Iron sets these days.. No 3 or 4 irons?

[iacas]

15 hours ago, ladders11 said:

What used to be considered a wood is now considered a hybrid.

There are still woods. Even 7-woods. There's a line separating hybrids from woods. It's blurry sometimes, but it's there.

[WUTiger]

18 hours ago, StefanUrkel said:

Has a 2 iron ever been part of an iron set? I'm trying to think of the last 1 or 2 iron that was popular anyways. Probably a ping or Titleist

In the 1970s, the 2 iron was a standard part of iron sets. BUT... often this was 21⁰ 2-iron, with a 38.5" shaft.

Nowadays, 21⁰ zone gets you....

• TM SLDR irons = 4i (38.25" shaft)
• Callaway XR Steelhead irons = 4i (3.875" shaft)
• Mizuno JPx-900 Forged irons =4i (38.25" shaft)

In the previous century, I used the 2i mainly as a driving iron on tight holes, and on longer par 3 holes (the really long ones needed a 3W). In 1994, I got an iron set where the longest iron was a 3i.

Now, I have a 3i and 4i in my X20 Tours, but carry only the 4i as a seldom-use driving iron for tight par 4s or a tee shot on a par 3 just short of 4H yardage.

[ladders11]

7 hours ago, iacas said:

There are still woods. Even 7-woods. There's a line separating hybrids from woods. It's blurry sometimes, but it's there.

Agreed. My point was more: if you look at those Cobra Baffler "7-wood" clubs they look more like hybrids than modern fairway woods.

My recollection is that as the old 5-woods and 7-woods got bigger (starting around the metal wood / first Big Bertha era), the gap in the market for hybrids was created. Shorter shaft, smaller clubhead seemingly better for gouging out of deep rough. So the first hybrids were called rescue clubs. As the form factor evolved, it became possible to push long irons out of the bag.

[djake]

 

i remember sets being 2i thru PW and i used the 2i to hit under trees and such with the occasional Par 3 with a gale force wind in the face, with that I hit the 2i with a hope and prayer because it was such a difficult club for me to hit.

Fast forward to "modern times" and my previous Ping i Irons were 5 thru PW and my current Mizuno JPX Forged are 5 thru PW.  BUT if i were to do this all over again i would still start with the 5 iron and i would end with the 9 iron and go straight into a fitting on ALL wedges.  Today's wedges are stunning pieces of technology that i really enjoy hitting.

As far as clubs above the 5 iron, well i feel the current 5 iron is basically the old 1980s-90s 4 iron which was always a great club for me.  My current 5 iron is great to hit and i carry it 190 yards.  Anything above this is still a work in progress as i am currently looking at getting fit with a Cobra F7 4 Hybrid and dropping the 7 wood out of my bag. At the yardage those two clubs are pretty much a crossover yet i am finding the Hybrid is a more versatile club to carry in comparison to the 7 wood.  Thus providing a better value financially for me as well as the better club to help drop my score on the course.

Above this i like a 5 wood and i no longer carry a 3 wood as the 5 wood is a much easier club to hit off the deck and i am not really sacrificing much distance as i can run a 5 wood out 240 on occasion (with roll) but it is a very comfortable 225 club. 

The big thing to me was how i really focused on learning how to hit a hybrid.  I did not like them and now i feel they are one of the more versatile clubs you can carry.  Easier to hit then long irons, great out of the rough, off the tee and a punch and run option around the green.  Just a fun club now.

 

[Jack Watson]

Hybrids are nice.  My longest iron is a modern five.  What club to use is situational.

[onthehunt526]

When I was younger most iron sets were 3-PW in the stores. Players, and Game-improvement irons were all 3-PW. 

When Super Game improvement irons were becoming more prevalent. The 3-iron started disappearing from stock sets. 

The first set I remember this with was the Callaway Big Bertha '04 irons (the ones that had a 10-iron). Now a lot of companies are going to buy it by the club rates. 

If Taylormade had made a 3-iron for the M2 irons, it would have been a 17° 3-iron! My V-blade 2-iron has 19°.

As a side note, most companies still include a 4-iron in their stock sets.

