Wishon launches 2nd generation of SL irons

[nathans]

Interesting to note that these are now purely Wishon.

I guess we'll have to wait and see if the heads are in the same ballpark with regards to players club vs. game improvment club. I've only had the opportunity to hit a 7-iron and look at the cavity back SW and they seem to be situated nicely in that spectrum, at least to my eye.

[Noke]

Very much looking forward to seeing what Tom has to his sleeve for his next gen SL irons.

I hope that the new clubs keep the same head size, reduce the offset (though I never had a problem with the Sterlings in that regard), give players more options from a CG placement perspective (hybrid and fairway SL options), and possibly a different alloy for the club body that retains the bendability but doesn’t mark up quite as quickly.

[Rich Douglas]

No, you don't want single-length for the low-lofted clubs and variable for the "short" irons. Not at all.

One of the distinct advantages to single-length irons is grooving just one swing--either one plane or two--for your irons. Shortening the high-lofted irons ruins that.

It doesn't take much to get used to a shorter 4-,5-,6-, and 7-iron. It feels odd at first, but you get over it. Same with the 9, PW, and even the SW. You get used to swinging them because they feel exactly the same as the other clubs.

As for "Sterling," that name will be retired from the Wishon line. Wishon will introduce a new name for these irons.

I've played Sterlings since their introduction. I would be intrigued if Ping, Titleist, or even TM came out with a set. But they haven't. It's exciting that Wishon is doing it, and I'm looking forward to them.

[TerrapinGolfer]

Do we have any updates on the launch date or is early 2020 still the latest?

[TKS]

Hearing mid- late March availability

 

[TomWishon]

It is, but really. not very many golfers or clubmakers seemed to be that bothered by the impact sound of the open back Sterling 4,5, 6, 7 or any of the previous open back high COR face irons I have done like the 770 or 771. But since there were a handful who mentioned they would prefer it to be different, I did do that in the new model to come. Give us about a month or so before any real official announcement with pics and in depth explanations are done.

[TomWishon]

Can't yet say a whole lot about this because we are still in advance of the time to release all the information about this. But the new irons will most certainly NOT be a player's blade or heavily aimed at the low hdcp player market. One thing that Sterling taught me was that the real benefit is in terms of reasonably significant iron shot consistency improvement. Those who seem to be bothered a little to a lot by iron shot consistency will find single length when fit right has a very good chance of being better for the player than incremental length. This is simply because when you make the lengths, the lies, the shafts, the total weights, the MOI, the balance points, the swingweights, the swing plane all the same for each iron, you do take a reasonably decent step forward toward duplicating the swing feel of each iron.

Can't do that in an incremental length set because only the swingweight or the MOI can be the same. With incremental length sets the total weights are all different, the balance points are all different, the swing plane is different with each iron, the shaft stiffness is actually different too with each iron. Now for good players, this is not an issue because most very good players are already pretty consistent with their irons. Plus, better players might tend to have to spend more time tweaking the lofts to ensure a very consistent distance gapping while above average to average to less skilled players just do not seem to have the same issues with loft gaps - the normal designed loft gaps of the Sterling proved to work very well for the vast majority of golfers for consistent distance gaps vs those of their previous incremental lengths set.

So if you are a blade forging afficianado you are not likely to be thrilled with where I have taken the new single length design. Now in the hybrids or the woods that are part of all this . . . . . .

[TomWishon]

CG positioning is much more controlled to help with shot shape and reduce any tendency among some players for higher than desired 9, P, , GW, SW shot trajectory. I chose a very different head construction and weight movement shape change from head to head to do that so that part was fun and a challenge. Hybrid and Fwy options are there as well though the key word in that is OPTIONS. . . . . Different alloy for the body of the irons, yes, and still bendable so less marking up. Part of the reason for that is that just recently there has been a real push by the Chinese gov't to hold plating companies' feet to the fire for filtration systems on the water in their plating tanks so getting consistent plating right this very time is more difficult than before. I am sure down the road soon that will get back to a state of confidence but over the past 4-5 months this has been an issue over there and playing some havoc on head deliveries for models that have to be plated. All of the irons have 2mm offset so that one is as you wish. But the one I did not do is shrink the blade size since I do see this as more of a game improvement design and not a player's design. There's another recent post I just made talking about that comparison if you are interested in searching on this thread.

[kenstl]

Excellent, thank you for the additional information. I have been a user since their initial release and they have really helped my game with consistency. 6'4" player that has always struck irons pretty well on the sweet spot using mostly player style irons in the past, but the Sterlings improved my misses if that makes sense. My errant shots to the right or left are reduced in the amount that I am missing a green to the right or left and distance control has been very good. The best thing I notice is it just seems like I don't have to practice as much to be able to go out and play ok. I spend much more time chipping and putting vs banging balls since they are all the same length.

