 Yeah, I've got to admit I mean right now in my life this stage in my life I am what I'd call a fair weather golfer. Oh, maybe it should be more grateful. Look It's a great day compared to yesterday and there's plenty of golfers out there particularly Canadians who watch the channel We've had to put the clubs away for the winter, so I would absolutely hate that So maybe I'm not a fair weather golfer after all Where I'm going and what this video is about is a possible Yeah possible, but a real possible change in my irons Yes, they were sheep on the side of the road the journey up to Hollywood golf club It's always an interesting one and the idea of switching into new golf clubs to improve your golf game can be often very unwise But having said that I also believe if you get your golf bag set up correctly then Some clubs can have a profound effect on your performance But what if choosing golf clubs to make the game more difficult? Could in fact make you a better golfer. Right, so clearly I need to do some explaining and let me start by showing you What my current irons are they are of course PXG gen 5 P model They're almost falling into that category of a game improvement iron and they've got a slight bit of bulk and mass about them They're slightly forgiving that everything I would want from an iron at my level of ability Or are they so the question is why do I choose to play a game improvement iron a wider width solely thicker top line? Well because basically what this club Manufacturer tells me is that it's more forgiving i.e. If I don't hit the center of this club face I won't get huge drop offs in terms of performance So in theory that's supposedly helping my game But is it because by playing these irons? I really do question the fact that am I kidding myself am I getting too much help too much forgiveness on my bad shots And should I be looking? To change my irons Based on that shot The answer would be yes You see the irons I've been playing in recent weeks. Well, supposedly at least not forgiving and Why am I choosing to play a less forgiving iron? That seems a little bit silly Nice control and sit And I am wondering by swapping to these irons Will it ultimately make me a better golfer and in today's video? I hope to put that theory to the test So the irons in question and up for deliberation or another set of PXG irons But they are in fact their forged offering these three one seven ST blades, which are well I just hit that eight iron into that previous screen a little bit dirty But I'm sure you can appreciate there's a decent looking iron But it's also very thin in terms of top line and also from underneath that width of sole is very small It's a blade after all it is like I said supposedly not forgiving So why would I swap this chunky effort? That is my current iron into that visibly smaller iron and address less forgiving But for me for one reason and for one reason only and that is to improve the quality of my strike the quality of my iron plate and The reasoning behind that is quite simple. So we're going to do a very simple on course Analysis of these two clubs. I've bought exactly the same wedge through to six iron out on course And we'll hit a few shots with each of those irons through the bag and ask the question Why when these are quite visibly different and address would I consider going for that smaller model? Well, it is of course down to the fact that I believe that by getting good with a set of blades in your hand But if you were to step up into these things the game would be a whole lot simpler But it also means you've really got to concentrate your efforts and make sure you're striking that ball pure and out the middle So that's my theory But what happens in practice when I shot hit shots side by side? How much are we losing in terms of distance? How much am I losing in terms of forgiveness? We'll start here. Shall we? Okay, so first thing to mention is they both got exactly the same shaft in they differ in terms of their strength of loss Which is on screen for you now So we're expecting to see just a difference in terms of ball flight in terms of launch angle and then overall carry distance Should be longer with the gen 5 start off That was to seven irons playing into what is sort of 145 flag and we will go and see where they have finished It looks like the gen 5 iron has gone long and straight. It was very much at the flag The blade was a bit of a pull down the left-hand side But I would imagine from a distance perspective Nothing difference the only difference was the quality of my swing because they felt very very similar indeed Okay, so just showing you where they both finished We've got the gen 5 is up there and just there is the blade We've probably got about maybe not as much as 10 yard difference in terms of carry But like I said nothing to split them in terms of forgiveness at least so next up it was two six signs I just want to try and show you again if I can just the difference between those two in terms of their size It's quite considerable and when you look down at a dress Yes, it does sort of it has questions of your game and I kind of like that But I've also always liked the smaller profile But anyway the two six signs that I hit were decent strikes And I'm going to show you very very soon where they both finished and again. There's not a lot to split them Okay So ball on the left is the blade ball on the right is the gen 5 I would say pacing that out. There's probably about six or seven yards at best to separate the two The big question for me is not about where they finish in terms of distance because we already expected gen 5 to be longer The question is was one more forgiven than the other the answer again was No, not When you're finding the center of the club face and it seems to me that my game in terms of Ions is more often than not finding that and I want that to be something that I continue to do and not rely on the performance and forgiveness of an iron to cover up my Shortcomings, let's say so how many of you have been in this predicament yourselves where you were maybe just challenge yourself Maybe it's just at the driving range with a Smaller set of blades and all the style golf club I'd say where it really relies on you being will perform in better than your Game improvement irons might allow that makes sense It's something I've done for quite some time And I firmly believe that it improves the quality of your strike and it improves your Concentration levels a little bit and focus and making sure that you're finding the center of that club face Anyway We're going to switch it down to the short end of the bag And it's at the shorter end of the bag where I feel as an even added bonus in terms of playing blades or better Player Zines if you like and that's because the sort of more compact style of head shape for me The pure forged iron which these 0 3 1 7s are gives me the things that I want in the short end of the game Which is incredible feel the more compact size and profile the more refined head shape gives me that bit of finesse That I'm looking for around these kind of things I don't really want to be swinging from big club at this kind of shot Whereas in the long end of the bag, maybe that makes a bit more sense and really what that should translate down to It's just great. It well first of all for me. It gives me confidence That's pin iron a really decent shot. I Don't understand why and I never will understand why I get more confidence out of playing blades in many ways Then I do out of playing what you call game improvement irons Certainly at that short end of the bag and I've done this for multiple years now whereby I talk about mixing sets up and playing Players irons down that short end of the bag and then going into game improvement irons in that long end of the bag And maybe maybe that is a solution And you know what I'm going to end the video there because I've played long iron and mid iron We've played a short iron. There's nothing much more to cover. What did the video find out? Well, hopefully what it explained well, it did for me at least anyway was the fact that Forgiveness is only an issue when you're looking for it on when you're off-center hits. That's the first thing My strike with irons is I think the best part of my game And I think I do find the center of the club face more often than not and therefore The thing that the game improvement irons of gen 5 give me I don't really get the benefit from because ultimately I find the center of the club face more often than not I still believe that I would want more forgiveness down the long end of the bag And maybe that's where these kind of the idea of that split-set is an ideal scenario But I would certainly happily make the trade-off in forgiveness Fulfill and finesse down that short end of the bag and what I found today is that 0 3 1 7 Certainly from 7 8 9 wedge Look stunning address for me on my eye and the feel out of them is absolutely superb So I think for the time being at least we will carry on with a bit of a mix set Maybe and I'll see how I get on and whether or not that's something we take forward into the new year But for practicing through the winter, I certainly don't think it is going to do me any harm But what I want to know is for any of you consider doing exactly the same, right? That's me done. The one thing I will say cannot believe how dry Hollywood golf club is right now. So if you're looking to play some winter golf in north Wales Make sure you get down to Hollywood because I'm playing in the field as they call it And over on the sort of more heathlandy links side is absolutely bone dry Really surprised considering just how much rain we've had over the last few days. So yeah, come along join me It's after Hollywood golf club. Anyway, I'm going in now for a warm and a brew and I'll see you soon