 Right. Thank you for joining the average golfer in a little bit of an interesting one this morning. Have you ever wondered if an iron has 18 degrees worth of loft and a fairway would have 18 degrees worth of loft? What would be the difference in performance? Well if you haven't wondered why you're watching this video, well for me I certainly want to know the answer because it's something that I'm going to try the Strickson driving iron to iron that is 18 degrees loft. I'm going to pick you up against a five wood, which again, 18 degrees worth of loft. It's a new Strixon ZF 85, is that right? And I want to see, there they are, down there, two clubs ready to go. I want to see what the difference is in terms of performance, in terms of what I see, in terms of ball flights out there into the range. What is the difference between those two? They've got exactly the same loft, so they should do the same things, shouldn't they? Only one way to find out, camera is already out there in the range. Golf balls are ready, it's some golf balls, a whack some golf balls. And let's see what happens with these two clubs in the hands of the average golfer. Right, so this is a straightforward enough test, and one that, like I said, personally interests me quite a lot. I love these driving irons, but I've just had a little bit of a go of this five iron from Strixon, and it was literally part of a warm-up. I actually seen some very different kind of ball flights, and what I noticed was that both these two clubs have 18 degrees worth of loft. Question in my mind was how do they differ in performance? Cos I can see quite a bit of difference in terms of ball flights, at least from the five of this morning. But I want to see what they do overall in this head-to-head. So we're going to do this very, very simple test. I'm going to hit five or six balls from a small five-milli tepecs, or the option to use both clubs off the tee. And then I'm going to stick it onto this tight lie, onto the mat below me, and we're going to try exactly the same shot with both clubs, seeing if we can pick it up off that tight lie on a fairway and see what it does. I'm looking at, we'll look at data for comparison purposes, because we always do, that's part and parcel of the deal. But I'm interested how they sit, how they look, which one gives the most confidence, which one perhaps is the most forgiving, which one is more suited towards the average golfer. That's it, discussion over. I've thrown some pitches up hopefully to the two up against the ball themselves. And let's talk about that confidence bit before I do it a ball. Obviously hitting the bulk and the mass of this great looking five wood is probably the more confidence-inspiring for the vast majority of people. That's an easy one. However, I love the look of these things. Let's put this down for a second or two anyway. I'm going to try and pick up some ball flights if we can. Let's have a look. So we're going to start off with the five wood. Like I said, there'll be an individual review of this ZF-85 coming very soon. The Strix and Fairways appears to be very, very popular indeed. But I'm just going to take it off this small T-peg for now. Like I said, as you'd expect, looks nice, looks confidence-inspiring. What you can hopefully pick up from the sound that was an absolute solid strike to start with for the five wood. Ball flight, what I've noticed with this is extremely high. And like I said, whether we can pick that up from the little camera that I've got placed below at the backdrop here, because it's interesting that a lot of clubs have, and this is the bit that always interests me, when we talk about lofts on irons and stronger or weaker loft or irons and what numbers you put them, it's for me how a ball launches is what is interesting. A relevance of what degree loft is on a club, it's how a ball launches. I would imagine, and like I said, a pretty confidence in saying, the launch angle in these things is going to be massively different between the two. Let's hit one more off the T-peg, and then I'm going to collect some data with this off camera. Ball flight into orbit, very easy to hit, very easy to pick up off of that lie. Right. Same principle. Let's have to move GC2, GC quad, I wish, and we'll also move camera and we'll take it from the deck. This is where it becomes for me a whole different ball game. It's a club that I particularly struggle with having a confidence to take a five wood, three wood off of the deck. So this one really interests me. Once again, decent strike. I'll be picked up on the camera. That's a slightly lower ball. Flight again picked it up. You can see just with a slightly wet mark off the bottom of the club face there. So different results expected. So rather than bore you watching me hitting golf balls, I'm going to hit a good section, maybe like I said five or six balls with each, both off the T and off of this tight lie underneath my feet, and we'll collect the data for that. That'll be off camera when I finish this little bit of an intro. Well, let's go back now to the driving iron. Let's leave this one off the deck. Let's start this one the other way around. We'll go from the deck to start with. And I suppose this is one of the major differences, first of all, between the two clubs, I think is when the club is sat behind the ball. Now, interesting enough for me, and it won't be for everybody, I prefer the driving iron when it's sat onto this tight lie in terms of my confidence, my mentality. Forget performance, I sit this behind the ball and I just, for me it's like having