if you can hit a 1 iron...

[bamfur]

The longer the iron, the more swing flaws are magnified, correct? Which is why it is harder to hit my 3 and 4 irons versus my shorter irons.

But I have noticed, at the range, after practicing a while with my longer irons, the short irons are even easier to hit and I am that much more consistent with them.

So I was thinking of getting an 1 iron to practice with to apply this same concept. Any thoughts on this idea of training with a 1 iron to improve my consistency with the 3 and 4 iron?

 

[Richie3Jack]

I recently bought some vintage MacGregor 985 blades off of eBay. I wanted to use them for practice and I actually liked them. The shafts needed to be changed and the only other thing preventing me from making them my 'gamers' is that my current Mizuno's just feel better when you catch it flush.

Either way, my downswing improved by practicing and playing casual rounds with the Mac 985's.

I kept hearing how the vintage Hogan blades had really good forgings and I would be happy with the feel when I caught them flush.

So I got a set of 2-PW (Equalizer) of some 1963 Hogan IPT blades.

I instantly fell in love with them. They feel as good as any current forged blade I've tried (I've tried just about everything, including Miura and KZG, but haven't tried Scratch Golf). But they are certainly less forgiving than my current MP-62's. They also have extremely sharp leading edges which I love and I think help golfer's learn how to control their low point better. And they are heavier with flatter lie angles.

I especially love the 2-iron because when I use it on the range and start hitting it well, my swing improves with every club. Just fantastic.

So personally, I HIGHLY suggest getting some vintage blades (particularly Hogan blades) off of eBay which you can usually find anywhere from the $30-$100 range and just practice with those and play some casual rounds with those. I think you will be much more precise with your downswing because it requires you to be more precise.

I'm working a bit on some adjustments to my swing as we speak, but once I get my swing pretty much to where I want it to be, I'll probably get myself fit for clubs with my 'new' swing and then put a new KBS shaft in my vintage Hogan 5-iron and see how it performs. If it does well, then I will ship my vintage Hogan's off to get re-chromed, re-grooved, re-shafted, etc. And it will still cost a lot less than buying brand new clubs.

But I think everybody should at least have some tough to hit blades with them for practice, it will be the best purchase under $100 you'll ever make.





3JACK

 

[LilDonV]

Bamfur,
That is a brilliant observation. By the way, you are a wizard with the pan-flute.
DV

 

[softconsult]

3Jack, I'm experimenting with Scratch Wedges. Bought a 56 TNC grind from them on e-Bay in last year's model JLM 1018. Due to a screw up on their part they shipped twice, so I have identical heads, one with DGS300 shaft and one with their new proprietary KBS Wedge shaft.

Back and forth shots, at least with my swing, clearly demonstrates that the KBS is the better shaft.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

The longer the iron, the more swing flaws are magnified, correct? Which is why it is harder to hit my 3 and 4 irons versus my shorter irons.

But I have noticed, at the range, after practicing a while with my longer irons, the short irons are even easier to hit and I am that much more consistent with them.

So I was thinking of getting an 1 iron to practice with to apply this same concept. Any thoughts on this idea of training with a 1 iron to improve my consistency with the 3 and 4 iron?

The longer irons are harder to hit because there is less loft and less loft magnifies the mishit due to the potential alteration in spin axis (side spin aka). So it isn't that they are hard to hit, it's you have to have that much better clubface control to do it otherwise they go all over the place.

ALSO

Most people simply don't even have the proper amount of SWING SPEED needed to produce enough ball speed and spin to use them effectively hence the creation of hybrids.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

So personally, I HIGHLY suggest getting some vintage blades (particularly Hogan blades) off of eBay which you can usually find anywhere from the $30-$100 range and just practice with those and play some casual rounds with those. I think you will be much more precise with your downswing because it requires you to be more precise.

This is a golfing myth and may work for you richie because well, you can play pretty damn well. I could give you a a broomstick and you might make it work similar to how you can get a tour pro to prove almost any method.

There's a reason why there's a MINORITY of PGA Players playing BLADES on tour.

Also btw that 2 iron of yours has the loft of a 3.5* iron of today.

 

[Richie3Jack]

Back and forth shots, at least with my swing, clearly demonstrates that the KBS is the better shaft.

KBS does make an excellent steel shaft and they are pretty affordable as well. They launch a bit higher than Dynamic Gold but if you don't like that there's way to get around it.




