Single Length Irons Guy

When looking at PGA Tour leader boards during opening rounds of tournaments where no one has finished the round yet, I often see several players at -1, some after a couple holes, some on the back nine of their round and I wonder: Would a PGA Tour player would rather be -1 after two holes (great start) or -1 after nine holes (consistent performance with some upside potential on the back nine) during the opening round of a tournament? What do you think?

Just ran out to my local Costco and they haven't received any balls. The manager said that two other Costco stores in the area did get 300 units each, but both sold out in less than a day.

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This thread is why I love America, where one person's fact is another's fiction, and it's perfectly OK! I was listening to my local sports talk radio today at lunch where they were talking about conspiracy theories. One guy called in and said that he definitely did not believe that our top government officials were really lizard people, but he also believed that the Earth was clearly flat because if we lived on a sphere, the people who lived in the South would be upside down. He was dead serious and wouldn't be swayed by the show hosts who were laughing at him while trying to teach him about gravity. The thing about single length irons (and traditional irons for that matter) is that only the people around average height should use the "standard" length that manufacturers provide. Your ideal length for golf clubs is based on your height, your wrist-to-floor measurement, and your swing plane. So one golfer may use 6-iron length single length irons, another may use 7-iron length single length irons, while another may use 8-iron length single length irons. Do you think that Dustin Johnson at 6'4" is using the "standard" manufacturer iron lengths that you can buy in stores? Nope. Bryson does use single length irons, but he also uses a single plane swing with a very upright lie angle and little-to-no wrist hinge. His issues come from the fact that he refuses to hinge his wrists in any swing, which severely limits his ability to get the ball close to the hole while chipping. There's a video on YouTube where a Cobra rep flat-out states that they didn't copy Bryson's upright lie angle for their new "one length" clubs because so few people use a single plane swing. Given how long you have to hit it in the PGA tour, he's probably at a disadvantage and coming up short his green approach shots. I haven't looked at those particular courses, but perhaps he hits more greens on the shorter "strategic" courses rather than the "long" courses. I think it's important to remember that single length clubs would not be the best for professional players who are required to hit into 250 yard par-3's and that the rest of us are not professionals and not required to hit into 250 yard par-3's. They are basically two different tools for two different "games." David Lake at 1iron golf has been manufacturing single length irons since 1998, and prior to the 1920s all golf clubs were the same length. Given that David's been in business for almost 20 years and that he believes that Cobra's entry into the market won't come close to touching his annual sales, he must be making money on this idea. Also, single length irons don't give you an advantage over someone using standard irons, they simply give you a better chance of hitting the ball consistently since you only have to be good at one swing plane instead of 10 swing planes. You could argue that for a good golfer (i.e. less than 5 handicap) that single length irons would be a disadvantage on the long irons due to the shallower descent angle of the ball, leading to more roll-out. On the other hand, in a video review of Cobra's one length irons, Rick Shiels couldn't get over the fact that the one length pitching wedge generated over 2,000 more spin while going the same distance as the "regular" pitching wedge, which would be an advantage due to shorter roll-out. @Vinsk No need to flame me, to each his own!

Since you've owned both a more expensive and a less expensive laser unit, do you think that it makes sense to invest in a more expensive unit or do the cheaper units work just as well?

I use the Grint app as well and haven't had any problems with it -- seems to be the best of the three choices for laying up to creeks crossing the fairway. I've also used Swing by Swing and Golf Pad in the past -- both were fine, but they both kept me looking for a better app for some reasons that I can't remember. Regardless of what app you use, there are definitely erroneous yardages on certain holes on certain courses, either because the tee box/green was moved or someone made a mistake when loading into the GPS database (they probably all use the same golf course GPS database).

I've been using Pinhawk SL single length irons for over a year now and I don't think that I'll ever go back to a traditional set of irons based on how well my ball striking has improved after the switch. It was incredibly awkward in the beginning, but I got over it fairly quickly since I wasn't spraying the ball all over the course anymore. Of course, single length sets have different lofts than traditional clubs to account for the difference in club lengths (stronger lofts) and the gaps are fairly consistent as well. The trade-off of the stronger loft is more roll-out on the longer clubs, but we're really only talking about a couple extra yards. Since most people fat their 4/5 irons anyway, more roll-out is a good price to pay for consistently hitting your balls on the green, right? If you can't see past the idea that this may be a gimmick, you'll probably never try a set regardless of what I say - but if you want to try single length irons without investing a ton of money, you can build a set of Pinhawk SL irons (5 thru PW) for about $250, which is less than most new drivers these days.

