The term “offset” means the hosel is bent to set the club face behind the shaft. The main purpose of an offset club head is to help players that suffer from a weak fade or the dreaded slice. It does so by naturally putting hands in front of the clubhead, which angles the clubhead back.

With a traditional swing with an iron, the hands lead the clubhead through the ball and impact. The offset irons provide a significantly better angle approaching the ball, promoting an impact with the hands properly ahead of the club head.

The offset is effective against the slice by moving the center of gravity of the head away from the shaft, which increases the likelihood of squaring the club face through impact. With the club face offset, the impact is a fraction of a second later, which can help square the face and decrease the likelihood of a slice.

There are critics of the offset club, noting that a player won’t be forced to work on his swing to learn to properly square the face at impact. The other potential problem is that the swing flaw causing the slice could be corrected, which would produce a severe hook.

That doesn’t mean that offset clubs are inherently bad. In fact, they definitely serve a purpose for assisting golfers have don’t have the time or skillset to hit the ball squarely consistently. At some point it may be advantageous to play without offset clubs, but until proper technique is learned to square the face consistently, offset irons are a great choice.

The question of whether or not you should go with offset irons if fairly clear cut. Ideally, you would like to fix your mechanics to square the face. However, If you have a major problem with squaring up the face, resulting in bad slices or weak fades, then offset irons will help your game.