Question

2.31K viewsAugust 30, 2021

emdrown 16 August 29, 2021 0 Comments

After a year-long case of the shanks, I shortened my 34-degree 7-iron from 36.75″ to 36″ hoping to hit the center of the club face more often. I’m striking the ball really well: solid, most times in the center of the club face. The balls seems to fly off the club face. But my launch angle is really high – between 29 and 31 degrees – and carry and overall distance is noticeably shorter. I’ve gone from hitting the 7-iron about 160 to 135. I’m seeing the same very high, shorter ball flight throughout the set (5-LW). I’m wondering if I’ve made the clubs too short, thus producing the higher launch angle and overall shorter distance.

7-iron specs:
Dynacraft Direct Line 002
Loft: 34*
Lie: 63*
Shaft: True Temper Steel Extra Light S-flex Low kick point 110g: 37″
7-iron club speed – about 48 mph
attack angle ranges from -5.8 to -6.8

Thanks in advance!

Eric

emdrown Unselected an answer August 30, 2021

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Answer 1 · 2021-08-30T09:54:57+00:00

Britt Lindsey 11.54K Posted August 30, 2021 3 Comments

First, I doubt your 7 iron club head speed is 48mph. That’s really slow and would not generate 135 yards. I will assume that was a typo. Secondly, without seeing you hit shots it is hard to tell what the real cause of the ball flight issues might be. Shorter clubs are easier to hit solid, no doubt, but you do give up some club head speed and thus distance the shorter the club lengths are. It is great that it solved the s_ _ _ _ problem (I can’t even type that word) but you do give up one element in the distance equation, that being club length. Hopefully the shorter length is the length that actually fits you. If you’re hitting it solid, it sounds like it might be. One thing the shorter length may be doing is causing you to have a steeper angle, which can produce a higher trajectory. Again, without seeing you hit shots it’s difficult to know. Also, by today’s standards, the 34 degree 7 iron is on the weaker side for the loft of a #7 iron. That contributes to higher launch. The shaft being a lower kick point also contributes to higher trajectory. So, you have a several things that contribute to hitting the ball high, even if your swing action isn’t one of them (it may be).

I would take the time to have a qualified professional club fitter / golf professional take a look. They should be able to help yo dial in the best combination of specifications to get your ball flight and distance where you want it to be.

Britt Lindsey

emdrown Posted new comment September 7, 2021

emdrown commented August 30, 2021

That’s really helpful, Britt. You’re right, my swing speed and launch angle data may be off – I’m trying out the Swing Vision app and may not have it set up right. I know that my irons are short and very high, but you’ve given me a lot to work with. I have some shafts with a mid-kick point. I’ll try those at a half an inch longer and see what happens.

There’s a Dick’s Sporting Goods near me that offers fittings. Any sense of the quality of club fitting at Dick’s generally speaking?

Thanks very much!

Britt Lindsey commented August 31, 2021

Glad to be able to give you something to work with. The mid-kick point shafts and the 1/2 inch longer seems like a good place to start. As far as the fitting goes, every store is different. I am not too confident that you can get a quality fitting at a Dick’s store, but you might. Much more likely to get a quality fitting at a Golf Galaxy location if there is one near you. Still, even at Golf Galaxy, or other retail golf shops, it totally depends on the experience and expertise of the staff at that particular store. Some are excellent and some simply don’t have the expertise. I wouldn’t hesitate to ask questions of the staff in any store what there expertise or experience is with regards to fitting. I do know that Golf Galaxy has done a lot recently to improve the service and experience in there stores. Again, depends on the store.
Britt Lindsey

emdrown commented September 7, 2021

Hi Britt,

I thought I’d check back in and report on my progress trying to getting a more penetrating ball flight with distances I can live with.

I reshafted my irons with mid-kick stiff Apollo stepless steel shafts and added half-an-inch to all my irons. You might remember that I had shortened my irons because I couldn’t hit the sweet spot consistently and that shortening them had indeed let me hit it but with loss of distance and very high ball flight. The slightly longer irons made my ball striking inconsistent again and reintroduced the hosel rocket problem periodically with no noticeable change in ball flight or distance. I worked on my swing for a few days and struggled quite a bit. One thing that helped was reducing my grip pressure and arm tension. I hit the center of the clubface more often but still had some really bad misses that I couldn’t live with. I’ve been reading about shorter clubs for some time now and everyone always writes about making sure to restore swing weight. I never really understood swing weight and didn’t have the equipment to measure it, so I just ignored it. But the other day, I decided to buy some lead tape and see what I could do. I went to the range and experimented. In the end, I added about 4 grams of tape 7-PW and 2 grams of tape to 5-6. I left my blade-style GW, SW, and LW alone because they were pretty heavy already and I’ve been hitting them fine if a little short. The result – much more consistent ball striking, more penetrating ball flight, and distances more like what I was expecting.

To me, it seems like swing weight was the final factor I needed to consider to get my irons swinging more consistently.

Thanks for your help, Britt.

Eric