Cheese,
The MT’s had decent shafts in them when I got them, but were almost an inch shorter than my other sets (which were all reshafted when the lies/lofts were adjusted). I adjusted only the MT 5-iron first and then tried it out to see if the shaft looked like it would perform reasonably well before I went with the extensions on the rest of them. I suppose I could have used them at the shorter length, but the idea of having a set a full inch shorter than my others wasn’t too appealing.
I have my driver at 48 degrees, which I think is about 8 degrees flat… I just don’t want the loft of my club angled at all down the left side of the fairway… then
having to make some kind of compensation that I don’t do with other clubs… the more I can get my set to feel the same right on through the better.
With the flat driver I have made a few suspicious swings that I find are still landing in the fairway. I don’t know why anyone want to swing a club on an upright
swing plane, other than it’s just what your used to. If you flatten out your irons it only makes sense to flatten our your driver and woods also…
One of the great things about persimmon is that I can work on them… I hand filed the face too, keeping some bulge and roll, and dropped it down to 8 degrees…
so my Penna is not a great summer driver. I’ll keep my 10 degree one for the winter months, or those foggy rounds out at The Presidio.
I can’t express how important it is to be fit properly (your clubs).
They must be put into your proper impact alignments. There is a place YOUR body, arms and hands SHOULD BE. Most golfers bring their hands in too high, get their clubs fit to a BAD impact alignment,
and then have no chance of improvement as they are locked in by their faulty lie angle.
If you don’t have your clubs set up right for where you should be,
you will NEVER get there…
DON’T set your clubs up to where your hands are now! Unless a QUALIFIED person tells you your impact lie alignments are just fine the way they are…
This is the BIGGEST mistake golfers make from day one, and the BIGGEST mistake fitting pro’s make everyday.
All the TGM guys here will know what I am talking about.
Even Lord Tom Wishon has talked about fitting people to “just
whatever they do”… WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!
If your playing golf even a couple rounds a month, get a fitting from a TGM guy, and don’t be afraid to ask, where should I be at impact?
Measure that and then get your clubs fit to that angle… not where you are now…
If your serious enough about golf to read this post, your serious enough to have your clubs set up to solid ideals for YOU!
Guys/Girls,
I’ve got a Scotland Golf Lie and Loft bending machine from about 7-8 years ago. FYI, I’m pretty sure the PW loft starts at 48 degrees and not 52…I’d be happy to take a photo of it and post if interested…
btw - he actually got closer to 3 or 4 degrees flat on the hybrid. I had the chance to play yesterday and used it 3 times, hitting what may be the best 3 shots I ever have with it for the 5 years or so that I’ve owned it!
We’ll see if it continues, but I’m hoping the lie angle is one reason I was so inconsistent with that club. Now I’m anxious to get a 3-wood flattened!
Robbo
Lag,
Any thoughts on potentially lengthening the shafts of the flatter clubs? I’ve got one clubfitting book that says the shaft should be lengthened .5 inches for every degree of flatnesss
Thanks
I don’t think that is necessary, because longer clubs are harder to control… and irons are for accuracy only…
Flattening our clubs allows us a better opportunity to increase our vertical ground forces and lower our center of gravity
through impact. We want to take advantage of this whenever possible… so there is no reason to lengthen the clubs…
If you can swing a flat 9 iron, then you can swing a flat 5 iron right?
My clubs are currently at 2 degree’s flat and have been trying to get my swing more around my body and on a much flatter plane. I am thinking of getting my irons bent to 4 degree’s flat anyone playing besides Lag anything flatter than that and if so how does it feel etc. I am taking my set of Vega’s in to be re-shafted and was thinking that would be a good time to get the work done.
Lag,
I’ve got my eye set on a lightly used Golfsmith Professional Loft/Lie machine that I may pull the trigger on so watch out! Not the tippy top of the line, but seems like it should do the trick. Anyone use one of these? The Mitchells and True Blues seem like the gold standard, but looks like I’d have to shell out some serious coin.
Lie Question: if I’m going 4 degrees flat off standard (per your chart) with my irons, should my sand wedge also be bent to 60 degrees? I thought I might have read somewhere that you liked your sw to be more upright, but can’t remember…
Thanks,
Cheese
Congrats on getting your own Loft and Lie machine! Great stuff! any serious golfer should have one! lol
It’s a little trick… because if you open the face, you have to flatten the shaft when you rotate your body around… mess around with it… you’ll see what I mean… I might make a little supplementary video one of these days about it…
I added a quick picture I took with my phone of my “new” l/l machine, which I bolted to my “workbench” – actually an old heavy table in the basement. Not as precise as a Mitchell (and surely not as interesting as Lag’s Van-L) but it should do the trick for my purposes. I was really surprised how easy it was to bend the old forged clubs – I adjusted about half of my Bounce Soles last night and messed with a couple of vokey wedges for fun – the loft readings for one of the wedges was way off what was stamped on the sole.
Lag, I see how the wedge shaft has to shallow if you open it up – what do you see as my ideal then for setting up the actual lie angle?
Great looking machine! better yet…nicer to have one in your garage … next up… 10 sets to play with! lol
I am setting my sand wedge… (the one I use out of the sand) at 8 degrees upright from where I have my other irons. Works a dream… that way you can swing on the same plane you do with your other clubs but with an opened up face. I was showing this to Al Barkow today as he has been pretty amazed at my sand play lately after holing out two shots in nine holes last time we played… and they were nearly impossible shots… today I nearly did it again. He started asking me what I have been working on in the sand… I said nothing! but that I had a secret!
I’m thinking off the top of my head I have my fairway SW at 57 and the one I use from the sand at 65 lie angles…
Ok… I was just wondering what the deal was here.
I had my 56 bent to 4 flat so I could use it in the same fashion as I’m working toward with my full swing. I think there’s a lot of benefit in hitting the 5 to 30 yard pitches and making yourself use no hand action… just an accelerating pivot. Sort of like basic and acquired motion in TGM… it’s easy to see if/when your pivot stalls on the little shots and I’m pretty sure it will help with the full swing.
I wasn’t sure what to do in the bunkers… other than not hit into them! The few times I’ve tried and use the same motion with the flat wedge I found myself grazing the sand on the backswing. (Can you say penalty strokes?). I often only carry 13 clubs, so I was considering carrying another 56 that was set at a standard lie angle. Looks like I need to get it bent up 4!!!
So Lag… simply the the same motion with a really upright lie angle on the SW? Any other tricks to it? 
Robbo
Be nice to see a tour van like this up at the Mare… 
And the inside would look like this…
Nice pics Arnie- certainly different to todays vans that have a million things in them with all components and few actually made up clubs or sets. they start making most of them all from scratch…they also have as well as the mandatory satellite TV for rainy days !!
Love the bowling ball bags!! or are they shoe/extra clothes bags