Regarding iron's weight and shaft stiffness for beginner

[HwAw99]

Hi all, may I have some advise here.

 

I've recently purchased a 2nd hand TM R7 at a good deal, and it comes with RE*AX stiff shaft.

Went to the range recently and was told that R7 was not suitable for me due to the weight and stiffness of the shaft. And since I've just started golfing, it better for me to get a light weighted iron with regular shaft.

 

Wondering is it possible to condition my body to get familiar with the heavier weight and stiffer shaft? Or should I just go for the Japanese brand where it is more for Asian built?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Hawkeye77]

You don't say anything about whether the club works for you.  Now you assume it isn't because some person with no context supplied says it is wrong for you? No idea what you mean by going for "the" Japanese brand. 

 

Buy whatever club fits you and is suitable based on how you swing the golf club.  As far as physical conditioning to match the club?  No.

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Hawkeye77

[HwAw99]

Hi @Hawkeye77, thanks for the response.

 

To be honest I'm not sure whether if it's working for me right now as it's has only been my 5th range session.

My concerns are whether if the R7 is too heavy for me, and if the stiffness is not suitable for me.

 

I heard Japanese clubs are of lighter weight when may be beneficial for beginners.

[Hawkeye77]

5 minutes ago, HwAw99 said:

Hi @Hawkeye77, thanks for the response.

 

To be honest I'm not sure whether if it's working for me right now as it's has only been my 5th range session.

My concerns are whether if the R7 is too heavy for me, and if the stiffness is not suitable for me.

 

I heard Japanese clubs are of lighter weight when may be beneficial for beginners.

I see. No idea on the Japanese clubs. If it’s not working you do need to find the weight that suits you. I recently found out (with a solid on turf fitting) that my ideas of weight were all wrong in my irons and I’m into much lighter shafts. But even between lighter shafts of the same weight there were differences. There is a shaft that will suit you that you won’t need to feel you have to make yourself fit into. 

[Billfitz]

Who told you this? An expert fitter? A teaching pro? Or a kibitzer? The stock TM Reax shafts aren't particularly heavy or stiff, being intended for the average player, not a PGA tour pro. If all you have is five sessions on the range for experience you haven't learned how to swing a club yet, so it's way to early to be concerned about clubs that are a perfect fit. Make it 50 sessions on the range and then you should think about a fitting.

[HwAw99]

Thanks @Hawkeye77 and @Billfitz. Yes I should go for more sessions instead before deciding whether if the club suits me.

I did measure the weight of R7 7iron and it weighs around 450g. Not sure if this is the usual average.

[Billfitz]

The average 7 iron is around 425g. But you can be 25g heavier with a different grip. I had Reax shafts on some TMs a few years back and never noticed them being particularly heavy.

[HwAw99]

Is this the standard REAX TM shaft? Can't find any information online.

 

[AdamMH]

That seems odd... You measured your 7-iron as being 450g and yet that appears to be a 56 gram iron shaft based on the label. That seems quite heavy for a club with such a light shaft.

 

For reference I measured a Mizuno MP11 with Dynamic Gold S300 (130g uncut) at 454 grams with a standard grip.

[HwAw99]

1 hour ago, AdamMH said:

That seems odd... You measured your 7-iron as being 450g and yet that appears to be a 56 gram iron shaft based on the label. That seems quite heavy for a club with such a light shaft.

 

For reference I measured a Mizuno MP11 with Dynamic Gold S300 (130g uncut) at 454 grams with a standard grip.

 

I'm having the standard TM grip too. The R7 i had is R7 XD if that makes a different

[Stuart_G]

On 8/8/2022 at 2:19 AM, HwAw99 said:

Went to the range recently and was told that R7 was not suitable for me due to the weight and stiffness of the shaft.

 

Probably not by anyone who actually knew what they were talking about,

 

On 8/8/2022 at 2:19 AM, HwAw99 said:

And since I've just started golfing, it better for me to get a light weighted iron with regular shaft.

 

Also completely false.   Your general strength and athleticism will play a much bigger role in determining what might be a good equipment choice when starting out this game from scratch.  For beginners, stiffness is not really all that important but weight can be.  Shaft weight plays a big part in being able to maintain a consistent rhythm, tempo, and timing.   Too light can lead to as many problems as too heavy.

 

In addition to shaft weight, as a beginner, the right playing length and grip size are the two other specs you should really pay attention to making sure they are a compatible fit.

 

 

7 hours ago, HwAw99 said:

Is this the standard REAX TM shaft? Can't find any information online.

 

There is no "standard" REAX shaft.   "Reax" was just a name TM used for their proprietary shafts.  They changed from year to year and between different releases.  But pretty much all of them from that era are extremely light weight shafts.  Not overly stiff either.    So whoever told you they were too light or too stiff not only didn't know what you should be playing, they really didn't have a clue as to the specs you actually had.

 

 

To be honest I'd be much more worried about them being too light than too heavy.    Those shafts are 55 gm based on the labels.   That's typically a weight that's generally suitable for a young child, smaller or weaker woman or seniors.    As a bit of a contrast, even as a beginner, the average (US) sized male in the 18-40 yo range would usually be better off with something twice as heavy as that.  A shaft in the 100 - 120 gm range.

 

Also they came from a time when the OEM's were making graphite shafts 1/2" longer than steel.   So if you really should fit into a std length set, they could be too long for you - and that can add to the difficulty of learning the game.

 

But that's said based on a lot of assumptions about your size, age, and general athletic ability.   In order for us to give better recommendations to help you, you would need you to share more information about yourself.   Age, size, strength or anything to help us gauge your athletic ability.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Stuart_G

[HwAw99]

@Stuart_G Thanks for the reply. It's really informative especially on the stiffness and the weight of the clubs.

 

As what the rest have suggested, I think it's best for me to go for more sessions to understand whether if the clubs suits me.

 

I'm currently in mid 30 and I have a rather thin physique, 180cm tall and 64kg in weight. The length from ground to wrist is around 90cm. Can't really measure my strength though.

[Stuart_G]

7 hours ago, HwAw99 said:

@Stuart_G Thanks for the reply. It's really informative especially on the stiffness and the weight of the clubs.

 

You're welcome.

 

7 hours ago, HwAw99 said:

As what the rest have suggested, I think it's best for me to go for more sessions to understand whether if the clubs suits me.

 

Unfortunately, the main problem with that approach is that as a complete beginner, you have no basis for making that judgement.   No way to tell if those club specs are making things easier or harder for you to learn the game.   

 

 

Best option would probably be to go see and work with a teaching professional and get his/her feedback on how good a fit the clubs might be.    Not a guaranteed approach - as not all teaching pros are as aware of equipment and fitting principles as they should be.   That or maybe get some lead tape and try adding a bunch (30-40 gm) to the shaft of one of the clubs to see how that feels compared to one of the clubs without the added weight.

 

 

7 hours ago, HwAw99 said:

I'm currently in mid 30 and I have a rather thin physique, 180cm tall and 64kg in weight. The length from ground to wrist is around 90cm. Can't really measure my strength though.

 

 

Do you consider yourself somewhat athletic or physically active on a regular basis?

 

But that size information confirms that the length could be 1/2" too long IF it's a stock factory build.   Just based on that size info, I might have put you in a shaft at the 95-105 gm range for a male.  But even that is just a guess at what might be a good place to start.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Stuart_G