BBB’s single length irons journey.

About the 2h I mentioned earlier. It’s just a cheapo Integra (Soo long) that I picked up because it was 15*, and has an X stiff, low torque, graphite shaft. My club guy got in on trade and kept it aside for me figuring it would fit well with the irons, and that I would probably hit it well. He was right on both accounts. We cut it down to the same length as the rest of the set and it works great. The 4i works great for me in this set, but at 20*, I figured I should go to a hybrid for the next club. It’s good for about 210 with a controlled swing, and off the tee I can stretch it to 225, and sometimes more. The best part is I can hit it straight, a few draws on the course today, but no hooks.
 
Some good thoughts bbb. I'm completely convinced I'm doing the single length irons and reading stuff like this only excites me more.
Good work on the back 9 pb!


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Several things have become apparent to me while testing these irons.




I haven't had any of the nagging back pain that I normally get from hitting a lot of balls. I attribute this directly to the fact that these are just more comfortable for me to hit throughout the set since I'm more upright, despite the heavier shafts.


I seem to have much more ability to flight the ball down when I want to with these irons, more so than with any other set I have tried. I can also hit the ball very high if need be, as I always have. This sudden ability to flight the ball down, however, may have more to do with the X100 shafts, than it does the irons being single length. Maybe it's a combination of both, I have no real way to tell for sure right now, but I like it. I suppose the only way I could really know would be to build an identical set with softer shafts, not going to happen, anytime soon at least.


Hitting solid shots with the wedges is much easier for me, despite the extra length. That seems directly related to being more comfortable to hit at the longer length. I have tried nuking the Wedge to see if I hit could hit some crazy long shots with it, but they really don't go any farther than what I hit my vokey. I'm talking normal ball position and just swinging flat out, because obviously playing the ball way back and delofting will produce longer shots, just like any other club.
 
Got in another round today, and it was another PB (40/39 - 79, and first time ever breaking 80). 2 birdies on the day. I'm completely thrilled right now, needless to say. I'm honestly surprised by the score, but I double checked. I also bogeyed the last 3 holes. I didnt cost myself any penalties off the tee, which im sure helped a lot as well. was playing steady today, but I think I actually hit the ball better last week. I didn't hit a lot of greens today, but the ones I missed, I just missed. My short game was good today I used nothing but the pinhawk sand wedge from 100 in. I made a lot of good, stroke saving, chips and pitches. Stuck one pitch from 56 yds to 4', which led to a birdie. The second birdie came from hitting the PW to 8', the third shot on a par 5.
On hole 16, I started to struggle a bit with some slights chunks off the really soft fairway. I guess I was just creeping up on the ball a bit. Fortunately my short game was enough today to keep from adding a bunch of strokes.

A couple things stood out today from the round, apart from the obvious consistency.

The spin I get from these is nuts sometimes. I started the day playing a Chrome soft, but switched back the LaddieX after a couple wedges backed off the green. The greens are pretty soft right now, and that's a factor, but I've never had balls back up off the green like that before. Perhaps it's due to the length of the shafts. I'm not sure at the moment, but it is certainly there. I need to find a good LM to hit on to see. I took some pics to illustrate.

The other thing that stood out was from 60 yds and in. I hit some really good pitches, and chips, today. Not trying to do anything fancy, just making a smaller version of my basic swing. So far the hasn't been an issue, and no problem choking when I need to.

The third thing that hit me is that, while I didn't hit as many greens as before, I also didn't hit any terrible shots. The misses were minimal today. Just off the green, or just short. That's is remarkable to me since I usually seem to have to have at least a couple really awful shots.

I put a new driver into play to day and that helped a lot by not costing me strokes, as well as setting up some pretty easy second shots. ,

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How could I forget, no blow up holes! Not a single one today, that's another first for me as well.

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This was a pitch from 40 yds.
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This was from 56 yds
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This was from 150, 8i.
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This was a 9i with the Chrome soft. I hit the first quarter of the green, and there was a bit of slope there, but Ive never had the ball back off the green with a 9i. It came back 15'!
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I'm absolutely loving this thread. I'll definitely be going for some single length irons this winter.
 
BBB,

How much $ would you say you've put into building your set? The Pink Hawks seem like an incredible value. Have you put them up against the Cobra One irons yet? I'm wondering if it's worth paying the full price for Cobra Irons or building my own Pink Hawks.

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BBB,

How much $ would you say you've put into building your set? The Pink Hawks seem like an incredible value. Have you put them up against the Cobra One irons yet? I'm wondering if it's worth paying the full price for Cobra Irons or building my own Pink Hawks.

