Golf: Club that irons out flaws

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Anyone with a golf handicap in the double digits knows how difficult it can be getting from tee to green.

Driving is a big factor in the journey, but iron play up the fairway can prove equally difficult. A solid drive counts for nothing if you slice your second shot into the trees, or knife your chip across the green and into the back bunker.

We've all been there, but help is at hand in the form of game-improvement irons which help the weekend hacker more easily overcome faults in their game and hit the ball straighter and longer. It might feel to some like cheating but it also translates to a more enjoyable and satisfying experience for the flawed golfer.

The physics involved in the clubs' design is complicated, but two essentials are straightforward. Firstly, the irons are perimeter weighted, meaning the weight is disbursed around the edge of the club by having a cavity at the back. This increases the size of the sweet spot, making the club more forgiving.

Secondly, the sole of the club is broad, giving it a low centre of gravity. This helps with hitting the ball higher and longer.

Karsten Solheim, the savant behind the Ping brand, is credited with developing the idea of peri-meter weighting in the 1960s.

According to Frank Thomas, an American golf-technology guru, the disbursed weighting increases the "moment of inertia" (MOI) when the clubface connects with the ball.

The MOI is the "measure of a body's resistance to angular acceleration". In golf terms, this means the amount of rotation that occurs when the clubface strikes the ball off-centre. By moving the weight from the centre of the club to the outer edge, the MOI is increased so less twisting occurs at impact.

Kiwi professional Marcus Wheelhouse regularly sees the effects of game-improvement irons in his role as a coach.

"Basically, the bad shot gets better," he says.

Wheelhouse says that game-improvement irons can have a marked impact on hitting distance.

"A guy who turns up with a set his dad gave him - when you fit him out with new clubs, you get a difference [in length]. That's a regular occurrence."

Wheelhouse says there's a basic distinction to be drawn between game-improvement irons, which are made from cast iron, and traditional blade irons, which are forged from one piece of metal. Blades generally suit more skilled golfers.

"A better player can hit the ball pretty precisely, so the off-centre hit isn't going to be as big a factor. With game-improvement clubs, it doesn't matter where you hit it on the face - everything is geared to hitting it straight. If you've got a blade, you can really play with the angles off the clubface and get different trajectories or flights."

So anyone with ambitions of bending the ball like Seve Ballesteros or Bubba Watson will require a blade.

Wheelhouse acknowledges that game-improvement irons can help take a "weekend warrior" to the next level but says they are only part of the equation.

"Getting down the fairway has become easier," he says. "But whether they get it in the hole for any less remains to be seen."