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Details, Details, Details! A guide to buying irons.Oct 04 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Follow the key steps and don't over spend and you will have irons that are great for you!
Buying a set of irons requires a lot of work if you really want to get the correct irons for you. There are so many questions to answer. Do I want graphite shafts or steel? Do i wan't stiff flex, super stiff flex, regular flex? Do i wan't oversized heads or blades? Do I wan't new or used clubs? What kindof grips should I get? How long should the shafts be? What should the lie angle be, should they be custom fitted to my swing? Should they be offset? Do i need a 3, 2 or 1 iron? What degree wedges do I want, 64, 62, 60, 56,52, 47? How many wedges do I want? How much money should I spend, relative to my income and playing ability? In order to find a good set of irons all of these questions need to be answered. I will answer these questions one by one. Graphite or Steel shafts? This is where many people make a huge mistake in buying irons! Many people buy irons with graphite shafts because they are more expensive, and seem to be a newer, better technology. However you will pay a good extra 100-400 extra for your set when you do this, and many people are actually making the wrong choice for their game! This is the deal, if you hit your driver 230 yards or farther you want steel shafts on your irons. Steel irons have more consistancy and control then graphite, and if you hit your driver 230 or farther, you swing fast enough so that graphite will be unstable at impact, no matter how stiff you get them. Get steel, save yourself the money, and get irons with better accurecy and consistancy. If you hit your driver under 230 yards, you might want to consider graphite shafts. They will help your slower swing speed to produce more club head speed because the graphite shafts have more flex. I only recommend graphite to players who hit their drives under 230 yards, and even for them only if they are willing to pay the extra price, steel is fine for these players too as long as they get regular flex shafts. All the pros use steel shafts for a reason, they feel and hit more solid! What flex do I wan't on my irons? This is an often overlooked but critical aspect to buying irons. The right amount of flex that the shafts of your irons have is essential. If your shafts are too stiff for you, you will spray the ball all over the place and lose distance. If they aren't stiff enough the club head will lag behind the shaft at impact, creating a big slice or sometimes a pull hook. Either way poor golf shots are a result. Here is the deal, you want regular flex shafts if you hit your driver 240 or under. If you hit it 250-270 you want stiff shafts. If you hit it anything over 270 yards, especially if you hit it 280 and plus, you want superstiff shafts. Following that guide is key! Oversized heads or blades? This is a tough question and many people have different opinions on it. Basically an oversized head will give you more forgiveness and probebly a tad more distance, but you lose workability and a bit of feel. In general I recommend oversized heads for anyone who has a 10 handicap or higher (shoots 85 or higher). If you are a single digit handicap its sortof a preference thing. I preffer the blades for the better golfers, but many great players use oversized heads and do quite well, its your call on this one if your a single digit handicap. If your over a 10 handicap definetly go with the oversized. New or used? In general I recommend new clubs. The problem with used is that people don't usually treat their clubs well. Even if they have been used for only a few rounds its a gaurentee they have been slammed into bags or in some other way abused. Also, technology in golf is changing so rapidly that used irons will always be inferior in technology and not being new takes some feel and distance away. Sometimes there is a great deal on used irons that are fairly new and look like they have been treated well, but the chances they will be the right flex, right shafts, right length, right heads, and meet all other requirements are slim. In general buy new. Grips? Grips is mostly a preference on how they feel to you! I like Lampkin and Winn grips the best but others are fine too. The key is that the grips are new. Irons need to be regripped every 2 years at least I think. (another reason not to buy used irons) Besides being new, the grip is mostly prefference on your part. Shaft length? Irons come in a standard shaft length. This shaft length is good for people 5-5 to about 5-11. If you are 5-11 or 6-0 feet you can get away with the standard shaft length, but a plus once inch extension might be a good idea, depending on you arm length and stance. If you are over 6 feet you definetly need a plus one inch extension on your irons and a plus 2 inch extension is appropriate for anyone 6-3 and over. If your shorter than 5-5 or 5-4 you need women's clubs which are made shorter, or maybe even junior clubs. If you have the wrong shaft length you will literally struggle to hit the golf ball. The right length is very important. The lie angle and custom fitting? If you are really an avid golfer than getting the lie of the club heads and the clubs in general fit to your swing is a great idea and will help produce the perfect clubs for you. If your just a weekend warrior or occasional player you can just buy them the way they come (though for most amateurs a more upright shaft angle will help cure a slice). I recommend getting them custom fit but its not as important as some of the other factors. Should they be offset? If you have a really really bad slice then yes it may be a good idea to get irons that are offset to help keep the face more closed at impact, although you will still slice, just less. In general I don't recommend offset clubs. What if you fix your swing so that you don't slice? Then you are stuck with offset irons and will chronically hit good shots that will drift left instead of going straight. Also people who slice tend to spray irons both left and right, so offset irons will make the shots that go left, go farther left. In general don't offset your irons. Do I need a 3,2, or 1 iron? I would say if your handicap is above 20 you don't need a 3, 2, or 1 iron. You should get a fairway woods, and have your 4 iron be your highest iron. Even Annika Sorenstam (the best womans golfer in the world) doesn't carry a 3 iron because she cant hit it consistantly. If you are between a 10 and 20 handicap you probebly want a 3 iron but not a 2 iron or a 1 iron. If you find you can't hit the 3 iron then you can drop it for a fairway wood. If you are between a 10 and 6 Handicap you want the 3 iron but a 2 iron will be tough to hit and so will a 1 iron. If you are under a 6 handicap you might want a 3 iron and a 2 iron in the bag but definetly not a 1 iron. I don't recommend a 1 iron to anyone, its too hard to hit even for great golfers. Wedges? I recommend most people carry a sand wedge (55 or 56 degree loft) a pitching wedge (47 degrees) and an attack wedge (52 degrees). I preffer the 52 degree wedge to the lob wedge because the fact is most people don't play on greens that are fast enough to ever need to hit the kindof flop shot a lob wedge produces. Even if the greens are fast, a lob wedge is a dangerous club in the hands of 90 percent of golfers. It requires a big swing to make the ball go a short way and for most amateurs big swings are trouble, especially out of questionable lies. The 52 degree wedge allows you to hit that shot thats inbetween your sand wedge and pitching wedge. For me its 110-125 yards. I find swinging a sand wedge too hard or trying to lay off a pitching wedge is very difficult and the 52 degree wedge solves the problem by filling that gap. If you ever need to hit a soft high chip you can just open the face of your sand wedge. How much money should I spend relative to my income and playing ability? As long as you followed all of my advice above you are going to have clubs that will work for you. If you are a great player it may be worth it to dish out the extra bucks for the newest best clubs on the market, but if your just an average golfer I wouldn't spend more than 500 dollars on a set of irons, and you can spend a lot less. If they match all of my requirements above, the clubs themselves don't matter that much. You still have to swing them. Don't waste money on really expensive clubs because they won't help you that much. Thanks for reading and goodluck!  |
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