Question for you fitters out there and others who dabble

I'm curios if you guys think this makes sense or is in the realm of possibility. I've never paid too much attention to iron lie angle. As a kid I went from department store Northwestern blades, to knock off Ping Zing-Black Dot, to various other off the rack standard/standard irons. Fast forward 20+ years and I've been playing Eye 2+ blue dots for a couple years. I've struggled with my irons probably the last 5 years. Poor low point control, miss off the toe often, contact higher on the face as the irons get shorter/higher lofted. Short iron feel uncomfortably short in length. I have no legit fitters closer than 3 hours away, so no real outlet to get fit properly, so I decided to see what Pings static fitting would spit out for me. I'm in between 6'-6'1", wrist to floor 36.75". I'm a long torso build. Sitting in a chair next to someone 6'5" and you'd think we were the same height.

Edit: Ping spit out +1/2", on the edge of green dot/white dot

I have an old PowerBuilt staff bag full of random clubs, the giant pro shop display type staff bag. Looked in there and found an old Ping I3+ 6 iron, maroon dot, +.75 (from standard of 38" 5 iron). Took it to the range and never missed the middle of the club face, not too high on the face, ball flight was good, and never even worried about fat/thin low point. It was only a small bucket on the range and it might not be the same when hitting at a real target with consequences.

Have any of you fitters out there come across any general trends for people with my build/dimensions? I know static fitting is only a starting point, but 4/5 degrees upright and +1/2-3/4 seems pretty extreme. I'm curious if this even makes any sense, from the surface anyway?

Static fitting is a good starting point, but it's no replacement for actual testing and fitting. Small sample size aside, I'd trust what you actually saw hitting the ball over just eyeballing based on a chart and some static measurements. The Ping charts are good, but far from gospel. Dynamic movements in the swing will override whatever static measurements you have oftentimes so I'd probably keep testing that maroon dot club and see if you can replicate the same results from that first session and if you do then I'd say that's probably pretty good. If you can wait it out and test other options obviously that's best, but right now I'd trust the actual real life swing results over the static fitting chart.

You should start by finding whats the needed play length to get a comfortable stance that works in the short end of the set. Thats where its critical not going to short, and 0.5" plus dont sound far off. Going longer will in most cases mean a stronger feedback of head weight and higher SW values, that often change it all, for some to the better, for others it dont. When length and SW is good, we can move on to lie angle. i dislike using lie angle like PING charts does, and since you seems to have been playing standard, the effect for where your hands will be at delivery with clubs thats longer with a higher SW value is a open question and should be taken as a separate spec to fit, not as part of a length question, but thats my way of doing this.

Step by step i would be, take a #9 or PW, and add 0.75" with a shaft extension, and add the grip you wants to play

Try that club of as it is. If it feels to long, lower your hands on the grip so the club plays to 0.5" and try again....

When length is found, head weight and SW is next....

When both length and SW is good, take a dynamic lie angle test using the ball marker method.

Thanks all

Hey Howard,

Is it possible to make shaft extensions out of other scrap shafts? I have a bunch of old iron set laying around in my basement. Curious if I could pull heads on one and use those shafts to make extensions for another instead of waiting for extensions to ship to me?

I really should just buy the economy loft/lie machine from Golfworks so I can do my own rough iron fit at home. No place to get altered here right now with everything shutdown.

As has been said, you have to hit balls, off grass, to see what works. I was fitted both static and range time by a Ping rep and he determined I needed 2 degrees up right. I struggled with that lie for a good 2 years until one day at the range the guy next to me had the same Ping clubs, but 2 degrees flat. He said try mine and see what you think. I went from a serious low draw/hook to a nice high semi fade and have never looked back. Truth be told, I true fitting just may give a totally altered set of degrees of both flat and upright.

As for using shafts for extensions, yeah you can do that. Just make sure both the inner wall of the shaft is clean and roughed up a bit with sand paper and do the same with the outer shaft going in, so the epoxy sets firmly. I used shafts as extensions for many years and have never had a problem.

its not something i would suggest to do, but i have seen it done...

Just an FYI standard length in the i3+ days was probably a 37.75 inch 5 iron