Just Use The Damn Blades!

Blade irons. They’re so simple, yet we lust for them. Perhaps it’s in the simplicity of their design that lies the absolute truth about what it means to strike a golf ball. And if you feel like you're on the fence about whether you should play them or not, I just have one thing to say: Play the damn blades!

Let's be honest here, it wasn’t really that long ago that if you wanted to play golf, your equipment choices were limited to either persimmon woods and blades or, well, other persimmon woods and blades. Now, I will be the first to admit that since that time, golf club, shaft, and ball technology has come a very long way to help make the game easier, but at a certain point I also believe we have leaned too far into allowing technology to try and help when we really didn’t need it in the first place.

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There is no bumper bowling when you’re holding a 270 gram piece of solid forged steel at the end of 37-inch shaft with a rubber grip on it. It simply requires you to make a good swing and solid contact. And, at the end of the day, that is the one thing every golfer should lust for, the feeling of bringing it all together at once to, hopefully, feel almost nothing at all.

For many years, I have fallen into the same cyclical trap.

Start the season with overly forgiving irons, feel great about it, and then slowly watch my scores creep up to the point where I get so frustrated I have to put everything away. Then, like clockwork, within a couple of weeks, I feel the need to get back to basics, put a set of blade irons in the bag, play way better, and ask myself “Why do I keep trying to switch away from my blades?”

There is just something about them that, for some, makes the game feel easier.

But don’t just take my word for it—there is testing data from the last few years showing that, at certain speeds, blades and small cavity back irons void of extra technology actually produce better dispersion than game improvement clubs.

One of my favorite examples is from a test Cool Clubs ran using its testing robot to compare the Wilson Staff blades, forged cavity backs, and hollow body XBs.

At a club head speed of 80 miles per hour (a very average clubhead speed for avid recreational players) using all 7-irons, the square yardage of the dispersion areas was as follows;

Blade - 72 square yards

CB - 56 square yards

XB - 85 square yards

What’s even more telling is the toe strike dispersion:

Blade - 14.9 square yards

CB - 10.3 square yards

XB - 28.4 square yards (Note: More than double that of the forged cavity back)

Now, yes, the CB produced the tightest dispersion overall, but that is still with a single piece of forged steel. Sure, hollow body irons can fly a bit higher, spin less, and go farther, but so does the next iron up in your bag, and do you really need an ego boost just so you can say you hit a 7-iron while your friends hit a 5-iron? I mean a part of the golf industrial complex runs on that type of ego stroking, when it should actually come down to who hit those irons closer to the hole.

What this really comes down to is being able to deliver the club in a more consistent manner, and unlike the blades of yesteryear, there is a lot of design variation to help golfers find the right fit for blade length, offset, shaping, and, most importantly, sole grind!

It's no coincidence that over the last half-decade, sole grind has become a big talking point in the world of irons - because not all iron soles are created equal, especially in the blade category.

Then, once you factor in that 130-gram steel iron shafts that once ruled the world are slowly becoming obsolete and unnecessary for 98% of the golfing population, you realize a properly fit blade with a 60- or 70-gram graphite shaft can be just as easy to hit as a huge game improvement club.

So please, just play the damn blades!