Old irons vs. New Irons

[9wood]

I have been thinking about buying a new set of irons but would first like to hear from other golfers that have already made the switch. For those of you who have made the switch, how much improvement in your game have you noticed since you made the switch and what do you enjoy about your new set that you couldn't get out of your old set?

[saevel25]

16 minutes ago, 9wood said:

I have been thinking about buying a new set of irons but would first like to hear from other golfers that have already made the switch. For those of you who have made the switch, how much improvement in your game have you noticed since you made the switch and what do you enjoy about your new set that you couldn't get out of your old set?

It depends on your game really. If you are someone who would benefit from having GI tech in a club then it could save you some strokes over a few rounds because you might carry that bunker or hazard. There is no right or wrong answer. It's all up to player preference and getting fitted for the irons. 

[Rip62]

You should demo new sets and compare the results you get compared to your older set. That should help you decide how much you would benefit from newer irons.

[9wood]

20 minutes ago, Rip62 said:

You should demo new sets and compare the results you get compared to your older set. That should help you decide how much you would benefit from newer irons.

OK, but I'm not hearing how making the switch has benefited other golfers as yet.

[newtogolf]

10 minutes ago, 9wood said:

OK, but I'm not hearing how making the switch has benefited other golfers as yet.

I'm not sure there are a lot of people that can actually attribute lower scores solely to newer clubs.  I'm guessing if someone was using 20 year old irons that were not fit properly for them and then switched they likely saw an improvement but most of us aren't playing 20 year old clubs.

In most cases it's the Indian not the arrows, but getting new clubs is fun and even if there's only a slight improvement we'll find a way to justify new clubs.

[vangator]

I've written here several times I switched from conventional irons to Single Length irons.  After I switched I stopped hitting my irons like sh!t.  Seriously, I significantly increased my GIR.  Ball striking is much improved.  Scores lowered by several strokes.  I'm a convert.

[9wood]

24 minutes ago, vangator said:

I've written here several times I switched from conventional irons to Single Length irons.  After I switched I stopped hitting my irons like sh!t.  Seriously, I significantly increased my GIR.  Ball striking is much improved.  Scores lowered by several strokes.  I'm a convert.

What irons make up your single length set?

Secondly what is the length of them?

I can't imagine a PW having the same length as a 3 iron

[vangator]

2 hours ago, 9wood said:

What irons make up your single length set?

Secondly what is the length of them?

I can't imagine a PW having the same length as a 3 iron

I play Pinhawks from ValueGolf.  Great set.  I built them from components.  I have 4 - LW.  All are 7 iron length (37").

The PW and 4 iron are the same length.  I like the idea of the irons being the same length.  Same swing just produces different length shots.  You can really groove your swing.  A longer PW has the advantage of a longer, higher shot allowing me to carry trees and bunkers better.  If I want a shorter shot, I just dial back on the swing.

A shorter 4 iron is just easier to make consistent, solid contact.  Great for long par 3's and tight par fours.  Great for long layups where a FW or hybrid may be a little too risky.

[MacDutch]

I changed to Mizuno mp4's and steelfiber shafts. Took the lightest shafts. Gained 10 yards on every club and you really feel the difference good/bad contact. Hcp went down from 9.7 to 8.5, mostly because of better iron shots.

[9wood]

8 hours ago, vangator said:

I play Pinhawks from ValueGolf.  Great set.  I built them from components.  I have 4 - LW.  All are 7 iron length (37").

The PW and 4 iron are the same length.  I like the idea of the irons being the same length.  Same swing just produces different length shots.  You can really groove your swing.  A longer PW has the advantage of a longer, higher shot allowing me to carry trees and bunkers better.  If I want a shorter shot, I just dial back on the swing.

A shorter 4 iron is just easier to make consistent, solid contact.  Great for long par 3's and tight par fours.  Great for long layups where a FW or hybrid may be a little too risky.

If your 4 iron is the length of a 7 iron don't you lose distance? I would think that a regular length 4 iron would give you more distance than a 4 iron reduced to the length of a 7 iron.

[vangator]

3 hours ago, 9wood said:

If your 4 iron is the length of a 7 iron don't you lose distance? I would think that a regular length 4 iron would give you more distance than a 4 iron reduced to the length of a 7 iron.

I lose a little difference but not much.  Maybe 5 yards?  With a conventional 4 iron, I felt in order to make good contact, I had to take just a little off.  Full swing like a shorter iron would be too erratic.  However, since I've been playing them for so long, I may actually have increased my yardage due to better ball striking, so it may be a wash.  There is a 200 yard par 3 I used to play with my 4 iron and would hit just on the front and let it roll to the pin.  I do the same with my SL irons, but I'm much more consistent in GIR than before.