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Around $50 a club with the DG shafts and paying someone else to assemble them. A person could build a set for around $30 a club if they used less expensive shafts.

I did this as a proof of concept to see if single length irons would work for me, more so than the actual heads, but I was pleasantly surprised by them. The quality of the heads was better than I expected based on the price. If a person doesn't care about having an OEM logo on their clubs then these are a good value. The specs were very close to listed specs. They don't have a lot of tech going on, just a basic undercut cavity-back iron. Not much offset, and pretty narrow sole. I guess you could list them as a GI iron. My XR pro irons are more forgiving than these on thin hits or toe hits.

I have not tried the Cobra One irons, but I intend to when they are released, although I may have to buy them to try them. I am thinking they are going to be really good, however, based on what I liked about this years Cobra offerings. I was just thinking last night about how good a single length set could be with more forgiving iron heads, hotter face, etc.
 
Headed out in a bit to play another round. It's considerably cooler today at 45 degrees, and 5-10 mph north wind. Oh well, it's warm enough that I should be able to play without having to wear a jacket, I hate that.
 
I found my single length irons have far too much spin as well. 9 pw and gap absolutely rip back on greens where I typically don't see that.

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I found my single length irons have far too much spin as well. 9 pw and gap absolutely rip back on greens where I typically don't see that.

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Well the greens are really wet and soft right now also. I am interested to see what happens in the summer. The easy solution right now is a surlyn ball.

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Only an 86 on Sunday’s round, too many 3 putts and a triple on 17, otherwise it would have been 80. I did get the chance to hit out of a couple fairway bunkers, and had no issues doing that.

I should note that none of the things I have been doing with the single length clubs, apart from the couple of PB’s, are anything I haven’t done before. I hit 7 out of 9 greens before with my DI-11’s. I’m not playing amazing golf with them all of a sudden or anything like that, but I have been more consistent, and that is what I was looking for. Having what is basically drop and stop action with the wedge on mid-range pitches was a nice surprise, and has been a huge factor in keeping my score from climbing, along with just making better shots all around. I still have to see how well the stopping power works with firmer greens, but it has been good so far. I suppose it stands to reason that the extra length in the wedge shaft would lead to higher club head speed, and thereby more spin. I don’t think it’s a bad thing really, just something to get used to.

One interesting thing I find odd (to me at least) is that I send a lot of dollar bill sized divots flying down range with these irons, which I then have to go and replace . That’s new to me since I have always been more of a picker than a digger, just leaving scrapes, or bruising the grass beyond the ball. I don’t why this is happening now with these clubs, but I suspect it’s due to a more comfortable set up and plane angle and that makes it easier for me to hit down and through the ball.
Single length has been working great for me so far. We’ll see if it keeps up. The weather forecast looks good for this coming weekend again.
 
I've found a bunch of single length reviews online recently and they basically line up with what I have been seeing. Extra spin with the higher lofted irons, no real difference with the mid irons, and lower spin, but virtually the same distance, with the lower lofted irons. So it seems that, even though the distances are similar, they are getting there a little differently.

I also find it interesting that most of the reviewers that had good results were around 90 mph swing speed with the irons, and that is about where I'm at. I personally find the extra spin with the wedges to a very nice bonus, and the lower spin with the lower lofted irons to not be a problem. It makes me wonder, however, how they would work for a variety of swing speeds. I mean, at what point would the lower lofts become a problem for those with less swing speed?
I'm sure that Cobra has taken that into account when they released there F7 one irons, and I'm interested to see how that goes.
 
Good point BBB, thanks for bringing it up. I'm high 70s low 80s with my irons. Very interested to hear how the Cobra SL lineup works for players like me
 
I wondered at what length did you make the irons and if you carry a 3 - 4 or 5 iron how did you swingweight them compared to like the 9 -- pw or other wedges and what was your lie angle that you bent them to and one last question how was the distance with the lower lofted irons {3-4-5 } iron when compared to a standard length set , i am the most interested with the lower lofted because it would seem those would be a winner if a one length club would travel as far standard length iron
 
I wondered at what length did you make the irons and if you carry a 3 - 4 or 5 iron how did you swingweight them compared to like the 9 -- pw or other wedges and what was your lie angle that you bent them to and one last question how was the distance with the lower lofted irons {3-4-5 } iron when compared to a standard length set , i am the most interested with the lower lofted because it would seem those would be a winner if a one length club would travel as far standard length iron

The heads I got are designed to be single length irons. I have 4-S in the set. They are the same weight (~272 grams) and lie angle. I built them all to 7i length, the shafts are tipped for a 7i (3"), and then butt trimmed to the same length. The overall weight is the same for each, as well as the swing weight. The distances are very similar to any other irons I have played with similar lofts. The 4i at 20* goes about the same distance as I was getting with my other 4 irons, maybe 3 yds less on average, and I'm not accurate enough to tell the difference on the course really.
 
