Questions Concerning Hogan's Princess Irons

TheCompleteHacker · November 18, 2016

Preface: New to Hogans, care of a pair of 99s I picked up at a Local play it again... $39.00 for a 2-PW that was laying on the floor in the bargain section. They actually wanted more for the Hogan Edge with graphite shafts than they did these gems.

Ever since then, I can't keep my eyes off Hogans. I've owned, tried, and sold a pair of the 2006 Apex Edge. I'm making a combo set out of the Apex Plus and 99s. (This was prior to realizing the FTX existed.)

I love the older blades like the PC5s and the Precision/Personals, but they are often much more pricey than I'd like to pay.

I've seen two sets of Princess irons, and yes I know they are Lady's clubs, that I really like. One is the exact same head shape as the PC5, and one that I've recently come across have more of a Personal shaped muscle.

The thing is, I see a lot of these sets come up for sale in the $30 range, and often they look as if they are New or NOS. I take it not many males want to play something that says Princess on it...but I personally don't care if they play well.

My question is, what if anything should I be concerned about with potentially buying a set of Princess blades and reshafting for a more favorable modern shaft?

I know there are the Hosel pins to consider, and the existing shafts will be an A flex or more close to a Unisex flex, but are these heads significantly different in design or quality? I assume that they may be a bit lighter for a lighter swing weight, due to the fact that they are meant for women, but is it enough weight that you can't adjust the feel with hot melt and/or lead tape?

Thanks in advance for any info.

Casey.

Davewn · November 18, 2016

Preface: New to Hogans, care of a pair of 99s I picked up at a Local play it again... $39.00 for a 2-PW that was laying on the floor in the bargain section. They actually wanted more for the Hogan Edge with graphite shafts than they did these gems.

Ever since then, I can't keep my eyes off Hogans. I've owned, tried, and sold a pair of the 2006 Apex Edge. I'm making a combo set out of the Apex Plus and 99s. (This was prior to realizing the FTX existed.)

I love the older blades like the PC5s and the Precision/Personals, but they are often much more pricey than I'd like to pay.

I've seen two sets of Princess irons, and yes I know they are Lady's clubs, that I really like. One is the exact same head shape as the PC5, and one that I've recently come across have more of a Personal shaped muscle.

The thing is, I see a lot of these sets come up for sale in the $30 range, and often they look as if they are New or NOS. I take it not many males want to play something that says Princess on it...but I personally don't care if they play well.

My question is, what if anything should I be concerned about with potentially buying a set of Princess blades and reshafting for a more favorable modern shaft?

I know there are the Hosel pins to consider, and the existing shafts will be an A flex or more close to a Unisex flex, but are these heads significantly different in design or quality? I assume that they may be a bit lighter for a lighter swing weight, due to the fact that they are meant for women, but is it enough weight that you can't adjust the feel with hot melt and/or lead tape?

Thanks in advance for any info.
Casey.

While I'm not overly familiar with those Hogan Princess models, you'll want to make sure the heads aren't weighted and bored specifically for ladies' shafts. I bought an older Wilson ladies' blade 5 iron at the thrift store (Carol Mann maybe) to match up with a set of mid 70's X31s and while the head shape was very similar, the shaft bore was way smaller than .355. When I bored it to accept a .355 men's shaft and built it to match the rest of the set's length at 37 1/4" it came out super heavy at D9. Don't know if that was a just a quirk of the store line club I bought or something done with women's clubs of the era...

teevons · November 18, 2016

Agree with Dave, Hogan ladies clubs came in different hosel size, no rhyme or reason regarding years, I have some Hogan Precision irons that had ladies shafts in them and hosel had to be bored out to take 355, lots of the 60's Hogan womens shafts were smaller diameter , not just Princess but Hogan irons with ladies shafts, I imagine shafts were smaller to make them lighter, more flexible. Pretty sure all Apex shafts for women were 355, not smaller for women

TheCompleteHacker · November 18, 2016

Well that is disappointing.

HitaHouse · December 8, 2016

I can second the heavy head comment. I picked up a set of 72 ladies Hogan irons in nice shape with the plan to reshaft. The heads looked exactly like the mens model and came at a nice price. The hosels were .355 but as above when shafted at standard men's lengths, they came out at about D-8. They must have picked out heavy heads for the ladies sets.