Bending Golf Clubs: Should I Do it and How?

The angle and loft of your golf clubs are extremely important. After all, golf clubs are designed in such a way to ensure that you can pick the precise club out of your bag to hit the ball the required distance.

One way to make the necessary adjustments to your golf clubs is to bend them. But is bending your golf clubs really a good idea? And how do you go about it?

Below, we explain everything you need to know about bending golf clubs and suggest when it’s a good idea. We also conclusively say whether or not you should bend your clubs yourself or take them to a custom club fitter to take care of the process for you.

What Does it Mean to Bend a Golf Club?

Bending a golf club allows you to change the angle of your club, which is an effective way of changing your ball flight. To bend a club effectively, you need to use a club bending machine or take your clubs to a professional to do it on your behalf.

If you wanted to know more about how the process works of bending the loft and lie angle of clubs, watch the video below from Mitchell Golf:

Although golfers often buy new golf clubs instead of modifying their current irons, bending clubs is a great way to make changes to the loft of your clubs to help you improve your accuracy and consistency.

Bending golf clubs also make your irons either slightly shorter or longer. This can significantly alter the way that you strike the ball and can save you a fortune as far as upgrading, or changing clubs is concerned.

To help you decide whether or not to bend your golf clubs, we take a deep dive into the practice in the following sections and explain what to expect in detail.

When Should I Bend My Golf Clubs?

Deciding whether or not to bend your clubs is down to personal preference. If you’re struggling with the current loft degrees of the irons in your bag, then changing the angle of your clubs by bending them could help you improve your ball striking.

Another thing to note is that a manufacturer’s new set of clubs doesn’t mean their lofts are completely accurate. In other words, they might not be progressively consistent from one club to another, which means your distances might be out.

This is often the case with cheaper branded golf clubs that are mass-produced, as less attention to detail is paid by the manufacturers. However, correcting the loft and angle by bending the clubs is a super quick way of fixing this issue.

You can take your clubs to a fitter, and they will be able to check the angles and lofts of each of your irons and make any necessary adjustments based on what they find.

How Much Does it Cost to Have Your Golf Clubs Bent?

If you take your clubs to a fitter or professional, you can expect to pay somewhere between $5-$20 per club, but a lot will depend on the price of amendments in your local area.

Bending golf clubs is a relatively inexpensive procedure that you can pay someone else to do on your behalf.

When you consider the fact that bending your golf clubs can make them easier to hit, you can see that it’s a great value for money option to consider, particularly when compared to investing in a new set of game improvement golf clubs.

However, before opting to have your golf clubs bent, we’d recommend speaking to a custom club fitter. You need to make sure that bending your clubs is right for your game, as you don’t want to jeopardize what you already have.

So, if you want to bend your golf clubs this season, you can expect to pay somewhere around the $100 mark for your entire set of irons, but you might be able to negotiate a discount.

How Do You Bend Golf Clubs at Home?

You should only really bend your golf clubs yourself if you have the right equipment at home to do the job. In most instances, this means investing in high-tech golf bending machine that allows you to adjust your clubs by about two degrees.

There are different golf club bending machines out there at different price points, so you have lots of options to choose from if you want to bend your clubs yourself.

However, given the fact that you can bend your golf clubs for as little as $5 by taking them to a professional club fitter, it’s probably best not to attempt it yourself if you don’t have the right equipment.

After all, you don’t want to ruin the make-up of your clubs by getting your angles wrong or by using a homemade contraption. Taking your irons to a pro and letting them get to work on your behalf is undoubtedly your best option.

Should You Bend Your Irons?

Yes, when we talk of bending golf clubs, the iron family are the best candidates. While you can theoretically bend fairway woods and hybrids, the design and loft of irons mean that you can bend them to ensure that they’re consistent from one club to the next.

As for whether or not you should bend your irons, it’s really up to you. Some people do it to improve their ball flight, while others do it because they think that their golf clubs have been poorly manufactured.

As mentioned, if you’re thinking about bending your golf clubs, we’d recommend consulting a professional club fitter first and getting a second opinion.

Then, if you decide to carry out the work, it’s best to take the clubs to a fitter to do it on your behalf.

Given that bending your golf clubs is all about fine margins, it’s far too easy to get it wrong when you do it yourself, so it’s much better to entrust the process with a fitter who has the experience and the right equipment!

Can You Bend High-Quality Cast Clubs?

The good news is that the vast majority of irons can be bent, even those that are high-quality cast. Golf clubs that are 17-4 stainless steel cast irons will be more difficult to bend, as they are made of much harder metal than the likes of carbon steel and graphite.

After being bent, high-quality cast clubs don’t go back to their original position either, ensuring you achieve the desired results after bending your clubs.

So, no matter the type of golf irons that you have, you can bend them to adjust their degrees of loft. Just be mindful that high-quality cast irons will be a little more difficult to bend and require a specialist bending machine.

Therefore, if you’re planning to bend your high-quality cast clubs, our advice remains the same – check in with a local club fitter in your area and ask them to complete the work on your behalf.

Club bending can go wrong pretty easily, and it’s a mistake that you don’t want to make with your irons!

Can You Buy a Golf Bending Machine?

You absolutely can buy a golf bending machine to use at home, but you will find that they’re super expensive, typically costing several hundred if not thousands of dollars. The most popular brand is Golfsmith which manufactures high-quality loft/lie bending machines.

While some golfers can afford such a price tag to improve their clubs, others will balk at it!

So, unless you plan on bending a significant number of golf clubs (and you plan on doing it more than once), it makes much more sense to pay a club-fitter to bend your golf clubs on your behalf.

This also means you’re much less likely to screw the process up, and your clubs will be bent to perfection! After all, manufacturing golf clubs and ensuring the loft and angle on each club is no easy feat, so it’s not something that you should experiment with.

Conclusion

Bending golf clubs is a viable option if you’re looking to adjust the lie angle and loft of your golf clubs. This is helpful if you want to adjust instead of replacing your irons, particularly if their loft angles aren’t as they should be.

And while you can bend your golf clubs at home, it’s best to send them to a custom club fitter unless you have invested in a golf club bending machine.

Although the process is relatively straightforward, it’s all about fine margins, and you can get it wrong if you don’t know what you’re doing. So, for the sake of your irons, take your clubs to a custom fitter if you plan on bending them.