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I don’t think I had never hit a 5-iron 188 yards in my life. I’ve always been a shortish hitter and any course that stretches past about 6,400 yards has challenged my game.

Notice, I wrote ‘had’. I’m now hitting it 211, 206, 207 and 196. I’m averaging 188 with this club and I’m seeing big distance gains right down through my irons.

I’m starting to think about the game differently. Having finally joined the ranks of the ‘normal’ hitter, I’m enjoying it more too.

Such has been the impact of being fitted into Cobra’s Radspeed range throughout the bag. For those new to this blog, my game was revitalised last season by the company’s Speedzone driver.

After two years of struggling off the tee, and seeing those disasters replicated in my scores, I suddenly found fairways again, got more distance, and won a board competition after 15 years of trying.

So I’ve embarked on a season-long experiment with Cobra. If that could be the impact of one club, what would happen if I played everything with that distinctive logo emblazoned across it?

I’m 15 rounds in to collecting statistics and, in my next piece, I’ll give you a full run down of what’s happening with all 14 clubs.

But I wanted to address one issue that came up as soon as I’d reported the results of my fitting, where I first started to see I might hit these clubs further than any I’ve ever had before.

Some of you pointed out I would inevitably see gains because the lofts in the Radspeed irons are stronger than those I’ve been playing previously.

This is, of course, correct. The loft in the 7-iron is 27.5 degrees, more akin to a 6 in my predecessors. But while I’ve gained distance, I’ve not seen the changes you might expect with height and launch.

Part of the problem I’ve previously had with longer irons is, frankly, the straighter the loft, the flatter the height and the harder it’s been to get them to stop.

I’m going to try and secure some launch monitor data to prove this but, anecdotally at least, I still seem to be getting plenty of air into my shots. So how does it all work, and could playing stronger lofted clubs be an option for you?