What is Forgiveness?
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Forgiveness is a term used over and over again in Golf equipment reviews. What it is, and why you need to be aware of how it will effect your game is the focus of this post. There’s a common misconception that Forgiveness is just a simpler way of saying easier to hit. Just because a club is Forgiving doesn’t guarantee that it will be easy to hit. For instance I have used both Cavity back Wedges (Forgiving) and Bladed Wedges (Unforgiving). The feedback I feel through the hands with a Bladed Wedge has helped me be far more accurate when chipping or pitching. Even though the Cavity back Wedges are actually more Forgiving. They aren’t easier to hit in those situations. What actually makes a club Forgiving is having a larger sweet spot, and in most cases a lower center of gravity. Forgiveness is all about getting the most from your club when you miss hit it.
We all want center face contact
You’ve heard it described many ways. “Man you caught it flush”! “I hit that one on the screws”! “I can’t hit it any better than that”! However you choose to describe it, one thing is for certain. Very little feels better than making center face contact with a full swing. First of all hitting it out of the sweet spot is gentler on the hands. The end result is usually very satisfying as well. In most cases it even sounds better. So who wouldn’t want the sweet spot on their clubs to be as large as possible? Believe it or not but quite a few people would prefer small to medium sized sweet spots instead of large ones. Sounds crazy right? Well that’s what I thought also. Now I’m one of those people. My next set of Irons are going to have a medium sized sweet spot. I’ll go into detail as to why I have chosen to go this route. There are many different methods that can be utilized to increase the size of the sweet spot on a club. Perimeter weighting, moving the center of gravity further back from the face of the club, and increasing the amount of flex the face of the club has on impact are just a few methods. Whichever method a club manufacturer chooses to use essentially achieves the same result. Miss hits should fly a little further, and a little straighter. To help you better understand how this translates into real world results I’ll share some actual simulator numbers with you. At the time I hit my super forgiving 7 Iron about 140 yards when I absolutely flushed it. Even if I hit my 7 Iron off the toe of the club with a good swing I’d send it about 133 yards, and maybe 10 yards off line. I tested a far less forgiving forged blade with a small cavity back and averaged 138 yards when I caught it perfect. I attributed the 2 yards lost to a weaker loft with the forged blade. The real difference was when I miss hit it. Catching one off the toe only yielded me 126 yards, and 11 yards off line. That’s more than a full club shorter for me. Being 11 yards off line at only 126 yards out is close to being a slice. Now you are probably wondering after seeing those numbers why I would even consider switching to less Forgiving clubs. Hell why would anyone?
Sweet swingers
Some of us, and I’m not included in this particular group make center face contact most of the time. If you have your swing fully dialed in? Then Forgiveness isn’t really necessary for you to produce a great round of golf. You’re already at that point that so many Beginners like myself aspire to reach. You can seemingly hit the ball relatively straight at will. For the majority of us, that’s all we are after. Foolishly we believe that will be enough. Chances are good that when that day comes you will want to do more. You will want to start shaping the ball. This brings us to our next common misconception about Forgiving clubs. Supposedly you can’t shape shots with Forgiving clubs. Anyone that tells you that is flat out lying. There are many ways to shape a shot. Club swing path, face angle at impact, and face contact position all play a role. My clubs are about as Forgiving as clubs can be, and I can hit a butter cut, or power fade if I want. I couldn’t hit a draw with my clubs but that’s more about my limitations than the clubs. What you need to understand is that the more Forgiving the club, the more difficult it becomes to shape the ball. As the sweet spot increases in size, the amount of space left on the face of the club to influence shape is reduced. As the center of gravity is moved further back to help Beginners hit the ball straighter, the more difficult it becomes to create a curved shot. So when you’ve reached that point where you are ready to start shaping the ball. A super forgiving set of clubs might actually work against your improvement. So that’s got to be it then. I must be looking for a less Forgiving set of Irons because I’m ready to start shaping shots. Truth is I’m not ready. Not even close to ready actually. So why then Cobe? WHY!
Feedback
You are finally going to find out why I’ve decided to switch to a less Forgiving set of Irons. I made my decision on a Sunny afternoon on a Par 3 at Scarlett Woods Golf course in Toronto. The hole was playing at 155 yards to the center of the green. The Pin was set left center so it set up well for my natural shot shape which is a little right to left. I hit my 6 Iron about 155 yards with a full swing so time to let her rip. My swing felt perfect. I made great contact, and even heard that satisfying pop off the face of the club. I watched the ball launch towards the target until I lost sight of it in the sun. I switched my focus to the Green eagerly awaiting the Ball’s return to earth. Hopefully within a safe distance for a chance at birdie. I never saw it land. Oh shit I thought. I caught it so perfect that I flew the Green. With bushes, and a muddy marsh behind the Green I was getting prepared for another bogey. While searching behind the Green for my ball my playing partner noticed another ball about 10 yards short of the green. At first I figured that it must have been somebody else’s lost ball. Turns out that it was mine. Somehow I came up 15 yards short. Seriously! But I made perfect contact! Well on closer inspection what I thought was perfect contact was actually high on the face, and a bit chunky. The issue was the Feedback. There really was none. I’ve learned that I shouldn’t assume I’ve hit a great golf shot until I’ve verified the result. Forgiving clubs tend to provide very little Feedback. Even though improved miss hits can definitely help a Beginner get through a round of golf with an acceptable score. If you are serious about furthering the development of your game? Playing golf with clubs that provide a decent amount of Feedback are important to have as well. If you are unsure of when you make poor contact. You won’t be able to effectively adjust your swing to where you can fully trust it. It’s going to take a bit of practice, but knowing when I make perfect contact is going to seriously improve my game.
Beginner’s guide to Golf
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