What to do when one iron is evil?

I play a blended set of PXG irons (0311 and 0311XF). And generally love them.

I hit the GW, PW and 9 iron mostly dead straight. They fill me with confidence.

I hit the 7 iron, 6 iron, 5 iron, and 4 iron less well, but also mostly straight or with a draw (my natural shot).

The 8 iron, however, invariably goes right and often fades too.

The lie is the same (I think) for all of them.

Does anyone else have one club in a set that is just evil?

Should I adjust the lie on the 8 iron to be more upright to make it go less right?

The evil 8 iron cost me 4 shots today, and it is getting annoying.

Is the swing weight ok is the lie ok i had some ping s58 and 7 iron was harsh so rebuilt all plis spine aligned shafts then good set of irons. Try the rebuild...

Check your specs; swingweight, total weight, lie angle, loft, length etc. Until you do that you won't know whats going on.

Leave it in the bag but ignore it for a few rounds. It'll give in to peer pressure.

My 3 iron was evil but I replaced it with a hybrid years ago. :)

Take it to see a priest whom can cast out the evil spirit that resides in said club

I had this same thing happen with a set of Taylormade P770s a few years back. My 6 iron was performing poorly and I took it to a fitter in my area and found out the specs (lie angle, loft) were way off for that one club. They adjusted it and it started performing great. You need to get it checked.

I did a Sharpie lie test for the whole set a while back and the evil 8 iron was the same as the others.

I have them all a bit flat, with mid-size Align grips, to try and stop my previous pull/hook miss and it has worked. Bad swings aside, I no longer fear the left side of the course.

Unfortunately, due to advancing years and an increasingly slothful swing I can no longer hit driver wedge/9 iron at my home course. Now the 8 iron is my 150ish club so it is kind of hard to aboid it.

I’ll have it checked and maybe try it a few degrees upright.

Failing that, I’m considering a ritual burning or having my 9 iron bent slightly strong and my 7 slightly weak.

A long time ago I had an iron where I just couldn't hit it properly. In a fit of frustration, I snapped the sucker over my knee. Replaced the shaft with an "identical" shaft (S300) and it was like magic. Hit it as good as my other irons. Likely the shaft was a bastardd shaft and out of sync with the others. Sometimes, it is just that simple.

Have it checked and or bent back to spec with your other irons. Then put a bucket or 2 of range balls through it so you have the confidence back in it.

If that doesn’t fix it, reshaft or throw it in a lake.

Spec check. Play without it for a round or two and see if the bad juju moves to a different club. Try something like changing the grip... sometimes the thought that something about the club is different is enough to get past your bad pre-shot thoughts.

1) Remove all of the weights from the back of the club-head.

2) Place weights in plastic ziplock bag.

3) Shake bag vigorously for 15-30 seconds (chanting optional).

4) Re-Install weights in club-head.

5) Win club championship.

What I would do...

--Have the specs checked by a professional.

--If the specs check out... Take your 8 iron to the range and hit it until you're comfortable with it.

May want to adjust the 8 iron till you get your desired ballflight. No big deal, easy fix

The 1 iron is always evil.

Sorry, couldn't resist ...

I had two that were off on lie angle. Didn't look or feel different at the time. Got them bent - now they are my money clubs. Worst case, bum shaft. Best case couple degrees off. SW could also be off. Lighter you might be late getting through? Maybe? Or maybe heavier would do that. I don't know, or pretend to know, but all things being equal the solution with the least number of variables is correct. Or however that crazy dechambeau logic (Ockham's razor) works. One variable is off, just need to find it.

You should buy a new set of SL and see what happens. Totally what most would do.. not me, I'd just get SW, loft, lie and length checked, for free. ?

Really, not one person has said “ it’s time for a new irons “. This site is getting soft.

They are all evil. All 14 of them. The trick is figuring out which ones are the most evil on a given day, preferably before they are put to use...

Check the lie, especially if they are forged clubs.

While I haven't ever seen the directional miss you are talking about, I did have a set of 2014 Apex Pros that had a 20 something yard gap between my 8 and 9 irons. The 8 went about 165 and the 9 went at best 140, with the PW going 135. I checked the lofts and found that the 9 iron was 2* weaker than it should have been...

Dunno if they were manufactured with poor tolerances, or if they changed overtime (I got them used off the BST!), but none the less there was a significant difference in specs vs. what I expected. Got the loft fixed and the gaps returned to normal.

When checking the specs, it might not hurt to be sure to check the shaft and make sure it's in spec with everything else.

> @Socrates said:

> A long time ago I had an iron where I just couldn't hit it properly. In a fit of frustration, I snapped the sucker over my knee. Replaced the shaft with an "identical" shaft (S300) and it was like magic. Hit it as good as my other irons. Likely the shaft was a bastardd shaft and out of sync with the others. Sometimes, it is just that simple.

This^.

Every once in awhile you get a club with a shaft that just does not perform for you. Either order an "identical" club, or put in a new shaft.

Maybe check the lie angle first. But bad clubs happen, and need to be replaced! Especially when you are hitting the others nicely.

Check specs, take it to the range and beat it into submission.

I bench it, although when a club of mine acts up it tends to be user error.

> @Valtiel said:

> Check your specs; swingweight, total weight, lie angle, loft, length etc. Until you do that you won't know whats going on.

And if that does not work snap it over knee, Bo Jackson Style, and have it rebuilt!

Or just do nothing... I'd trade a kidney to have 13 of my 14 clubs on good behavior consistently, especially if the problem child was a mid-iron that I could pretty easily avoid using.

guaranteed it’s a lie angle difference or swing weight. If those don’t test different here’s what I’d do.

Order a new shaft. And build it again with same grip etc and I’d bet it changes. Tolerances in shaft flex and weight are not extremely tight.

Could be shaft. Could be lie/loft. Could be toe hang.