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I know a lot of 10 handis who play blades. They would hit a lot more greens with any number of more forgiving irons, and thus, "get better". ...
Do you have any empirical evidence that demonstrates this conclusion?
No.
Do you really think that I need any?
-Ted
Golf Digest did an article on this a few years back I saw a link to (I don't get the magazine) They found that for off center but not way off center hits, the blades got slightly BETTER results than cavity back game improvement clubs. They said the players they tested with all said the impact on misses felt much worse with the blades and their expectation was that the misses would be much worse, but it didn't turn out that way. It was just one study, and it was with real golfers and not a machine so maybe it was done wrong or an abberation, and I remember being kind of skeptical when I read it. But I think maybe we shouldn't just assume that small misses of say less than 1/2" will be helped more by cavity backs than blades without some evidence.
Now once you miss the sweet spot by an inch a blade is twisting in your hands pretty good so I'm sure there's a limit to this. But swinging blades is probably going to teach you to not to do that very often. I borrow a set of all-the-way cavity backs like Pings and I can't even tell where the hell I hit the ball on the clubface, I have to look at the clubface for a clue! That doesn't seem like a good route to improvement if you aren't getting any proper feedback to know when you are missing it on the heel or toe or hitting it pure.