1 iron

[bill reed]

Re: 1 iron

hi again ilang
yes the bunkers are so deep and you cant play a shot forward in a lot of them and its more about getting out than how far out. and the way the burn weaves about the couse dont help.
i love watching the open there, seeing the best players in the world fight to score par tells you how hard it can be. its fair but hard.
hogan was a bit before my time i grew up watching trevino mostly.
nice chatting with you
bill

[tomallinder]

Re: 1 iron

I think that another reason the pros do not use 1, 2 irons so much anymore is also because of the balls they use now.

The balls now are designed for lower spin off the longer clubs.

I don't care how you look at it, you must have a lot of clubhead speed to hit a long iron. The two-piece balls mean you really need a lot of speed through impact to get the ball on a high trajectory with a long iron.

Another thing. Lofts on all irons has decreased over the last 30-40 yrs or so. So, if you look at Jack Nicklaus' 1 iron that he used in his prime, it probably had 17 or 18 degrees of loft. Today's 2 iron has that...

Its just a lot easier to hit a hybrid. I have a Mizuno 18 deg 2 iron Fli-Hi. Looks like a 2 iron but has the weight concentrated a bit lower and is hollow. I can hit the ball high (easily) with it or hit it low. If I use the 2 iron from my set, it takes a perfect strike to get anything out of it. I can mis-hit the hybrid and still get a reasonable result.

Finally, with so many greenside hazards, its a lot easier to get a high shot in and hold the green with a hybrid or high lofted fairway wood than to burn a 1 or 2 iron in there and watch it roll over the green.

Tom

[Scragger63]

Re: 1 iron

Given there are high spin, soft cover balls designed to bite and spin and harder cover low spin, distance balls on the market these days, is anyone aware of anything in the rules preventing a player from teeing off with a low spin distance ball then changing the ball and hitting their approach shot with a soft cover feel ball...??

Just a thought...???

[bill reed]

Re: 1 iron

hi scragger
not aloud to change the ball after you have tee'd up till you putt out unless its damaged, but you can change the ball between holes before you tee up,
if you use the same make and number, so you could use a distance on par 5/4 and a spin ball on par 3 if you keep to the same make of ball and use the same number that you told your partners you started with ie a you tell your partners your using a titleist number 4 and keep to that make and number.
balls are so good now that a lot of them combine the high spin and distance too and also mix a soft feel with distance so you dont need to change as there is not so much diffrence and not worth the bother.
i did know a pro that put a maker pen over the word spin and distance so they looked the same, was how he maked his balls.
really dont think there is anything to gain now as balls are so much better than even 5 years ago.
bill

[Scragger63]

Re: 1 iron

Hey Bill...

Knows the rules mention ball unfit for play and clearly defines what's what in respect of that, but, couldn't recall anything in terms of changing your pill or when... I'm sure someone out there will know...

No matter really, was as I said, just a bit of thinking out loud......

And, for me personally, as an 18 marker, I'm with you, I'm not sure my game would be any better with a Titleist Pro V1 or equivalent than it would be with a Maxfli D-Tec Distance or equivalent.

That said, where I can I like to play a Top Flite Strata or a Maxfli Revolution, mostly because I like their feel off my putter (the one area of my game that I do need all the confidence I can get) and I do find myself wondering somethimes if I should play something that spins less.

Might look for a couple of Pro V1's in the 2nd hand bin in the pro shop before my round on Saturday and just "see" whats what......

Could be intereting I guess...

Thanks again Bill...

Cheers

[bill reed]

Re: 1 iron

hi scragger
i did try use the two ball system few years ago but did not think it made any diffrence as it made it harder to judge the distance as both balls did fly about 10/15 yards diffrent but the spin ball bit and the distance ball did not and it made it hard to work out where to pitch, better using just one ball and sticking to it i found.
i have tried a few of the new balls from the pros seconds box and some of the soft balls are great but dont last long so its a trade off, cost against wear
bill

[cyc53870]

Re: 1 iron

Use a 3/4 swing then...

[patrick44c]

Re: 1 iron

i have a 1 iron, my cousin gave it to me, he found it on his route one day,, well i'll be i can hit it,, i must be god,

[Kumabjorn]

Re: 1 iron

I actually purchased a 1-iron separately since these days they are not included in a standard iron set. I very rarely use it on the course, but find it an asset on very windy days. But it has one very real benefit, and that is as a practice club. It is brutally honest compared to the rest of the irons. It will tell you exactly what is wrong with your swing, making it a lot easier to correct problems.