Has anyone attempted a one length irons set self build? How did it work out? Pitfalls and things to think about?
Building a 1 length set of irons
Heads unless designed that way will be your biggest deterrent. The head weights and bounces are going to cause a issue. So assuming the heads are made for variable length and 7 gram increments with 7 iron being your base getting potentially 21 grams out of the PW will lead to a issue possibly or adding it to the 4 iron in lead tape and weights.
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- #3
If mimicking off of the Cobra line of clubs, this is very correct, because the internal side of the irons is quite different. I know we have a video on THPGolf somewhere where Mike Yagley shows off the differences in their head design between variable and One Length.
Can it be done in loft only? Possibly, there are sets that go about it that way, and work with shafts to achieve ball flight, but in my opinion it is less effective without some serious speed behind it.
A good example of this is if you were to take a driver head and cut it way down to 40 inches or further. You would lose a tremendous amount of speed. Weight could then be added to try and get that back up. Now in the short irons, that is quite different
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- #4
And I found it. Here is Yagley showing off the clubs cut in half and talking about creation.
I played the Cobra Forged One length Irons for a little over a season a few years back and overall really liked them. If you’re trying to build these with variable length heads the other posts in here are correct in saying that will likely be your biggest challenge. From the shaft perspective mine had taper tip KBS FLT flighted shafts in them which worked well (except the 4-iron which I hate in almost all of my sets) since these shafts were taper tip and flighted, they were installed in the same manner as a variable length set of shafts instead of using all 7-iron shafts. IMO this is the way to go when using taper tips for 2 reasons. 1. Trajectories across the entire set are typically better than what you’d see with all 7-iron blanks. When using all 7s most golfers can’t launch the ball high enough with enough spin to get ideal distance gapping on the long end of the set. 2. When you install taper into a OL set like you would variable sets (4i shaft in 4i head etc.) you actually end up with a gradual weight progression from the long irons to wedges with the long irons being slightly lighter than each consecutive club on your way to the wedges (think AMTs but more subtle) usually about a 10g delta with steel shafts in the 120g range. With that being said there are some things that Cobra didn’t realize in their first few iterations of the OL offerings, such as how traditional shafts would react to the OL constant head weights. Basically a 4i shaft in a 4i OL head is better for trajectory, BUT that shaft isn’t intended to be used in such a heavy head, so it’s more likely to create shaft droop in the swing which can flatten the lie. You’ll see their lie angles changed from being constant in 17’18’ to variable in stuff from 19’-Today. Overall there is a lot left to learn about how this can be perfected moving forward since no major brand has really put the time into research it other than cobra. I think a ton of mid-high HDCP golfers would benefit from OL because it really does simplify things. If I ever go back to my set I’ll probably go check my lie angles and get them adjusted if needed, I would probably add in one of Cobra’s newer OL versions with hollow heads to replace my 4i and possibly 5i since so much more can be done to manipulate CG and launch in a hollow head iron VS a forged cavity back head. Then there’s still the question of wedges…I don’t have the time or energy to get into all of that!
When it comes to your quest to build a set, I’d personally look for a used set of Cobras instead. If you can find some OL weighted heads you’ll be fine to build yourself but trying to convert variable to OL heads is a waste of time and you’ll most likely end up with the ugliest set of clubs in the world with a ton of lead tape on long irons and holes drilled in the wedges. Mid irons will look great though, so you’ve got that going for ya.