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CONTEST The One Length Challenge

SuperStroke
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Dual length is better than single length!!

I use 8 iron through lob wedge @ 36" & 3 iron/hybrid through 7 iron at 38"

1. The complaints about the lower lofted irons going too low and having gapping issue are lessened.
2. The wedges are short enough to benefit from the control of a shorter length & closer to what you are accustomed to.
3. The mental aspects of the hitting your long irons the same as your wedges are eliminated or at least lessened.
4. Your practice with the wedges are 100% relevant to all of your short irons. You can play all the partial shots that you know how to do with the wedge with any of your short irons giving you lots of distance intervals to fill your distance chart in the 'approach' range.
5. Fewer overall lengths throughout the set! My driver, putter and 16* hybrid (used as a fairway finder) are all normal length leaving 11 clubs across the two iron lengths. 5 different lengths across the 14 club set. A 5I through lob wedge single length set up will have 6+ lengths of clubs to practice as your wood & hybrids also need practice time.


Negatives:

NO, dual length irons won't fix your swing issues, of course not. Lessons, practice and time fixes swing issues. Limiting the number of different shaft lengths does offer fewer variables for you to practice.

The apex of the ball flight & decent angle will probably not as consistent with dual length clubs vs variable length. But will be better than the single length approach.

You will still need to get use to the clubs; change is hard.
 
I didn't want to start a new thread, so I thought I would post here (hope that is ok).
Bought two Cobra OL F9 clubs, a 4 iron and a 5 iron. My thinking was to be able to hit that sweet spot between irons and hybrids more consistently. I had high hopes, but I must admit, I can't hit them any better than my Rogue 4 and 5 irons (I suck with those). I think it is the club head weight throwing me off, which appears to be heavier. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Maybe if I had an entire set the head weight would not be an issue, but I thought I would take a chance without spending $600ish for an entire set to satisfy my challenge to myself. .
 
I just listened to the Pod-cast last night in my search of information on One-Length as I have been looking to try this experiment myself and finally pulled the trigger. The pod-cast is what led me to this forum (I have been moderately active on another forum for many years, and even was an original BSG member, back in the day..lol). I really liked Josh's presentation and approach to equipment and thought I would check this forum out. Spent the morning looking around and I really am impressed

I have been toying with the thought of testing out a one length set, for over two years. Here on Long Island there is a local club pro who has been very successful playing on the National Club Pro Championships and qualified for several PGA Championships using a one length (essentially two length set 4-9, and wedges), Matt Dobyns, and hearing his reasoning why (his long iron struggles) he switched to this set-up, I realized that this might be for me After evaluating my past season and identifying my weaknesses, (the long irons have plagued me), while my short and mid irons were fairly strong. I found that I struggled on courses that demanded more long irons into greens, disproportionately to courses in which I was hitting mid irons/shorter irons into greens. Obviously there will be some upward score movement on longer courses but mine was much more pronounced than it should of been. Basically 4-5-6 irons stink compared to all other aspects of my game.

Opportunity presented itself; I coach a HS golf team and run several junior camps in the summer, so I contacted Cobra and they offered a discount program for me and members of my team, and I had the opportunity to purchase a set of the new Forged Tec single length at a very good price. I currently play Srixon z785 5-PW (sometime 4-PW), with a 22* set to 23.5* Hybrid (which I drop when I put the 4 iron back in the bag) and 17* set to 18.5* (Ping g410s) with a Modus 120x soft stepped.

I just received my set of Cobra Forged Tec OL 4-PW 37" (stock 7 iron length but for me they are the length of my 8 iron since I play my current set 1/2" over standard), with Modus 120s hard stepped (I went a slightly softer in the shafts to promote slightly higher flight especially in long irons, I have used these in other combos and like this set up/shaft as well as the X soft stepped) I have always played my wedges at the same length so I will continue using those (callaway MD5's), with 46* MD5 (bent to 45*) and drop the PW. So essentially will be playing a dual length set 4-9 irons 37" and wedges at 35.75" (45*,49*,55*, 59*).

I live in NY (Long Island), and do try to play when the weather is on the mild side. Had a chance to hit some of these irons briefly Friday, and I am looking forward to getting some rounds in the coming weeks (Florida trip with several rounds planned in 4 weeks, so I will get a good idea of how they work out then). I am interested in hearing how this Challenge has worked/is working out for the people who took it. I will update my experiences if people are interested in that.
 
