RIP - The 1-iron ?

[Sébastien Dhaussy]

An interesting article on PGA.com on the end of the 1-iron  , largely because of the growing success of the hybrid clubs.

http://www.pga.com/news/equipment/ironsandwedges/oneiron042605.cfm
 

[Martin Del Vecchio]

You write the article for the 2-iron now, and run it next year.

I have never carried a 2-iron, and last year replaced my 3-iron and 4-iron with hybrids (Taylor Made Rescue Mid).  They are much easier to hit then the corresponding irons, and have a higher trajectory while traveling about as far.

The high trajectory is the only shortcoming; they are difficult to hit low, as one would do in a layup off a tee.  No Tigeresque stingers with these things.

But the benefits outweigh that one shortcoming for me in a big way.

[Dan Kelly]

Sebastien (sorry; don't know how to do the accent aigu) --

Thanks for the article. C'est magnifique!

I'm still carrying my 1-iron, most of the time -- apparently because I'm even stodgier and dumber than Joey Sindelar. But my Rescue is nigh, I'm sure. (I think I'll keep carrying the 1-iron, just for old times' sake.)

[John Keenan]

Is the 3 Iron headed down the same path?

Amazing how many improvement sets do not offer it at all. Will over time hybred replace all/most of the low irons?

[THuckaby2]

Low irons are on their death bed - Martin sums up the many plusses and one tiny minus perfectly.

The proof of the pudding is not tour pros either, as I see it - they are paid to play equipment so while it is their livelihood to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible and thus you'd think they'd use whatever it takes to make that happen, well we know that's not always the case.  Thus one takes their choices with a grain of salt.

No, I think the proof here is top amateurs and/or fledgling pros w/o equipment contracts.  When I read that guys like Jamie Slonis carry hybrids, and see for myself that Jeff Fortson does, well... it cements my decision as a humble now-6 handicapper that I am doing the right thing carrying them.   I have 2 and 3 iron eqivalents - Ping G2 HL model.  Who the hell would I be trying to kid carrying normal low irons when plus handicaps like that use hybrids?

So I think the 1 and 2 iron are all but dead except in the minds of dinosaurs.  Doesn't Rich Goodale still carry a bladey knife?  

And the 3iron isn't far behind....

It just makes sense.

TH

[Dan Kelly]

Doesn't Rich Goodale still carry a bladey knife?  

I think I've heard that he does -- and that it'd fit just perfectly between any two of your ribs (no pun intended).

[Kirk Gill]

I hear that a lot of horsewhip manufacturers went out of business when the model T came along..........

[ForkaB]

Yeah, I was thinking of me when I saw this thread.  Still carry it, even though I don't play it anymore.  I can actually play my melon-headed driver off the deck straighter (and of course longer) than the knife off a tee.  It is useful for distracting one's opponents, however, as in:

"Wow, old codger, you still use blades!!!  And a 1-IRON!!!!!!  Hey, Lester!  Come and see this!!!!!

[Scott_Burroughs]

How do you punch under trees without a long iron?  Hood a hybrid from back in your stance?

[A.G._Crockett]

To be a contrarian, I'll go the other way on this:  the demise of the 1-2-3 irons made hybrids possible!  

My reasoning is that as modern iron sets became gradually more and more delofted,  and the gaps at that end of the set got smaller and smaller.  (The opposite was happening on the top end, thus the birth of the gap wedge.)  Additionally, 7-woods replaced 3-irons for many, if not most, and 1's and 2's now carried so little loft that they were almost unusable, especially compared to vastly improved fairway woods.

All of this left room in the bag for the "utility" club, which, in most cases, carry the loft of a 3-4-5 iron, rather than a 1 or 2 iron.  The majority of the golf world has never SEEN a 1 iron, never hit a 2 iron, and hasn't owned a 3 iron since the other Bush was president, so it isn't exactly accurate to say that hybrids replaced 'em.

[THuckaby2]

How do you punch under trees without a long iron?  Hood a hybrid from back in your stance?

Either that or just swing easy with them.  Yes they do make normal full shots go higher, but that does still take some swing speed.  Swing slow and go low, my friend.

One plus for them not noted yet:  they are WAY WAY WAY WAY easier to hit out of rough.

AGC makes a great point, also.  The truly low-lofted 1iron like Goodale carries and with which he scares the codgers hasn't been mass-produced for a darn long time.

[danielfaleman]

Golf started with hybrids; what goes around...

[Kyle Harris]

Personally, I find the damn things to be too clunky. I get no feedback from them at all.

[THuckaby2]

Kyle:  they are clunky for sure.  And compared to a blade, they are dead in terms of feedback, without a doubt.

But the results tend to be SO much better for SO many people - including really fine players like the ones I cited - that one can live without feedback.  All the feedback you need is your ball sitting next to the pin and you 200+ away.

 

TH

ps - great point, Daniel!  That thought occurred to me recently as well... esp. when I saw some antique clubs...

[Mike_Cirba]

Wow...no wonder you guys are kicking my ass.   What a bunch of purists!  

