Why Don’t More Players (Pro & Am) Use a 2-Iron Off the Tee?

[Ratherbegolfing83]

I live in Massachusetts and I play an 11 in my league hoping to get down to single digits. One of my biggest problems has always been finding fairways off the tee. I’m a long hitter and don’t get me wrong it’s great hitting a 300 yard drive but if it’s in the rough or playing from the wrong angle into the green is it really an advantage being so long? So what did I do? Against everyone’s advice I got fitted for a 2 iron. I went to my local shop and consulted with a pro. He suggested a new GI style driving iron. The Mizuno MP 18 MMC fli hi. It was love at first sight. Went with the KBS taper lite 120 1 degree upright. It was also love at first hit. Not only was I able to control it and hit more fairways but I averaged 235 carry including a few miss hits with a long of 267 carry(do you really need more than that?) My first round on the simulator I played Bayhill and used the 2 iron for all of my drives. I only missed 3 fairways and was able work the ball a little from left to right to stay away from the water on the left(shot 77). After watching tiger melt down off the tee last week and watching so many friends and strangers alike struggle off the tee to keep it in the fairway. Why aren’t more people giving a driving iron a try? I’m hoping to see the strokes really drop this year from making this change. Anyone else out there thought about giving this a try? 

Edited March 23, 2018 by Ratherbegolfing83

[Buckeyebowman]

Long story short, it's because most ams can't hit a 2 iron worth crap! Why do you think I switched to a 2 hybrid over 20 years ago? I couldn't get the iron up in the air!

[Ratherbegolfing83]

6 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Long story short, it's because most ams can't hit a 2 iron worth crap! Why do you think I switched to a 2 hybrid over 20 years ago? I couldn't get the iron up in the air!

I totally hear that and I do own a 2 hybrid which occasionally goes in my bag but the new game improvement style 2 irons (3 or 4 irons for some strong lofted brands out there) are just so much more forgiving. I just think for those who haven’t given it a shot they shouldn’t be afraid to see if it might work for them. Heck the only reason I really had to try was because the course I play is so tight I had to tee up with a 3 or 4 to keep it in play anyways.

[MuniGrit]

I used to be able to hit a low punched 2 iron. Then I got to where i couldn't hit it very good. I eventually got a hybrid and hit it a lot better.

[Ratherbegolfing83]

1 minute ago, MuniGrit said:

I used to be able to hit a low punched 2 iron. Then I got to where i couldn't hit it very good. I eventually got a hybrid and hit it a lot better.

At least you tried though. My friends think I’m crazy. Haha

[MuniGrit]

30 minutes ago, Ratherbegolfing83 said:

At least you tried though. My friends think I’m crazy. Haha

It was when I played Mizuno no 37 blades 2-PW. 2 iron was great at first. I hit it 250 off the tee. Then I just couldn't hit it or the 3 iron even. Took them both out put an extra wedge in and a hybrid.

[onthehunt526]

30 minutes ago, Ratherbegolfing83 said:

I totally hear that and I do own a 2 hybrid which occasionally goes in my bag but the new game improvement style 2 irons (3 or 4 irons for some strong lofted brands out there) are just so much more forgiving. I just think for those who haven’t given it a shot they shouldn’t be afraid to see if it might work for them. Heck the only reason I really had to try was because the course I play is so tight I had to tee up with a 3 or 4 to keep it in play anyways.

I'll answer your question with a simple answer, then I'll explain and ask you a question.

Why do most player not hit a 2-iron off the tee? Simple answer, because hardly anyone carries a 2-iron anymore.

Explained: Back some years ago, golf companies as a marketing campaign or whatever decided in order to sell irons, they needed to strengthen their lofts, so little by little they did. (Ping found out the hard way, you can't have extreme perimeter weighting in irons with traditional lofts), So the short irons got strengthened, then the mid-irons, and the long irons more or less stayed sort of traditional. Then the companies found a way around this, more perimeter weighting, unsupported faces, high C.O.R. which effectively killed off the 1-iron and 2-iron. The 1 and 2-irons you see now, which the 1-iron is a rare breed, are usually hollow-head designs with forged faces that are "driving irons" if you will. They aren't part of a standard set and most companies don't even make the damn things anymore at all.

