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Has anyone shorten their irons and do you notice any distance lost?

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I have not, I do shorten my driver down to 43 1/2 or 44. But I think the shorter length is negated out by hitting center more often. I would think it would be the same for irons.
 
I have shorter Driver and Shorter irons - all by 1/2" and I actually feel like I'm more accurate.
 
I play mine 1/2 inch short and see no difference in performance

Better accuracy though
 
When you guys say "shorter" what are you referring to them being shorter than? Please don't say "standard" because there really isn't one.

I play a 38" 5i/5h. When I started playing that was "1/2 inch over standard". At some point, I think 38" became "standard". Now, I see quite a few companies using 35.75" as standard. It's mind boggling.

For me, I've always like a heavy swingweight. I aim for D4 in my irons and D5-D6 in my wedges. That's a little lower now with the GP Align grips because I think they're heavier than my old grips, but I know I can't drop weight or I'll never be able to get a decent swingweight without loading up 10" of lead powder in the shaft. Ok, maybe not 10", but it'd be a large amount.
 
I play my irons based on a 37” 7i which is usually -1/4 to -1/2” shorter than stock. I once shortened my g25 irons -1 1/2” and I indeed lost about a club distance.
 
My last fitting they took 1/2" off my irons and woods, no loss of distance, actually gained some. Also my consistency improved. But I was replacing 15 year old Ping ISI irons which I was fitted for when I was 15 with new iE1's. So perhaps some/most of that was more the new technology.

My fitter did tell me Ping is a great option for folks who do need longer or shorter clubs, with the new inserts they can change those out to maintain proper swing weights through out the set. It was a reputable fitter so I don't believe he was lying about that, if you go to ping's website they do offer swing weight changes. I'd think most big name brands do the same.
 
.25 inch shorter than standard steel but i play graphite so i guess that's another. 50" shorter but i guess that's going by taylormade, cobra training and steel are the same, but either way i feel for my seeing the old standard is best for me than this new standard lengths, oddly i do like a standard driver 45 better than 44.5

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I have shortened a driver but never irons.
 
I am curious on this because I picked up a set of irons that were made 1 inch over standard so I was thinking about having them all cut down but with the 4 iron thru the 6 iron cut down even more since they are long from the manufacturer. Would I mess up the swingweights in these clubs if I took off the "1 inch over" plus extra in the long irons? SEE THE PARENTHESIS FOR LENGTHS WANTED AFTER THE PLUS ONE INCH IS TAKEN OFF ON THE LONG IRONS!

Here are the STOCK specs/lengths below for the irons! (IRON, LOFT, LENGTH, LIE listed). They are stock swingweight at D2 but not sure if that changed with the clubs being built to +1 inch in length! Again these irons were made +1 inch in iength so one inch more than listed below.

4 iron 20° 39.25" 60.25° (length wanted 38.5)
5 iron 23° 38.50" 61.00° (length wanted 38)
6 iron 26° 37.75" 61.75° (length wanted 37.5)
7 iron 30° 37.00" 62.50°
8 iron 34.5° 36.50" 63.00°
9 iron 39° 36.00" 63.50°
PW 44° 35.75" 64.00°
AW 49° 35.50" 64.00°

Any comments on this is appreciated and feel free to PM me instead of hijacking this thread!

Thx.
 
I am curious on this because I picked up a set of irons that were made 1 inch over standard so I was thinking about having them all cut down but with the 4 iron thru the 6 iron cut down even more since they are long from the manufacturer. Would I mess up the swingweights in these clubs if I took off the "1 inch over" plus extra in the long irons? SEE THE PARENTHESIS FOR LENGTHS WANTED AFTER THE PLUS ONE INCH IS TAKEN OFF ON THE LONG IRONS!

Here are the STOCK specs/lengths below for the irons! (IRON, LOFT, LENGTH, LIE listed). They are stock swingweight at D2 but not sure if that changed with the clubs being built to +1 inch in length! Again these irons were made +1 inch in iength so one inch more than listed below.

4 iron 20° 39.25" 60.25° (length wanted 38.5)
5 iron 23° 38.50" 61.00° (length wanted 38)
6 iron 26° 37.75" 61.75° (length wanted 37.5)
7 iron 30° 37.00" 62.50°
8 iron 34.5° 36.50" 63.00°
9 iron 39° 36.00" 63.50°
PW 44° 35.75" 64.00°
AW 49° 35.50" 64.00°

Any comments on this is appreciated and feel free to PM me instead of hijacking this thread!

Thx.

Have them put on a swing weight scale and see what you get.

Dave
 
Thanks fellas for the great feedbacks. I will definitely get fit for my next set. Hopefully I can locate a reputable fitter near me.