My normal shape is a draw.  I would draw my conventional 7 iron.  But, with the conventional longer irons, I would sometimes hit a draw, sometimes straight, sometimes a fade.  Not with the SL irons.  I play a draw just like my 7 iron because the swing plane is always the same.  With conventional irons, every swing plane is a little different (each is 1/2 " longer).

Also, conventional irons add the 1/2 " in length to the tip.  Nominally, every 2 inches of additional shaft tip reduces the shaft by one flex.  If the shaft is normally a stiff, adding 2 inches to the tip makes it a regular.  With conventional irons, only the 7 iron is really fitted properly for the golfer (done by WTF measurement).  SO, if your set has stiff shafts, the 7 iron is stiff, the 8 iron is 1/2 inch shorter, so it is slightly more stiff.  If you reduce each shaft by 1/2 ", your gap wedge is really an extra stiff.  On the other end, since a 3 iron is 2 inches longer than the 7 iron, the shaft flex is really a regular.  So the set you thought was stiff really has every shaft a different flex.  I think that is one reason I used to predominately draw my wedges, hit my mid irons straight and hit my long irons with a fade.  It was frustrating.  However, SL irons have the same flex throughout.

Also, by adding 1/2 to the tip, you lower the flex point in the shaft by 1/2 inch.  More variation.  SL irons have the same flex point.

Conventional irons try to compensate for all this by gradually increasing the lie angle of the club. increasing the offset of each club and reducing the weight of the head by 7 grams each.  Therefore, each conventional iron has a different length, lie angle, offset, stiffness, flex point, head weight, swing plane and potential shot shape.  SL irons are the same, same, same, same, same, same, same and same.  I do hit my wedges a little higher (I like that) and my "long" irons a little lower.  For the "long" SL irons, some of the lower trajectory may be simply due to lower lofts, but some is due to having the ball back in my stance more.  The long irons are easier to hit.  I can play the ball slightly more forward to get a higher trajectory but still basically keep the same swing plane.

 Is it any wonder most golfers are ditching their long irons in favor of easy hitting hybrids?  For me, a long iron is simply more accurate that a hybrid.  On a long par 3, with a hybrid I's accept being on the green.  With an iron, I would like to be able to target a particular part of the green.  I'm just not as accurate with a hybrid.  It has a roll face for a reason.  Because it is really a type of fairway wood.  Irons have straight faces for more accuracy.

Hope this wasn't too long and tedious, but now you know why I won't be going back to conventional irons.  PS, I didn't proof read this.  Blame any awkward English or spelling on damn autocorrect.

 

[dbuck]

I changed from blades to cavity backs years ago and did an experiment. This was at a time when the technology was less than it is now, and the lofts closer by comparison 5 iron to 5 iron. I hit about 10 balls with my old forged blade and 10 with my new cavity back. While the odd shot with the blade (a pured shot-blind hog finds an acorn once in a while) might be longer, the shots with the cavity were about half the dispersion and the center of the "group" was about a half club longer than the group with the blade. Nowadays, I would expect there would be even more difference.

I play most of my golf today with traditional (wood and blades) equipment because I just enjoy it, but accept the fact that I won't be as consistent as I would be with better fitted, higher tech stuff.

[9wood]

1 hour ago, vangator said:

I lose a little difference but not much.  Maybe 5 yards?  With a conventional 4 iron, I felt in order to make good contact, I had to take just a little off.  Full swing like a shorter iron would be too erratic.  However, since I've been playing them for so long, I may actually have increased my yardage due to better ball striking, so it may be a wash.  There is a 200 yard par 3 I used to play with my 4 iron and would hit just on the front and let it roll to the pin.  I do the same with my SL irons, but I'm much more consistent in GIR than before.

My normal shape is a draw.  I would draw my conventional 7 iron.  But, with the conventional longer irons, I would sometimes hit a draw, sometimes straight, sometimes a fade.  Not with the SL irons.  I play a draw just like my 7 iron because the swing plane is always the same.  With conventional irons, every swing plane is a little different (each is 1/2 " longer).

Also, conventional irons add the 1/2 " in length to the tip.  Nominally, every 2 inches of additional shaft tip reduces the shaft by one flex.  If the shaft is normally a stiff, adding 2 inches to the tip makes it a regular.  With conventional irons, only the 7 iron is really fitted properly for the golfer (done by WTF measurement).  SO, if your set has stiff shafts, the 7 iron is stiff, the 8 iron is 1/2 inch shorter, so it is slightly more stiff.  If you reduce each shaft by 1/2 ", your gap wedge is really an extra stiff.  On the other end, since a 3 iron is 2 inches longer than the 7 iron, the shaft flex is really a regular.  So the set you thought was stiff really has every shaft a different flex.  I think that is one reason I used to predominately draw my wedges, hit my mid irons straight and hit my long irons with a fade.  It was frustrating.  However, SL irons have the same flex throughout.