3JACK

 

[Benjaaz]

I used a 1 iron for many years to tee off with; I couldn't hit a wood to save my life. I can hit woods now but struggle with my old 1 iron which I drag out once in a while. I felt I could control the ball better with a long iron but I'm a picker which may have something to do with that. I have a hybrid now but still rely on hitting my 3 iron when I have to hit a controlled draw. You can't buy a 1 iron anymore, last time I tried I had to buy a 2 iron with a longer shaft and have it bent to less loft.

 

[Richie3Jack]

This is a golfing myth and may work for you richie because well, you can play pretty damn well. I could give you a a broomstick and you might make it work similar to how you can get a tour pro to prove almost any method.

There's a reason why there's a MINORITY of PGA Players playing BLADES on tour.

Also btw that 2 iron of yours has the loft of a 3.5* iron of today.

Jim, do you mean a 3 1/2 iron or a 3.5 degree iron?

I am assuming the former. That being said the shafts are 1/2" shorter than standard and the sweetspot is higher up causing the ball to launch lower. That being said, I still think the lofts were made slighty weaker than the needed to be back then.

Still, the 2-iron is very difficult to hit and there's very little room for error and that's why I like it.

Anyway, recently I've been reading a lot on the brain and hand and eye coordination. I believe the golf swing is mostly geared towards mechanics and alignments and how dynamic those mechanics and alignments are. I think hand and eye coordination is usually grossly overrated by most amateurs in place of sound mechanics and alignments. But, I readily acknowledge that hand and eye coordination does have an important place in the golf swing.

I think hand and eye coordination can be greatly improved and I think if you are practicing with blades, all of the research done on the brain and hand eye coordination point to that being better for helping with hand and eye coordination than practicing with GI irons or even player CB's.

Now if you want to have a set of clubs for a *real round*, then I can perfectly understand not using blade irons if you are in fear of mis-hits because the goal of 'real rounds' is to shoot the lowest score possible. But in practice it's to improve or to sharpen your skills. I feel the old, vintage blades help do that with hand-eye coordination.






3JACK

 

[greenfree]

Jim, do you mean a 3 1/2 iron or a 3.5 degree iron?

I am assuming the former. That being said the shafts are 1/2" shorter than standard and the sweetspot is higher up causing the ball to launch lower. That being said, I still think the lofts were made slighty weaker than the needed to be back then.

Still, the 2-iron is very difficult to hit and there's very little room for error and that's why I like it.

Anyway, recently I've been reading a lot on the brain and hand and eye coordination. I believe the golf swing is mostly geared towards mechanics and alignments and how dynamic those mechanics and alignments are. I think hand and eye coordination is usually grossly overrated by most amateurs in place of sound mechanics and alignments. But, I readily acknowledge that hand and eye coordination does have an important place in the golf swing.

I think hand and eye coordination can be greatly improved and I think if you are practicing with blades, all of the research done on the brain and hand eye coordination point to that being better for helping with hand and eye coordination than practicing with GI irons or even player CB's.

Now if you want to have a set of clubs for a *real round*, then I can perfectly understand not using blade irons if you are in fear of mis-hits because the goal of 'real rounds' is to shoot the lowest score possible. But in practice it's to improve or to sharpen your skills. I feel the old, vintage blades help do that with hand-eye coordination.




3JACK

Luv my 1965 Walter Hagens,2i-pw. bore thru with a vibration plug in the hosel, hey didn't Callaway invent that? Oh yeah, Callaway has no hosel.

 

[Richie3Jack]

Luv my 1965 Walter Hagens,2i-pw. bore thru with a vibration plug in the hosel, hey didn't Callaway invent that? Oh yeah, Callaway has no hosel.

Greenfee -- what is the leading edge like on those irons? I found the Hogan line of irons from the 60's to have a super sharp leading edge that I really like, but i don't know if that was common from irons back then or what.




3JACK

 

[greenfree]

Greenfee -- what is the leading edge like on those irons? I found the Hogan line of irons from the 60's to have a super sharp leading edge that I really like, but i don't know if that was common from irons back then or what.




3JACK

Not crazy sharp, but sharper than newer clubs. Can't deloft them or you'll get a negative bounce angle. Check out Iron finder on the net and you can see pics of all kinds of irons, interesting to see the old stuff. I got the Woods also, 1,2,3,4,5,. Their a lot of fun to hit.

 

[jonnygrouville]

I used to love my one iron! Obviously something to do with my swing, but my spread would probably be better with a bag of these than a bag of short irons...

I had Mizuno TP-11s (not sure what these were called in the US) through college and that one iron was a dream. It only left my bag when beauty was replaced by the beast; the Ping Eye 2. Great club that. Far from the purist, but still a classic in a Volkswagen Beetle type way.

