aceinspace
Active member
Having read through the entire thread so far I would like to offer my reply:
Around the time they changed the clubs with names such as Driver, Brassie, Spoon, Cleek, Mashie, Niblick to numbers typically golfers in those days would carry the following set:
Woods: 1, 3, 4, 5
Irons: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, PW, SW
Putter
The touring pro would probably drop the 4W or 5W and replace them with a 1I or 2I.
The above remained pretty consistent from 1950s for the next 30 years or so.
I believe that is reason the highest number iron is a 9 regardless of the loft based on the tradition from that time.
Also, although the driver had the No. 1 on them, people still referred it by the traditional name.
Woods were made of real wood until the early 1980's. If I remember correctly when Tom Watson won the US Open in 1982 he was still hitting wooden clubs and his famous chip in was with the SW, which was the highest loft club in his bag (as well as of all other pros.) The loft on that would probably be 56*. Typical PW was around 50-52*.
I started playing golf regularly around the mid 1980s. My first real nice set consisted of TaylorMade Pittsburgh Persimmon metal woods (steel shafts) and Ping Eye 2 irons. The specs on the irons were:
Obviously I didn't carry a 1 or a 2 and I wasn't good enough to really hit the long irons consistently then so I typically used the 3 to put the ball back in play from the trees after hitting an ugly slice of a drive.
Incidentally, I saw Tiger as a teenager when he was invited as an amateur at his first pro tournament at the L.A. Open. He had TaylorMade Pittsburgh Persimmon metal woods and a Ping putter. Seve, who was in the same tournament, had a Ping 1I (green dot.)
Then Dave Pelz came along and his best known disciple Tom Kite started to win money title with the 60* LW the typical WITB of the pros changed: most of them added the LW and dropped the 5W so they typically carried the driver and 3W (made of metal and graphite shafts).
For the longest time the normal set is 3-PW. Around the mid to late 1990's OEMs started to make the lofts stronger. For example Ping ISI's specs show anywhere from 1 degree on the long irons to 3 degrees on the PW (so about half a club stronger on the average). From PW at 47* to LW at 61* there are 4 other wedges in
between.
As the de-lofting trend continues in the between 2000 and 2010 the lofts became 1 club stronger across the board and a gap wedge was needed to cover the 9 to 10* difference between the PW and the SW. The standard set was 4-GW.
The next major development was the introduction of the hybrids. Most players, even pros (especially on the LPGA), started to replace their long irons with one or two hybrids.
I understand the newer irons (especially the game improvement ones) are designed with more weight on the bottom so they can perform with similar characteristics even though they are way stronger than the clubs from previous generations. We are now in 2020 and the trend will probably continue with expected improvement in technology. However, there is no way to get around the fact that in order to hit an effective shot out of the green-side sand trap, the normal SW needs to be in the 54-56 range.
Basically, PW and maybe even GW are now normally used to hit full shots. You will see some Japanese OEMs (e.g. Honma) use 10 and 11 instead of PW and GW.
As for myself, my set consists of the following (with the normal expected yardage):
Driver 230
3W 210
3H 200
5I (Ping Crossover) 175
6I 165
7I 155
8I 145
9I 135
PW 125
GW 115
54* 100
58* 80
62* 60
Putter
I choose to cover the shorter distances with full swings. My major hole is around 180 yards, which I don't encounter that often. From 3H down to GW I choke down on the longer clubs to hit them 5 yards less with a full swing. For my 54*, 58* and 62* I also choke down to hit 90, 70, and 50 yard shots with a full swing. I am not proficient on three-quarter, half, and one-quarter swings so I prefer to lay up so I can take a full swing whenever possible.
Around the time they changed the clubs with names such as Driver, Brassie, Spoon, Cleek, Mashie, Niblick to numbers typically golfers in those days would carry the following set:
Woods: 1, 3, 4, 5
Irons: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, PW, SW
Putter
The touring pro would probably drop the 4W or 5W and replace them with a 1I or 2I.
The above remained pretty consistent from 1950s for the next 30 years or so.
I believe that is reason the highest number iron is a 9 regardless of the loft based on the tradition from that time.
Also, although the driver had the No. 1 on them, people still referred it by the traditional name.
Woods were made of real wood until the early 1980's. If I remember correctly when Tom Watson won the US Open in 1982 he was still hitting wooden clubs and his famous chip in was with the SW, which was the highest loft club in his bag (as well as of all other pros.) The loft on that would probably be 56*. Typical PW was around 50-52*.
I started playing golf regularly around the mid 1980s. My first real nice set consisted of TaylorMade Pittsburgh Persimmon metal woods (steel shafts) and Ping Eye 2 irons. The specs on the irons were:
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Obviously I didn't carry a 1 or a 2 and I wasn't good enough to really hit the long irons consistently then so I typically used the 3 to put the ball back in play from the trees after hitting an ugly slice of a drive.
Incidentally, I saw Tiger as a teenager when he was invited as an amateur at his first pro tournament at the L.A. Open. He had TaylorMade Pittsburgh Persimmon metal woods and a Ping putter. Seve, who was in the same tournament, had a Ping 1I (green dot.)
Then Dave Pelz came along and his best known disciple Tom Kite started to win money title with the 60* LW the typical WITB of the pros changed: most of them added the LW and dropped the 5W so they typically carried the driver and 3W (made of metal and graphite shafts).
For the longest time the normal set is 3-PW. Around the mid to late 1990's OEMs started to make the lofts stronger. For example Ping ISI's specs show anywhere from 1 degree on the long irons to 3 degrees on the PW (so about half a club stronger on the average). From PW at 47* to LW at 61* there are 4 other wedges in
between.
As the de-lofting trend continues in the between 2000 and 2010 the lofts became 1 club stronger across the board and a gap wedge was needed to cover the 9 to 10* difference between the PW and the SW. The standard set was 4-GW.
The next major development was the introduction of the hybrids. Most players, even pros (especially on the LPGA), started to replace their long irons with one or two hybrids.
I understand the newer irons (especially the game improvement ones) are designed with more weight on the bottom so they can perform with similar characteristics even though they are way stronger than the clubs from previous generations. We are now in 2020 and the trend will probably continue with expected improvement in technology. However, there is no way to get around the fact that in order to hit an effective shot out of the green-side sand trap, the normal SW needs to be in the 54-56 range.
Basically, PW and maybe even GW are now normally used to hit full shots. You will see some Japanese OEMs (e.g. Honma) use 10 and 11 instead of PW and GW.
As for myself, my set consists of the following (with the normal expected yardage):
Driver 230
3W 210
3H 200
5I (Ping Crossover) 175
6I 165
7I 155
8I 145
9I 135
PW 125
GW 115
54* 100
58* 80
62* 60
Putter
I choose to cover the shorter distances with full swings. My major hole is around 180 yards, which I don't encounter that often. From 3H down to GW I choke down on the longer clubs to hit them 5 yards less with a full swing. For my 54*, 58* and 62* I also choke down to hit 90, 70, and 50 yard shots with a full swing. I am not proficient on three-quarter, half, and one-quarter swings so I prefer to lay up so I can take a full swing whenever possible.