My Tour Edge EXi irons are normally a stock 4 iron thru approach wedge set (I just happen to own the 3-iron as well)

[downbylaw11]

I've never really needed to hit a 3 or 4.  every once in a while I crack it out at the range just to see if I can, and I think with a little more practice I could hit it pretty consistently.  most of the courses I play I don't really hit many shots longer than 200 yards aside from tee shots so i've never really needed to hit anything more than a 5iron or a 5 wood which I carry for anything around 200-220 yards. 

honestly I've never even tried to hit a hybrid club, mostly because I'm a lefty so I can't jack one from my playing partners or my dad and try it out. are they better than an iron? I've always been of the mindset that rather than get a club that's 'easier to hit', I'll just learn how to swing better.  When I first started golfing in the mid 90s, my mom got a free set for me from her boss and it was an old powerbilt set from..... i'd say the 70s with a persimmon driver so I learned to hit balls with that shit lol.  it was funny that he only gave away the set because he had JUST bought a new set, and he was a ****ing dentist who I believe was a very avid golfer, and he was just getting steel headed drivers in 1996

 

 

[Chris223]

My Nike Vapor Flys came as 4-AW, I think years ago most manufactures finally figured out that most of us weekend golfers can't hit a 3 iron or even a 4 and so they starting including a set matching gap wedge which they all call A wedge.  My last two Nike sets have been that way, 4-AW.  Now I hit my 5 iron ok and am not afraid to use it, but I hit my X-Hot 5h far more consistently so I haven't put 5 iron in my bag in well over a year.  My Vapor Fly 4i has never been hit lol.  Anyone need a nice 4i thats +1" and 1* up?  Lol.

[WUTiger]

Two things really killed off the long irons: ever-stronger lofts, and the arrival of the modern hybrids circa 2005. (An ancestor of the hybrid was the Bulldog, a late-1800s club with a tiny head and about 25* loft which was used to hack out of the rough).

Prior to modern hybrids, you could get high-lofted woods (I saw a 9-wood circa 1969) and trouble clubs such as the Ginty from craft manufacturers.

In the 21st century, club designer Tom Wishon offers the 24/38 rule: he suggests that the average golfer has trouble hitting an iron with less than 24* loft and a shaft longer than 38 inches.

[Lihu]

On 8/9/2017 at 10:07 AM, scotth said:

So have been studying different irons sets that are offered these days, and see that most of them start with the 5 iron.  I am curious to hear from people that have purchased a new set recently and what they purchased to use for distances that in the past would have been a 3 or 4 iron?

I know for most of these sets you can add the 3 or 4 back in, so also wondering that.

3i is very difficult to hit as compared to a hybrid. 4i ends up being a punch shot club for me or off the tee for a 200-ish yard shot. My hybrid off the tee goes too far for that distance. Otherwise, I'd use a hybrid for that distance.

 

On 8/9/2017 at 10:07 AM, scotth said:

How many people added the 3 or 4 iron and why?

Not me, but my son uses a 3i and 4i. His 3i can go 250 yards on the course, at least in the summer. I'd guess that he just prefers the feel and control of an iron, but he hits far enough to take advantage of longer irons.

 

On 8/9/2017 at 10:07 AM, scotth said:

I know the rationale was many people don't hit the 3 or 4 well, and understand why it club makers have gone this route, just curious what people are hitting.  I have always hit both of those clubs often and pretty well.  All input is welcome, very undecided if I want to add the 3 and 4 iron or hybrids. 

Yes, most people don't hit them well at all.

 

On 8/9/2017 at 10:07 AM, scotth said:

What woods or hybrids are you carrying instead of a 3 or 4 iron and why?

 

On 8/9/2017 at 10:07 AM, scotth said:

I have hit some hybrids and have good results, not really any better than the irons and it seems weird looking down at address at them.

Some people prefer the look of an iron at address, but I prefer a hybrid when my ball is resting on a tree root after I hit the tree off the tee with 200+ yards to go. It hurts a lot less when you hit that root. . .

[Buckeyebowman]

On 8/20/2017 at 6:32 PM, WUTiger said:

In the 1970s, the 2 iron was a standard part of iron sets. BUT... often this was 21⁰ 2-iron, with a 38.5" shaft.

Nowadays, 21⁰ zone gets you....

