Equipment
Forum Thread of the Day: “How I learned to stop worrying and love single length irons”
Today’s Forum Thread of the Day comes from pinestreetgolf who shared his experience using single length irons. In pinestreetgolf’s excellent and thorough write-up, he explains just how single length irons worked for him, despite his previous suspects, and why he feels others should considering making the move to single length clubs in the future.
“First, I made a mistake I am constantly on others for making. I thought all-or-none. The whole “same stance, same swing, same plane” thing isn’t true. However, I decided that since one of them wasn’t true (if the lie changes, it all changes), then none of it was true. That was dumb. It’s about 80% true, and that is a lot. What I mean by that is that I struggle with ball position. Now I don’t. The club always feels the same, so you always just sort of start lining up the same all the time. It’s hard to describe, exactly. When my ball position creeps back, I start to get stuck. Now it doesn’t creep back. I grab the club, and the address position feels natural and easy.
Second, I made the mistake of thinking yardage gaps have to be consistent to be useful. They don’t. As my SL set tends towards its extremes, my gaps get larger. My 5 iron isn’t 10 yards behind my 6. But I know how far it is behind my six and I know I hit the center more often, so effectively, because I get much better contact, my gap is much more consistent even though it is smaller.
Third, I learned to hit a hybrid. I play them through 4 iron. I cannot get a SL 4 iron off the ground consistently, but my gaggle of G30 hybrids from the 2nd swing is fantastic.
Fourth, I kept my PM Grind for in and around the green complex.
Fifth, it makes practice MUCH more effective. Swap them out all the time. Hit a 6, hit a SW, hit a 9, hit a 7, rapid fire.
It took me a long time to get used to them, but the two massive pros are the setup/stance and practice. You set up the same way almost instinctively, and that is HUGE. I also feel like I get a ton more out of practice AND that my practice feels like the course a lot more.
There are some drawbacks. I found three specialty shots I had to add clubs at top and bottom to pull off:
1. A short-game only club, like a PM Grind.
2. Where the last SL doesn’t get airborne anymore. I used 3 hybrids below it. They hit middles of greens.
3. Ground balls – I can’t punch out nearly as well with a SL 5 as a CB 3 or 4. I’ve learned to use my driver on this shot.
If you are thinking about something new for irons and have some cash, I would recommend trying SL. It grew on me. I was wrong about it. The key is to stick with it. Just throw them in the bag for two months and when practicing switch up irons constantly – do NOT just bang one iron with an SL set.
Finally, either get fit or play with lie angle a lot. Mine are +3 up, and I’m only 6′. Feel great, dead even dirt line. But since they are all the same, they better be right. Just my thoughts on SL. They’ll be in my bag for the May – Sept. tournaments. I would highly recommend 1. ignoring my earlier posts on them and 2. trying them.”
Here are what a few of our members have said in response to pinestreetgolf’s post, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.
- snowman9000: “Some people get hung up on thinking that they aren’t supposed to have a shorter wedge. I kept one, no big deal. As to hybrids, that’s no biggie either. I mean, it’d be great if we could get good results with 13 clubs the same length, but that’s just not possible. Having SL irons is a huge simplification of the game, regardless of the rest of the bag.”
- ChrisLC40: “OP I love how you summed everything up. I made the switch a little over two years ago and have made huge improvements. At times I think about going back to variable length irons because of the offerings, but OL is so repeatable, and I feel I may go backwards and need to relearn some things.”
- LONGBALL777: “Welcome to the Dark Side!”
Entire Thread: “How I learned to stop worrying and love single length irons”
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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.
It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.
Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a set of Custom-Built Titleist T150s.
From the seller: (@boff2guy): “Custom T150s 4-PW built by People’s golf, w/Dynamic Golf Tour Issue X100 Black Onyx shafts. MCC Plus 4 Midsize. Only a few irons have been hit off the mat. Specs and Pics below. $1,150 shipped
- 4) 39.25 21 61
- 5) 38.75 24 61.5
- 6) 38.25 28 62
- 7) 37.75 32 62.5
- 8. 37.25 36 63
- 9) 36.75 40 63.5
- PW) 36.25 45 64″
To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Custom-Built Titleist T150s
This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules
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- Kevin Streelman what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.
Driver: Titleist TSR3 (10 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X
3-wood: Titleist TSR3 (15 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X
5-wood: Ping G (17.5 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 10 X
Irons: Wilson Staff Model CB (4-9)
Shafts: Project X 6.5
Wedges: Wilson Staff Model (48-08, 54-08), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-L @59)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (48), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (54, 58)
Putter: Scotty Cameron TourType SSS TG6
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Check out more in-hand photos of Kevin Streelman’s clubs here.
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The year was 2012. Gangnam Style ruled supreme, its infectious beats and ludicrous horse-riding dance moves hypnotizing us with their stupidity. Everyone was talking about the Mayan calendar, convinced that the end of days was near. Superheroes soared on the silver screen, with the Avengers assembling in epic fashion. Katniss Everdeen survived The Hunger Games. And the memes! The memes abounded. Grumpy Cat triumphed. We kept calm and carried on.
In much the same way that automotive enthusiasts love classic cars, we at GolfWRX love taking a backward glance at some of the iconic designs of years past. Heck, we love taking iconic designs to the tee box in the present!
In that spirit, GolfWRX has been running a series inspired by arguably the greatest fighting game franchise of all time: Mortal Kombat. It’s not “choose your fighter” but rather “choose your driver.”
Check out some of the standout combatants of 2012 below.
