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In this video, Joel Tadman tests out the Edel SMS iron, which is one of very few irons in existence that feature adjustable weights. Edel claims that positioning the weights in the correct position for your swing and strike, golfers should experience improved distance and accuracy but we wanted to put this theory to the test. So Joel takes the irons onto a par three at Burghley Park Golf Club with his Full Swing Kit launch monitor and moved the weights around to see what effect it really had.
Transcript
00:00now we're all familiar with adjustable drivers and how they can optimize your launch conditions
00:04for every swing but what about transferring that to other clubs in your bag so far we haven't
00:10really seen it a great deal pxg have dabbled a little bit with their precision weighting but
00:14there's a new kid on the block in the category of adjustable irons and it's from edel golf this is
00:19their new sms iron sms stands for swing match system we've seen it with their wedges and now
00:25they've transferred it into their irons and i'm really curious to see exactly what adjustable
00:29weighting in irons can do for my dispersion because i do struggle with my accuracy on my iron shots
00:34and edel say that this concept should enhance your club face control it should they say also give you
00:40a little bit more distance if you get the weight in the right place so i'm curious to find out
00:44exactly if that works or not we're at the beautiful ninth hole here at birdie park golf club i'm going
00:49to hit some shots on the launch monitor to give me some numbers and also obviously assess the ball
00:54flight that we get in those three positions so let's get onto the tee hit some shots and see how
00:58performs so before i hit some shots my first impressions with this edel sms iron although
01:04it's actually a really nice looking club it's a little bit bulky kind of front to back it's
01:07relatively thick obviously got to house those three different weights so that's understandable
01:11but this is a player's distance iron it's actually hollow in construction so it's filled with foam
01:15inside the head dampen the vibrations give you a softer feel but it's a forged head it looks really nice
01:21and it has a seven iron loft of 32 degrees so relatively traditional in that player's distance
01:26iron category i'm gonna hit some shots here got a flag 170 yards away into the wind so it's probably
01:33going to be a little bit too tough for us to get shots all the way back to the flag
01:36of a day like
01:37today but what we're really looking at is the distance we're getting on the full swing kit launch
01:41monitor which i've got set up down here and then also obviously observing the ball flight in those
01:46three different weight positions so i've got the weight in the middle first of all let's hit some shots
01:49got tight list prover on x golf balls hit three balls with each and we'll see how the performance
01:55compares in those three different weight positions
02:04it's not a bad one to start slight draw there in that with the weight in the middle
02:08first impressions down at address actually it's quite a nice looking club it's relatively compact
02:13but that kind of still manages to frame the ball really well there's a hint of offset there the
02:18line's quite thick compared to most players distance lines not everyone will like that but
02:22actually it kind of strikes a good balance of being quite inviting to hit without looking too chunky
02:28overall so i'd say looks wise it ticks the boxes from a field perspective that first shot doesn't feel
02:34as springy off the face as a lot of players distance irons actually felt quite hard and harsh so
02:39maybe from a field perspective the foam isn't quite doing the job it's supposed to be doing doesn't
02:44feel overly soft we're going to hit a few more balls i said three with each in those weight positions
02:49and then we'll compare the performance
03:10okay so i've finished my exhaustive testing of this edel sms iron and there's a few findings that
03:15i'd like to share with you in this verdict the first thing that actually as i went through the testing
03:19and
03:19started to hit more solid shots the feel of this club really improved so yes it does feel a little
03:24bit hard but actually it feels quite solid off the face and i actually really enjoyed the feel by the
03:29end of the testing session that said it didn't quite give me the ball speed or distance that i was
03:34maybe
03:34expecting from an iron of this size and of this loft so for comparison i did on another day test
03:39this
03:39iron up against the new mizuno pro 223 which has the same seven iron loft as this one at 32
03:45degrees and
03:46that club was going around about five yards longer on average and it is slightly smaller so um that
03:51comes just goes to show that maybe you are sacrificing a little bit of distance with this club
03:55designed with the adjustable weighting versus a more traditional club of the same loft but that said
04:01it was interesting to for me to see the different performance characteristics through the weight