My question: How long is your driver? I don't mean how far you hit it, I mean what is the playing length of your driver?

[mvmac]

2 hours ago, Ratherbegolfing83 said:

Why aren’t more people giving a driving iron a try? I’m hoping to see the strokes really drop this year from making this change. Anyone else out there thought about giving this a try? 

Because distance is an advantage and the farther you can hit it the better chance you have of making a lower score on a hole (generally).

[onthehunt526]

12 minutes ago, mvmac said:

Because distance is an advantage and the farther you can hit it the better chance you have of making a lower score on a hole (generally).

Mostly this. And what I said.

[Patch]

Way back, a long time ago, I had Mizuno 1 iron. I do not remember the model number. I do remember it had an allen screw in the head. Why? I don't know. I couldn't hit it to save my life if I had too. I was probably an 8 hdcp at the time. 

I moved on to a 2 iron. That club, for some reason, I could hit really well. To this day, I can still hit a 2i reasonably well. I keep 2 models around, just for par 3 courses. I just don't hit them as far as I use to. 

I was told by my swing guru at the time, that like my LW, don't be afraid to swing a 2i. Just let it rip. To use my fastest, controlled swing when hitting a 2i. He had a  favorite quote he used a lot. " Don't give the club head time to screw up". That was the key to hitting a 2i. 

I know a guy who putts with a 2i, who is a really great putter. 

[onthehunt526]

1 hour ago, Patch said:

Way back, a long time ago, I had Mizuno 1 iron. I do not remember the model number. I do remember it had an allen screw in the head. Why? I don't know. I couldn't hit it to save my life if I had too. I was probably an 8 hdcp at the time. 

I moved on to a 2 iron. That club, for some reason, I could hit really well. To this day, I can still hit a 2i reasonably well. I keep 2 models around, just for par 3 courses. I just don't hit them as far as I use to. 

I was told by my swing guru at the time, that like my LW, don't be afraid to swing a 2i. Just let it rip. To use my fastest, controlled swing when hitting a 2i. He had a  favorite quote he used a lot. " Don't give the club head time to screw up". That was the key to hitting a 2i. 

I know a guy who putts with a 2i, who is a really great putter. 

1-irons are really good for basically lightning rods, If you take most of the grip off you can get a pretty good radio signal about 50 miles away if you have enough antenna wire. Fire pokers that's my favorite one... 

[Ratherbegolfing83]

7 hours ago, mvmac said:

Because distance is an advantage and the farther you can hit it the better chance you have of making a lower score on a hole (generally).

I agree. If you can control your ball flight off the tee and keep the ball in play. Most people I play with are lucky to have a few drives per round find the fairways. I watch them or help them try to find there ball in the woods. I also used to go through the same process and it resulted in higher scores all around. I watch many pros on tv do the same. They just happen to be much better at recovery shots and have no issue hitting a ball out of the woods to within a few yards of the green or even find a way onto the green. Just feel like the extra 50 yards of carry being mostly off line are not worth the trouble. Like I said if you can hit it in the fairway more power to you. But for most of us it’s a struggle. For me the miss with a driving iron is just so much smaller. Happy Friday!

6 hours ago, Patch said:

Way back, a long time ago, I had Mizuno 1 iron. I do not remember the model number. I do remember it had an allen screw in the head. Why? I don't know. I couldn't hit it to save my life if I had too. I was probably an 8 hdcp at the time. 

I moved on to a 2 iron. That club, for some reason, I could hit really well. To this day, I can still hit a 2i reasonably well. I keep 2 models around, just for par 3 courses. I just don't hit them as far as I use to. 