I am one of the players that will welcome the reduced and consistent offset, and possible lower ball flight with the higher irons as I tend to hit them very high. I do play my 60 deg wedge in a shorter length iron as I just had too much trouble in controlling the height and or do not like the height I get on 3/4 to full swings.

The only thing I didn't get was a smaller head, but in all reality I probably need all the forgiveness I can get as a 7/8 HC. Can't wait to see them. May have to build a mini set to try them out.

[nathans]

Nice to have hybrid and wood options that go with the set.

I hope the low lofted iron (i.e 19º) will still be an option too!

[Noke]

Thank you, Tom, for the reply. I'm excited to see and learn more about your next SL wood/hybrid/iron lineup. Sounds like most of my wishes about the next generation will come true!

Giving people options at the top end is smart, I think. I personally like my 'longer' irons to launch high and land softly, so any sort of CG positioning to aid that will be appreciated by this golfer.

The Sterling wedges launched noticeably lower than other SL heads I tried, even at a comparable 36.5" length. Which is good! Will your new wedges have an even higher CG?

[nathans]

+1 on the 2mm offset through the set.

Progressive offset in Sterlings promoted a slightly different setup club to club in my opinion. So, with that said I think the consistent offset is a good thing.

 

[MountainGoat]

The Sterlings are back in my bag after a lengthy layoff. Initially, I was put off by the sound of the mid and long irons, but I got over it. I like the fact that they have a crisp leading edge and cut thru the turf better than other SL designs. Also, the launch angles are much more like conventional irons, even the GW. I play much more consistent golf with Sterlings than with any other clubs. The game is just easier.

 

 

 

[TerrapinGolfer]

Has the corona virus slowed the release of these clubs? Im itching for a new set to help with the winter blues

[ChaosTheory]

Here is a cut and paste from an answer provided by Tom Wishon on the Diamond Golf website:

"Thanks for your kind greetings and yes, doing fine and staying healthy. The new single length iron design will have a few things the same and a few things different from the Sterling model we debuted in 2016. We’re keeping the high COR face design of the low loft heads and we’ve retained the baseline length being 8 iron length. Those things most certainly were key to making the Sterling irons perform as well as they do. The changes are, 1) a full hollow body design for ALL irons in the set from high COR face to normal face. This increases the MOI of all the heads, though I am not going to sit here and tell you it makes the new model fabulously more forgiving. IT’s a small improvement in off center hit performance. 2) All irons in the set are low offset, not progressive offset as were the Sterling irons. 3) the sole design for all the irons is IMO better than that of the Sterlings – more rounded from front to back and more blunting of the leading edge for better sole travel through more kinds of turf conditions. 4) Both the GW and SW are traditional profile designs and both are milled face and both have a custom sole grind similar to that of the HM Series wedges. 5) And there are accompanying hybrid and fwy wood designs to go with the irons so both the hybrid and the wood could be single length if desired.

Now the tougher news – due to the effects of the coronavirus on all facets of factory production in all product areas in China, delivery of the new models is delayed by anywhere from a month to two, based on the most recent information we’re getting from our production factory. So where we were hoping for a mid March release on these, that’s delayed until at least later April and possibly May. So the Sterlings will still be available for a few months because of that should you wish to make a move sooner."

[TerrapinGolfer]

Thank you the update!

[ode1]

They sound darn near perfect. My biggest gripe with the SL sets I've played so far are the sharp leading edge/dig sole and appearance of too much offset. Plus the wedges sound quite nice with the new set and would work well with the standard length HM if folks choose to break from SL with their wedges. Curious to see what the SL hybrids end up being (departure from the 775 hs? or ??) and what weight will the fwy woods be? and based off what design (if not totally new). Super excited after hearing this update. I hope they are GI/SGI in size and forgiveness....I think it's already been stated that was the direction but I may not be remembering correctly.

[TKS]

New heads / set has a name:

EQ1-NX

That's all today. Carry on.

[TerrapinGolfer]

Heard the announcement will be made in a week or so

[EZLikeSundayMorning]

The suspense is killing me, although I can't use them at the moment, I'm really looking forward to seeing some pictures. Hope there are some updates soon.

[TKS]

And we are off and running:https://wishongolf.com/eq1-nx/

[ode1]

Very excited....I like the look, clean looking, and definitely game improvement with low offset at 2mm. Not a fan of the hybrid or fairways with the shallow face height, but pretty cool how customizable they are for weight....just wish they were deeper. Oh well, can't have it all......in for the preorder on the irons, and I believe the Sterling 5h would still blend in nicely with this set! I think the irons are gonna do quite well!

