9-iron — 2026-05-25

Your 9-iron averaged 129 yards of carry and 131 total with 99 mph ball speed and 25 degree launch. The session's standout number is consistency: every shot landed between 124 and 136 yards of carry -- a 12-yard window across seven swings. The 48 degree landing angle means the ball is dropping nearly straight down with almost no rollout (2 yards from carry to total). This is what a 9-iron is supposed to do.

Shot 1 was your slowest at 92 mph (125 carry, 31 degree launch -- a high-loft warmup ball). From shot 4 onward, ball speed locked in at 100-104 mph and stayed there for four shots. Shots 4, 5, 6, and 7 produced 128, 129, 136, and 131 carry with 100+ mph speed each time. Once you found the strike, you held it -- a clean ascending pattern.

Shot 6 produced your longest 9-iron carry of the day on a quiet face -- only 1 yard of curve and 104 mph of ball speed. The L12 offline is the only thing keeping it from being a green-in-regulation strike. With a 5-8 mph right-to-left wind, an L12 finish on a near-straight ball is consistent with the wind pushing a square shot left by about that much. The strike itself is clean.

The offline distribution clustered on the left side: L10, R1, L2, L5, L6, L12, L5. Only one shot finished right of center (R1, shot 2). With the wind blowing right-to-left at 5-8 mph, this is exactly what you'd expect from solid contact aimed at the target. The curve numbers were small (R1 to R12), so you weren't hooking these -- the wind was carrying square strikes a few yards left.

You mentioned playing the ball back a touch. Despite that, launch angles ranged from 21 to 31 degrees with a 25 degree average -- still very high for a 9-iron. The 48 degree landing angle confirms the high apex. If the goal of moving the ball back was to take spin off and lower the flight, the data doesn't show much effect yet. The intent is good for distance control into the wind, but you may need to combine ball position with a slightly forward shaft lean to see the trajectory change.

1. Distance control is excellent -- 12-yard spread is a green-light club for tight pin distances around 130. 2. The ball-back experiment didn't lower launch yet. Try pairing ball-back with slightly forward shaft lean on a few shots to test the effect. 3. The left-finish pattern is wind-driven, not swing-driven. In calm conditions expect these to finish closer to center. 4. Shot 1 (31 degree launch, 92 mph) is the typical warmup ball -- don't read anything into it. By shot 4 the engine is running.