Are custom built irons worth the upcharge?

[saevel25]

Yup.  For me too ... a peace of mind thing.  One could argue that you don't even need fitted clubs at all if you're even remotely "normal" sized.  My old off-the-rack irons have been used only a couple of times since I got my new, fully fitted ones, and I saw very little difference in score.  (One of the times was one of my best scores ever)

But since I knew I was buying clubs for the first time in 15 years, and probably won't be buying irons for another 10 or more, I figured why not upgrade to the fancy shafts, and the silly "puring."

Like you, I now know that any issues are not from the clubs, but only my swing.

That is true, but I do see a dispersion difference between iron. In my fitting, when I went to a less stiff flex, I would start missing them right and left. With a stiffer flex I was hitting the ball in a much tighter area. Basically I wasn't trying to adjust on each swing on how the club loaded. It wasn't that bad, if you imagine a center line down the fairway, I went from missing 5 yards left and right, to must missing on the left side. In the end it is a comfort knowing I don't have to worry about the club shafts.

This happened with my Ping i25 versus SLDR driver as well. The Ping golf shaft was way too flexible for me. I would be missing it both left and right. The SLDR was only missing left, and it was a consistent ball flight.

Lucky for me, all these shafts were basically just free custom changes. That is one criteria I try to go with. I can play any iron if it looks good, so I have a look criteria (I know, it makes me a shallow person :p), but I also look at what options I have for standard shafts. Why I tend to go with Mizuno and Titleist over Callaway because they offer more options in better shafts.

[acerimusdux]

I find it interesting that we are expected to be able to naturally adjust to a difference of a full half inch in length between each iron, and yet people pay lots of extra money for shafts with weight tolerances of a fraction of a gram, and for tolerances in vibration rates that most people probably can't feel. Adjusting to those differences is likely far less difficult.

I do think fitting is very important, but I think the most important factors there are:

1. Get the right lenght and lie for your swing, for each club.

2. Get the right shaft flex and weight for your swing speed and tempo.

3. Get the right tip stiffness for your release.

For the most part, I think most golfers will be able to do a reasonable enough job of this by choosing between off the shelf shafts, once they know what they require.

[saevel25]

I do think fitting is very important, but I think the most important factors there are:

1. Get the right lenght and lie for your swing, for each club.

2. Get the right shaft flex and weight for your swing speed and tempo.

3. Get the right tip stiffness for your release.

For the most part, I think most golfers will be able to do a reasonable enough job of this by choosing between off the shelf shafts, once they know what they require.

Here's the thing. You can take two flexes from two different shafts and they react totally different. I tried Dynamic Gold X100's and KBS Tour x-staffs and they produced two different ball flights and feels for me. The Dynamic Gold came off lower and then rose up with a ballooning shot shape due to the backspin. KBS produces a slightly higher initial launch, but with a more boring trajectory because it produced less spin.

So, I would say the bend profile and how it loads i much more important. Heck some companies change how the shaft bends depending on flex. It can totally screw with fitting a club because you just can't assume going down in flex will change the numbers in the way you want. Some companies like KBS will just make less stiff clubs lighter, so less material equals less stiff club. This allows them to maintain the same bend profile and a much more consistent expectation through out their models.

Its not as easy as say, "Oh Stiff feels this way, I think I'll go regular".