I take a Bite of this Bait:drinks::thp:
 
Can someone explain how the gapping works on one length irons. I get the concept of having a consistent length shaft for swing consistency but won’t the yardages all tighten up? If longer shafts mean more distance won’t Your short irons be a bit longer and your long irons shorter with much less yardage gapping between irons?
 
jvbart said:
Can someone explain how the gapping works on one length irons. I get the concept of having a consistent length shaft for swing consistency but won’t the yardages all tighten up? If longer shafts mean more distance won’t Your short irons be a bit longer and your long irons shorter with much less yardage gapping between irons?
Click to expand...
Distance is a product of launch angle and speed. Launch angle is determined by impact conditions, the loft at impact and technology in the clubhead. Typically with longer shafts you get more clubhead speed. In one length they adjust the weight of the heads and from those who have been successful using them the gapping issues aren't major. In the short irons they typically see a higher ball (not necessarily farther). The long irons tend to launch lower but with the tech in the new heads the gapping seems to be fine. I'll let those who have taken the one length challenge speak further about what they've seen.
 
Maybe I should have OL irons, because when I grab my long irons 3 or 4 sometimes I chunk some serious ground before the ball. If I choke up slightly, I am on the money. I don't think I could play OLs though, can't hardly play those I have :ROFLMAO:
 
Long Shot said:
I just listened to the Pod-cast last night in my search of information on One-Length as I have been looking to try this experiment myself and finally pulled the trigger. The pod-cast is what led me to this forum (I have been moderately active on another forum for many years, and even was an original BSG member, back in the day..lol). I really liked Josh's presentation and approach to equipment and thought I would check this forum out. Spent the morning looking around and I really am impressed

I have been toying with the thought of testing out a one length set, for over two years. Here on Long Island there is a local club pro who has been very successful playing on the National Club Pro Championships and qualified for several PGA Championships using a one length (essentially two length set 4-9, and wedges), Matt Dobyns, and hearing his reasoning why (his long iron struggles) he switched to this set-up, I realized that this might be for me After evaluating my past season and identifying my weaknesses, (the long irons have plagued me), while my short and mid irons were fairly strong. I found that I struggled on courses that demanded more long irons into greens, disproportionately to courses in which I was hitting mid irons/shorter irons into greens. Obviously there will be some upward score movement on longer courses but mine was much more pronounced than it should of been. Basically 4-5-6 irons stink compared to all other aspects of my game.

Opportunity presented itself; I coach a HS golf team and run several junior camps in the summer, so I contacted Cobra and they offered a discount program for me and members of my team, and I had the opportunity to purchase a set of the new Forged Tec single length at a very good price. I currently play Srixon z785 5-PW (sometime 4-PW), with a 22* set to 23.5* Hybrid (which I drop when I put the 4 iron back in the bag) and 17* set to 18.5* (Ping g410s) with a Modus 120x soft stepped.

I just received my set of Cobra Forged Tec OL 4-PW 37" (stock 7 iron length but for me they are the length of my 8 iron since I play my current set 1/2" over standard), with Modus 120s hard stepped (I went a slightly softer in the shafts to promote slightly higher flight especially in long irons, I have used these in other combos and like this set up/shaft as well as the X soft stepped) I have always played my wedges at the same length so I will continue using those (callaway MD5's), with 46* MD5 (bent to 45*) and drop the PW. So essentially will be playing a dual length set 4-9 irons 37" and wedges at 35.75" (45*,49*,55*, 59*).

I live in NY (Long Island), and do try to play when the weather is on the mild side. Had a chance to hit some of these irons briefly Friday, and I am looking forward to getting some rounds in the coming weeks (Florida trip with several rounds planned in 4 weeks, so I will get a good idea of how they work out then). I am interested in hearing how this Challenge has worked/is working out for the people who took it. I will update my experiences if people are interested in that.
Click to expand...
So far I have had two range sessions with these and I am on the fence (King Forged Tec). For some reason I am cutting/fading my longer irons more than I like (I usually play a slight fade). I definitely need more time with these, I think mentally I am swinging harder with the longer irons and I am struggling to stop that. I hit 7 iron and down well, but these still fade a bit more than my Srixons, so I wonder if the slightly weaker flex is playing a role as well (I went to hard stepped Stiff Modus 120's, and usually play Soft stepped x's). It didn't help I cut my index finger and had stitches so I lost about 8 days of practicing. Too cold today to hit balls (high of 30), but I should get a round in over the weekend (first since New Years Day). I will update after a few more sessions and rounds.
 
Guys I am closing this one up since it is a contest thread.

You can use one of the many One Length threads or start another one if you would like. Here is the one with the results from the contest winner, although @time4tim isn't updating it much anymore.

The One Length Challenge : My Journey

For those of you who may have wandered by this post and and aren’t sure what’s going on, here is the lowdown: I have been challenged to try One Length Irons for 5 rounds and some range time to see if I could be persuaded to change full time to single length irons from variable length. The...
www.thehackersparadise.com
 
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