04:05setting so the first observation would be that actually even though edel say you might get a bit
04:09more distance in your optimal setting for me looking at the full swing kit launch monitor numbers which i'll flash
04:14up on the screen now the
04:15distances in each of the settings were pretty much exactly the same i was bang on about 160 yards
04:21in all three settings so i didn't really see an adjustment in the distance there so one key
04:25takeaway would be that actually how much the spin changed in three of those different weight settings
04:29so starting with the heavier weight in the heel position the spin was quite high around six seven
04:34and then moving into the middle it came down to about six four i think and then it came down
04:39even
04:39further with the heavier weight in the toe and there's quite significant differences in spin there
04:43which i wasn't really expecting so that's something obviously to bear in mind if you're going through
04:47a fitting process the spin profile does change with those different weight settings
04:51and then the big difference i would say would be the ball fight that's kind of the one thing we're
04:54looking at or expecting with this change in the weight positions is it altering the ball flight and
04:59i would say absolutely yes it is i'm starting with the weight in the middle it was kind of pretty
05:03neutral for me a soft draw is what i normally expect to see with a with a seven iron and
05:08that's what i was
05:08getting with this club and then when i moved into the toe that definitely changed to a straight shot
05:13or a slight fade which is definitely something i want to see as a player that tends to miss left
05:18quite a lot if i can start the ball at the pin slightly left of the pin and know that
05:22it's going
05:23to bleed back that's an ideal ball flight for me so i was really impressed to see that in that
05:27edel
05:28seven iron we're not talking massive difference but it was probably a good two to three yards more to
05:32the right versus with the weight of the middle and then finally when i moved the weight into the heel
05:37what was interesting is that the dispersion was a lot wider so it didn't necessarily
05:42draw more than the other it probably did draw a little bit but actually i was missing more shots
05:47to the right more shots to the left dispersion was a lot more erratic and i think that just goes
05:52down
05:52to the fact that my general strike pattern with an iron is is centered it's slightly towards the toe
05:57so you've got more of a difference there between where the weight is and where the strike is and
06:01therefore the gear effect is going to be greater so i think that definitely contributed to a wider
06:05dispersion pattern with the weight in the heel so for me obviously the optimum setting would probably
06:09be in the toe was expecting to get a little bit more distance out of the toe out of the
06:14toe weight
06:14setting because it felt a bit more solid out of there but obviously the launch monitor suggested
06:18that it was pretty consistent across those three different settings and what i like about that toe
06:23weight setting is that you can still draw it if you want to it's not like you're only limited to
06:27playing a fade if you do move that heavier weight into the toe so you've got the ability to draw
06:31it if you
06:31need to you can get custom weights through a fitting with edel so you can have four or ten grams
06:36depending on what you want if you go through that process you can really dial it in but
06:39i've been very surprised by the impact of this adjustable weight technology within an iron i think
06:45it's definitely going to help people control the direction their golf shots a little bit more
06:48easily this iron comes in at 250 dollars a club so it's quite a premium product but you're not going
06:55to get many irons that offer this kind of precision adjustability with your dispersion pattern so it's
07:00definitely worth trying if you struggle with your accuracy on your iron shots if you want to hit more
07:04greens if iron play is your weakness something like this concept could definitely have a positive impact
07:10on your iron play so there's undoubtedly some merit in the concept of moving a weight around in the
07:15head and obviously if you go through an iron fitting process you are able to change the dispersion and
07:19the shot pattern by adjusting lie angle and the shaft profile of the iron but i think
07:23moving the weight around inside the head like we've seen with this edel smsi and has a bit more of
07:29an
07:29impact potentially on on the dispersion of your shots and kind of reducing or increasing the gear
07:34effect that you get on the strikes and depending on where you hit the face so a lot of merit
07:38to the
07:38concept and i've really enjoyed testing it out today so that concludes our look at the edel smsi and if
07:44you like the video make sure you click the like button do subscribe to the golf monthly youtube channel so
07:48you don't miss any of our equipment review videos but from me from burley park golf club it's goodbye
07:53and i'll see you next time
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