The pattern
My strikes kept landing toward the toe and high on the face. A common response is a lie-angle change, and I can bend my own irons, so I started bending them upright.
Four changes in one season
Lie angles for my Mizuno Pro 245 irons, in degrees, from the factory spec through four adjustments in 2024.
| Club | Stock | May 4 | Jul 8 | Sep 13 | Nov 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-iron | 60.5 | 61.25 | 61.5 | 62.0 | 61.75 |
| 6-iron | 61.0 | 61.75 | 62.0 | 62.5 | 62.25 |
| 7-iron | 61.5 | 62.25 | 62.5 | 62.75 | 62.25 |
| 8-iron | 62.0 | 62.75 | 63.0 | 62.75 | 62.75 |
| 9-iron | 62.5 | 63.25 | 64.0 | 62.75 | 62.75 |
| PW | 63.0 | 63.75 | 64.0 | 62.5 | 62.75 |
- By September the 5-iron through 7-iron were 1.25 to 1.5 degrees upright of stock.
- The 9-iron and wedge went up 1.0 to 1.5 degrees in July, then came back to about stock by September.
- The back-and-forth in the short irons is the giveaway. I was chasing a result, not following a measurement.
What changed it
The toe and high-face pattern stayed through every adjustment. What moved it was working on the swing. In a measured session in June 2026, my average strike was within 2 mm of the center of the face with both the 7-iron and the pitching wedge, on the same irons.
What I do now
- Measure strike location first, with face tape or spray, over enough shots to see a pattern.
- Check lie with the strike in mind. Where the ball meets the face changes how a lie board or sole mark reads.
- If the pattern looks swing-driven, deal with that before bending. A bend is easy to make and easy to over-make.
- Bend in small steps, re-measure, and write every change down.
Lie angle matters, and plenty of golfers need theirs adjusted. The point is to measure before you bend, so you know whether the lie or the swing is causing the pattern.
All numbers on this page come from my own clubs, measured and recorded in my own build workbooks. Nothing here is drawn from client fittings. This is one golfer’s record, not a controlled study.