200+ yards with a 7 iron?

[collapse]

ok so 200 yd 7i...how much carry would you say?

[Lihu]

I just got a PM from the OP, and it looks like he's hitting it out to 194 yards. Probably close to 180 carry? This is his google earth picture which I replicated and got about 194 yards.

[collapse]

yes I am trying to establish how much was carry(in the air) and how much was roll?

[Lihu]

He can't answer because he's limited to 5 posts for the first few days.

Personally, It's way more fun to just pull the carry number out of thin air. I'll guess 180.31453 yards. Speculation is way more fun than facts.

[9wood]

2 hours ago, SkeletorsUncle said:

Let me start off by saying that I am a high handicap golfer (I don't have an official handicap, but if I did, it would be high). I slice my drives. A lot. But I usually don't slice my iron shots. So I went to the range today to try out a few new things I had read, and shot only with my 7 iron (which is an old Ping eye 2 blue dot). After getting used to the new mechanics I noticed I was hitting pretty far, about as far as I can hit when i get a good drive. Which is around 200 yards. I double checked the distance with google maps, and I had probably 10-15 shots that went in the 190 to 220 range. How is that possible? From looking around online, that is just not a distance that can be achieved with a 7 iron. I'm so confused.

The charts say that distance is possible with a swing speed of between 125-130 mph

http://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CarryDistanceSwingSpeedChart.jpg

[Dave325]

I'm no expert on this subject, but let's say that he is having maybe too much lag at contact and the face is more closed at contact so the 7i is coming in as the loft of a 4i at impact. Could this easily create the extreme distance with this club? What is the trajectory? Maybe we should see a swing video posted (shrug)? Just thinking out loud.

[14ledo81]

Maybe he was hitting the 7 iron off of a tee?  Hitting up at it?

[Patch]

2 hours ago, collapse said:

yes I am trying to establish how much was carry(in the air) and how much was roll?

How would he know the carry with out a spotter? I know I can't figure my carry distance at a driving range. I get my carry distances hitting balls to a landing area that is silty, soft sand at a local dry lake bed. The balls land and stick in the sand. 

[collapse]

1 minute ago, Patch said:

How would he know the carry with out a spotter? I know I can't figure my carry distance at a driving range. I get my carry distances hitting balls to a landing area that is silty, soft sand at a local dry lake bed. The balls land and stick in the sand. 

It would be a rough  guess when standing on a range that is 200yd deep.You can see where the ball lands in relation to the 200 yd end.

[Lihu]

One other possibility as he's using an old club is that the grooves are so worn it puts very little spin on the ball. I could see a 7i going as far as a driver at those distances.

He's still got a heck of a swing speed and must be hitting the very toe or hosel of his driver with a steep negative AoA to get those terrible driver distances?

[bm85]

You definitely don't need to swing a driver 120mph (which is legendary, and rare) to hit a 7 iron 200. You just need to be able to swing a 7 pretty fast. The random nature of golf, and especially higher lofted clubs lets you get away with over swinging and steeper attack angles sometimes. I'd imagine this is what's going on rather than being Bubba-licious. 

Regardless of how fast you are swinging, to hit a 7 iron 180-220 yards with any crazy swing means you have enough under the hood to hit a good distance with the driver provided you get your swing lined out.  

Hitting a driver in play 240+ yards then being able to hit an easy iron into a green is a much cooler feeling than launching irons on the range all day, believe me. Good luck!

[Lihu]

12 minutes ago, bm85 said:

You definitely don't need to swing a driver 120mph (which is legendary, and rare) to hit a 7 iron 200. You just need to be able to swing a 7 pretty fast. The random nature of golf, and especially higher lofted clubs lets you get away with over swinging and steeper attack angles sometimes. I'd imagine this is what's going on rather than being Bubba-licious. 

Regardless of how fast you are swinging, to hit a 7 iron 180-220 yards with any crazy swing means you have enough under the hood to hit a good distance with the driver provided you get your swing lined out.  

Hitting a driver in play 240+ yards then being able to hit an easy iron into a green is a much cooler feeling than launching irons on the range all day, believe me. Good luck!

