Fit a seven iron, order the rest to match, and you have optimised the middle of the set while leaving both ends to chance. Almost every gapping problem we measure was created that way, by people doing something entirely reasonable.
The first forty minutes of an iron block produce no recommendation at all. They produce a picture: what every iron in your bag currently carries, how tightly, and where the rungs of the ladder sit relative to each other. Until that exists, any component conversation is being had in the dark.
Gaps get built from carry medians rather than from the numbers on the soles, because the soles are describing a design intention and the medians are describing what happened. The difference is usually somewhere between mild and startling. A set stamped in four-degree steps can produce distance steps of six, nineteen, eleven and fourteen yards, and none of that is visible from the outside.
Once the map exists, the diagnosis is usually obvious and often cheap. Two clubs sitting on top of each other is frequently a loft problem rather than a set problem. A long iron that produces nothing is frequently a launch problem that a lighter shaft or a different head profile fixes. A short iron that flies a club too far is usually doing so because the loft is stronger than the stamp claims.
The figures below come from a bag we measured in March, printed with the owner's permission and with the brand removed. Nothing here was caused by damage or abuse. The set was four seasons old and had been bent once by somebody competent.
| Club | Stamped loft | Measured loft | Carry median | Step from previous |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 iron | 24.0 deg | 24.5 deg | 176 yd | — |
| 6 iron | 27.0 deg | 28.5 deg | 163 yd | 13 yd |
| 7 iron | 30.5 deg | 30.0 deg | 158 yd | 5 yd |
| 8 iron | 34.5 deg | 36.0 deg | 141 yd | 17 yd |
| 9 iron | 39.0 deg | 39.5 deg | 130 yd | 11 yd |
| Pitching wedge | 43.5 deg | 44.0 deg | 119 yd | 11 yd |
Static lie is measured on a fixture with the club soled flat. Dynamic lie is the angle at which the sole actually meets the ground during your swing, and it is the only version that affects where the ball starts. The two can differ by several degrees, particularly for taller golfers and for anyone whose hands are noticeably low or high at impact.
We read it from a sole and face board: a strip of impact material on the sole, a marked board under the ball, and a look at where the mark sits after the strike. Toe-first contact means the lie is too flat for you and the face is pointing right at separation. Heel-first means the reverse. The correction is a bend, it takes minutes, and it is measured before and after with both figures on the ticket.
Length interacts with all of it. Lengthening a club flattens the effective lie and moves strike toward the heel; shortening does the opposite. So we settle length first, then read dynamic lie against the length we are going to build, rather than fitting lie to the club you walked in with and then changing the club.
The whole set gets checked, not just the seven iron. Lie requirements drift through a set because the clubs are different lengths and you stand at a different distance to each one, which is precisely why manufacturers build a progression in and precisely why that progression may not be yours.
What the head and shaft numbers mean →Included in the block at no extra cost, because a gap map that stops at the five iron has not finished the job.
If your five iron carries within eight yards of your six and lands at a shallow angle, it has stopped being a scoring club. We measure it rather than assume it, and the replacement conversation belongs in the hybrid block rather than here.
Different head styles through one set are entirely sensible and slightly more work to build, because the loft and length progression has to be re-derived across the join rather than inherited from either family.
Modern pitching wedge lofts have moved a long way. The gap between the set wedge and the next one down is now the widest hole in most bags, and it is a wedge block question, so we flag it and stop.
Especially those. A club that never comes out of the bag is data about the map, and it is frequently the club that explains why two others are fighting each other.