Tour Players Iron Specs

[bauer22]

After watching guys hit 7 irons 220 yards this weekend, it had me wondering what the iron specs these guys on tour play.

 

Could John Rahm's 7 Iron really be a 5 iron loft and length?

 

Also i see guys hitting 150 yard sand wedges (53-56*). I wonder if GolfWRX can try to get some idea of how different these irons/wedges that tour guys play compared to off the rack stock. I think they do a great job with driver lengths and shafts, just curious on everything else in the bag.

 

Curious if any guys familiar with Tour Van ops can lend any insight..

[Bomber_11]

They don't have strong lofts.

 

They hit the ball on the sweet spot with higher clubhead speed and forward shaft lean compared to an amateur.

 

The media also often glorifies unnecessary shots like a 7 iron from 220 because it sounds so unreal. Mainly because it is unreal - and is likely a downhill or downwind shot but that's never mentioned.

 

DJ hit a PW from 158 yesterday, and if he's hitting PW from there then for me to hit a PW from 140 seems fair.

 

PGA players (on average) carry 7 iron 172 yards.

[Hubijerk]

After watching guys hit 7 irons 220 yards this weekend, it had me wondering what the iron specs these guys on tour play.

 

Could John Rahm's 7 Iron really be a 5 iron loft and length?

 

Also i see guys hitting 150 yard sand wedges (53-56*). I wonder if GolfWRX can try to get some idea of how different these irons/wedges that tour guys play compared to off the rack stock. I think they do a great job with driver lengths and shafts, just curious on everything else in the bag.

 

Curious if any guys familiar with Tour Van ops can lend any insight..

 

Guys on tour and the Van guys are more concerned about gapping and correct lie angles.. Sometimes you'll go stronger or weaker with different irons to adjust gaps. A lot of people get new irons and find that, for example, their 6 and 7 iron are both going 180 and the 5 iron is 205... you just bend them to fill the gaps while matching the launch the player wants for each club. I have imaginary windows I want to hit my irons through, and they're all different but it's a consistent difference through the set.

 

Like the above poster says conditions play a big deal. There will be times when you may be able to hit a 7 iron farther than you're 6 or 5 because you can launch it higher and take advantage of the wind. If you can hit the ball high the wind can make a HUGE difference. Most recreational players can't get the ball high enough to ever take full advantage of it. DJ's drive on that playoff hole was 130-140 ft high. Had he hit it at his normal 100ft height or so the wind probably would have pushed it down and he may not have even covered the pond.

 

Downwind will always try to push the ball down, flatten the trajectory, and take off spin... The exact opposite of what most rec. players need.

[FairwaysToHeaven]

if anything the guys on tour are playing lofts that are a degree or three weaker than most ams. as another said, they hit it in the center of the face with higher swing speed and more importantly they release the club properly delofting the face at impact rather than flipping and adding loft.

[mneumann]

The greens are rocks too. DJ hit a 95 yard perfect 60 degree yesterday in the playoff at 18 that took a huge hop forward after about 85 yards carry and spun to 3 feet. If he hit that on a regular course it either dead stops 30 feet short or spins off the front of the green. Imagine how far a 7 iron bounces forward and rolls after he carries it 190

[heddp]

The greens are rocks too. DJ hit a 95 yard perfect 60 degree yesterday in the playoff at 18 that took a huge hop forward after about 85 yards carry and spun to 3 feet. If he hit that on a regular course it either dead stops 30 feet short or spins off the front of the green. Imagine how far a 7 iron bounces forward and rolls after he carries it 190

 

To respond to this I think hitting to a green much higher than he was didn't allow it to check as hard. That first bounce is gonna be big almost anywhere with that height difference from low to high.

[Hubijerk]

The greens are rocks too. DJ hit a 95 yard perfect 60 degree yesterday in the playoff at 18 that took a huge hop forward after about 85 yards carry and spun to 3 feet. If he hit that on a regular course it either dead stops 30 feet short or spins off the front of the green. Imagine how far a 7 iron bounces forward and rolls after he carries it 190

 

To respond to this I think hitting to a green much higher than he was didn't allow it to check as hard. That first bounce is gonna be big almost anywhere with that height difference from low to high.

