfer should have a bottle of this, by the way.

“All my impact locations were almost identical. Relative to the face, the impact was the same, but relative to the CG location of those clubs, completely different.”

On the P7TW, we see exactly the opposite: lower launch and higher spin.

“In real terms, that means less control,” says Joe. “Generally speaking, the ball is going to come in a touch shallower and run a little more.

“Most better players tend to want to see, with every club, the ball very close to its pitch mark, because if it’s not doing much once it lands, you’re under control.

“That’s the differentiator and the trade-off. I guess if you've invested in the practice to gain consistent ball striking, your reward with a blade is kind of double.

“You're almost doubling down on your advantage. You've got more control because you’ve practiced more, and because you’ve practiced more, you can go into a club that produces more control as well.”

So, back to the original question: should more golfers play blade irons? Come on, Joe, just answer the question.

“What I’m kind of saying is that you could get a set of P7TWs to do the distance job of a P790 for you if you just matched them loft for loft.

“The distance, in this test, isn’t coming from the club type. 0.2 mph is essentially identical, and there was about a two-yard difference in carry, which was only coming from the launch and spin parameters.”

Here's how Joe sees it: there are probably more long-term benefits for the 10-handicap player (in and around that level) to play with a more “strike-demanding” iron, the only downside being that you might have to work harder to keep that distance.

“If you just hit clubs that flatter all your mishits, you will not get better, potentially, is what I’m saying. A more demanding iron teaches you to get better.”

Kick Point co-host Dan Parker doesn't entirely agree, but at this point we had to move the podcast on.

“It was a fascinating experiment for me because I was convinced the face flexion was going to be three, four, five mph, but when I matched loft up, it was essentially identical,” adds Joe.

“In summary, I don't know if I'm 'in' on the face flexion sell you often here from brands selling hollow-body irons.”

Do you agree with Joe's take? Let us know down in the comments.