Junior irons advice

[Searsy]

Hi all,

 

My lad is 10 years old and has outgrown his current irons. I really like the look of the ping prodiG irons and with the free shaft upgrade they look like a great investment. 

I’m just interested to hear about what clubs your juniors play and how you went about cutting them down if they are adults/women’s clubs. 
The last time we were on the trackman he was swinging the driver at 75mph and he strikes his irons very well. 
Other than the pings I haven’t seen any other real junior clubs here in the uk.

 Any advice on what clubs are junior friendly would be great 👍🏻 

[hangontight]

My son is 10.  Plays USKG Tour Series 57" Steel Shaft Irons & Wedges.  Plenty of kids his age have already made the jump to adult - notably TM P790's, Pings, etc.  I've seen the recoil iron shafts in some....    He is a good enough player and swings fast enough that he could probably benefit from an adult set, but honestly not at a point I am ready to commit to the cost and testing commitment required to get him into adult clubs.  Depending on growth, he'll be due for an upsize at the end of this season.  Undecided, but assuming he will be nearing 60" tall I have a feeling the prospect of properly fit adult clubs will be likely.  I've talked to a few fitters, including Sea Island, and the going advice seems to be that 60" is when they can start doing proper fittings without a ton of trial & error (cutting & hoping ).   If we do stick with USKG Tour Irons, we will def be upgrading to adult cut wedges. 

[darter79]

We are currently in that transition going from kid to adult stuff. Cost is no joke for sure. But so is finding a fitter that has close to the right length and correct weight shafts. I took the approach and found a single on ebay that is my test club with the stock shaft. Test that first and then move on to another shaft. Yeah might be a little costly but better than dropping a lot of cash on a new iron set that may not work. Fittings work well but best at full length. Even at 60 you are 1' under ladies standard and more under men. I would find a fitter that has access to shorter length stuff or find something on ebay. I got the test iron I got for around $50 and good to see it on a course with a real ball and a green to see how its all responds vs just looking at trackman numbers. 

[Searsy]

Thanks for your responses, I might try a few cut down women’s 7irons I can pick up on eBay and take it from there. If I have no joy I will go with the ping prodiG irons and hopefully the shaft upgrade will see him through until he’s into adults clubs 👍🏻

[MikekiM]

Currently 11yo / 54" still and using Flynn irons and wedges.  Woods are all TM with ladies shafts.  As he's grown I've begun adding lead tape to the heads to get the weights up in anticipation of going to adult heads soon.  Hopefully the jump to adult heads won't be as big of a change this way.

 

 

[Tannerbug33]

We took the jump between 10 and 11. Went from us kids 54 to cobra forged MB with Nippon zelos shaft. Did alot of reading and phone calls. We are happy probably time for new shafts. Going to size him soon. Its alot of work and guess work since you cant just pull something off the shelf. Good luck and keep us posted

[BloctonGolf11]

11 years old, 62" tall, and mid to high 70s swing speed (just clocked him two days ago). He swings Cobra AMP Forged heads on 58 gram Matrix MFS shafts. It was a gamble but one I am glad we made. He started using these last year and it was and adjustment but the benefits to his ball striking have been fantastic. I would not have dreamed of switching him to adults before he hit 60" tall and was reliably swinging 70 mph though. In our case it was more USKids TS irons or make the jump and we made the leap. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by BloctonGolf11

[wbfl]

Great advice from everyone!  I'm also super confused by this.  My son is 13 years old and 62" tall.  So probably too tall for junior clubs and needing adult clubs with ladies or senior flex.  Swingweight is a factor.  I'm going to try and fit him into one of my old sets.  I'm a lefty and I selfishly taught him to play left handed for this very reason. 😉

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by wbfl

[mrshinsa]

Most competitive juniors in our area will switch over at 60".

Don't rush into adult clubs unless the kid is strong.  Staying with junior stuff will save a lot of money.  

 

We just got fitted, and his custom setup will cost nearly 4k, which is on par with what others are spending. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by mrshinsa

[heavy_hitter]

3 hours ago, wbfl said:

Great advice from everyone!  I'm also super confused by this.  My son is 13 years old and 62" tall.  So probably too tall for junior clubs and needing adult clubs with ladies or senior flex.  Swingweight is a factor.  I'm going to try and fit him into one of my old sets.  I'm a lefty and I selfishly taught him to play left handed for this very reason. 😉

 

At 13 My guess is he definitely won't need ladies.  More than likely he would be a regular flex shaft.

[Baitkiller]

Still amazes me that there is no secondary market for tweener irons. I spent a damn fortune on my son and daughters sets Rh and LH of course because the golf Gods hate me. Then I could not off load them for more than a few pennies on the dollar when they moved into full adult sets.  Good luck man. It ain't cheap but its fun. 

[Tannerbug33]

55 minutes ago, Baitkiller said:

Still amazes me that there is no secondary market for tweener irons. I spent a damn fortune on my son and daughters sets Rh and LH of course because the golf Gods hate me. Then I could not off load them for more than a few pennies on the dollar when they moved into full adult sets.  Good luck man. It ain't cheap but its fun. 