I was told by my swing guru at the time, that like my LW, don't be afraid to swing a 2i. Just let it rip. To use my fastest, controlled swing when hitting a 2i. He had a  favorite quote he used a lot. " Don't give the club head time to screw up". That was the key to hitting a 2i. 

I know a guy who putts with a 2i, who is a really great putter. 

Totally agree. I swing it hard like a driver and she flys. No better feeling.

[Ratherbegolfing83]

8 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

I'll answer your question with a simple answer, then I'll explain and ask you a question.

Why do most player not hit a 2-iron off the tee? Simple answer, because hardly anyone carries a 2-iron anymore.

Explained: Back some years ago, golf companies as a marketing campaign or whatever decided in order to sell irons, they needed to strengthen their lofts, so little by little they did. (Ping found out the hard way, you can't have extreme perimeter weighting in irons with traditional lofts), So the short irons got strengthened, then the mid-irons, and the long irons more or less stayed sort of traditional. Then the companies found a way around this, more perimeter weighting, unsupported faces, high C.O.R. which effectively killed off the 1-iron and 2-iron. The 1 and 2-irons you see now, which the 1-iron is a rare breed, are usually hollow-head designs with forged faces that are "driving irons" if you will. They aren't part of a standard set and most companies don't even make the damn things anymore at all.

My question: How long is your driver? I don't mean how far you hit it, I mean what is the playing length of your driver?

You mean before I broke it in half? Haha jk I own a Cobra F7 cut down to 44.5 and a C-9 swing weight. I had it cut at the butt end so it wouldn’t adjust stiffness too much. At the range I can control it ok and my issue is definitely swing plain and to some extent it’s a mental hurdle for me personally. I’ve played with lead tape on the head to bring it back up but I’m  having an issue with left to right spin. I have to really almost over fire my lower half to square up and hit it straight which is painful to do often. So the two iron just seems to work better for me. Smaller misses and tighter dispersion helps me keep it in play. On long Par 5’s I am definitely not getting there in two but still give myself a chance at birdie.

[Foot Wedge]

11 hours ago, Ratherbegolfing83 said:

Why aren’t more people giving a driving iron a try?

Not that people can't HIT a 2-iron, it's not having the swing speed to do anything with it.  You posted some numbers and you're carrying it further than some people carry their driver.  You're swinging fast enough to get the damn thing in the air.  Joe average isn't going to be swinging a 2-iron fast enough to get a decent ballflight from it.  I know I can't.

Personally I see diminishing returns at the 4 iron, as do a lot of people.  I can hit it off the turf ok, but I get the most out of it off the tee where I can go after it a little more.  I actually have a 3-iron, just because it was in the set, but it's not in the bag.  I used it at the range once for giggles and it went a little further than my 4 but I can do the same with a hybrid with less effort and not just from the tee.

6 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

1-irons are really good for basically lightning rods

No they're not.  Rods are supposed to be struck by lightning, and even God can't hit a 1-iron. LOL

[klineka]

2 hours ago, Ratherbegolfing83 said:

I agree. If you can control your ball flight off the tee and keep the ball in play. Most people I play with are lucky to have a few drives per round find the fairways. I watch them or help them try to find there ball in the woods. I also used to go through the same process and it resulted in higher scores all around. I watch many pros on tv do the same. They just happen to be much better at recovery shots and have no issue hitting a ball out of the woods to within a few yards of the green or even find a way onto the green. Just feel like the extra 50 yards of carry being mostly off line are not worth the trouble. Like I said if you can hit it in the fairway more power to you. But for most of us it’s a struggle. For me the miss with a driving iron is just so much smaller. Happy Friday!

Totally agree. I swing it hard like a driver and she flys. No better feeling.

Keeping the ball in play is important, but finding the fairway is not nearly as important as you make it seem, and driving distance is way more important than finding the fairway.

Give me the choice between 125 left to the green in the rough vs 175 from the middle of the fairway, I'm choosing the 125 shot every single time, and you should too. Your proximity to the hole on those approach shots will be significantly closer to the flag from 125 than they will be from 175.