For the record, my bag includes (and since I'm obviously not an equipment techie, I don't know the models beyond what I list below)

Driver - Titleist 975D I bought from Geoff Childs
3 Wood - One of those original Taylor Made teeny-weeny silver headed jobbers.
2 iron thru PW - Taylor Made blades, circa 1985 or so
SW - A Taylor Made one probably circa 1990
LW - My compromise to technology, a 60 degree Cleveland Copper wedge that looks like Payne Stewart's old one  (It's also cursed (it accounted for 60% of my shots one year) and Pat Mucci wants to perform an exorcism on it...I'll be sure to stick it in his bag at Hidden Creek)  
Putter - Some kind of Odyssey that works most days.

I'm expecting to get hit by a meteor and splatted into extinction any day now.

[THuckaby2]

Mike:

That driver ain't exactly a hickory.

Re the rest, well... if you want to actually maximize your golf potential, well you know what to do.  Today's clubs are so easy to hit, well... if score is an aim, you are just cheating yourself and you ought not to wonder why your ass gets kicked.  You are giving the rest of us a pretty big head start.

Of course there is a time and a place for everything.  I love playing old clubs and hickories and the like, because it's fun to do so.  I could see carrying a set full of those, full time, if I never played competitively.

But if anything is on the line... bet, competition, tournament... well... one doesn't go into a gun fight carrying a pea shooter.

TH

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom,

Maximize my potential??  Phew....I think I'm already over that hill.

Besides, if I started taking my game seriously again I might get my handicap down to being one of those low-single digit handicappers who are too interested in their game to evaluate courses properly that I bitch so much about.  

[Kyle Harris]

I am kinda like Cirba in my bag, but recent discoveries have made me think about joining the darkside.

Driver: Cleveland Launcher 300 8.5 degree
3wood: Callaway Steelhead Plus Strong 3 with Grafalloy ProLite Shaft
5wood: Titleist 975f with True Temper S300 Steel
3-9: Armour 845 Oversized with True Temper S300 Steel
PW, AW, SW, LW: Cleveland Gunmetal
Putter: Odyssey White Hot #1

I'll alternate wedges and long irons depending on the course.

Huck,

I think my problem with hitting the hybrids is the shafts that I've seen in them. They're almost always too high of a kickpoint for me to get any sort of trajectory control. I'll either hit a balloon ball or this dead, low shot with nothing on it.

Most of the playing professional here at Talamore (considered to be the best in the section) have a hybrid or two, but until another generation comes out, I'll be keeping the long irons.

I am slow to change equipment anyway, as you can see above.

[Mike_Cirba]

I'm amazed in a way that the same group of guys who are such purists about golf courses seem as a general rule to be so into the latest and greatest in equipment technology.

My personal goal is to have my bag look exactly like Willie Dow's.  Anyone who's seen it will know exactly what I mean.  Most of his clubs are older than Ben Hogan.

At that point, I'll have arrived Shivas Irons-like into what a golfer should and can be.

Speaking of Shivas, what kind of purist carries a freaking long putter?!?!?  

[THuckaby2]

Mike:

Whoever claimed to be a purist about anything golf-related?  Certainly not I.   And again, I share your goal re having a Dow-like bag some day... hell I strive to carry 5 or less clubs really.  If it's just me, nothing on the line, then hell yes give me hickories and gutties.  There's just more to golf than that, for me anyway, for now.


Kyle:

Well far be it from me to tell a golf pro what to do, but let's just say you ain't exactly carrying hickories there either.  That's all very modern stuff.  And hell, that 5wood of yours is damn near a hybrid anyway.  It wouldn't be any stretch at all to replace that with the Titleist hybrid, or any other for that matter.

TH

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom,

Compared to most golfers, you're Ben Crenshaw.  Think of your friends and then tell me again you're not a purist.  

[THuckaby2]

Mike:

You haven't seen me with said friends.  I am nothing if not amiable, malleable and adaptable.

I just play the game better than them, and follow the rules a little better, all while drinking a lot of beer, riding a cart, massively screwing around and thus having one hell of a good time.

You tell me how that makes me a purist.  I suppose everything is relative and the fact I do follow accepted golf etiquette makes me more "pure" than some of these blokes... but well.... let's just say if all you ever saw from me were these rounds, you'd laugh if anyone called me a purist.

TH

[Kevin_Reilly]

LW - My compromise to technology, a 60 degree Cleveland Copper wedge that looks like Payne Stewart's old one  

FWIW, Payne Stewart used a BeCu Ping LW....nothing at all like anything from Cleveland.

{Equipment geek signs off}

[Mike_Cirba]

LW - My compromise to technology, a 60 degree Cleveland Copper wedge that looks like Payne Stewart's old one  

FWIW, Payne Stewart used a BeCu Ping LW....nothing at all like anything from Cleveland.

{Equipment geek signs off}

Kevin,

It was the same color.  

[Dan Kelly]

Speaking of Shivas, what kind of purist carries a freaking long putter?!?!?  

Well, sure, but he doesn't have a *     * cover on it.

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