Softer Shaft for Long Irons

[magsrgod]

I posed this in Club techs as well but this feels more like the right spot for this. 

 

A few years ago I did a fitting session and I ended up with the following:

 

4i-5i - ZX4

6i - GW - ZX5

Steelfiber i110cw Stiff

 

Recently I won a raffle for a set of Mizuno 925 Forged with True Temper Mid 115 S400 shafts in them. I trimmed the clubs down 1/2” to my fitted length of 36.75” for an 7i and used them a few different times. 

 

I noticed many different things comparing the ZX5 set to the 925 set. 

- The 925’s are hotter distance wise

- Much lower ball flight

- The Mid 115 S400 shafts felt soft / noodly compared to the i110cw

- I didn’t get nearly as much spin which lead to lots of rollout on my shots. Eg.// my ZX5 8i I get 145 - 150 carry and another 3 -4 years of total distance. The 925’s I’ll get 155 - 160 carry with over 170 of rollout. 

 

Overall I have no interest in keeping the 925’s although they look amazing, it’s the all black set and I put the Black / Golf MCC grips on them. Top notch looks. 

 

But the one thing I really noticed was how much easier the 5i-6i of the set was to hit. This is what got me thinking about a different shaft for my set. So logically I went right to the Steelfiber i95cw based on how much I really like the i110cw’s.

 

Does this sound insane or is the logic sound here? 

[black bnr32]

I’m still not sure what you’re trying to accomplish 

[chinaski]

I put 6.0 PX LZ(120g) in my 4-5 and 6.5 PX LZ(125g) in the rest. 

[magsrgod]

I noticed I hit the longer irons with the 925’s much better than I hit my ZX4/5’s with the Steelfibers. I’m thinking it had to do with the softer shafts, just trying to check this logic. 

[petep52]

46 minutes ago, magsrgod said:

I noticed I hit the longer irons with the 925’s much better than I hit my ZX4/5’s with the Steelfibers. I’m thinking it had to do with the softer shafts, just trying to check this logic. 

you sure the shafts in the 925s are softer?

[magsrgod]

They sure feel softer. Steelfibers have a pretty good reputation for being very stiff “stiff” shafts. 

[Ty_Guy]

Normally seen as a problem, this is very common in the single length club world. Assume playing everything at your 7i length, 7i reaches a good apex, but ball heights will drop a little bit each club until you get to a 4i with a 65 foot ball height. Much of the clubhead tech and shaft choice in a single length set is to work around this problem.

 

Now, your 4i & 5i clubs weren't weighted to 7i head weight, so you have an additional variable there. Maybe you swing better at a high C swing weight range with that specific club setup?

 

A 925 is already going to have higher launching tech too. So there is another variable. Perhaps the 925 irons are a really good fit?

 

I spent a lot of diving into shaft changes for ball height, and no matter what, shaft will always be secondary to influence height. Ballspeed, spin, and height are primarily determined by club head. Shafts primarily determine face closure and impact location.

 

I think the takeaway from your experience is just that it is easier to make good contact with a shorter club, and it feels good to swing a lighter club. There is a lot to unpack with your discovery. How are you liking the lighter shaft in your gamers now?

[Badshaft]

You might be on the right track if I am reading this correctly

 

If I recall correctly from when I researched this when Tom Wishon posted here, the stiff Steel fiber I95 has the almost same identical bend profile as the steel DG S300..

 

I admit I have not researched or played the 110cw though but it would make sense since it has more material wraps, that it has a stiffer profile.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

I have ATTAS 115X shafts in my irons (MP4s). I have the 4i, but hardly ever play it. A couple of years ago, I decided to try a Mizuno Fli-hi 4i in the 4i spot. I put in an ATTAS 115S shaft, thinking a little lighter and a little softer would make it easier to swing.

 

The experiment was not a success; while I could squeeze out a bit more distance with the Fli-hi over the regular 4i on good strikes, dispersion was terrible (OK, this is a euphemism for "I hit it all over the place"), and I found I was more consistent with the MP4 4i. I do think the shaft was a major cause of this. More the softness than the weight, I think.

 

Another factor that I cannot dismiss was that, mentally, I was trying to smash the Fli-hi too much, but again, this was partly because I put the lighter, softer shaft in to add distance, leading me to chase distance over accuracy.

 

 

For the record, I usually play a 23° hybrid in that spot. By far the easiest and most versatile. Tensei Orange 80X, so much lighter, but pretty stout.

[NMarko]

In one of his videos a few months back, Chris Trott from Taylormade discussed how many of the tour guys that play X100s are switching to X100 mids in their long irons. Same idea you’re talking about with the same shaft profile, just less weight to help improve peak height and make it “easier to strike”. Tiger for sure was one. Interesting test in any case. Will be curious to hear how it goes! Good luck!

[MauiMax]

Just curious. When you say easier to hit what exactly seemed easier about it? Also how different is the loft between these 2 sets?

[driveandputtmachine]

I played a blended set of ZX5/ZX7 (plus a few others) and currently playing a set of 925 forged irons, and I can say it is not what I saw.

 

The ZX5 (in the 4,5,6 which I had) vs the 925 in the 5,6,7 as far as launch and spin they were very similar in the 5 and 6 irons.

 

I can also say that for me I play a softer shaft in my irons than I do in my woods as I tend to swing them slower percentage wise vs how hard I swing my woods.

[magsrgod]

I’m mostly looking at the shaft here as the heads are similar in loft. ZX5 is a 31 degree 7i and the 925 is 30 degree. So the loft difference isn’t enough to really to differentiate the ball flight for me. Both sets of irons are fantastic BTW and I could hit / play either of them easily I just like the flight of the ZX5’s more. 

 

In my shorter irons 7i-GW the ZX5’s with the SFi110cw’s flew about 30ft higher on shots and had much less run out, which I prefer.

 

With my longer irons my miss is a chunked shot. I found when testing them back to back on a grass range that the 925 w/ TT Mid 115 S400’s had less miss hits for me. They were just easier to hit.

 

I said I feel like the Mid 115 S400 shaft is perceived softer than the SFi110cw and I want to try and quantify what I’m feeling. When I compress a ball on a well hit shot, on the follow through I can feel some sort of wobble to the shaft. That wobble is much more pronounced on the Mid 115’s vs the i110cw’s. That’s what lead me to believe these are softer for my swing. This is also what lead me down the path to looking at a lighter shaft for my 4i - 6- ZX5’s! 

 

 

[RSLP]

very common to have many different shafts in a set of clubs

 

 

[JJgolfwrx]

In my opinion, it's first weight you lighten to allow you transition first. So steelfiber i110 in 6iron to your short irons. 4,5 can be the 95gram version in the same flex. There's also a flighted version of this shafts called the steelfiber FC you should check out.