Also, by adding 1/2 to the tip, you lower the flex point in the shaft by 1/2 inch.  More variation.  SL irons have the same flex point.

Conventional irons try to compensate for all this by gradually increasing the lie angle of the club. increasing the offset of each club and reducing the weight of the head by 7 grams each.  Therefore, each conventional iron has a different length, lie angle, offset, stiffness, flex point, head weight, swing plane and potential shot shape.  SL irons are the same, same, same, same, same, same, same and same.  I do hit my wedges a little higher (I like that) and my "long" irons a little lower.  For the "long" SL irons, some of the lower trajectory may be simply due to lower lofts, but some is due to having the ball back in my stance more.  The long irons are easier to hit.  I can play the ball slightly more forward to get a higher trajectory but still basically keep the same swing plane.

 Is it any wonder most golfers are ditching their long irons in favor of easy hitting hybrids?  For me, a long iron is simply more accurate that a hybrid.  On a long par 3, with a hybrid I's accept being on the green.  With an iron, I would like to be able to target a particular part of the green.  I'm just not as accurate with a hybrid.  It has a roll face for a reason.  Because it is really a type of fairway wood.  Irons have straight faces for more accuracy.

Hope this wasn't too long and tedious, but now you know why I won't be going back to conventional irons.  PS, I didn't proof read this.  Blame any awkward English or spelling on damn autocorrect.

 

Thank you very much for providing me with a detailed reply. It was very helpful in answering my question

[Rip62]

23 hours ago, 9wood said:

OK, but I'm not hearing how making the switch has benefited other golfers as yet.

I went from 10 year old irons. I didn't pick up a lot of distance but my ball flight was much higher and I was more accurate.

[vangator]

7 hours ago, dbuck said:

I changed from blades to cavity backs years ago and did an experiment. This was at a time when the technology was less than it is now, and the lofts closer by comparison 5 iron to 5 iron. I hit about 10 balls with my old forged blade and 10 with my new cavity back. While the odd shot with the blade (a pured shot-blind hog finds an acorn once in a while) might be longer, the shots with the cavity were about half the dispersion and the center of the "group" was about a half club longer than the group with the blade. Nowadays, I would expect there would be even more difference.

I play most of my golf today with traditional (wood and blades) equipment because I just enjoy it, but accept the fact that I won't be as consistent as I would be with better fitted, higher tech stuff.

Several years ago I dug out my old Staff MB forged blades because I was waxing nostalgic over the feel of a forged iron.  One range session snapped me out of that back to reality.  They felt awful mainly because I couldn't hit them for crap.

Installing Prosofts in the shaft kills any vibration and reminds of the feel of forged.

7 hours ago, 9wood said:

Thank you very much for providing me with a detailed reply. It was very helpful in answering my question

It's a shame you didn't live nearby.  I'd let you take them out for a spin.  Maybe you'd like them, maybe you'd hate them, bat at least you would know.

Where in Western New York are you from again?  I'm planning a roadtrip to Jamestown NY (Chautauqua county) next summer and maybe we could get together for a round.

[9wood]

12 hours ago, vangator said:

Several years ago I dug out my old Staff MB forged blades because I was waxing nostalgic over the feel of a forged iron.  One range session snapped me out of that back to reality.  They felt awful mainly because I couldn't hit them for crap.

Installing Prosofts in the shaft kills any vibration and reminds of the feel of forged.

It's a shame you didn't live nearby.  I'd let you take them out for a spin.  Maybe you'd like them, maybe you'd hate them, bat at least you would know.

Where in Western New York are you from again?  I'm planning a roadtrip to Jamestown NY (Chautauqua county) next summer and maybe we could get together for a round.

I live close to Niagara Falls, right on the American/Canadian border. Jamestown is in the bottom portion of the State. But if you are ever going to be in the Niagara Falls, NY area send me a reply and we can get together for a round of golf.

[inthehole]

thing is ... any iron will do if you hit it on the screws.

The real advantage to the modern iron technology is the forgiveness on toe & heel shots.   Its pretty amazing actually how far the ball flies on really bad toe shots with modern game improvement cavity backed clubs.   It helps me ... ALOT

[RussUK]

I went from some old Dunlop maxflite irons to Wilson staff Di9's, I miss those old Dunlops .

The di9's are longer and more forgiving but just dont feel as good. I have some Titleist 695MB's i was given (almost new). Cant hit them for toffee but love the idea i own a set of Titleist's