Will Tech Allow Long Irons to Replace Drivers?

Played my first 9 of the year yesterday. Played it to a pretty darn good level for me. Especially considering the conditions.

New in the bag was an Epic 4i (and 5-6, but I never hit those). Holy smokes does that thing go a long ways. In 40* weather it carried longer than I’d have expected from my current 4i in warm weather-by 20 yards! Crazy how far they go.

Since I’m a wild man on the tee, it’s got me thinking; should I just figure out how to stripe it from thw

If it works for you, and you can reach par 4s in 2 going iron-iron, why not

So I think they'll replace drivers, no because as iron tech evolves so does driver tech. Plus the people who cant hit driver consistently also can't hit long irons consistently

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

I would say no as well. Tech in metal woods will keep pace plus, the male ego must prevail! Let the big dog eat!! lol

Driver can be hard to hit, but if you can hit long irons well, I would think that you can hit a 3w which should surpass the 4i.

I feel like they’ll evolve to the point where you have the option. We’re basically already there. I had a stint a couple years ago where I couldn’t hit woods off the tee to save my life and I hit my Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3 on every drive with great success. Since then I’ve taken a couple crucial lessons and have my driver back on course, ha, but if I hadn’t been able to I could most certainly put together a club that goes as far as a 3 wood. The big thing for me has been the shaft, even tho these current generation driving irons are light, these 85 gram shafts lead to me not being able to feel the clubhead and therefore being really inconsistent as far as ball-striking, when I’ve tried a heavier shaft (~105g) in them it’s been significantly better but if you follow that rambling at all that means we’ve kind of hit a limit in how much distance I can get out of one of these combinations. Back in the day a couple companies made driving irons that went as low as 13* in loft (lowest I can remember at least, a quick eBay search confirms as much, it was a Mizuno and it came in 14* for a couple years after too) but it was basically unhittable with my 12-year-old swing. The new driving irons are superior in every way so it will probably only be a while before someone makes a really hot-faced, properly-weighted, not too bulky version that they can make into a 12-13* version. This won’t be able to compete with the drivers for pros, for example, but for someone that’s not hitting it anywhere near the fairway being in the fairway and only about 20 yds back from where your driver would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, itl’ll probably be like a mini driver where a lot of ppl could really benefit from it but they refuse to use it because everyone wants to hit the ball as far as they can on every drive!

For the average golfer? Definitely not. The driver tech is just too good and the iron tech I can’t see getting good enough to be better at those lofts.

At the pro level. Maybe? But they hit the ball so well already it’s not really a thing for them.

Champions tour? Maybe. They have the speed for a lower loft, but again driver tech is just so good


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I couldn't imagine that's physically possible to create an iron in any capacity to out hit a driver at that speed/length.

In the distant past, I was so reliable with my 3i and unreliable with driver that I always teed off with 3i. 205 right in the middle is far better than 220 into trouble. I worked on my driver and the technology significantly improved to the point where the gap between my driver and 3i forced me to use driver. I haven't got one of these driving irons but I seriously wonder if I could stretch that 3i out to 225 that I may give up on driver again. I'm still far better with an iron off the tee than a driver and I'm not sure why. I hit fairway with good length with a long iron 80% of the time while I am less than 40% with driver.

Fairway woods? Might as well write a snowman on the card and pick up my ball while a 3i off the deck is easy.

Regardless, its probably true for a subset of golfers but not a particularly large one.

Um no.
I hit my driver around 210-230 and play a 16* driver to achieve my max numbers. I’m a severely low Launcher/low spinner of the ball.
A driving iron would go about 10’ off the ground for me.

The physics of the MOI created with a driver head design is impossible to replicate with an iron design. I’m also not convinced long iron tech has improved much in the last decade. I’m still playing an 11 year old Titleist 503h 2 iron and can’t seem to get any better numbers on the Trackman with the new offerings from Callaway, TM, Ping, Titleist, Tour Edge, Mizuno, or Cobra. I’ll be testing out the new Taylormade driving iron as soon as spring arrives as I’d love to have something new in my bag that performs better.