I’m trying a new experiment with some irons

[skraly]

   I like to tinker with golf clubs, as I’m sure many of us do as well.

In the past I’ve usually liked heavier weight steel shafts in my irons.  Usually in 110-115gm. range.  But, I’m getting older and despite going to reg. flex shafts I’ve still lost some distance and lower trajectory in general.

   I’ve never gotten along with light weight graphite in the past.  I’ve just been way too inconsistent with it.  I’d have some good rounds but way too many poor iron striking rounds.

   In the past I’ve been pretty sensitive to total club weight, more so than actual swing weight.  But I got to thinking, when I’ve tried light weight graphite iron shafts in the past they have always been around D0-D1 swing weight.  With heavier steel shafts I’ve liked swing weights in the D1-D2 range.  This swing weight combined with the heavier steel shafts just felt right to me.  Probably because that’s what I’ve played since taking up this game in the late ‘60’s as a teenager.  Even at basically the same swing weight, with the light weight graphite shaft the club just never felt quite right.

  So, what if I tried a light weight graphite shaft but at a heavier swing weight?  I have several 6 irons of different makes lying around.  A couple of my local golf stores sell off demo 6 irons cheap at the end of the season and I’ve picked up a few over the years.  I mean, at $10 a club, why not, right?  I picked a suitable one for the experiment and bought an inexpensive 60 gm. iron shaft in stiff flex off of ebay.  It’s a UST Helium nanocore.  In the past I never would have considered an iron shaft this light.  I picked a stiff flex because even  though I currently play reg. flex in my irons, I reasoned that 1-a very light graphite shaft might play soft to flex and 2-that building it to a heavy swing weight would also make it play soft.

  The 6 iron was built at 37.75” which is my usual length for a 6 irons.  I really had no idea what swing weight I wanted so I built it at D6 with my standard grip.  My first outing at the range was very promising.  The club didn’t feel too light and it was easy to feel the club head.  I was making solid contact and distance, although difficult to be sure about outside with range balls was certainly no shorter than my standard set.  What impressed me the most was my consistency of contact.  Two subsequent sessions bore this out.

   I decided to re-shaft one of my full sets.  I picked a set of Ram forged irons, 3-pw.  This particular model had been Japan issue only.  I originally got a great deal on them even though I knew that I wouldn't like the 80 gm. reg. flex shafts they came with.  For the re-shaft I acquired a set of 8, Aerotech Gener8 60 F4 shafts.  The F4’s are listed as low/mid bend and 68 gms.  I’ve liked Aerotech shafts in the past and I got a good deal on these.

   After receiving the shafts I was very impressed to find, on weighing them, that all were within 1.5 gm. of the advertised weight.
I built up the set to my preferred length, which is based on a 38.25” 5 iron and the usual 1/2” increments for the other irons.

With my experience with my experimental club, I decided to go with just a little heavier swing weight.  3-7 are D7 and 8-PW are D8.  I’ve always liked my shorter irons a little heavier.

   After building these I found the total weight of the 5 iron to be 50 gms. lighter than my standard steel shafted 5 iron but 5 swing weight points heavier.

   This time I took the set to a local store with a launch monitor.  Once again, the actual swing of the club felt very natural.  I was making consistent contact.  Ball flight was basically straight to a slight draw which is normal for me.  Peak height was averaging 10% higher than my standard steel shafted set which have DG r300’s in them.  Spin was similar.  Distance was averaging consistently +1/2 club over my standard set.

   My first opportunity to take them to a course will be this Tuesday.  I’m hoping to take these results to the course with me.  We’ll see.

 

  

Edited May 19 by skraly

[Stuart_G]

4 hours ago, skraly said:

So, what if I tried a light weight graphite shaft but at a heavier swing weight?

 

That's a pretty common recommendation to make to try and compensate when someone ends up jumping on the graphite band wagon without properly paying attention to the effect of shaft weight.    It's not exactly the same thing and there are limits as to how much of a shaft weight deficiency it can compensate for.  But using lead tape on the head is an easy thing to test and also easy to undo if doesn't work.

 

4 hours ago, skraly said:

The 6 iron was built at 37.75” which is my usual length for a 6 irons.

 

Good.  Some people make the mistake of trying to increase the swing weight by going longer with the playing length and that's rarely a good idea.

 

Good luck with the test.

Edited May 19 by Stuart_G