I offer my 20 years of tinkering in the work shop to chew on.

(Before blowing tinkering off remember Gene Sarazen began to win tournaments in 1935 with a new club he had invented for sand play. He was hailed as the inventor of the sand wedge. A modification he made was to add extra lead to the front edge of the club face, allowing it to cut through the sand more smoothly. After he won the 1932 British and U.S. Opens with the help of his new club, its popularity quickly grew.)


I am 6'4" tall I have been golfing 20 plus years. I am a do it yourselfer for anything due to tool talent and not the slightest bit of fear for doing just about anything. The following has been my experience.

I made up a clone of the pro club bending machines sold in club making catalogs for hundreds of dollars. RESULTS= Learned that yes SS is brittle and I broke many and rewelded. Forged steel are sweet to bend. After 3-4 degrees it gets risky to break them also.

I made and played the lightest "total weight" club construction possible (huge butts lightest grip etc) The theory being heavier "swing weight". RESULTS = terrible, it is like swinging a fly swatter. Never again.

I have glued on about 5 ounces of lead to the iron heads. RESULTS= great promise but 5 oz too heavy.

I started with minus 1" women's clubs moving on to using trigonometry that determine my shaft length to be plus 8". (based on lie angle and my hand height at address) I extended them to plus 8 and played them. RESULTS= Promising but too long for confidence, comfort, too flat of swing angle (need to bend lie angle well over breaking point of metal).

I have settled in on the following combination for me. 2 ounces of lead poured into the pouch of my Hogan Apex edge Irons produces the right heft for feel during the swing. Plus 3” for not too steep or flat of swing arc (swing plane) also comfortable at that arc. The length requires that I bend the irons to be 2 ½ -3 degrees flat for a good witness mark on the lie angle swing test board. No matter the witness mark I like the look at address of 3-6 degrees. Right now I have 6 degrees flat and a stress mark on the iron hosel indicating that it can't bend any more with out cracking and breaking.

Length is a critical factor first before bending lie angle. Length produces the proper angle swing arc thus bending lie angle to accommodate the wrong (too steep) swing arch is a waste and pointless endeavor. weight may be required to "feel" the best swing arc.

The problem or hindrance is that trying to swing and play with a stock lie angle produces a bad too steep swing arch for tall golfers. It is near impossible to repeat a good in to out swing arc (swing plane) for me with clubs that are too short. There is no working room against the body. Adding weight or bending the lie angle is unproductive because it is still be too steep and jambing. There is only one body size that is ideal for a stock golf club. Short people must choke up and may be too flat of swing due to stature (unlikely but possible for some). And tall must get steep to use a stock lie angle.
People do not wear the same size foot wear or clothes. That should be enough said.
The best lie angle is determined by the length that produces the proper swing arc. Granted people do (and I have aplenty) get contorted to produce a swing that accommodates the stock lie angle. But such a contorted swing is unnatural, forced and counterproductive. Again there is only one body type whose dimensions produce an acceptably good swing using the stock club.

Club manufacturers make clubs for their convenience not to fit every golfer. I don't buy that every person in the world can be properly fit with plus or minus 1 inch. (hence my settling on plus 3" for me) Heck more goes into fitting a bowling ball or baseball bat than a golf club. At least a bowling ball is fitted for proper weight.

In summary if you want to improve you game via club fit then explore these issues in this order
1) length for proper swing arc path (not too steep) / 1A) weight for adequate heft/feel
2) lie angle adjustment THIS WILL DRIVE A PERSON CRAZY. Although the proper length/arc or swing plane has been found (just past the point of not too steep), the stock lie angle will be pointing toe up so visually "wrong" that the person will mentally reject the proper length as obviously all wrong. Whereas if that same length was accompanied by the correct flat lie angle everything would seem to be like summer time in paradise.

And don't be limited to someone else's notion of what is an acceptable adjustment. Like a 4 gram weight shaft plug. That is only .141095 ounce. A pregnant fly landing on your club might weigh more.
My weights are off the traditional scales. So I use a 2 ounce counter weight for woods and 3 1/2 ounce counterweight for irons in addition to the "Ping balance scale" affixed counter weight. My sets swing weights are then matched plus or minus 1 or 2 swing weights.