In my modernisation, I moved to a Callaway one iron, but it never got the same flight. Playing lots of seaside golf in the winter, the last thing you want is a one iron that can balloon.

My dad has a set of MacGregor Tourney MTs sitting at home. He had them rechromed and reshafted, but they were always too upright for me to use.

 

[softconsult]

I don't really remember the brand or model, but when I transfered from Portland, Oregon to Lumberton, NC in 1978 I learned a new golfclub term.

My clubs, blades, were digging into the sandy soil. This wasn't a problem in the soft soil of the Pacific Northwest. The term was "cambered and rolled". They convinced me to go to irons with this design.

 

[Matthew Falcon]

Bamfur's original post is very interesting to me because it was something I used to do - practice with a long iron to become better with my short irons. The only trouble was that I couldn't become better with all of my irons across the board because I still had to deal with 11 irons that were all different lengths.

I bought a set of irons from 1 Iron Golf a while back that are all the same length and the trouble disappeared overnight. Now when I'm practicing with my #3 iron I'm actually practicing with every iron in the set because they're identical club lengths. Made a huge difference in my game and I'm just as confident with my #3 iron as I am with my PW.

 

[grs]

Bamfur's original post is very interesting to me because it was something I used to do - practice with a long iron to become better with my short irons. The only trouble was that I couldn't become better with all of my irons across the board because I still had to deal with 11 irons that were all different lengths.

I bought a set of irons from 1 Iron Golf a while back that are all the same length and the trouble disappeared overnight. Now when I'm practicing with my #3 iron I'm actually practicing with every iron in the set because they're identical club lengths. Made a huge difference in my game and I'm just as confident with my #3 iron as I am with my PW.

Interesting, so are all the clubs the length of like a 5 iron?

 

[jonnygrouville]

I think Tommy Armour had a set full of six iron length clubs many years ago. The 'three iron' is probably going to be about two inches shorter than regular. What sort of loft will this have to make up the distance? And do the wedges have really long grips? And even more loft?

On the practice front, once again, it's horses for courses. Some people are going to benefit from this, some aren't. I'm hitting nothing but short irons at the moment to get some more up going back and down heading through. I can get away with picking long irons off bare lies, but the wedges show all my weaknesses.

 

[Matthew Falcon]

GRS:

1 Iron Golf custom builds the clubs to length based on your W-T-F measurement. My W-T-F is 37" and my irons are the length of a regular #6 iron which was always my favorite iron. Their golf forum has a lot of posts about W-T-F measurements and associated club lengths and a few examples are: W-T-F of 33" to 33.9" equals a PW club length; W-T-F of 35" to 35.9" equals an #8 iron club length; etc.

Jonnygrouville:

The lofts are in 4º increments throughout a set of irons. The #3 iron is 19º. The website explains the myth of club length being a factor of distance and in my case I hit the #3 iron farther than I ever hit any #3 iron in my life. The big difference is that I nail it every time whereas I couldn't hit a regular #3 iron consistently to save my life. Here's a link to the specifications page of their website: Specs

Matthew

 

[GPM1985]

GRS:

1 Iron Golf custom builds the clubs to length based on your W-T-F measurement. My W-T-F is 37" and my irons are the length of a regular #6 iron which was always my favorite iron. Their golf forum has a lot of posts about W-T-F measurements and associated club lengths and a few examples are: W-T-F of 33" to 33.9" equals a PW club length; W-T-F of 35" to 35.9" equals an #8 iron club length; etc.

Jonnygrouville:

The lofts are in 4º increments throughout a set of irons. The #3 iron is 19º. The website explains the myth of club length being a factor of distance and in my case I hit the #3 iron farther than I ever hit any #3 iron in my life. The big difference is that I nail it every time whereas I couldn't hit a regular #3 iron consistently to save my life. Here's a link to the specifications page of their website: Specs

Matthew

I've been curious about single-length irons for a while. The concept makes sense to me. I haven't heard anyone make a good case for why they'd be worse than traditional irons. The reasons usually boil down to "it's just weird," which might actually be valid when you consider the personal nature of equipment selection. Comfort is hard to argue against.

 

[greenfree]

I've been curious about single-length irons for a while. The concept makes sense to me. I haven't heard anyone make a good case for why they'd be worse than traditional irons. The reasons usually boil down to "it's just weird," which might actually be valid when you consider the personal nature of equipment selection. Comfort is hard to argue against.

What length would all the irons be and what weight would all the iron heads be? What formula would be used to determine the loft, bounce etc., would it affect your yardage for each club?

Would all the shafts have to be adjusted also? Would you hit your 4i the same distance as your 5i? What about your woods? Just thinking out loud.