Fitting Golf Club Loft

Fitting driver loft is not as hard as fitting iron loft.  To find your optimal driver golf club loft, you need to go to the driving range and hit a few balls each with a 9 degree, 10 degree, and an 11 degree lofted driver.  Your goal here is to choose the loft that gives you the longest carry distance and roll. 

That seems simple enough, but what about iron lofts?  Here is where it gets a little more complicated.  The goal in fitting golf club loft in irons is not to choose the loft that gives you the most distance, but to choose the loft that gives you a balance between a good carry distance and a minimal amount of roll after the ball has landed. 

You want to find the optimal trajectory that gives you a consistent carry distance that you can count on every time.  The standard golf club loft these days for a 5 iron is 27 degrees.  Lets say your carry distance for this standard club is about 140 yards and maybe you want to increase this distance a little bit. 

To get a little more distance, you can reduce the club loft to 26 or even 25 degrees.  There are several things that this will probably do. 

The first thing is that your 5 iron just became harder to hit.  If you have a good and consistent swing, this may not be a problem.  Generally speaking the less a loft a golf club has the harder it is to hit consistently.  Think about it, which do you find easier to hit, your 1 iron or your 9 iron.

The second thing that reducing your golf club loft might do is increase your carry distance.  This is great, exactly what you wanted.  The problem comes with the third thing.  Your roll distance has increased as well. 

By decreasing the golf club loft, you are reducing the amount of backspin on the ball thus increasing the amount of roll after the ball lands.  This may not be a desirable result.  Especially with your shorter irons.

Notice that I said that doing this might increase your distance.  It could reduce your carry distance.  This will totally depend on your swing speed. The reason it could reduce your carry distance is that the ball's trajectory may not be optimal for your swing speed.  This is why you will need a friend standing off to the side where they can see your ball trajectory and where the ball is landing. 

Generally, what you will need to do to find your optimum loft angle is find three 5 irons, a strongly lofted iron, a standard loft iron, and a weakly lofted iron.  Hit several balls with each, with your friend watching from the side.  The two of you will have to work together to find which loft works the best for your swing.

The table above lists the standard lofts for a set of irons, as well as lofts for stronger or weaker swing speeds.  Also listed are the degree increments from club to club for standard clubs. 

Below are the specs for the Maltby KE4 Adjustable Weight Iron Component Head. These are a good example of a standard mens loft.

You really shouldn't vary the increments from club to club.  So if you do decide to alter your clubs from the standard loft, make sure you maintain the standard increments.

Also, you should never alter your golf club loft more than 2 degrees from the nominal angle at which it was purchased.  If you try to bend it more than 2 degrees you run the risk of breaking it.  Altering the lofts of clubs will be covered in the Club Alteration section of this website.

FREE eBOOK!!

"Golf Club Assembly Reference Guide"

Click Here for Details!!