Hi,
Do you have any plans to develop a one length iron set this year?
Thanks,
Brandon
Catch.. just cause they don’t make one length don’t mean you cant get them order whatever club pack you want and request all shafts to be cut to 37.5 inches or what ever you want… To get roughly the same distances and gaps your going to have to make them bend 9-pw weaker.. isbsay pw 2 degrees, 9 iron one degree… 8 7 6 iron should be okay.. 5 1 degree stronger and 4 iron 2 degrees stronger…. You have to bend the clubs to get the appropriate gaps because the shafts length on shorter irons will increase distance… And shaft length on the longer irons will decrease distance
Caution!!! If one were to make a “one-length” iron set by merely cutting the shafts installed into iron heads that are designed for progressive lengths to the same length, the long iron swing weights / total club MOI will end up being way too low and the swing weight / total club MOI of the short irons will be extremely high. A set constructed in this manner, without adding significant weight to the long iron heads and removing significant weight from the short irons, would yield a set that is very difficult to play. More to the point, iron heads designed for a single length set are specifically weighted to only be assembled as a single-length set and irons with roughly 7-8g incremental weighting through the set are designed to be cut to incremental lengths for consistent playing characteristics. Look at the specs for any of the Maltby irons and you will see this head weight progression. I would never want to speak for Britt because he has forgotten more about golf club design, fitting, et all than I will ever know, but when he says “no plans for a one length product”, I am confident he means Golfworks has no plans to make irons heads with the very specific weighting required to perform as a one-length set.
Sagolfer that is both easy fixes.. you can add led tape to the long irons to get disired swing weight and use lighter shafts on the shorter irons.. i mean tensei makes a 60 gram iron shaft.. and there are other ways to go about it.. just a play thing.. if your a s300 guy you can use 115s in 8 and 9 and maybe xp 95s in the p and G… there are ways to manipulate swing weight homie.. and to add to that you can always shave weight off the head.. there is a pga pro who shaved ,mini holes in there iron heads to get desired swing weight so you could add led tape and the shave weight off with a circular drill to where it looks like the scotty cameron circles to reduce weight.. same concept.. there is a way around everything my dude. but you did bring up a really good and valid point… i was thinking of loft progression more that club weights at first
After reading this, I am interpreting two proposed scenarios to build a single length iron set using iron heads with progressive weighting. Many of us visit this forum because we like to tinker with golf clubs. That IS a great deal of fun, so let’s go for it with a hypothetical build using these two scenarios. (For those of you on this forum who have more custom club building experience than I do: a.) a sincere “thank you” for your contributions as I have learned a great deal from your experience and posts over the years and b.) PLEASE correct me if I am in error at any point as I would not want pass along inaccurate information to those wanting to attempt to build a single length set using progressively weighted heads.)
Scenario #1 adjust the head weight of progressively weighted irons to build a MOI matched single length iron set. The head weights for the irons comprising a single length set for two companies that currently manufacture irons for this purpose are 270g and 274g. Let’s take the average and assume our target iron head weight for our single length set build is 272g. (Side note: If the “PGA pro who shaved mini holes in the iron heads to get a desired swing weight” being referenced is Charl Schwarzel, then yes, I am aware that he removed 6g of material from his solid forged muscle back irons to move his swing weight from D6 to D3 — 2 grams of head weight = about 1 swing weight [depending upon shaft length, shaft balance point and grip weight]). Judging by the pictures, it looks like each of his drilled ports = 2g of removal (3 ports per club, 6g mass removed = 2g per port) I am going to use the Maltby MMB-17 as the iron head to manipulate because it is Maltby’s version of a solid muscle back iron if we were to “shave weight off with a circular drill”.
To build a single length set of irons (4-GW) using the MMB-17 heads, the following adjustments (in parenthesis) would be required to hit our target weight of 272g per head. The MMB-17 head weights are taken from the Golfworks catalog Jan 2020, p. 210.
4 iron = 247g (add 25g of weight to the head). 5 iron = 254g (add 18g). 6 iron = 261g (add 11g). 7 iron = 268g (add 4 g). 8 iron.= 276g (remove 4g = drilling two of Schwartzel’s ports-assuming mass of his club head material is same as MMB). 9 iron = 284g (remove 12g = 6 drilled ports). PW and GW = 291g (remove 19g = 9.5 drilled ports).
Scenario #2: Use different weighted shafts in groupings of irons to hit a target total club weight. Full disclosure: I play DG AMT s300 shafts that are 3g progressive mass difference (helps with making an MOI matched set with progressive lengths). I have never tried playing, building a set for, or conducting hit testing with, someone with a set composed of shafts with raw weights of 95g, 115g and 130g in stiff flexes, as proposed in the post, to hit a target total club weight for a single length set. I do understand that, ULTIMATELY, hit testing and experimentation is KING. Based on my limited knowledge of shafts, the same flex designation in different weight classes of shafts by the same company will not feel the same to a majority of players. An S flex in a 95g shaft will feel softer than an S flex in higher weight categories. My concern would be these variations in feel would compromise the player’s timing and tempo as he hits various clubs in a set built with these specs and would potentially make consistent ball striking an elusive search. In addition, the balance and bend point of the shafts from these three categories will most likely differ, throwing more variables into the mix for the player to sort out. In addition, the different shaft balance points may change the total club MOI. The goal of a single length set is to keep the total club MOI constant throughout the set. But, as I said, hit testing is king and if anyone has had success in building a single length set in this manner I would very much like to hear about it…more knowledge gained about custom club building is definitely a good thing!
well said sagolfer