Understanding Grinds

Hi guys,

I have a set of MacGregor Tourney PMB irons (very lightly used) which I think are about 10 years old. The attached pic is not of my set though it is identical apart from:

  • mine has DW on the sole of each club indicating I believe that they were ground by Don White (then of MacGregor now of Scratch Golf)
  • the grind features quite a blunt or rounded leading edge

Can anyone explain to me the basics of why some players would chose some grinds over another?

Cheers, G
MacTourneyPMB.jpg

Thank goodness that club isn’t yours AA… thought ABS had made you switch to playing left handed :open_mouth:

DW would stand for Don White… I have his initials on the set of Scratch Irons I had made up last year.

I had him grind the toe off and make it squarer looking as I have never liked looking down and seeing all this shiny toe area on the club that I certainly don’t want to hit the ball with and certainly don’t want to look at.
This in affect made the head smaller in my case and squarer looking, which is a bit more in tune with the clubs I grew up with so I prefer that shape and look at the address position.

When I got clubs on tour from PING, I used to get them to grind the toe off just like stated above making the head smaller and more compact looking. Of course this was done afterwards so the club didn’t appear all nice and fine looking…it was all chrome ground off and ugly but it served it’s purpose. That’s why I really like Scratch because as their name suggest they build them to specs from scratch.
I also used to get PING to grind some bounce from the back of the sole. I just never liked the big wide soles with a lot of bounce… so I guess had my own grind going with these little alterations

These are my reasons why I had them alter the grind…just for appearance and playing feel for me… I am sure other players have their own reasons

I don’t currently have or for that matter hope to have the quantity of iron sets that one AA does, but the sample size I DO have is relatively large. :smiley:

Arnie - I don’t know if your observations would be the same, but it seems to me the sets I have from the “pre-70’s” or so all have fairly sharp leading edges, while the sets from the post-70 era all have some bluntness to them. I wonder if it’s related to golf course conditioning. As fairways became more lush the irons were made with a softer leading edge so as not to dig as easily. I have to think the leading edge design would also produce a different impact condition and feel based on the golfer’s angle of attack into the ball, so maybe the customization relates to that as well

But in general I don’t have many sets made in the 80’s or sooner that posess as sharp a leading edge as I see on the old Flatbacks, Armour 925s, Bounce Soles, M85’s, etc.

robbo

I think you are on the mark there Robbo about course agronomy also affecting club design… once water was pumped on courses and lush become the fad… clubs went to more bounce as well as more forgiving and perimeter weighted instead of muscle back weighting… you certainly need a better shallower approach on the softer ground otherwise you will dig…yet on the harder firmer unkempt ground a bit of digging isn’t too bad

Yes it’s well known round these parts that Mac got his hitting from both sides trick from me :laughing:

Yes 100% agree on this guys. On this set its even more pronounced than normal which I guess is some type of game improvement type thing. Haven’t hit them yet but will report back when I do.

Cheers, Arnie