You could try using a swing weight calculator to see if you get D5 or something less: https://www.valuegolf.com/golf-club-swingweight-calculator/

I mentioned on another thread that I thought Bridgestone was a second-tier golf ball brand (but it is still in my top 3), which was contrary to others' opinions -- so I started wondering -- what are everyone's top 3 golf ball brands? [ So that I can maybe change my mind when I see the results :) ]

@1badbadger Ahh, ok. That makes sense about Bridgestone manufacturing to Nike's specs rather than white-labeling their own products. Now that I think about it, one of the last Nike golf ball designs (RZN BLACK) featured "textured" cores and different sized dimples with lots of "sub-dimples" which I had never seen before on any other brands' golf ball. I hope someone buys that patent so that I can try one of these balls out one day.

For a while, I was baffled as to why Tiger would pick a second-tier golf ball (although I've always heard good things about the balls) until I read an article about how Bridgestone was manufacturing Nike golf balls over the past few years, so maybe they're the same ball and he just doesn't want to switch to another brand. Or, maybe Bridgestone offered him more money and/or more personal brand marketing opportunities like these boxes of balls.

I tried these a couple years ago (or maybe another very similar brand) -- the concept is great since you can see all of your shots in the app afterwards with some great data and stats. Unfortunately, there were 3 major issues I had that made me put them in the pile at the back of the golf closet after a couple rounds: 1) The tags screw in clockwise - as a right-hander who uses the top of the grip, my hand produces a counter-clockwise force on the tag, which completely unscrews it within a few swings. Luckily, I saw it fly off the first time it happened so I didn't lose a tag, but it was just luck that I saw it, otherwise I would have lost it for sure. The easy fix would be for them to manufacture the tags with a counter-clockwise thread. 2) I tried for two rounds to remember to tap the club on my phone in my pocket before each shot. Unfortunately, I could only remember to do so about 50% of the time. So I was spending a LOT of time manually entering the clubs used, which took so much time that I felt like I was at work inputting data rather than playing golf, which stripped the fun out of the rounds. 3) I typically don't have my phone in my pocket during a round, so having it there was distracting. Plus, the "pong" sound when you tap the club to the phone was annoying to both me and my playing partners. I love the concept, just couldn't get past the mechanics of making it work.

Good article about a couple of kids cleaning up the golf balls from the ocean near Pebble Beach -- I bet they would be all for biodegradable golf balls being required on holes bordering the ocean. http://www.golf.com/knockdown/2017/01/27/ball-retrievers-meet-two-environmentally-conscious-teens-who-have-collected-thousands-golf-balls

Has anyone in warm climates played the 2017 Chrome Soft X Golf Balls yet? I picked up a dozen to hit in the simulator and it seems to be slightly longer (3-4 yards) than the 2016 Chrome Soft balls, but the compression is higher (90 vs 70) -- does that make sense?

This may sound unusual, but I think in terms of a single "feel" thought. I'm not thinking about hitting a position or manipulating my hand/arms, etc, but instead, I'm thinking about how my shoulders and arms feel at the top of the back swing, and then I try to replicate that feeling in the swing. Also, I usually have to completely clear my mind prior to the swing -- any stray thought at all will wreck my swing, even good thoughts.

Here's a good video on the mental game while practicing that seems to apply to golf:

I did the same thing with a set of Ping G30s trying to test out the single length concept before I invested in a set of clubs. Long story short, it really didn't work because the lofts were not strong enough and I was hitting my 4 and 5 irons roughly the same distance as the 6 iron before I cut it down. You can build a set of Pinhawk SL single length irons for about $250, which is not a bad price for a set of irons.

My golf coach told me once that he always tries to convince right-handed kids to swing left-handed clubs and vice-versa. Why? He says that it's easier for people to consistently swing with their dominant hand as the lead hand in the swing. Mickelson is right handed and swings left, so maybe there's something to that. Maybe let him hit some right-handed clubs to see if he likes it better before investing in new clubs.

The markup on "off the rack" sets is insane -- pick up a golfworks catalog and see that heads are selling for $20 in some cases, and that's the selling price, not the manufacturer's cost. Add on top of that the fact the the major manufacturers get better cost/unit due to volume and you can safely estimate that an iron head costs $10 to manufacture. Add in a shaft for $20 and a $5 grip and you get a $45 club. So why do most sets cost $600 - $1,000? They're manufactured, marketed and sold by big companies who have lots of overhead costs. But from the consumer's standpoint, is the latest and greatest iron set really worth 2x to 3x the cost of a "component" set?

I have some white knockoffs similar to these that are good for the kids -- I can have them hit in the front yard and not worry about house/car windows -- although they do get a lot of long looks from cars driving by, none of the neighbors have said anything yet :)

Disappointing -- was hoping that this was legit.