 

Plus it was downwind

[nova6868]

PGA players (on average) carry 7 iron 172 yards.

 

I agree, their averages are pretty fair. This is a stock shot for the average pro, which probably isn't a full-out swing, and probably averages out to level ground with no wind.

 

When you see 220-yard 7 irons, that is probably a guy who's stock 7-iron is 185 or 190 - then its downhill, downwind, or a hard green on top of that.

 

 

 

[balladm]

My fitter at the kingdom had some pretty cool stories...Jason days irons are bent 5*strong, TW always put wooden dowels down his shafts as to not feel any flex, and DJ...oh he just crushes it.

[bervin]

They don't have strong lofts.

 

They hit the ball on the sweet spot with higher clubhead speed and forward shaft lean compared to an amateur.

 

The media also often glorifies unnecessary shots like a 7 iron from 220 because it sounds so unreal. Mainly because it is unreal - and is likely a downhill or downwind shot but that's never mentioned.

 

DJ hit a PW from 158 yesterday, and if he's hitting PW from there then for me to hit a PW from 140 seems fair.

 

PGA players (on average) carry 7 iron 172 yards.

 

I thought this was an attempt to troll, at first.

 

But yeah, what Bomber said...

[Rosco1216]

Only one I've heard are truly bent a full club strong is Jason Day.

[nova6868]

TW always put wooden dowels down his shafts as to not feel any flex

 

...Wut?

 

[Bigmean]

PGA players (on average) carry 7 iron 172 yards.

 

I agree, their averages are pretty fair. This is a stock shot for the average pro, which probably isn't a full-out swing, and probably averages out to level ground with no wind.

 

When you see 220-yard 7 irons, that is probably a guy who's stock 7-iron is 185 or 190 - then its downhill, downwind, or a hard green on top of that.

 

This sums it up.

[jll62]

There was a great thread here four years ago that had Justin Rose's detailed specs at the time (loft is on the far right). I've attached the image here, but definitely check out the thread: http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/847894-justin-roses-spec-sheet-shot-at-2013-crowne-plaza-invitational/

 

When you see a guy hitting a 7-iron from 220, pay attention to a few things. Is the hole downhill? Downwind? Is he hitting off a downslope? Expecting a flyer out of the first cut? Etc. But most importantly, how far did he actually carry the shot. Very often you'll see a guy hit a shot that lands 30 yards short of a back pin and bounces forward on a firm green. There's a lot more to look for than just hearing the announcer say, "A 7-iron from 220."

 

Some of these guys hit it crazy distances, no doubt. There are more and more of them every year on Tour. But often there's a little more than meets the eye.

[IMeneses]

Hi, reviving this tread because I came out with a curiosity regarding iron's shaft lengths. Normally we se the drivers and fairway woods shafts length listed but its not easy to find the irons specs. I'm curious to check how it changes between golfers. Does anyone have a clue or info about it?

[Howard_Jones]

i spilled my coffee on that one........, but its amazing to see what some actually believes without even thinking it over....

Back to topic, i never had a professional player in my shop who played "strong lofts", their PWs is 46* as the strongest.

[WristySwing]

Do you mean for yourself or for tour pros? Either way, the answer should always be you play the loft and lie that gives you the most consistency along with producing the flight you want to see. You'll find a whole range of spectrums from the "old school" players like Tiger and Vijay Singh who play off of a 49 or 50* PW and they have pretty consistent and conservative lofts in ~4* increments in the irons up to a 3i. Most tour pro specs I have seen are modern traditional lofts in that they will start at a 21* 3 iron and end up in the neighbourhood of a 46* or 47* PW. These also follow a bit more modern spacing where you have tighter loft bunching in the long clubs and a bit more separation in the short.

On the other hand you have a good handful of players playing distance irons as well. For instance, Jason Day is using P760 and he is notorious for using irons bent 2-3* strong to help get his flight and spin down. In my mind unless they have a special tour production model that is much more loft than the retail offerings that puts him in the neighbourhood of a 26* or 27* 6i, which most on here would believe is impossible for anyone in the world to hit consistently . I obviously don't know everyone's specs but there are quite a few who are using Apex Pros out there, whether or not they are the dot heads would be impossible to know unless you built them or saw first hand. Mickelson was also using Epic Forged for a while in at least half of his bag that I saw at the AT&T Pro-Am. That would mean unless he had re-stamped heads or some loft adjustment he was rocking a 24* 6i. He does hit the ball high with lots of spin so that wouldn't necessarily surprise me, either.

