In our forums, our members have been discussing modern irons with stronger lofts and whether they are easier or harder to play than older irons. WRXer ‘harpu728’ kicks off the thread saying:

“Being that higher-lofted irons within the same set are easier to hit (i.e. an 8 iron is easier to hit than a 6 iron), I’m trying to draw comparisons to modern irons with stronger lofts, and if these lofts make them harder to hit in theory.

My 10-year-old’s 7 iron is 33 degrees and carries about 150. When comparing this to some of the newer sets out there where 7-irons are slightly longer (club length) and have lofts of 30 degrees, would this mean that ‘on paper’ the modern 7-iron is ‘harder’ to hit than my 10-year old’s 7 iron? Or should I be comparing my 7-iron to the modern 8-iron, which would likely carry as far as my current 7-iron?”

And our members have been weighing in with their thoughts in our forum.

Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

• CAT GOLFER: “Good question, the way I understand it, disregard the number on the bottom of the club. A stronger(lower) loft in newer irons will produce a higher ball flight than the weaker(higher) loft in older clubs. At least that is the marketing pitch. The intent is to make it easier to launch the ball higher and in the process easier to hit. Also, keep in mind modern clubs also have more forgiveness built into them. Stronger lofted, higher launching, easier to hit if you buy the whole pitch.”
• Sean2: “I don’t pay attention to the number on the club, so much as the loft. With the stronger lofts, I have no long irons in my bag as I simply can’t hit them…maybe being 65 has something to do with it as well, lol. At one time I carried 4-iron on down, now it’s 7-iron on down. But no way I can hit a 18º-19º 4-iron, let alone a 21º 5. I have the same number of irons…they just have a different number/letter on them than they did before.”
• Warrick: “Important to pair the right shaft with these new iron setups, more so than ever.”
• puttingmatt: “Look at it like this, instead of missing the green with a standard lofted 7 iron, now you can miss the green with the strong lofted 8 iron. I do not think the modern lofted irons translate into better scores or better misses for golfers. The loft alone is not going to turn a 5hc into a scratch player.”
• lil’mike: “I guess you could say it something like this. Nowadays when you use a 5 iron, you get the height of a 6 iron but the distance of a 4 iron! Lol. I do think that it can make it hard to hold greens with the irons producing lower spin or at least too low of spin like some reviewers have mentioned in some cases. The bad thing about the stronger lofts is that they are getting to the point of needing two-gap wedges now before you reach the loft spacing that a sand wedge loft of 56 degrees has. For example, the new Mavrik irons have two gap wedges. So it is a 4 iron at 18 degrees, a PW is 41, so AW is 46 and GW is 51. I think that is getting ridiculous as they are turning the stock set makeup from 3-PW to 6-double gap wedge! lol”

Entire Thread: “Are modern irons with stronger lofts easier/harder to hit than older irons?”