Have you done a gapping session to improve your golf game? In this video I look at how we may all be doing it wrong! Interested in a gapping session, fitting, repair, or custom build? Contact me adam@elitefitgolf.com
I have tested several brands and they all have a problem with the 5 iron up. Something squirly goes wrong with gapping of 5, 4 and 3 irons and I can't help feeling the big brands want the customer to buy 5 to gap wedge and then spend a ton of more money on Hybrids and fairway woods. I knew I would see this on your results. In the olden days blades only market you bought (if you were rich) a set of irons 2 to SW and normally a Driver, a 'Spoon' 2/3 wood and a 4 wood all made of real wood. Working class you bought a half set of odd or even iron numbers up to the individual. You really did know gapping then. My favorite old iron was a 2 coz I had no probs hitting it over 200yds with trad lofts.
Those of us who are older and grew up with properly gapped iron sets hit the long irons just fine (I love a classic 1 iron). For DECADES, the manufacturers decreased loft on the pitching wedge WITHOUT DECREASING loft on the longest irons (1&2). So the loft gaps on the 4-1 irons decreased from 4 degrees in the 50's to 3 in the 70's & 80's and then 2 and sometimes 1 degree in the 90's. The result is that we hit the "newer" 4-1 irons virtually the same distance. This is why modern sets rarely offer 3-1 irons anymore, offering easier to hit and gap hybrids instead. This is not greed IMO but finally realizing that, in view of how lofts have strengthened at the bottom, better alternatives at the top of the bag actually benefit us.
Maybe taking a break between clubs would help in getting better gapping results…. When we play golf there’s probably 3-5 mins give or take between swings. Wonder if taking a 5 minute break between clubs in your session might true up the results…..
I always start with the longest iron or gapping club hybrid etc. Make sure that club is optimised for height yardage then go to the shortest and work the yatd gaos between.
Its mainly based on your speed levels faster players will general be working on 10 - 15 yard gaps slower players anything from 8 - 10 probably a good marker, as for a star position i would start at 6 iron middle of the bag and work from that in both directions gap from highest fairway wood to driver is kind of pointless tbh all you need to know on driver is carry distance for getting over bunkers and other hazards. And the reason things get iffy and they tell you to get hybrids from 5 iron up is simply because most people do not have the speed to launch and spin higher irons enough to keep them in the air on a effective and use full flight.
What do you think about a progressive gapping system? For instance, I use more 8-PW far more than my 4 and 5 irons. I’m thinking 10 yard gaps 8-PW, 12 yard gaps 6-7, 15 yard gaps 4 and 5 iron. Any pros or cons to this?
I think from a snapshot standpoint gapping sessions are useful because they should identify outliers, for example the 6i to 5i transition on the way up or the 7i to 8i transition on the way down. But you hit the nail on the head, you have to take this information with a grain of salt, hitting 5-10 shots is not 100% representative of every club. Or you would make observations like don’t hit 5i when you are tired, or hit the 7i instead of the 8i later in the round.
I'm more interested in what the gaps should be between clubs. I imagine there is some personal preference. For me, I tend to think there should be a little more gap between each club as the club lengthens. Do you gap between where it lands or expected rollout? There are so many variables to consider.
I typically do the opposite, since roll increases as clubs get longer, the carry gap between them can be a little less. Nothing drastic, but slightly less gap on long irons vs short irons vs wedges is fine.
AJ the average golf is that inconsistent that thay would not hit them gappings from round to round I thick gapping your club's is only good for 5 per cent of golfers
I feel you to a degree, however, I know some people, who because of swing speed and swing characteristics will lose distance with some longer irons, so some sort of semblance of gapping your clubs needs to be done.
Of course you don't have data to back up that 5% ...not knowing your gapping from your 36 degree down to your wedges? Are you playing blind? You don't need a SIM to find your gap range .
Seems the big lesson is do shorter sessions with 3 or 4 clubs at a time. I like the idea of maybe doing them in a random order too. I am just getting my sim set up and this is one of the first items on the list - thanks for the video.
