Single Length Irons

accufitgolf

Let us discuss them.

Release

Lots of talk among the golfers I know. No one ever step forward and get a set, even when I offered to put a set of components together for them they would not be the first few to venture.
I think unless someone they know had a set and gamed successfully in view of the group, there would be few and far in between around here to try out the single length golf clubs.

letthebigdogshunt

I have no interest in them. My iron set is always 7-SW so no need for SL irons.

Rickochet

letthebigdogshunt I have no interest in them. My iron set is always 7-SW so no need for SL irons.

I have played the Wishons Sterling SL's about half of my last season. The 7 - SW is where my game really improved. I immediately dropped my average about 5 shots giving myself more birdie opportunities. Distance gaps are comparable to the Wishon 870ti's I was using. I hit the 5 & 6 about the same as my non SL clubs. SL is not just about making the long irons more forgiving. All of my SL's are overlength at 38.5" SW thru 5i with head weights at 276g. My favorite club was my 8 iron at that same length so a full set built to those specs made sense to me. And it works for me. YMMV. And, there is no learning curve or swing changes required. You swing just like you normally do with your eight.

LBlack14

I've seen several used sets of the Wishons for sale over the interwebs.

Release

LBlack14 Wishons

Not for those looking for a bargain, the die-hard fans will patronize the brand within the circle.

LBlack14

Release

Nope, they weren't cheap....at least what I'd consider cheap anyways. Rather pricey actually.

sdandrea1

I built a nice full set of Wishons for a mate in Shot Talk forum. He liked them but they were not game changers, so he ultimately went back to traditional lengths.

Personally, I see the value in the concept, especially for a beginner. Since my iron set starts at 6 iron, and I like the lengths of my 8, 9 irons and wedges, they do not interest me. If I were to try it, I'd build a set of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 all at 8i length and then traditional length on down. I use 4 and 5 hybrids now, so I don't see me going for it.

Release

sdandrea1 Personally, I see the value in the concept, especially for a beginner

Exactly ! I don't see any golfer with a good understanding of the basic golf swing would try the single length.
Especially like you said, they are not game changers.

sdandrea1

Release

The player I built them for ( at his request) is about a 9 handicapper. He was itching to try it. I only charged him for parts and shipping and the set was over $500. He dismantled them and sold the parts on ebay. As LB said......pricey.

Release

sdandrea1 \

Yup, Wishon is of quality components, but their price line had not changed with the time. Maybe that's why it's sold to other investors. Can't fight the tidal wave.
I have not bought anything close to $500 since my kids went to college and probably realized I can do as good or better with other alternatives.
These guys I talked to were thinking about the less expensive experiment like $200 for the components and I will trim and fit the set for them. Even at that, no one really jumped on the offer. I was, also curious of how it will turn out in the long term, like more than one season of play.

Just played a set which I packed in the spare-spare-spare bag in the corner of the garage for not wanting to play nice forged set of irons in cold temperature and muddy golf courses ( muddy and sandy condition wear out the chrome finishing faster than sand paper ). A set of Adams A7 bent to my spec PW-5 plus 3 and 4 hybrids.
I played very nice with that set 2 birdies out of 4 par 3's. Not sure why, maybe it was the Aleve I took before teeing off.

LBlack14

Those heads alone are bringing $500-$600+ on ebay.....WOW!!

accufitgolf

I tried two different full sets of single length irons plus a 6 and 8 iron from a 3rd supplier. Overall I liked the longer 8 to AW as they brought back some distance for me. The 5 to 7 were the problem, especially the 5 and 6. I was hitting them short thus causing a yardage gap between my hybrids and my irons.

On a lark I tried a mixed set. My original 3-4-5 hybrids. My original 5-6-7 iron and 8 to AW single length. It worked out well. Had one minor issue in that I was then carrying 15 club so I dropped the 5 iron which worked out well for me.

Now 1-3-5 wood (mixed Cobra), 3-4-5 hybrid (old Cleveland), 6-7 standard iron (Adams New Idea), 8-AW single length (Diamond Tour) My SW is an old Ping Eye II and it always wins its way back into the bag.

golfer_LD

I have a set of Pinhawks I plan to put together for next season (never got around to it this past season) to test the concept. I already building using True Length Technology (TLT) which if you ask me is like the cousin of Single Length as far as golf length concepts go. It won't be until spring when I can test them though.

