Women's Irons

[BBedell]

Hello!  I am currently shopping for a used iron set for my wife for her Christmas present.  I was wondering if I could get some input from anyone who may be familiar with the topic.  My wife is a good athlete, has a nice golf swing, but being a mom of 2 does not play as much as she would like.  Last time we were in getting her swing speed checked for her new driver, the fitter let her know that she would most likely do well with a senior flex shaft, as her swing was a bit too much for a women's shaft.  Not sure if this would carry over to her irons or not as we have not gotten her on a monitor with these. She currently plays a very old set of Cobra Women's irons and does fine with them.

 

Sets I've been looking at recently include: Callaway X-hot and X2-hot, TM Speedblade, Cobra Biocell and Fly-Z, Cleveland 588 MT (all women's versions). My plan is to pick up the women's version of whatever irons I settle on and then have them reshafted if necessary (she likes the looks of the women's clubs better).

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Beau

[BIG STU]

Is she playing graphite or steel in those older Cobra irons? The reason I ask is that there have been numerous shaft advances in recent years and the stock ladies shafts that come in whatever you buy may work out of the box. I would suggest maybe doing a testing and fitting session to see what works before buying. I do know sometimes selecting and experimenting with shafts can be time consuming and expensive not to mention frustrating. Keep us posted on what happens because after all this is MGS and inquiring minds want to know

[GolfSpy Barbajo]

Interesting question - from what I understand most competitive women's players actually use men's clubs.  Depending on how she swings, that idea of a senior or even a regular flex shaft might work for her.  Spoke with a fitter the other day and he suggested that most "women's" flex shafts may actually be too whippy for most athletic women - one sign would be if she tops the ball with her driver - it could be that the shaft is, in fact, too whiny.  

 

The fitter said just because a woman is a woman, it doesn't necessarily mean a women's shaft is right for her.  Stu's correct, a good fitting would go a long way for her,.  

[BBedell]

Thanks to both of you guys.  We did a free fitting for her driver.  Ended up going back and forth between a few clubs that had either women's, senior, or stiffer women's flex.  Ended up settling on an X2-hot women's driver that had a "womens flex" shaft that was a bit stiffer than the average...far and away she hit it better on the monitor than any of the other clubs she tried.  For this purchase, we will likely not be investing the money for a fitting given that she does not play enough to justify the cost (this is also why I'm looking for a lightly used or well loved set rather than a new set for her).  I was more interested in anyone's experiences with the clubs I mentioned as far as which ones may or may not be a POS vs which ones are quality clubs   Thanks again

[Jmikecpa]

My wife started playing about 10 years ago and now with three young children at home she really does not play at all.  With that said we had a fitting done for her at my club and she actually game out better with men's R flex graphite in the driver and fairway woods and was in a soft R steel in her irons.  The main issue with my wife is that she is 6 feet tall and left hander so her build was from the ground up.  Let me know how this works out for you since it looks like my wife wants to start playing again next year so a full bag build is in my future.

[Kenny B]

My wife has been playing for 50 years. Not a powerful swing but has a nice tempo. When we met about 12 years ago, she was playing her mother's steel shaft persimmon woods and blade irons. She was way behind the technology curve! We ended up getting both senior flex Cobra irons and woods.

 

While on a trip to Palm Springs several years ago, she tried and bought 2 women's hybrids, and she could not hit them on the course; too whippy. We returned them the next day and replaced them with a new TM R9 driver in senior flex and she loves it. After we got home, I found a very good set of TM Burner XD irons (Ti face) in senior flex on eBay and she loves them too.

 

This last spring I tried a few drivers with a fitter, and she hit a few on the launch monitor and they said she should go with a women's flex driver. So she bought an old model RBZ Stage 2. She hits it OK, but towards the end of the season, she went back to her R9 senior flex because it gives her better control.

 

The bottom line is to get a fit, and if it is close between women's or senior flex, opt for the slightly more stiffness because it will be easier to control. Control in irons is more important than distance.

[BBedell]

I ended up going with the Cobra Amp Cell irons with Lite (senior) flex.  Was able to get them in red which is her favorite color...even better, took her to hit them on Christmas day and shes picked up an easy 10-15 yards per club, although I guess this wasn't hard to do given that her previous set was at least 8 years old!  She's now hitting her 5 iron as far as she was hitting her 3 hybrid.  Also ordered a Bio Cell 3-4 hybrid in the Lite flex, hasn't arrived yet but looking forward to seeing how it performs for her.

[Kenny B]

Sounds good. I am sure they will work even better when she gets used to them.

 

Not sure what you have for a bag, but we've found that men's clubs don't fit that well in a women's bag. My wife's senior flex driver was too long for her women's bag with the zippered cover on it. Since her old bag was falling apart anyway, we bought a men's Sun Mountain Sync bag because it fits her SM push cart very well.