EQUIPMENT SPECS
The Hidden Key to Getting on Greens Here’s a hint: It ain’t distance BY MIKE STACHURA
W hat’s the most important performance metric when you’re looking at new irons? In this era of ubiquitous launch monitors, it’s easy to get excited about things like ball speed or dispersion or even smash factor (ignore that, please) as the read- outs flash by. But there’s a data point buried in your launch monitor report that you should be paying attention to because it might be the difference be- tween hitting greens and just visiting them on the way to the back bunker. It’s called descent angle, or land- ing angle, and having a steep enough landing is the key to holding greens. Research from Ping characterises three potential ranges for what it calls “stopping power” (low, mid and high). For average-golfer speeds, the range of landing angles runs from the mid 30s to the high 40s, depending on whether you’re looking at low, mid or high stop- ping power. Across most speeds, a land- ing angle near the mid 40s will yield shots that stop rolling closer to where they land. As Chris Broadie, Ping’s head of fit- ting science, explains on the company’s Proving Grounds blog, “Since players with fast swing speeds generate higher spin, a steep landing angle might not be their highest priority in an iron fitting. However, many slower-swing-speed golfers can benefit from more stopping power. “The standard loft on a 7-iron plays a critical role in these landing-angle guidelines.” That raises a curiosity, given the specs of modern irons. The lofts of 7-irons considered for this year’s Hot List testing ranged from 25 to 34 degrees, and typically those irons with
the strongest lofts were designed with thin, flexible faces for more ball speed and less spin, two keys to distance. Those flexible faces also are lighter and can lower an iron’s centre of gravity, and both of those characteristics can help shots launch higher for ultimately a more green-holding trajectory. Still, when we look at specific player data from this year’s Hot List summit, those landing angles don’t always work out. Calculated by Rapsodo’s MLM2 Pro launch monitor, we see one clear thing: The loft on the 7-iron needs to be di- alled into each golfer’s swing, and we’re not talking about just clubhead speed. You can get some general ideas by looking at the 20 players in our low- and middle-handicap groups. All of these players hit the same models of irons in the Players and Players Dis- tance categories, two categories where the clubs are similarly compact in look but often significantly different in loft. Players irons often feature weaker lofts (32 degrees and higher) and clubfaces designed not to flex at impact, while Players Distance irons feature stron- ger lofts (30 degrees and lower) with springier faces. Overall, the data from the MLM2 Pro showed that the lower the 7-iron loft, the flatter the landing angle. For 7-irons with lofts of 30 de- grees or less, the average landing angle was 3.5 degrees flatter than 7-irons with lofts of 33 degrees or more. However, carry distances weren’t wildly different, at least not consistently. The gist of the issue is this: Stronger lofts and flexible clubfaces can produce more ball speed and perhaps more dis- tance, but carry distance is significantly impacted by each player’s clubhead speed and the way he or she gets the clubface back to impact. Think of how
a better player naturally delofts an iron at impact, for example, or how a less- skilled player often tries to help the ball into the air. Let’s look at three different players and their data from the MLM2 Pro on selected 7-iron shots. Robert Shaw, a 2-handicap, hits his 7-iron about 180 yards with a PGA Tour- level launch angle around 16 degrees (meaning he compresses the ball and delofts the club at impact). He gets a much steeper landing angle with weak- er-lofted clubs (like most Players irons), but even the stronger-lofted Players
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN DENTON
108 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025
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