DonM I built some XDS's for a client. The onset/face progression's are different.

Senior males as they lose distance with shorter playing length mid-irons with jacked up lofts (don't have high enough club head speed with an average playing length 5i 38"/loft 23 - 25 deg. or a 6i of modern variation) as an example) seem perfect candidates to longer playing length traditional lofted frwy woods. You get the traditional loft and trajectory of the club with the longer playing length for lost distance. ie. #9 and #11, etal frwy woods.

Just from my experience.

      fatshot I absolutely love the old Adam's A12 OS hybrids. I play the 4-5-6-7. And you can get them super cheap.

          DonM I'll be interested to hear what you think of that hybrid. I'm seriously thinking about ditching my 8 and maybe 9 iron

            garyt1957 fatshot I absolutely love the old Adam's A12 OS hybrids.

            Already have 2 of them! The 6 worked well for 2-3 years, until it became a hook machine.....no idea why.... The 5 is just OK for me...no better or worse than any other hybrid. Lately I've been experimenting with some higher lofted fairway woods, like @Scotts33 suggests.

                fatshot Lately I've been experimenting with some higher lofted fairway woods,

                Me too. Built a set of 7-8-9-pw-sw Heater hybrids but they're SO light, like 240 grams for a 7H compared to the normal 270. I like that they are all the same size though.
                edit: oops I see now you said FW's not hybrids.

                  garyt1957 I will choke up on my driver to the very end of the grip to avoid teeing off with a 3 wood.

                  Off the tee I choke down a bit on driver, 3/4 backswing and saw off the finish. More of a 12-9 o clock swing and it hits a low bullet dead straight. Normal tee height

                    scotts33

                    scotts33 Senior males as they lose distance with shorter playing length mid-irons with jacked up lofts (don't have high enough club head speed with an average playing length 5i 38"/loft 23 - 25 deg. or a 6i of modern variation) as an example)

                    Scots33, in your experience then, what's the lowest loft # that a normal senior can handle in a middle iron....?
                    Asking for a 78 year old friend......🤣 🤣 🤣

                        30* KE4 Max was not enough loft for me. I could play it, but it was not much use. I did not have the loft checked so it could have been lower actual. Back to 32* in the STi2 and the flight is perfect. It seems odd 2* of loft would make that much difference but it did. With the 34* KE4 Max 8i it goes high and straight. I could easily have the lofts tweaked in the current set 32* - 48* to take an iron out, IMO 5* of separation would suit me fine. Next club up from 7i is a 26* hybrid!

                        Reshafted a L1.XW 52* with an s400 8i shaft (shimmed a .355) and have same model 60* that I ordered new and put in same shaft. I have never technically tried the 8i spinner trick like this, but have ordered wedge specific shafts which may be the same concept. I have the 56* with a TT Spinner Wedge+ model in which tracks at about the same weight as the 8i s400 shaft.

                        Anybody ever try the Integra I-Win single length hybrids?

                        LogicalOne Unfortunately, I don’t have any options at this time. Sorry. 😞

                        Gotcha, I'm just wondering would less tipping work? Tip a 9iron like an 8 iron?

                            garyt1957 I've done this with several shafts/builds, steel & graphite. iirc, 'they' say that is just 1 soft step. 'They' also say it would take 2 soft steps to equal a full flex. Never done the 2 though, just always added a tip weight to help things along. 2-3g.
                            And it has always worked as I wanted.

                                garyt1957

                                I feel that for 98% of folks, soft-stepping an R to an A with the LogicalOne graphite iron shaft wouldn’t hurt anything/would be fine.