Single Length Irons

Hoss7504

accufitgolf

image /assets/images/0-76-X9EaLl7FzZonP5fO.jpg

kelco9

I don't think an off-the-shelf SL set will fly.

Bangoman

kelco9

Why not K?

sdandrea1

accufitgolf

No idea. I don't inquire when I know it's beyond my limit.

accufitgolf

sdandrea1

As best I can find out:

Cobra Single length irons with steel shafts, 5 to GW, 7 irons are $700.

PXG Irons are $300 each with steel shafts and $325 each with graphite shafts thus $2,400 to $2,600 for a set of 8 irons.

ode

sdandrea1 was it the forged set or the GI set?

The pxg do look good imo, but that douche in the commercial is such a turnoff.

sdandrea1

ode

Not sure. At address they are very similar in look to a PING i20/i25/ie1

ode

sdandrea1 assuming u talking about pxg's.....wandering how the cobra's look

Typhoon

Might go cbeck them out today at Golf n Ski warehouse. Work has been a bear with literally half our guys being out. It's been up at 3 am, get home at 6:30 pm, eat and fall asleep the past month.

Today going there...need the ambiance. Really want to go back and forth between pw and 5 iron and see what it's like.

sdandrea1

ode

The Cobra SL at address have a nice look as well. Players cavity. The Cobra KING Oversize are their shovels and look VERY point and shoot.

ode

sdandrea1 will u resist the ho urge ?/😊

sdandrea1

ode

Too easy. SL is not for me and I almost never buy new current model clubs.

kelco9

Bangoman

Sorry, Steve, I've been offline for a few days. No, not offline; just disinterested enough in everything to not feel like participating. 🙂

I don't think SL will fly as an OTS for two reasons:

1) How would you ever have enough stock to accommodate all the different lengths that would best accommodate each person. To have an OTS SL iron, you would have to require everyone to play the same SL. That doesn't make sense to me. Sure, you could force everyone to play the same 7-iron length and that may even be better than having variable lengths, but I don't think that it is the optimal (or maybe even an effective) implementation of the SL concept.

2) An even greater problem is that the best SL iron will be one that really suits the player in terms of feel: length, weight, balance. Sure, we might be able to adapt to the "unfitted club," but to really take advantage of the SL concept I think you should find the club that actually FITS and duplicate it across the set. Then you really have something. Otherwise, you just have eight clubs that may or may not fit you. Great -- now you could have eight irons you can't hit!

I played 1Irons for several years. They were decent; maybe even good. And at least they were semi-fit for length in that at least David took a WTF measurement. That's not perfect, maybe even not good, but at least it's something. I quite liked hitting the 1Irons. I once even put them in my trunk as I tried returning to my Snake Eyes 600Cs (which I loved and still love). I changed back to the 1Irons at the turn.

Hitting a SL iron truly is comfortable and so much easier than hitting variable length shafts. However, I eventually did ditch the 1Irons because I didn't like the feel of the shafts and the balance of the clubs. They were "boardy." Now I had eight boardy irons in my bag. If I could have built them to my feel with the shaft I wanted, they probably would still be in my bag. I think you can address these different IMPORTANT variables with component, SL irons: length, weight, shaft profile, and balance. That's too many variables to be addressed by the OTS. Just my opinion.

(Hope this makes sense -- I've had alot of scotch. 🙂 )

garyt1957

I tried them way back when My Ostrich came out with the Pure-Fits. I actually got them for the exact opposite reason most people do. As opposed to making the long irons easier to hit, I was having problems with coming OTT with the short irons and pulling everything left.
i'd make really good contact, hit it straight, but with an ott pull that would have me miss the green or at least be way left of the flag.
I didn't have this problem with the 7 iron and beyond, I think it was a lack of flexibility and getting down to the ball wwith shorter clubs. So I made my other clubs 7 iron length and it definitely helped. I eventually worked out the problem and moved on from SL.

fatshot

garyt1957

I tried the SL's a few years ago, mainly b/c the concept just made sense to me. Somehow I stumbled onto 1iron Golf's website and was impressed by their presentation. So, I decided to try to build a set using components I had laying around. I used a set of Golfworks Tricept heads that I had (5-pw), shafted them with some graphite shafts that I had not trimmed yet, so I trimmed them all to the same flex and length. I adjusted the lies to match the 7 iron, and added weight to the 5 and 6 in the undercut cavity (the 8-pw had to stay the same weights that they already were. It actually wasn't a bad set, and I shot some good scores with them.

