Month: February 2017

My Year with Single Length Irons- Part 4: On the Course!

/ linkswanderer / 6 Comments

The day after I opened the irons, the forecast was mid 40s with some wind- great February golf weather. I was about the only person on the course that afternoon. It was 39 when I started but warmed into the mid forties by the middle of the round.  Too cold to get an accurate ideas of distances, so I didn’t really try.  I just wanted to hit the irons and convince myself that this wasn’t all a horrible mistake.

I started on the back 9 because I thought it might be a little warmer and slightly less windy. I decided to play from the forward tees and hit 5 irons off the tees so I could get some experience with the longest- er, I mean lowest lofted- iron in the set. I left my lob wedge at home so I would have to chip with the 37.25 inch sand wedge.  I decided soon into the round that if I was hitting less than a full shot with the sand wedge, it was OK to choke-up, and I did.

On the second 9 (front) I played from the white tees and used my driver.  I had no fairway woods, however, so I used 5 irons when I would have needed fairway woods or hybrids. I shot a 39-44.  This was not bad considering I have up 5 shots on the second 9 with lipped out putts or poor sand shots. (I couldn’t get used to hitting that long of a sand wedge from the bunker- kept hitting it fat.)  In general, I was hitting the 5 and 6 iron with a pretty good trajectory. I was worried they would be too low, but they weren’t. Above the 7 iron, I was hitting the ball much higher than normal.  This could be a problem, especially on windy days. But the irons felt very good when struck solidly.  Were the “longer” irons a bit more consistent than usual?  Maybe.  Were the “shorter” irons a tad less consistent?  Maybe.  The irons look very nice at address- not too clunky a topline as I feared with this substantial game-improvement iron. I started out hitting all the irons a bit left- probably the effects of the 3 degree upright lie.  A small adjustment on the takeaway took care of that.

It’s far to early to say anything definitive about distances, gapping, or consistency, but I came away feeling good and looking forward to continuing the experiment.

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My Year with Single Length Irons- Part 3: Arrival!

/ linkswanderer / 3 Comments

I got an e-mail from Cobra telling me my F7s were on the way.  As always happens, they were due to arrive one day after I left for a week of golf at Hilton Head with my friend Peter who generously offered me a bedroom in the condo where he was staying.  By the way, Hilton Head is a great place to go in early February.  I suppose you risk some bad weather, but it was nice enough to play golf almost every day and the island was blissfully uncrowded.

Anyway, the long drive back was made easier by the anticipation of opening the box from Cobra when I got home.  Here are some pictures:

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I give Cobra credit for getting all the wing weights between D0.5 and D1.5.  That is far better quality control than many new clubs I have measured. Fortunately, the lengths were all the same as well. I guess it would be embarrassing to see single length irons and not be able to measure and cut accurately. I can’t measure lie angles, so I will assume the clubs came bent 3 degrees up as requested.  The only glitch was in the actual length of the irons. I had asked them to come +1/4 inch which would make them 37.5 inches.  My Golfsmith club measuring device (you sole the middle of the iron on a moveable metal plate and then measure the tip of the grip) showed them to be 37.25 inches. Could be we just measure clubs differently.  No big deal.  Love the bright blue Lamkin grips.

Next: First time on the course..