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Nike VRS
Often harshly critiqued during its years releasing golf equipment (right, Phil Mickelson?), Nike’s tenure in the club-and-ball business gets a gloss of nostalgic varnish, with many of its iron and putter designs continuing to attract admirers. Among the company’s driver offerings, the 2012 VRS — or VR_S, if you will — drew high marks for its shaping and toned-down appearance. The multi-thickness, NexCOR face was no joke either.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Callaway RAZR Fit
Callaway’s first foray into moveable weight technology (married with its OptiFit hosel) did not disappoint. With a carbon fiber crown, aerodynamic attention to detail, and variable and hyperbolic face technologies, this club foreshadowed the tech-loaded, “story in every surface” Callaway drivers of the present, AI-informed design age.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Cleveland Classic 310
Truly a design that came out of left field. Cleveland said, “Give me a persimmon driver, but make it titanium…in 460cc.” Our 2012 reviewer, JokerUsn wrote, “I don’t need to elaborate on all the aesthetics of this club. You’ve seen tons of pics. You’ve all probably seen a bunch in the store and held them up close and gotten drool on them. From a playing perspective, the color is not distracting. It’s dark enough to stay unobtrusive in bright sunlight…Even my playing partners, who aren’t into clubs at all…commented on it saying it looks cool.” Long live!
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Titleist 910
While there’s no disputing Titleist’s “Titleist Speed” era of drivers perform better than its 2010s offerings, sentimentality abounds, and there was something classically Titleist about these clubs, right down to the alignment aid, and the look is somewhere between 983 times and the present TS age. Representing a resurgence after a disappointing stretch of offerings (907, 909), The 910D2 was a fairly broadly appealing driver with its classic look at address and classic Titleist face shape.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
TaylorMade RocketBallz
The white crown. The name. You either loved ‘em or you hated ‘em. TaylorMade’s 2012 offering from its RocketBallz Period boasted speed-enhancing aerodynamics and an Inverted Cone Technology in the club’s titanium face. Technology aside, it’s impossible to overstate what a departure from the norm a white-headed driver was in the world of golf equipment.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Ping i20
Long a quietly assertive player in the driver space, Ping’s i20 was more broadly appealing than the G20, despite being a lower-launch, lower-spin club. Ping drivers didn’t always have looks that golfer’s considered traditional or classic, but the i20 driver bucked that trend. Combining the classic look with Ping’s engineering created a driver that better players really gravitated toward. The i20 offered players lower launch and lower spin for more penetrating ball flight while the rear 20g tungsten weights kept the head stable. Sound and feel were great also, being one of the more muted driver sounds Ping had created up to that time.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
GolfWRXers, let us know in the comments who “your fighter” is and why!
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retired04
Apr 27, 2019 at 4:57 pm
Am 72 and been a single digit since I was 15 (yes, from shorter tees now). As attractive as some of the new club offerings are each year, I am actually afraid to give up my Cobra single length irons (6I-gap wedge). Until your give them an honest try, you will never know the confidence that comes with same ball position, same swing positions, same feel, same overall weight and swing weight(my irons-1/4″ long with extra tape under the 2G white grip-are exactly D2 and +/- 2 grams overall weight through the set). My set is a little odd-F8 one length 8I-Gap and the black TEC one length 6 and 7 (couldn’t stand the goofy “distance” grooves in the F8 6 and 7 irons-one bounced to many over the green with no ball spin-somehow Cobra missed the memo that golf is a point A to point B game with irons). Yes, definitely get fitted for lie angle and you will not believe the difference single length makes.
beachguy
Apr 27, 2019 at 3:11 pm
Definitely not a gimmick but not earth-shattering either.
99.999999% of people aren’t golfing to get on the PGA tour so the key is having fun and people able to strike the ball nicely; seeking perfection is a waste of time.
If you can’t strike the ball nicely, you need lessons, not OL clubs.
Once you learn to strike a nice ball, if you work on short game and putting you will have a lot of fun on the course.
Benny
Apr 27, 2019 at 7:30 am
Love it and love the idea. Just don’t think I could do it. I will say David’s idea abve is exactly what I have thought about. Most golfers have a hard time with the longer irons. Make they all the same as a 7-6i. You will need their lie’s adjusted but should add to much more consistancy. Does our swing speed really change with a 3i vrs a 7i? Or is it so slight that being closer to the ball is more important?
David
Apr 26, 2019 at 5:51 pm
i believe SL irons is slowly gaining traction. its here to stay for a number of people.
Can someone explain to me why u couldn’t mesh SL iron concept with current config irons. could u have 2-7 irons same length for greater control then step down 8-SW irons per normal. why not have driver 3W same length for grester control. i understand the lie and consistent ball position of the SL irons is different to std length irons of today.
anyway i think SL irons and observing some of the best tour pro’s who are mixing and matching their clubs so why not us. we can have some fun too playing what we like. yipee for Golf.
Chauncey Gardner
Apr 26, 2019 at 9:05 am
I had read of single length irons years before Bryson came on the scene. I had my Cleveland TA-3’ all standardized to my 7 iron. The first thing I noticed was how high I now hit the ball. Distances were about the same. My aching back was alleviated. Negatives are making the adjustments to chipping or pitching. Gotta choke down. Happy I did it after two seasons.
Robert Dicks
Apr 27, 2019 at 12:25 am
Peter Sellers appreciates the salute, Chauncey.
Ken
Apr 25, 2019 at 12:18 pm
Have been playing Wishon Sterlings for 3 years now and I am convert, 5-LW. I do choke down on the GW-LW IF I am hitting a chip or pitch, otherwise same swing, ball position, etc on 3/4 to full shots. No question about it, my ball striking consistency has improved while simplifying any practice I do with irons. Probably not for everyone, but it is also not a “gimmick” that a lot of forum members like to state while bashing the idea on the topic.