This is more or less my feeling. . .we'll see as he posts more stuff. . .

I pictured the "Bubba-licious" swing looking like Victor's swing at 2:15. He joked it was a PW.

 

[sirhacksalot]

At 194 yards unless i physically walked to the ball.  I could be 10+ yards short or long and still look like i was right on it down the range. 

Which honestly is one of the problems i have with range.  It makes me think that i can hit my 7 iron 150 and then when I am on course my carry is only like 135-40 or so on a dry day down hill at best 150.  But it looks like i am all over the 150 marker on the range for carry distance.

[Lihu]

6 minutes ago, sirhacksalot said:

At 194 yards unless i physically walked to the ball.  I could be 10+ yards short or long and still look like i was right on it down the range. 

Which honestly is one of the problems i have with range.  It makes me think that i can hit my 7 iron 150 and then when I am on course my carry is only like 135-40 or so on a dry day down hill at best 150.  But it looks like i am all over the 150 marker on the range for carry distance.

I was also thinking about this possibility as well, but the OP mentioned that he saw them land by the trees.

IDK, it's possibly by some people, but they usually hit driver 300 yards. That's the perplexing part.

[DrvFrShow]

On 12/16/2015 at 2:37 PM, Lihu said:

I'll take your word for it, but I was just going by the chart below (which could be outdated?)

At least in this chart, 7i carry of 200 corresponds to the 130mph SS column.

Something to remember.... lofts. See I ran into this as well when I said "I hit my 7 iron with 155 yd carry." Well, the loft of my 7 iron is 30.0 degrees whereas the loft used for the chart is 34.3 degrees. I was hitting a slightly stronger club than the 6 iron. And hitting my 5 iron with 175 carry? Well that club has 23 degree loft. not 27 degree loft. Now add in the +1 inch length for the club for me as well and I really am hitting a 6+ iron, and a 4+ iron, rather than 7 and 5 irons. 

I'd say the OP is hitting a 6 iron lofted 7 iron with the 120 mph SS column. If he's tall to begin with he's got longer arms and probably +1" shaft lengths on top of it. 

Rick Shiels can hit one of the new TaylorMade 7 irons around 200 yds. in a sterile environment.

[SkeletorsUncle]

Thanks to everyone for being patient with me while I waited for my 5 post limit to wear off. I assure you I'm not trolling you, I'm just trying to figure out what's wrong with my shot. I saw a couple of balls land just under the trees, bounce off the root system underneath. The rest I just estimated where they landed in the field shy of the trees. I know it wouldn't be exact, but it's as accurate as I'm going to be able to get for now.

So when I said earlier up to 220 yards, that was with roll. The carry would have been 200? 190? Somewhere near the tree line.

Someone mentioned that maybe I am hitting the ball at the wrong angle to be launching it that far. Maybe I have the ball too far back in my stance at address.

I was/am using a set of Ping Eye 2 blue dots, which according to Ping has a 7 iron with a loft of 36 degrees. I don't know who Bubba is, but I would imagine from the way everyone refers to him, I am not Bubba-esque. I've never really hit a full strength drive that stayed in bounds, or landed anywhere I could see. So I really can't tell you how far my drive would go, if I could hit it straight.

That's ultimately why I posted this question. Sometimes if I hit the ball wrong with my pitching wedge, I accidentally get some major distance out of it, way over shooting. I feel like I'm doing the same thing with my 7 iron. But I don't know what I'm doing wrong when that happens.

Edited December 18, 2015 by SkeletorsUncle

[SavvySwede]

5 minutes ago, SkeletorsUncle said:

I'm just trying to figure out what's wrong with my shot. 

Take a video of your swing and post a video. It's the only real way for us to get a n idea what is going on. The video camera on your phone is probably good enough.

[rkim291968]

What is your ball trajectory like for 7i if that question was not asked before?    7i trajectory should be relatively high, and ball should not roll much.   If you are getting 20 - 30 yard roll, that is a 3i roll, meaning you are hitting the 7i at 3i launch angle.   I hit my 7i about 135 carry.   But if I hit it wrong, it can roll its way to 170.