Why Dynamic Loft Still Matters
Last week, we looked at Dynamic Loft as the real loft that matters—the one delivered at impact, not the one stamped on the club. We talked about how it helps explain launch, spin, and trajectory better than any number on the head. Whether you’re fitting clubs or coaching swings, Dynamic Loft gives you a truth you can’t argue with: what the club actually did when it met the ball. Now let’s go deeper. Because Dynamic Loft doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it interacts with other data tiles, and the more you understand that relationship, the better you’ll be at reading ball flight and diagnosing delivery.

The Rise of the 9-Wood
One of the fastest-growing trends in the fitting world isn’t just players switching out long irons—it’s players skipping over hybrids and going straight to fairway woods. The 7-wood. The 9-wood. The 11-wood. They’re not just for high handicappers anymore. Even competitive players are bagging them. So why is this happening? Sure, forgiveness and turf interaction play a role. But the real secret? It might just be Dynamic Loft.

Because what those fairway woods are doing—especially in the hands of players with shallow angles or slower speeds—is delivering dynamic loft in a way that launches high, spins enough, and lands soft. All with a swing that doesn’t have to be retooled. Take a 5-iron, a 5-hybrid, and a 9-wood. All roughly 23–24° of static loft. But when you look at the dynamic loft delivered at impact? The story changes. The 5-iron typically launches lower, spins less, and rolls out more. It’s often delivered with shaft lean, reducing the effective loft and resulting in a flatter, less playable ball flight. The 5-hybrid tends to add a bit more launch and spin but still doesn’t generate enough peak height or descent angle for slower swing speed players to consistently hold greens. The 9-wood, on the other hand, naturally delivers more dynamic loft. It launches higher, spins more, climbs properly, and lands steep—producing the same carry as the other two, but with far less rollout.

Why Launch Isn’t Enough
And sure—maybe a player figures out how to hit that 5-iron higher. Maybe they flip their hands, hang back, or manipulate something in their swing to make it look OK in the air. But here’s the problem: any adjustment made to add height without increasing club head speed will reduce carry distance. Period. You can’t bend the physics. If you want it higher and to carry the same number, you need more speed—or you need a club that helps you deliver more dynamic loft without sacrificing energy transfer.

And that brings us to the killer spec: rollout. A 5-iron that carries 165 yards and rolls out 15 more? That’s 45 feet of rollout. Now ask yourself: how many greens do you play where there’s 45 feet between the front edge and the pin? That is not a playable option in anyone’s bag.

Utility Irons for the Win
Now flip the script. Let’s say you’ve got a player with speed. Their 7-iron is flying 175. Their 5-iron? Mid-190s. They’re compressing the ball, launching it high, and spin isn’t an issue. For them, a high-launching fairway wood or hybrid may just balloon—peak height too high, spin too soft, descent too vertical. This is where the utility iron becomes a weapon.

The utility iron gives them a club they can lean on—literally. It lets them maintain their forward shaft lean, keep dynamic loft down, and hit strong, penetrating shots that hold their line in the wind and chase just enough. And when we fit an 18° utility iron, we’re not just thinking of it as a 5-wood replacement. In the right hands—the right delivery—that club can behave more like a 3-wood. A fast player delivering that 18° UT with proper shaft lean might produce just 14°–15° of dynamic loft—which is right in line with what we’d expect from a strong 3-wood strike. You get launch, spin, and carry without the height or spin loss that can come from hitting a higher-lofted fairway wood too high on the face.

Ever wonder why Tour Players opt for driving irons instead of FW Woods off the tee? This is why. Dynamic Loft tells that story in a poetic fashion.

That’s the beauty of matching club design to delivery. It’s not about what’s printed on the head. It’s about what’s actually happening at impact.

What About the Driver?
Ever get that player who just can’t get the ball in the air with the driver? You keep adding loft—going from 9° to 10.5°, maybe even a 12° head—and yet it’s still coming out low. The launch doesn’t move much. The spin skyrockets. And now the ball floats, stalls, and falls out of the sky. Why is this happening? Does the answer lie in the dynamic loft? Absolutely.

Because adding loft to the clubhead doesn’t fix poor delivery. In fact, if a player is already delivering too little dynamic loft—say, with a steep attack angle or hands too far ahead—all you’re really doing by switching heads is increasing spin without changing launch. The launch monitor sees a face that’s still pointed low at impact. The player hasn’t changed the delivery, so the dynamic loft hasn’t really changed. That added static loft just gets converted into spin—and the launch angle doesn’t go anywhere. This is a classic example of understanding the difference between what the club is doing and what the swing is doing.

For reference, a player swinging the driver at 100 mph should typically produce a dynamic loft between 12–15°, which usually results in a launch angle between 10–14°—depending on attack angle and strike location. But what if you’re seeing a dynamic loft of just 9°? That’s a red flag. It likely means the player is de-lofting the club too much through impact—often through a steep attack angle or excessive forward shaft lean. It tells us the issue isn’t the loft on the club—it’s how it’s being delivered. Launch angle falls between dynamic loft and attack angle. So if you’re seeing a launch angle higher than your dynamic loft, you’re almost certainly working with a positive attack angle.

Next up: We’ll break down how to use that same Dynamic Loft number to hedge your way into the right clubs—even if you’ve never seen the player hit a shot. 

Happy Fitting!!!

Jim Yeager, PGA