• TM SLDR irons = 4i (38.25" shaft)
• Callaway XR Steelhead irons = 4i (3.875" shaft)
• Mizuno JPx-900 Forged irons =4i (38.25" shaft)

In the previous century, I used the 2i mainly as a driving iron on tight holes, and on longer par 3 holes (the really long ones needed a 3W). In 1994, I got an iron set where the longest iron was a 3i.

Now, I have a 3i and 4i in my X20 Tours, but carry only the 4i as a seldom-use driving iron for tight par 4s or a tee shot on a par 3 just short of 4H yardage.

Great post! A perfect illustration of loft and length "creep"! I've been playing for about 50 years, and when I started iron sets routinely began with the 2 iron. 2 irons were hard enough to hit back them, and they have now become 4 irons! Also tough to hit,

As time went on, I discovered that I couldn't get my 2 iron any higher off the ground than the gutters on a single story house! After several years of frustration with the club, I finally bought my first hybrid, a Cleveland 2 hybrid. I still own that club and love it! As my game continued to go south as my age went north, I kept experimenting and now don't carry an iron longer than a 6.

I replaced my 3,4, and 5 irons with TM Rescues that I bought from a friend. He didn't like them, I can hit the dog snot out of them! I'm now looking to replace an Adams 1 hybrid, which was given to me, with a 5 wood. The Adams worked fine for a while, but it (or me) has been going downhill.

The thing about hybrids is, whether you consider them a "shallow bodied" fairway wood or a "deep bodied" iron, they make it easier to get the ball up in the air! Just that little addition of mass at the back of the club moved the COG rearward enough to make that possible.

[WUTiger]

2 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

... As time went on, I discovered that I couldn't get my 2 iron any higher off the ground than the gutters on a single story house! ...

As I said earlier, I used the 2i mainly as a driving iron on tight holes. I could only use it off the fairway from a cushiony lie. One of my best shots: I was in a best ball tournament at Camp Pendleton when I was in the Marines. It came on No. 8, a 205-yard par 3 rated as 7 HDCP.

I hit a nice high tee shot that landed at mid-green, and hopped to a foot from the cup. I tapped it in for a 2, and with the stroke I got, this carded as 1 for my team.

Ah, memories...

[onthehunt526]

48 minutes ago, WUTiger said:

As I said earlier, I used the 2i mainly as a driving iron on tight holes. I could only use it off the fairway from a cushiony lie. One of my best shots: I was in a best ball tournament at Camp Pendleton when I was in the Marines. It came on No. 8, a 205-yard par 3 rated as 7 HDCP.

I hit a nice high tee shot that landed at mid-green, and hopped to a foot from the cup. I tapped it in for a 2, and with the stroke I got, this carded as 1 for my team.

Ah, memories...

205-yard 2-iron! My V-Blade 2-iron (19°) was like 220 off the tee... 

 

[WUTiger]

1 hour ago, onthehunt526 said:

205-yard 2-iron! My V-Blade 2-iron (19°) was like 220 off the tee...

Uh, 220 would have been over the green. What's your point? (and my 2i was 21°) 

[onthehunt526]

5 hours ago, WUTiger said:

Uh, 220 would have been over the green. What's your point? (and my 2i was 21°) 

That for the 8th Hole at the course you described, the club with the same loft, (my V-Blade 3i) would have been the club for me when I carried the V-Blades... It's a hybrid now. 

Did you happen to carry a 4-wood or 1-iron in your days in the Corps, @WUTiger?

[scotth]

Been playing a lot of golf with somebody that has 6 hybrids in his bag.  Think the only irons in his bag are 8 iron, 9 iron, PW, GW.  

He loves them and told me it took him a while to get used to them.  Helped me make the final decision to order 5-pw on new set with a 3 and 4 hybrid.  If I hate them, can always get the 3 and 4 iron later.

[Pete]

Bought my current irons 5-PW

Added a 4I and then a 3I. I feel I'm more accurate with Irons that hybrids. Especially off the tee.

[p1n9183]

Between 1995 and 2005 i played with a set of irons from the 2 iron to PW, 3wood and Driver.
Last year bougth a new set from 4 iron to PW + WW, and bougth also a 19° hybrid, 3 wood and Driver.