Preach it brother 

[tiger1873]

The transition to from Junior clubs to Adults clubs is very tough.  A kid between 10-13 in general grows a lot.  I don't care what you do chances are in 6 months the perfect club will simply very wrong.

 

A lot kids quit during this time too I think because of this.

 

All you can do is buy what you think they need. Unless your willing to spend a fortune on clubs which some people feel the need to do. You have to live with the fact they are just growing a lot.

 

My advice is once you think there ready to move to adult clubs then just buy decent Driver, woods and Irons off eBay and then go over to youtube and learn how to swap out shafts and do everything yourself.

 

If your not handy around the house and not good with tools then just buy used sets and get them cut down.  The amount you will save will be huge.

[Searsy]

I have been very lucky to find some immaculate ping g410s with accra 40i shafts and ping glide 3.0 wedges with 50i shafts for £340 on Facebook. For the price they were too cheap not to gamble on as they have only been hit a few times. There is an Accra approved fitter only 10 miles from our house so once we get out of lockdown I will get him fitted into them properly and hopefully he won’t find them too hard to hit. 🙏🏻

[Searsy]

[Searsy]

Picked up a brand new yonex xp driver and 3 wood for next too nothing so going to give them a go as well 👍🏻

[tiger1873]

On 2/5/2021 at 11:57 AM, Searsy said:

I have been very lucky to find some immaculate ping g410s with accra 40i shafts and ping glide 3.0 wedges with 50i shafts for £340 on Facebook. For the price they were too cheap not to gamble on as they have only been hit a few times. There is an Accra approved fitter only 10 miles from our house so once we get out of lockdown I will get him fitted into them properly and hopefully he won’t find them too hard to hit. 🙏🏻

 

US kids specs are a good guide. Also search on this forum I think wishon golf posted a nice chart on lenths for junior's.

[leezer99]

37 minutes ago, tiger1873 said:

 

US kids specs are a good guide. Also search on this forum I think wishon golf posted a nice chart on lenths for junior's.

Driver should go from the ground to the child’s sternum. 

[wildcatden]

18 minutes ago, leezer99 said:

Driver should go from the ground to the child’s sternum. 

 

Should it be to lower (Xiphoid...purple), mid (body of sternum...blue) or upper sternum (manubrium...green) area for driver length?

 

[leezer99]

2 hours ago, wildcatden said:

 

Should it be to lower (Xiphoid...purple), mid (body of sternum...blue) or upper sternum (manubrium...green) area for driver length?

 

Run your fingers down your chest. When it gets soft that’s your spot. I’m guessing that’s the purple spot on that picture as I’ve never seen the inside of a human’s chest. 

[Bizzle80]

im putting my 8yo in a 48" 70g X driver. she gets some serious carry if she can manage to lift it and swing it...

[heavy_hitter]

9 hours ago, Bizzle80 said:

im putting my 8yo in a 48" 70g X driver. she gets some serious carry if she can manage to lift it and swing it...

Huge mistake and will delay the process of swinging the club faster.  Swinging a driver that is too long and too heavy teaching the brain to swing slow.  Not a good idea.

[Bizzle80]

4 hours ago, heavy_hitter said:

Huge mistake and will delay the process of swinging the club faster.  Swinging a driver that is too long and too heavy teaching the brain to swing slow.  Not a good idea.

 

that was a joke. my kid is barely 48" tall, so might be tough for her to swing a 48" Xstiff driver a la dechambeau.

[darter79]

1 hour ago, Bizzle80 said:

 

that was a joke. my kid is barely 48" tall, so might be tough for her to swing a 48" Xstiff driver a la dechambeau.

It will be illegal soon so there is that. Damn USGA. 😂

[CaptJosh]

My Son is 10 turning 11 in a month but is a big kid at about 61-62" tall. He is coming out of a set of Flynn irons to some Mizuno Hot metal irons. I was amazed at the distance he picked up but there is no way he could have swung them before now.

[cwilk]

My son played US Kids until he was 11 or so and probably over 60” tall. We switched to Flynn Golf after that. Then he was fit into Callaway Apex CF 19’s with Elevate 95 regular a few months before turning 13(stock L/L). He’s been growing fast and less than a year later was fit into PXG 0211’s with Elevate Tour Stiff flex shafts at 5’10” (stock l/l). I think it was actually more cost effective with adult clubs because I was able to sell his Apex’s for over $600 and picked up the PXG’s new for $922 shipped. I’m hoping his next set will be a players cavity with x100’s so he can just play them all through high school. 

[leezer99]

Daniel Berger just won with irons released a decade ago in 2011.  

[Tannerbug33]

On 2/9/2021 at 11:36 PM, Bizzle80 said:

im putting my 8yo in a 48" 70g X driver. she gets some serious carry if she can manage to lift it and swing it...

Wow I just put my son is a 43.5 in shaft and it's a 1/2 longer the. Recommended sure hope he's not giving anything up off the tee 😂😂😂😂

[cwilk]

On 2/15/2021 at 7:11 AM, leezer99 said:

Daniel Berger just won with irons released a decade ago in 2011.  

And the guy the week before won with a brand new release, and the guy before that with new/custom/proto clubs. What does this have to do with the thread topic?