The loft and lie angles on your irons are extremely important to any golfer's game, so I'm constantly amazed when golfers pay them so little attention. Both these angles easily distort with play and practice and should be checked annually, a golfer not checking these angles is throwing away shots. The angles are easily checked and adjusted at the same time by the same piece of equipment and consequently the work can be carried out economically. Loft and lie are two different subjects with two very different effects on your game, they are discussed separately below. (I warn you some of this stuff gets quite heavy, but please persevere, this is the stuff that makes golf retailers tremble.)

Loft is the angle formed between the club face and the ground line; the greater the loft angle measurement on the club the higher the golf ball will fly. So, a 5 iron with 28deg's of loft will have a lower ball flight than a 6 iron with 32deg's of loft. It is the golf clubs loft, along with its length that gives your set of golf clubs the ability to reach different distances. On an average set of irons the loft gap between each club is normally 4deg's, giving anything from a 5yd to 20yd gap in distance between each club, depending on a golfers swing speed i.e. the faster the swing speed the bigger the gap.

As already mentioned at the top of this page the lofts on golf clubs can distort easily; playing off hard summer surfaces, practising off range mats and the occasional disgruntled thump into the ground take their toll on a club head. Add to this, the fact that even the best club manufactures will not guarantee zero tolerance on their loft and lie angles, a set of golf clubs could be out of sync before they even hit a ball. This creates 2 serious problems. Problem 1 As the lofts change/distort on a set of irons, you could end up with 2 or 3 golf clubs achieving similar distances, leaving yardage gaps a golfer can't fill with a full swing. Below are two tables, they are overly simple and fictitious, but will demonstrate the above problem; table one, represents a set of medium and short irons that have been adjusted and have correct loft angles, and table two represents the same golf clubs after a season or two of play and practice.

Correct lofts

Incorrect lofts

Please note the changed lofts, differences in distances and yardage gaps after a season or two of play and practice. Problem 2 When the loft of an iron is changed either deliberately or through play and practise and becomes other than that the club designer specified two other specs on the club heads are changed. Firstly, the leading edge of the club head moves forward slightly when the loft angle is increased beyond its original design and moves slightly backwards when the loft angle is reduced, these movements will have little or no effect on your game. The second original spec that changes is the bounce angle on the sole of the club and this could present very serious problems for any golfer. There is a bounce angle on the sole of every club; its purpose is to stop the leading edge of the club digging into the grass or sand when the ball is struck, causing a heavy or fat shot. As a rule the bounce angle on an iron decreases as the loft on the club decreases; a 3 or 4 iron may have 1deg of bounce on the golf clubs sole, a 7 or 8 iron may have around 3deg's and the club that will demonstrate the most amount of bounce, would be the sand iron which could have anything from 7 to 14deg's of bounce, depending on its design. Now here's the problem; for every degree of club face loft lost, one degree of bounce angle is also lost. e.g. A 5 iron with a club face loft of 28deg's and a sole bounce angle of 2deg's, used for play and practice over a two year period, will probably distort and lose 2degs of loft; as a club loses 1deg of bounce for every 1deg of loft lost, 2deg's of bounce angle is lost of this 5 iron. The 5 iron now has a club face loft of 26deg's and a sole bounce angle of 0deg's (no bounce) we now have a club that is difficult for even a good ball striker and becomes impossible in the hands of an average golfer, heavy and fluffed shots can quickly become the norm. If this 5 iron is not adjusted and retuned to its original spec, there is every chance the problem will continue, the club loft will reduce to 25deg's and the sole bounce angle will go to -1deg, this club no longer has a bounce angle, it now has a scoop or dig angle; regardless of your skill level, your game really does not need this kind of problem.

Bounce Angle		Digging Angle

To Summarise
If you did not have the lofts on your golf clubs checked when you first bought your irons, or your irons have not had their lofts checked in the last 12 to 18 months, you're overdue a visit to a club-maker.

The lie of a golf club is the angle formed between the centre line of the shaft and the ground line with the club in normal playing position. This lie angle is extremely important when it comes to direction control, particularly with the mid and short irons.

As with the loft angle on a club, the lie angle easily distorts and again club manufactures do not guarantee zero tolerance on these angles leaving us with another 2 serious problems to consider.

Problem 1
The diagram above explains the problems with having the incorrect lie angle on your irons. If the lie on your golf clubs are too upright, you will hit the ball left of target and if they should be too flat for your swing you're going to hit right of target. The problem increases as the loft of the club increases, so get these angles wrong on your wedges and you can forget about emulating the pros by hitting full shots into a flag for a birdie chance.

Problem 2
There is an extremely important factor that often goes unmentioned to a golfer when they are purchasing golf clubs, probably because of the complexity of the subject, the extra work involved and the lack of knowledge of the average retailer of golf clubs. But as it greatly compounds the directional problem highlighted above, I'm going to try and explain the effect of shaft flex and club length on lie angles.

When a golfer commences their down swing and the club head accelerates towards the ball, the effect of centrifugal force kicks in and the centre of gravity of the club head tries to align itself with the shaft, this causes the shaft to flex and bow, flattening the lie angle between 0.5 or 2deg's depending on the following :-

1. The swing speed of the golfer

2. The length and flex of the shaft (particularly the tip flex)

3. Club head length (the position of its centre of gravity)

The industry call this effect "Shaft Droop" and you've probably already worked out that the effects are greater on a 3iron than on a 6iron and greater on a 6iron than on a 9iron. There are only 2 ways to fit golfers with the correct lie angle; firstly, a dynamic (moving) test, adjusting each club individually, or a dynamic test on a long, a medium and a short iron, with a professional club maker making the calculations for the set.

The effects of shaft droop are probably at its worst on a driver fitted with graphite shaft (as seen above). The effect can be dramatically reduced when the shaft is correctly aligned with the club head (see the shaft alignment page).

To Summarise
If, when you purchased your irons you did not undergo a lie test with long, medium and short irons, to establish the right lie angles for your golf clubs throughout the set (testing with one club such as a six iron is not good enough) or it's been 12 to 18 months since you've had your lie angles checked, you're overdue a visit to club-fitter.