Demystifying golf clubs – Irons

Special feature by Anand Datla

The sight of a caddie heaving a loaded bag of clubs and assorted accessories is a familiar joy for many a golfing fan. There isn’t a single fan who hasn’t wondered about the contents of a professional golfer’s elaborate bag.

In this series, Golfing Indian makes an attempt to demystify golf clubs, bringing you closer to the finer detail behind club selection and give you the ammunition to sound cool, the next time you are in a conversation about golf.

The second of this five part series is on the Irons

The Iron is drawn most often to approach the green, when the dimpled beauty is lying less than 200 yards from the pin. It is an important weapon in the golfer’s armoury and one that is most nuanced. These clubs range from 1 through 9, though the first two are rarely put to use.

The main difference in these Irons is the variation in the loft on the club face and the shaft length. The Irons also have a greater degree of loft than the Woods, discussed in our earlier segment. The degree of loft increases with each Iron, while the shaft length tends to get shorter.

The first three Irons are called the long Irons – as the name suggests, these clubs help the golfer gain distance since they have a minimal loft. The one and two are hard to master and the former is essentially an extinct club with barely anyone using it. The middle Irons – 4, 5 & 6 – are typically brought into play when the golfer needs to cover around 150 yards.

The other three Irons – 7, 8 & 9 – are the short Irons. These are very useful when the golfer needs elevation over a short distance. They have the greatest degree of loft among the Irons and help the golfer extricate herself from tricky positions not far off the green.

There are several intriguing details about the Irons that can pick the mind of curious learners. The club heads are thin across the surface, front to back. The club face has grooves that help put spin on the golf ball. The variation in yardage between each Iron is considered to be just 10 – 15 yards, from one club to the next.

Then there are two different styles in the Irons – based on how the back is carved. The blade or muscle back style of Iron requires greater proficiency to the more tolerant cavity back style of Irons. The muscle back Iron features a full body club head while the cavity back has a hollowed out back.

The muscle back demands greater consistency, with the onus of striking it dead centre on the golfer. The hollowed out back in the other style of Iron facilitates perimeter weighting leading to a larger sweet spot. The cavity back produces a pronouncedly higher trajectory compared to the muscle back.

With so much nuanced detail, it takes innumerable hours of practice and years of learning to master each Iron. Bringing the right weapon to battle could be the difference between an easy lie on the green or an ungainly struggle around the green.