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Driver is at 44" , FW at 42", and irons down 1/2 inch and I have wayyyyyyyy more accuracy without a single yard of distance loss.
 
I don’t think length matters as much as lie angle with irons. Unless you are really short or really tall.
 
I have never shortened my irons
 
My G400 irons are -1/2” from standard and 1* upright. My distances remained similar to standard length irons. I didn’t attribute the accuracy increase to the shorter length, but to the different heads and change in lie angle to fit my swing at the time. I tried choking down for a month before I decided to commit to the shorter irons.
 
My G400 irons are -1/2” from standard and 1* upright. My distances remained similar to standard length irons. I didn’t attribute the accuracy increase to the shorter length, but to the different heads and change in lie angle to fit my swing at the time. I tried choking down for a month before I decided to commit to the shorter irons.

If the shorter irons were 1° upright as compared to the standard length irons, then the effective lie was the same so that's a wash.
 
I'm 6'4" so I've never shortened a club. My irons were lengthened. I really need a longer shaft on my putter too.
 
I'm 6'4" so I've never shortened a club. My irons were lengthened. I really need a longer shaft on my putter too.
I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a pro golfer lucky u.

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If the shorter irons were 1° upright as compared to the standard length irons, then the effective lie was the same so that's a wash.

In their current color dot system, yes. I basically got a standard effective lie angle with a shorter iron. I think their old color code system was different but I couldn’t understand how you could get a standard lie angle and change lengths. There was so much arguing that I just stopped reading and figured it didn’t matter if I understood the old way Ping did things.
 
In their current color dot system, yes. I basically got a standard effective lie angle with a shorter iron. I think their old color code system was different but I couldn’t understand how you could get a standard lie angle and change lengths. There was so much arguing that I just stopped reading and figured it didn’t matter if I understood the old way Ping did things.

Yeah, they change things around so much in this business it's ridiculous. Once you get something down, they decide to change it.

Anyway, I was just saying, if the effective lie is the same, then your improvement most certainly had to come from the shorter club.
 
I havn’t shortened my irons, yet....

But lately I have been choking down and as soon as I find a good fitter in my area I will be going in and getting them hacked!

I am experimenting with a 3w that is about .5” shorter than a 5 wood and LOVE! No distance lost and it is a laser! Still out driving most people with my hacked 3w


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Somewhere I read a rule of thumb for amateurs and irons called the 24/38 rule. Basically the rule for amateurs is their longest iron should play at no more than 38” length and no less than 24” loft. Now this is an old rule going back to the blades only days, but IMHO it still carries some weight. In most new sets that “24/38” club will be a 5 iron (or thereabouts). While loft is less relevant given how effectively companies can move mass around I think the length rule is still a good one. I know from my own experience my 4i at 38.75 tends to be hit and miss, while I get much less wonky with my 5i at 38.25. 1/2” doesn’t seem like much but the miss can vary quite a bit for me. YMMV, as always.
 
I am curious on this because I picked up a set of irons that were made 1 inch over standard so I was thinking about having them all cut down but with the 4 iron thru the 6 iron cut down even more since they are long from the manufacturer. Would I mess up the swingweights in these clubs if I took off the "1 inch over" plus extra in the long irons? SEE THE PARENTHESIS FOR LENGTHS WANTED AFTER THE PLUS ONE INCH IS TAKEN OFF ON THE LONG IRONS!

Here are the STOCK specs/lengths below for the irons! (IRON, LOFT, LENGTH, LIE listed). They are stock swingweight at D2 but not sure if that changed with the clubs being built to +1 inch in length! Again these irons were made +1 inch in iength so one inch more than listed below.

4 iron 20° 39.25" 60.25° (length wanted 38.5)
5 iron 23° 38.50" 61.00° (length wanted 38)
6 iron 26° 37.75" 61.75° (length wanted 37.5)
7 iron 30° 37.00" 62.50°
8 iron 34.5° 36.50" 63.00°
9 iron 39° 36.00" 63.50°
PW 44° 35.75" 64.00°
AW 49° 35.50" 64.00°

Any comments on this is appreciated and feel free to PM me instead of hijacking this thread!

Thx.

I called the local golf place and they said that taking an inch or more COULD change the flex of the club and of course it would change the swingweight.

I called Callaway and they said when the clubs were made they would have been adjusted flex wise so that if you took an inch or so even up to two inches off that it would NOT change the flex and also would do very little if anything to the swingweight. Of course they can't tell me exactly how the irons were made to spec wise cause they don't keep that info.

So who is right here?
 
I went to see the Golf MD in Kansas City last year and he found that by shortening my irons 1/2" I was actually gaining distance because my swing speed increased.
 
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