The heads I got are designed to be single length irons. I have 4-S in the set. They are the same weight (~272 grams) and lie angle. I built them all to 7i length, the shafts are tipped for a 7i (3"), and then butt trimmed to the same length. The overall weight is the same for each, as well as the swing weight. The distances are very similar to any other irons I have played with similar lofts. The 4i at 20* goes about the same distance as I was getting with my other 4 irons, maybe 3 yds less on average, and I'm not accurate enough to tell the difference on the course really.

Thanks for responding ... i wonder if club heads all being the same weight is essensial for the set to work or if once epoxying is finished if weighting ...say with something like tungsten powder and making the heads all the same of similar weight that way in place heads being all the same weight .... and how shaft weight plays a part and whether unless a tour weight graphite around 100 grams graphite can be found and used graphite should be avoided and a steel shaft would control overall weight better ... i guess it just comes down to trial and error ...
 
Thanks for responding ... i wonder if club heads all being the same weight is essensial for the set to work or if once epoxying is finished if weighting ...say with something like tungsten powder and making the heads all the same of similar weight that way in place heads being all the same weight .... and how shaft weight plays a part and whether unless a tour weight graphite around 100 grams graphite can be found and used graphite should be avoided and a steel shaft would control overall weight better ... i guess it just comes down to trial and error ...

As near as I can tell the heads are the same weight to make the clubs all feel the same, and have the same swing weight, as well as help get the correct distance gaps with the clubs. e.g adding some efficiency to the strike with the lower lofted irons, and taking some off with the higher lofted irons.
 
As near as I can tell the heads are the same weight to make the clubs all feel the same, and have the same swing weight, as well as help get the correct distance gaps with the clubs. e.g adding some efficiency to the strike with the lower lofted irons, and taking some off with the higher lofted irons.

I get your point about lofting correctly .... makes me wish my loft / lie maching was portable so i could try each club at the range and be able hit and adjust as needed ... also thanks for the other insight .. until Bryson DeChambeau arrived on the scene there wasn't talk of single length irons in 25 or more years so hope it's more trial and far less error
 
I get your point about lofting correctly .... makes me wish my loft / lie maching was portable so i could try each club at the range and be able hit and adjust as needed ... also thanks for the other insight .. until Bryson DeChambeau arrived on the scene there wasn't talk of single length irons in 25 or more years so hope it's more trial and far less error

It does seem like they have figured out how to make them work.
 
83 yesterday (43-40). I'm a little surprised by the final score because I would have guessed I was headed for the 90's based on how it seemed I started out with some terrible drives, but some good recovery shots, and a lucky putt, kept things from getting too ugly on the first few. I left a couple of reasonable birdie chances unanswered, but I did get one back when I stuck a 7i close. I didn't hit a lot of greens, but most were just off the green. Some of those were alignment I'm sure, and that annoys me more than a bad swing does. I pulled the driver out again on 18, just because I hate to give up on it, hit a drive exactly where I was trying to, and badly chunked the A wedge shot I had left. Oh well, at least I'm playing in November, it could be snowing (that's not actually what I said after blowing the shot however, my wife had to remind me of that).

One thing that hit me yesterday, well, several things actually. I haven't had a real blow up hole since I put these into play, by blow up I mean quad or higher. That was something I always managed to do on every round before, and now I hope I don't go and get one today because I said that. haha

Another thing is, while the 4i is the certainly the easiest to hit 4i I have ever used being at 7i length, it's still not quite as easy to be accurate with as a 7i because of the 20* loft. I mean more distance/lower loft still equals bigger misses, there's no free lunch in physics it seems, just compromises. I will take this compromise however, because I have never hit so many greens with a 4i before. I'm 3 out of 5 for GIR's on the one long par 3 at the course I've been playing. I can only imagine how good a 4i head with more tech packed in could be. I'm hoping to find out next year.

The spin with the higher lofted irons seems to be here to say and I really like that. I suppose when things firm up I can switch to urethane balls, I'm really interested to see hows that works this summer.



As good as things have been with these irons I still manage to throw away shots every round. Whether it's just a bad swing, poor alignment, not taking into account the lie, or the little nuances of the ball being slightly above/below my feet, I still blow easy shots at times. Oh well, It's golf and there is no getting around that completely I guess. I would still like to though.
 
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