a regular iron in the hand and I would prefer to take an iron, even though the loft is exactly the same. I prefer to take an iron from this tight lie than I would from a fairway wood, but that's me personally, and that's where it's going to differ massively. Well, the question is, even though I prefer it, am I giving up a lot of performance by opting at the moment at least to go down this route? Shit's nice, it's a bit of a slight right to left draw on that. Come out the middle as well, nice enough shot. It's something where, like I said, I'd be more than comfortable to take it off that tight lie. The ball flight was hugely different, hugely different. I would almost say it was almost half in terms of peak height there and a totally different ball flight. And often sometimes this will equate to where you play as well because that ball would literally, on a links course, that ball would run for absolute ever. Whereas I would imagine, like I said, judging by what I'm seeing out there, that a lot more spin on the five wood, it's going to come down, it gives you different options, it's a different kind of playing into a par five. You ain't going to stop that too, and I certainly aren't with that kind of ball flight that I've just seen at least on that one. Yeah, so lots of things there that you've got to consider between the differences of the two. But the major thing in my mind right now, first and foremost, is these have got exactly the same loft on, but the performance, ball flies in particular without looking at things like spin is usually different. So we're off the tee now, that small same five mil tee. Again, really good strike. It's in the ball reasonably well this morning, to be fair. Again, you already know this is a club that I game the older model of this in the three iron, so I'm more than comfortable with it, like it behind the tee as well at a dress. So for me, few things that stand out an absolute mile, I've already talked about in the reviews this year, I'm going to talk about immediate feedback and thoughts without delving too much into data, but I won't be ignoring data, is immediate thoughts just from the very small, whatever a bit, four or five shots on camera, both like hugely different. I would imagine spin will be hugely different. E's in which to hit in terms of distance, I'm saying that the five would is longer, judging by the balls that I've hit out there and I hit the five would off camera as well, before we got started. Five would is longer in terms of distance, in terms of yardage, and perhaps that's where this thing, as much as I love them and others may love them, I just wonder how much you're giving up in terms of overall performance by going for this, rather than the bulk and the mass, the extra bit of MOI, that lower CG placed right at the back, how much extra forgiveness is going to help you with performance right across that club face of the five would. The only way to find out is meet with some more balls and we'll have a look specifically at data and numbers and see what the difference between the two is. Right, okay, so there's quite a bit, quite a bit of data to go through. I don't want this to drag on and get a little too tedious. So I'm going to point out some very noticeable differences between the two. I'm going to start off with, let's get the information up for both sets of balls that were struck with the five would. Let's have a look at some averages. The first set of numbers there is driver from the T. We've got 132 ball speed, 14 degrees worth of launch, 42 spin, carrying 200, Pekite 31. 14.4 off the deck launch angle, 128 still a good ball speed. Spin drops a little bit as you'd expect, 30 degrees worth of Pekite and a slight drop off in carry. All numbers there that I think you would expect between difference to be able to pick that ball off a T in comparison to picking it off a tight light on the deck. So that's the numbers from the five would there the important numbers. Let's get those numbers for this two iron up in front of you now. Two iron, 126 ball speed to a drop off in ball speed, 12.1 launch, 43 spin, 24 Pekite 186 carry. And that was off the T. And then if we go to the balls off the deck, 125 ball speed, 11.7. So again, it drops that lower ball fight. 44 spin, it was interesting that the spin was actually quite high still, which surprised me. Pekite drops out at 23 and it yards in height, 183 carry. Pretty much glaring differences there and a real drop off in performance. Depending on how you're measuring performance on what you're looking for. Like I said, if you want that, depending on where you play, if you're out there on the links conditions with a lot of wind coming off that sea, then maybe the two iron is the club, that lower ball flight, firma fairways, it might just give you that performance that you're looking for. But for the large majority of you can see the difference between the two is quite glaringly obvious. It doesn't need an explanation from me. Really interesting comparison video this one for me personally and a real eye-opener as well because a lot of people mentioned when I had a gap in the bag they were talking about perhaps considering the five wood and it's something that maybe I might just need a closer look at because it performed very well and the Strixon five iron in particular performed excellent both off the tee and off the deck there. So real interesting one. Hope you enjoyed it as ever. Thank you for watching. Your comments are always welcome. Stick them in the box down below and that I will do my best to reply. See you soon.