Here is a graph I made a month or two ago comparing the average driving distance to the current world golf ranking. 9/10 golfers in the top 10 at the time drove the ball over 300 yards on average. As the average driving distance goes down, they get worse in the world golf rankings.

2 hours ago, Ratherbegolfing83 said:

Just feel like the extra 50 yards of carry being mostly off line are not worth the trouble.

You might feel that way, but the numbers and statistics will disagree with you. Here is another chart, this one is from SuperSpeed Golf's instagram page and it's comparing the strokes gained off the tee for the top 10 driving distance guys vs the top 10 driving accuracy guys. Notice how only ONE person in the top 10 of driving distance is losing strokes off the tee to the field and have an average strokes gained positio, compared to the accurate drivers where 4 guys are losing strokes to the field

 

In my opinion, I feel like you are using the 2 iron as an excuse for you not to improve your driving accuracy. If you cant keep the ball in play, take lessons and figure out why that is the case. 

You obviously hit the two iron pretty far right now, so logic would mean that your driver probably goes further than that. You are hurting your scores in the long term by not learning how to keep driver in play. Sure in the short term your scores might drop if you arent hitting it out of bounds as often, but in the long term I would bet a lot of money that your scores would be lower overall if you learned how to hit your driver properly and in play compared to using your 2 iron.

I suggest getting a copy of the book "Lowest Score Wins" which was authored by the owner of this site. It explains what I just described in greater detail. 

[DeadMan]

The other thing you're missing is how the mishits are punished by a 2 iron. You have a mishit that goes 178 and one that goes 163. My 5 wood goes roughly the same, on average, as your iron 2, but if I mishit my 5 wood, it's probably still going at least 200 yards, if not more. Hybrids are similarly much more forgiving. If you think about a 400 yard par 4, that means on a mishit, you might have 220+ yards left into the green using your 2 iron. If I use my 5 wood and mishit it, I probably still have less than 200 yards into the green.

If it works for you and you enjoy golf playing a 2 iron, then great! But I would highly recommend reading @klineka's post above, because it has some really great advice in it.

[NM Golf]

I carry a driving iron, but I only hit it in very specific situations. I would rather hit a sand wedge out of the rough than an 8 iron out of the fairway. The advantage I receive from hitting the driver is too great to want to dink the ball around the course worrying about hitting fairways. Like Tiger once said, Fairways hit is a non stat.

If your accuracy with the driver is that much of a glaring weakness I would suggest you spend some time working on it. Your game will improve more dramatically by gaining control over the driver than it will by hitting a few more fairways with a 2 iron.

[Ratherbegolfing83]

2 hours ago, DeadMan said:

The other thing you're missing is how the mishits are punished by a 2 iron. You have a mishit that goes 178 and one that goes 163. My 5 wood goes roughly the same, on average, as your iron 2, but if I mishit my 5 wood, it's probably still going at least 200 yards, if not more. Hybrids are similarly much more forgiving. If you think about a 400 yard par 4, that means on a mishit, you might have 220+ yards left into the green using your 2 iron. If I use my 5 wood and mishit it, I probably still have less than 200 yards into the green.

If it works for you and you enjoy golf playing a 2 iron, then great! But I would highly recommend reading @klineka's post above, because it has some really great advice in it.

You’re correct but I was speaking more to dispersion left or right more than distance with miss hits. Had I swung any club with 2 bad swings like that I would have produced the same or worse results. I can consistently carry my driver 282 on 8 out of 10 shots but if it’s 30 yards right of my target I’m either OB or under some trees or worse in the water. I can’t seem to keep the club face closed enough at impact and since my swing has a natural left path my driver just wants to go right. With my irons I don’t have as much trouble with face position so I am able to drive it much straighter. I think hybrids are great but they just aren’t for me. I guess I’m in the minority on this one. lol I just want to keep it in play and so far it’s resulted in better scores for me.