Learn the differences between Conventional Irons and Single-Length Irons
I am constantly amazed when golfers boast about their conventional sets of irons being “custom fitted” and, therefore, producing enhanced and consistent performance. The concept of being “custom fitted” for a set of conventional golf clubs is ridiculous in that you still end up with 13 clubs (excluding the putter) of different lengths, weights, shaft flexes, lie angles, bounce angles, offsets, etc. when, in fact, your body gravitates to only one efficient movement for any physical endeavor (that is the reason why all golfers have a “favorite” iron). Therefore, after being “custom fitted” for a set of conventional clubs you still end up having only one iron in your bag that even comes close to fitting you correctly and that somewhat allows for the swing posture and swing movement that your body wants to make when hitting a ball with a golf club. As far as consistent performance goes I have to bite my tongue. The following table shows the typical specifications for a conventional set of irons (varies between brands as there are no specification standards in the golf industry).
How this equates to consistency I do not know. I would like to point out something from the above table that most golfers do not realize and that has to do with the varying shaft flexes within a set of conventional irons. Regardless of what the shaft bands state, every one of the irons in a conventional set has a different shaft flex that gets progressively stiffer from the #3 iron to the wedges. To prove this to yourself simply hold the clubhead of a conventional #3 iron in one hand with the grip in the other hand and bend it – then do the same thing with the PW from the same set and you will see what I mean.
Another thing that most golfers do not realize is that in a conventional set of irons the clubhead weight progressively increases from the #3 iron through the wedges. This results in a greater amount of mass impacting the golf ball with the wedges than the low lofted irons. Wouldn’t you want the higher impact mass associated with the iron that is designed to produce the most distance? Enhanced and consistent performance? – Go figure.
The specifications for a set of 1 Iron single length irons are shown below. With the exception of the bounce angle on our SW the only difference between irons is the exact 4º loft angle progression from the #3 iron through the wedges. The reason for the additional 3º of bounce angle on the SW is to enhance play from a soft bunker. You may note that the bounce angle of a typical conventional SW varies from 10º to 14º. Bounce angles this high produce a clunky shot out of the sand and make playing shots from a close cut fairway virtually impossible. What is sad is that most golfers will continually blade shots out of the fairway with a conventional SW without ever even understanding why. Our 1 Iron single length SW was designed for highly effective sand play as well as fairway play, and an interesting point is that part of my design testing for our SW involved hitting balls off of a cement driveway (no skulled shots with our SW).
At the end of the day you just have to leave all of the marketing hype about custom fitting and conventional golf club design behind and simply rely on plain old common sense.
Can you buy these as single irondlike pw gw and 9 iron in graphite
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1 Iron Golf replied:
Hi! Thanks for reaching out. We only install our proprietary steel shafts in our irons and fairway woods. The design of our golf shafts in combination with our proprietary Shaft Optimization Process produces a perfectly balanced golf club (other brands use stock shafts with no balance criteria). Once this perfect balance is achieved the concept of shaft flex disappears and the golf club will perform at its peak performance level regardless of swing speed or strength. Our golf clubs are played by professional golfers and long-drive champions with extremely high swing speeds and played by senior women golfers with very low swing speeds. This balance also greatly reduces any potential vibration of the shaft, and that, coupled with our 1/8” oversized Lamkin grips, virtually eliminates any vibration you would normally experience with steel shafts. It is of note that many of our customers are former graphite shaft players.
One Iron Golf <https://1irongolf.com>
Can you make upright clubs for single plane swing?
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1 Iron Golf replied:
Hi Tom, 1 Iron Golf clubs are not method specific and are played and recommended by conventional PGA instructors as well as single-axis/single-plane (Moe Norman), PPGS, Stack and Tilt, Gravity Golf, Mike Austin, and other swing method instructors and advocates. Regardless of the swing method or address position used, the ideal position of the body, wrists, and arms are identical at the point of ball impact. Simply put, it is not important how you get to the ideal impact position as long as you end up in the ideal impact position. Consequently, since 1 Iron Golf *clubs are built to your ideal club length in relation to the optimum clubhead lie angle based upon the ideal impact position they will produce enhanced ball striking no matter what swing method is employed. Something to bear in mind is that since all of your *1 Irons are the same length you need to use the exact same ball position with each one and disregard any other instruction on ball position since these instructions pertain to conventional varying length golf clubs.
I like the logic of these. One question, what distance do I lose say with a 5 iron, conventional vs. one iron?
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1 Iron Golf replied:
Hi Bruce! Assuming the same loft angles, there would be no difference in distance. The single-length irons, however, would produce a much higher degree of consistent ball striking.
Won’t take my email.
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1 Iron Golf replied:
Hi Richard, are you trying to comment on the post or sign up for our newsletter?
I am very interested in these clubs. If it’s true what you’re claiming I might be interested. Where can I go to se what they look like. Please get back to me.
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1 Iron Golf replied:
Hi Anthony! You can see what they look like in our product pages and YouTube Videos, but the best way is to order a set and play them on your home course for 30 days. We have a generous return policy on new sets of clubs (does not apply to used/demo). Check out the options https://1irongolf.com/collections/all-products. Also, check out our reviews, we’ve been specializing in single-length clubs for over 25 years! Let us know if you have any questions!
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