Hosel Offset.  A help or a hindrance?

Can an offset hosel help your game?  And if so, what does it help?  Hosel offset is the distance of the leading edge of the face to the front of the hosel.  Early clubs had no offset, but back in the late 1800’s some club builders began experimenting with it.  It became widely used in the 1970’s when all of Ping’s models had offset hosels.   We see it in most irons today.  A dramatic example of extreme offset was the Cleveland irons of the early 90’s.  Many of the Cobra woods are offset.   The idea is by setting the leading edge behind the hosel it encourages the golfer to lead the hands through impact, thus helping the clubhead to hit down on the ball and get the ball effectively into the air.  It is also felt that hosel offset will close the face slightly creating pull which will give a player who slices a straighter shot. 

The truth is the difference in leading edge to hosel placement between an offset hosel and a non-offset hosel is about ¼”.  It is real doubtful that this ¼” difference will have any effect on an individual’s shot.  However, the visual effect of ¼” of hosel offset can be very effective for the golfer who needs a teaching aid to remind him to set the hands in front of the ball and keep them there throughout the swing.  Therefore, offset hosel irons help more in the address position than in the impact zone, as long as the golfer remembers to push the hands forward.

More hosel offset could cause a player to pull the ball (because the offset has caused the shoulders to turn in the address position and aim to the pull side of the target).  The usual effect of more offset is to cause a player to hit a ball fat (hit behind the ball).  It could also cause the player to hit the ball slightly higher, and because of the slightly higher shot, the shot will be slightly shorter.

Frankly, iron or wood hosel offset is more of an appearance factor as opposed to a performance factor.   A golfer should pick a club with offset because of the looks of the head not because of perceived performance benefits.