That encouraged me to put my money where my mouth was and ordered a demo set from 1iron Golf. Quite frankly, those were a disappointment. 1iron only offered one shaft in their clubs at that time....stiff and heavy. No graphite shafts were available. Since I'm 6'6" tall, I had them made +1 inch long, so the clubs weighed a ton.....shades of the 1960's when I would try to lengthen steel sets to fit myself! So I was going from regular flex graphite to stiff steel.....going backwards, IMO. I lost about 1.5 to 2 clubs in distance from my regular set to the 1irons. I finally sold them to recoup my $$$ and went back to my regular set of Ping i5's with graphite.

Since then I've arrived at a sort of "compromise," which I've mentioned before: I made the gaps between irons only 1/4 inch. This means the length difference between my 6 iron and my pw is only 1 inch. I play pretty well with that setup, but if I ever decide to try SL again, I will go with Aaron's Pinhawks, simply b/c I think they are the best looking SL's out there, and I like the idea of the 5* gap between irons for a SL set. Dave Tutleman's comments about the Pinhawks reinforce my thoughts about them.

Sorry this is so long......just my 2 cents worth. Interesting thread!

Typhoon

So I hit the Cobra Forged SL irons:

I took the pw and the 4 iron out. Hitting off mats into the stark cold looking at grey sky, snow and 30 degrees.

Let me start by saying I cant say much bad about these. Like Steve said, being the players version, they looked fine at address.

4 iron...feels comfortable at address, ballflight a little low but very straight. No pushes or pulls. Had the feeling I could hit it harder with that shaft length.

PW...Also comfortable at address. Ballflight was too high on full shots. Choking down for low shots felt awkward as did half shots with a shaft that length. Very straight ballfight, no pushes or pulls.

Conclusion...I like the no push or pull aspect. I also like the comfort level a 7 iron shaft. The pw bothers me though. I think it might be great 4-9 iron...full shot clubs, and then go to a shorter length for wedges.

Here is a picture of the SL pw next to the standard pw.

image /assets/images/0-98-y4ruO1yTOKOpgFt8.jpg

ZWExton

Good feedback. I use my PW almost exclusively for full shots, so I'd start my "wedge length" clubs at GW or SW. Not a bad idea though, and it still reduces the variables through the middle of the bag.

Bangoman

kelco9

They will buy them as SL is the new buzzword in irons this year. you have to keep it simple to sell them....right or wrong. Same with any set of irons. Happy New Year btw

kelco9

Bangoman

True enough. Perhaps from an initial sales perspective, the OTS SL may fly. Like you say, people will buy anything and spend money needlessly on the latest and greatest, grabbing hold of the latest fad. And then when they find that they didn't haven't arrived in golfing Valhalla, they will move onto the next thing. If that's what the industry is about (and it is to an unfortunate extent), then the OTS SL may be a "success."

The problem with this scenario is that the success is short-lived, and the OTS SL irons will go the way of the Tommy Armour EQL. Then the masses chime in, saying, "See, the concept doesn't work." From that perspective, not only are the OTS versions a failure, but they doom the concept.

I think for people to really see the benefits of SL irons, they should be fit. A length and lie fitting is the bare minimum. That's probably true of all irons, but in the case of SL irons, if they aren't at least minimally fit, you end up with eight clubs that you struggle with. At least in a variable length set of irons you're bound to find a couple of irons that suit you to some degree.

Happy New Years and all the best with your new venture.

Release

Bangoman

Try to sell something for their potential and not fully develop what the product is meant for , will not fly.

Maybe that's the reason why so many previous attempt had failed. It's a great concept but unless someone invent a shaft which would potentially fit 90% of the duffers out there, it will have to take the high road of customizing the shaft to each and every golfer, even go into customizing each shaft for each iron at the same length.

To make the well fitted S.L. affordable to each of the golfers at this point will be a tall task to climb.

« Previous Page Next Page »