All in, you gotta play with what your impact dynamics bring you. The reason these guys hit it so far is like one of the original posters said above, they have extraordinary swing speeds, they hit the middle more than any of us could possibly even dream to do, and they tend to deloft at impact with a lot of shaft lean. All of this is a recipe for extreme ball speeds that even your typical WRX'r would find impressive. The other thing too is, most of the swings we see are only their "stock" shots, many of them have a second or even third gear that if they really need to get a 7i to go 220, most likely could without breaking a sweat.

[IMeneses]

Thanks,

I actually meant shaft length. We know that most of the pros use 44.75 driver shaft, Rickie is currently using a 43. But what about the irons shafts, how much do the lenght differs from the stock ones? I started thinking because Rickie Fowler and Bud Cauley are relatively short but use different shaft lengths on driver, will each one's 7 iron length will be the same for example?

Basically, I'm wondering if manufacturers reveal the loft, lie, swing weight of the irons, why is shaft length on irons is "hidden"?

[Howard_Jones]

Why is their iron lengths of interest? it will vary depending on what fits each player

 

[swgolf12]

The reason they hit it so far isn't shaft length it's dynamic loft at impact. They deliver the club to the ball with less loft than most so they have flatter trajectories and the ball goes further. Go to a tour event, most guys hit it pretty low.

[WristySwing]

D'oh! Totally misread that my dude! Sorry. A lot of tour pros actually use longer shafts now. Rickie and Sergio are the vast minority. The most recent WITB has Rory at 45.5 and DJ at 45.75. Fred Couples is 45.25. That is as far as I cared to look but I remember seeing some specs online from Trottie, one of the Taylormade tour truck guys I think, and saw others at 45+ too. I think the answer is going to be the same as I said before regarding loft, it is going to come down to what they need to get their contact the best. I know from Titleist training that even your tallest tour pros use +1/2" and it is vanishingly rare to see anything more than that. Tiger uses 1/4" under, Fowler is 1/2" under, Rory is 3/8ths over length, DJ is 39 7/8ths, which is huge! It seems to really depend on the player, like DJ is a tall man probably 6'3-6'4 based on when I was next to him and he had me by a couple inches, but to see a 2.25" over length is crazy for someone only that tall....but it obviously works!

[CROUSE99]

Thinking tour pros hit it so far because of their equipment is like thinking a 100mph fastball pitcher is throwing a different ball than the guys in the local adult league. Optimizing equipment helps, but the bottom line is the pros are just really, really fast.

[bigdog308]

I think we all know you should play what fits you. The question was, does anyone know loft/lie and specifically length of tour pros irons. Many of them look like they are playing their kids clubs. Shafts appear very short for some of these players. We know manufacturers push longer drivers to make people think their clubs are longer. Are we supposed to believe they don't do that with irons? There is no real standard.

[lefthack]

Jon Rahm's irons for last year's US Open.

 

TaylorMade P750
Loft: 23 (4), 27 (5), 31 (6), 35 (7), 39 (8), 43 (9), 47 (PW)
Lie: 62 (4), 62.5 (5), 63 (6), 63.5 (7), 64 (8), 64.5 (9), 64.5 (PW)
Shaft: True Temper Project X 6.5
Length: 39.25 (4), 38.75 (5), 38.25 (6), 37.75 (7), 37.25 (8), 36.75 (9), 36.5 (PW)
Grip: Golf Pride New Decade MultiCompound Mid (1 tape wrap; logo down)
Swing weight: D3.5

 

1/2 inch steps, an inch from 8 to 9 then 1/4 to PW? 

Edited March 14, 2021 by lefthack

[ChipNRun]

On 8/28/2017 at 6:15 AM, Bomber_11 said:

... higher clubhead speed and forward shaft lean compared to an amateur.

The higher clubhead speed means a slightly delofted club will still launch well - and looong!

[Phabs]

Rorys from 18 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Phabs