Hey everyone, long post here, a little background before the questions. I’ve been playing golf for about 10 years, but looking to get serious now lol. I’d like to play on the minor league tour in Florida someday. Going to approach golf as a job. I’m 25 yrs old, no handicap, but average in the high 70s-low 80s. My Taylormade r7 irons are 7-8 yrs old and I’m looking to replace. I don’t know much about equipment, (lie angle, shafts, club length etc) but anxious to learn.

Received an iron fitting at GolfGalaxy yesterday, the fitter recommended standard lie/club length, with XP115 stiff shafts. While hitting balls on the simulator, (Callaway XR steel Irons – 7 iron) it was carrying 180-195. Huge surprise to me, since 165-175 is what I thought my 7i distance was. Did some research when I got home and discovered the club I was hitting was 30 degree loft and 37″ length (unsure of shaft). Compared to my r7 7i, which is 32 loft/36.75″ length, Regular flex steel shaft.

After comparing the specs of a few sets online, trying to learn the basic numbers of certain clubs, I noticed the loft and club length for 7 irons between different brands varied. The new Callaway and Taylormade 7 irons seem to be longer length with less loft. Almost like a 6 iron. Which explains why I was hitting it so much further than what I’d expect.  The biggest difference so far (compared 6 sets of irons) was PSi Tour iron 7i = 34 degree loft, 36.75″ length – VS – the Callaway XR 7i = 30 degree loft, 37″ length. That’s almost an entirely different club! lol

After observing this, I dug a little deeper. Found the specs for my r7 irons online, and discovered the PW & AW are the same length (35.5″) & lie (64.5), with a 5 degree difference in loft (45 vs 50). From practicing, I know I can’t hit the AW as far as the PW. I’d guess a 10-15 yd max difference. 135-140yd PW max carry vs 120-125yd AW max carry.

I guess what I’m trying to figure out is, how far would that club go (same lie 64.5 & length 35.5″) if the loft was 40, 35, 30, 25 degrees? I’m only 5’4 tall, so shorter clubs are more comfortable for me. I wouldn’t keep all clubs the same length, but wondering how much distance I could squeeze out of the 35.5″ club with only decreasing the loft? When the yardage gap via loft becomes too small, I would add 1/4 – 1/2″. Since the 37″ 30 degree “7 iron” was carrying 180-190, I could consider that my 5 iron. Keeping the 37″ length and decreasing loft to 25 degrees could be my 4 iron, etc. Hope this is making sense.

Overall, I’m trying to keep club lengths similar while only changing loft, and only increasing club/shaft length when less loft no longer adds distance. All of this might be oversimplified and not feasible for reasons unknown to me (lie angle, clubhead weight, shaft weight/flex etc). So if you’ve read this far, I’d love to learn if these types of things can be achieved or not. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Interesting article, scroll to bottom to see loft difference in irons over time
http://www.leaderboard.com/loftinfo.htm