Hey gang,

I am in need of some expert guidance.

Recently I came into possession of a near-mint set of Tommy Armour 845m irons.  As you may know, these were designed by Ralph Maltby himself circa 2003 and have one of the highest MPF ratings (650) of any blade design. They look fantastic and I trust will perform as well as they look.  I’ve searched this forum and others to learn about these clubs and can’t wait to play them.

The clubs are at present regular length with TT DG R300 shafts. Being 6’3″, I play 1″ over and 2 degrees upright in my irons, so need to get these reshafted and bent.

I seek the collective wisdom of the folks on here to help me with deciding on which shaft to choose.

The only requirement is that the shafts must be steel. The 845m heads have a nice chrome finish that you don’t see much these days, and thus deserve a steel shaft to keep the shiny appearance.

Here are some facts that you may want to incorporate into your analysis:

  • My driver swing speed is 100 mph on average.
  • My 7-iron distance is 150 yards, maybe a touch more. This is with lofts of 33 and 34 degrees. The 845m 7-iron is 35 degrees stock.  I typically don’t worry too much about strong or weak lofts and am willing to play the clubs by their distances. I could care less if my friend is hitting 9 iron and I am hitting 7 the same distance.
  • My Maltby shaft rating is probably 4B1H or 4B1M.  I have been fitted twice: via the Titleist fitting van in 2007, I came up DG S300 (shaft rating 4B1H); and via a local independent fitter (now retired) in 2013 when I got Aerotech Steelfiber i95 stiff (also 4B1H). I don’t think my swing speed has changed enough since those fittings to change away from 4B1H.
  • I really like the Steelfiber shafts and have played them since 2013, but they are not steel so out of the running.  Playing Stiff+1″ makes the flex a third of the way to Regular anyway, which seems about right for my game.
  • My current primary sets of irons are Bridgestone J40 CBs with Steelfiber i95 Stiff, and Cobra King Forged with KBS Tour 90 Stiff (4B1H again). I am thinking that the 845m shafts should be lightweight like those, otherwise I risk having a set of clubs that feels wildly different from the others…or am I off base there?
  • Being tall, I typically have no problem getting the ball aloft with spin. If anything, I can afford to lose loft and spin rather than add it.
  • My current index is 10.9. I’m hoping to break below 10 this year. Obviously I need to play more with these new clubs!

From the GolfWorks shaft listings, 4B1H gives me a bunch of steel shafts from KBS to Dynamic Gold to NS Pro to Project X LZ. Of those, I’ve only had recent experience with the KBS Tour 90 shafts, for which I did not get fitted (they were a special order that got canceled, and when I saw them for cheap I grabbed them as a backup set).  I have not noticed a huge difference between the J40+Steelfiber and Cobra+KBS90, but I may not be good enough to tell.

The only 4B1M shaft appears to be the Recoil 95 and 110, which I’ve never used.

With all that, what would be your recommendation(s)? What other information would you need from me to give a recommendation?

I do intend to go get fitted, but I would like to go in with at least a few thoughts since the local fitters may not be able to find a club that closely mimics the 845m shape and size for fitting purposes.  In other words, the “2003-era fitting” might not get the same level of exactitude as a fitting for current clubs.  Just finding fitting clubs that are +1″ is a challenge at times.

I look forward to your thoughts.  Thanks in advance!

Britt Lindsey Answered question January 21, 2021

Adding to the data here…I estimated the swingweights of the Cobra Tour Forged irons using a scale and a measuring tape.

All the irons from 4 through 9 were D2 or D1, and the PW was D4. I figure that those numbers are good enough for estimating future clubs. The scale was to the nearest gram and the measuring tape within 0.5cm.

I use jumbo Lamkin Crossline grips in case anyone was wondering why the SW wasn’t higher with +1″ shafts.