I will say that I have to agree about price point, especially with the Wishon Sterling irons. For golfers who want to test a concept they are not going to want to pay over $500 to test a concept. I do really like Wishon clubs but when comparing the cost of their clubheads to a company like Hireko it can get hard to justify spending the extra money on the Wishon heads. However, Wishon does do a much better job with pricing their shafts, hopefully that doesn't change now that they are sold by Diamond Golf.

Hoss7504

I got back into golfing about 2 years ago (and some change) after a very, very long layoff (10+ years). I came back to with no semblance of a game except putting that wasn't a complete disaster. My biggest problem has always been ball placement for the different irons. Also, because coming back after that long of a layoff (and I was never really a regular player 10+ years ago either) I'm basically a beginner.

Being that this is my current state, I figured "why not" and put together a set of the DTG single length irons to try to become a moderately consistent iron striker. And, I can say this with complete honesty, it has made a world of difference.

Shorter irons were never THAT bad, but anything over a 7 iron was basically a no-go. Hit a 5 iron clean? Get the !#$* out of here. Now, with the single length irons, I can hit a 5, 6, and 7 iron. I almost crapped my pants the first time I hit the 5 on the course. Not having to mess with ball placement or different swing for each iron has made life for this Ogre much easier.

With these single length irons, I went from being an atrocious iron player, to an almost not that terrible iron player. So, I'm a fan of them. But I definitely don't think that they will make any great difference for someone who has been playing the game for a long time.

Bangoman

My take.. ...I like the concept and always have when they were first introduced many years ago. I won't get into price here. Here is where most of the modern day SL irons missed the boat.

If it were me introducing this concept it would have gone this way:

4 iron up to 8 iron same length off the 6 iron. 9 iron thru all wedges SL off the PW.
The name for this concept: The Two Step

sdandrea1

Bangoman

kelco9

Bangoman Or you could call it "Simpleton Golf." Not because I think this is a good name (in fact, quite the opposite), but because this guy did something similar quite some time ago: http://www.simpletonsgolf.com. His website is as bad as his product name.

Subsonic

Some PGA players play a single length concept, it just does not get a lot of play in the press. A buddy of mine fit on Tour for a number of years and said it was not unheard of to have guys that would play their long irons at the same length. IE: Their 4,5,6 would be the same length.

accufitgolf

One thing SL has going for it is many are carrying hybrids over longer irons. Few carry anything longer than a 4 iron and many nothing longer than a 5 iron. Myself nothing longer than a 6 iron. A SL set built off the 7 iron would make for a terrible length 3 and 4 iron nevermind for a 1 or 2 iron. I see many SL folks talking about getting sets starting with the 5 and if built off the 7 iron, than the 5 is one inch shorter. Thus what happens is a shorter 5 and 6, a standard 7, and longer 8 to W's. The stronger players can overcome or not see much distance loss with the shorter 5-6 irons and may actually pickup some accuracy thus liking them more.

Release

From pure physic point of view, with basically the same swing speed it's very difficult to produce distance gap with the same length concept.
It will require more than head weights and trimming the shaft to the same length.... needs more customizing with each club to reach the same feel and distance gap / trajectory with the irons from PW to maybe 4 iron.

The simple way is to swing weight the head and shaft then trim it to the same length..... it had not worked well in the past and will not change today.

If someone is anal to the point that will put in the time and effort with unlimited funding, yes, the ideal single length iron set could be built. It may have different spec in each of the shaft in order to achieve the desired result. I had seen it done with half a set of irons ( 20 some years ago ). This golf nuts spend almost 2 years tinkering with the irons from 6 - PW with all different shafts in them (makes, length weight and flex ). and he also changed the loft quite a bit. Looks like a set from the used bin but it played absolutely beautiful.

I never ventured to copy him since it required a lot of time and money to duplicate.

ValueGolf

Dave Tutleman (the man!) has put a ton of work into Single Length research.

For his latest see here: http://www.tutelman.com/golf/clubs/singleLength2.php