[kenstl]

Love the new look of the back of the iron and definitely am a fan of the 2 dg offset throughout! Attached are a couple of photos from the Wishon site.

[TKS]

In my A/B testing with shallow vs taller hybrids and fwys, shallow is best off the deck.

 

[Rich Douglas]

I've played the Sterlings for almost 4 years. I'm never going back to variable length irons again. There is simply no need to do it.

I have about an 80mph swing speed with the 8-iron, so I'm able to loft and carry the lower lofts through the 5-iron. I purchased and played the 4-iron, but it is just a bit too much.

I also purchased and played the lob wedge, but it wasn't versatile enough around the greens. It was so long, and so flat, that opening the club face was an adventure. And while you could choke down on it to deal with the length, you couldn't also open the club face without bringing the toe into play. (And I'm 2-degrees upright as it is, so standard or flat lies would be even worse.)

It is telling that neither of these clubs will be in the Equinox offer. The set can now be made with same-length hybrids, so that can make up for the missing 4-iron. Those hybrids can be made to the same length as your irons or longer, and can be bent to adjust the lie.

Should Sterling owners swap out their clubs for the new ones? There's a strong argument against it, and very little to argue in favor. The main reason not to do it is because the main game-changing feature of these clubs--way beyond anything else--is the single-length design. Period. Differences in length (the Edels can be built around the 6-iron, IIRC, and the Cobras are built around the 7-iron), shaft kickpoints (varied in the Edels), club head features, whatever. Nothing much matters beyond the single-length effect. So why consider upgrading?

There are a few smaller arguments. One is that the Equinox low-lofts are a degree loftier, which will slightly help ball flight and carry. Another is that the set has the same offset--2 degrees--throughout, where the Sterlings are progressively offset. A third is the placement of the CG. A fourth is the cool factor of having the latest clubs. And a fifth is they might be just a tad more forgiving--a tiny bit--but they're not a game-improvement club.

Am I going to upgrade? Yes, later in the year after some other experiments with changing swing weights. I may also consider going to graphite (or a hybrid) for the first time, too. But I'm mainly doing it for the cool factor and my affinity for Wishon clubs and what they've done for my iron play. I feel we're in this together.

[Rich Douglas]

(And I'm 2-degrees upright as it is, so standard or flat lies would be even worse.)

That was illogical. Ignore.

[TKS]

Good points here. However we are talking about the heads, even a new improved head won't have as big an impact on the move to SL that we all experienced going to the Sterlings and lesser designs from variable length irons. The EQ1 NX will offer some improvements. Only looking at the irons;

-consistent and minimal offset,

-leading edge and sole contour improvement

-wedge face milling and sole design.

-raising cog as loft increases.

Not to mention a better durability in materials and (gasp) lower cost.

If the low loft heads perform anything like the excellent new 595 driving irons these 2nd gen designs will be most welcome to many a bag.

I really liked the 590 driving iron from Wishon, hot, springface forgiving performance, but the 595 is an improvement with no noticeable offset, a larger, more forgiving face an a solid feel. From my own experience I can work this club hi/low right/left with greater consistency than previous models.

[TKS]

EQ1-NX's are now shipping to the preorder participants. Birds and Pars.

[ARL67]

Yup heard that from my local dealer yesterday.

I have P,9,8,7,6,5,4H,3W on order. Already have a set of L,S,G wedges SL at 36.125” so will use those in that set.

My current gamer set ( see my Sig ) is already SL L-9i at 36.125”, then 8i at 36.5”, then 7i at 36.875”, then SL 6,5,3i at 37.25” in an MOI build.

For the EQ1 set I’m thinking of ordering some FST 115 .370 Parallels ( they’re cheap ), tip trim all for 8i, and build ALL to 36.5” gripped. I think I really need to embrace SL Full-On vs going pseudo SL like I’ve been doing with a traditional set of heads and taper tip shafts . I will treat the 4H like the rest of the irons ( ream it to .370 ), and I can always add a short butt extension if required. Not sure about a shaft for the 3W, but have a few 5W shafts on hand that I can trim even shorter.

 

 

[TKS]

Been playing the new iron heads.

Definite improvement over a great design in the Sterlings. The EQ1-NX are notably lower offset and a touch larger w/a higher toe design than the Sterling. The radius on the soles seems more versatile. A quiter strike with the hiCOR faces too.

Great look at address VERY toe forgiving. Confidence.