A golf club being adjusted in a lie and loft machine.
Ryan Barath/GOLF
Making sure your irons and wedges are properly built to the right specs helps eliminate variables in distance control, accuracy and dispersion, but one of the last and most important steps during the assembly process is bending them to the proper lie and loft.
Having the right lie and loft on your irons and wedges helps to remove unwanted tendencies from your ball flight and also can be used in some ways to help correct an unwanted ball flight or common misses.
The great thing about lie and loft adjustments is that they can be done at any time throughout the life of a set of irons or wedges, and most golf stores and custom shops have the tools to quickly assess what is best for you — and can make those adjustments while you wait. The only drawback that golfers might notice about this process is the tendency for clubs to get small indentation marks on the sole and hosel. But what they might not know is that those marks largely can be prevented or at least minimized during the bending process.
Below is a video demonstrating how a sturdy plastic bag can help to prevent those marks, at the very least, reduce them during the bending process.
Ryan Barath is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s senior editor for equipment. He has an extensive club-fitting and -building background with more than 20 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. Before joining the staff, he was the lead content strategist for Tour Experience Golf, in Toronto, Canada.