My Experience with Single-Length Irons

[GreenDoor 22]

I was trying to be polite about the looks of these, but I am not going to disagree there; I can clearly see why Bryson went with Edel.  In terms of feel, they do actually feel like an older set of Pings, like a G5 maybe.  Build quality, so far, has been again, very similar to early G-series Ping irons; which is to say pretty darn good.  If anyone is ever near Northern Virginia, let me know and you can swing by and hit them.

 

As for iron designs, I am not going to defend them there either, but from a business perspective, I can't imagine they were making a whole lot before; certainly not enough to design an all new set.  If they were smart, they would be all over this now because you have to know the big companies are paying attention to this; at least they should be.   Hell, it's what I would consider doing with Adams if I were running Taylormade. 

 

I don't go on the One Iron site often, but I did notice they made mention of Bryson's championship even though he doesn't even play their clubs.  It's almost like the single-length golf set is a micro-community in and of itself so they are willing to champion anyone who succeeds with this idea.  I don't particularly feel a part of that myself; I just play what works.

 

And wbealsd, I have actually been looking into going with Edel, but as a reforming club ho, am I reformed enough yet for a lifetime set?  I know my wife would love that... 

[Hula Rock 700]

Great read !!!!

[wbealsd 1,063]

 

And wbealsd, I have actually been looking into going with Edel, but as a reforming club ho, am I reformed enough yet for a lifetime set?  I know my wife would love that...

 

Of course you'll need backup sets

[BK in TEXAS 190]

Why can't you just bend a set of forged irons all to the same lie & trim shafts to the same length?

[Blade 313]

Why can't you just bend a set of forged irons all to the same lie & trim shafts to the same length?

The head weights are all different.

[Kenny B 33,362]

My understanding is that all the head weights have to be the same.  In the case of Bryson's they are 280 grams milled by Edel.  

[BK in TEXAS 190]

The head weights are all different.

Sure if you use all identical shafts (say all 8i for example, you'd want all the heads to be 8i weight) , but if you use standard 3-PW shafts that should cover the normal difference in head weight....no?

[BIG STU 10,374]

I actually play all my wedges the same length from pw-60. It definitely made it nice for full wedge shots.

I have been doing the same thing for over 20 years and people said I was nuts. I still do it

[apprenti23 605]

Sure if you use all identical shafts (say all 8i for example, you'd want all the heads to be 8i weight) , but if you use standard 3-PW shafts that should cover the normal difference in head weight....no?

Pretty sure they use just X shaft and not a three iron shaft butt cut to X length.

[Kenny B 33,362]

From Golfweek...

 

"... each of [bryson DeChambeau's] irons and wedges is the same 7-iron length (37.5 inches)."

 

Custom clubmaker David Edel, a longtime friend of the DeChambeau family, created these clubs in Austin, Texas. It took him about four hours to mill each 280-gram clubhead. After DeChambeau secured the NCAA crown, Edel received more than 100 phone calls and emails. Other golfers want to try them, and other clubmakers want to make them.

 

This worries Edel, who is obsessed with precision. He cautions that single-length clubs, if made incorrectly, can be a disaster.

 

The concept isn't exactly new. Tommy Armour Golf introduced irons all of the same length, the EQL One Swing Design irons, in the late 1980s. Sales never took off.

 

To make the concept work, head weight, shaft weight, grip weight, swingweight, flex point and center of gravity should be identical in all clubs. The overall feel should be the same from one club to another.

 

"There is no such thing as a shortcut with these clubs," Edel said. "From fitting to manufacturing, there is no tolerance for error."

 

DeChambeau has a very steep swing that requires an extreme amount of sole bounce in his irons and wedges. His swing is enhanced by the biggest grip in golf – the JumboMax – along with KBS C-Taper shafts.

 

"My goal is the same swing and same speed for every club," DeChambeau said.

 

The single-length philosophy is that golfers can concentrate on just one swing, not a different swing for each iron or wedge. Conventional irons use graduated lengths and head weights.

 

Edel hasn't made up his mind whether he will make and sell single-length clubs. The amount of detail could make them very expensive.

 

[wbealsd 1,063]

I actually play all my wedges the same length from pw-60. It definitely made it nice for full wedge shots.

That makes sense to me.  I don't often hit full shots with my wedges past the pitching wedge, but I might if the shafts were the same length.

 

I'm not sure I'd want my wedges at the same length as my 7 iron (like Bryson's set), though...

[Blade 313]

Sure if you use all identical shafts (say all 8i for example, you'd want all the heads to be 8i weight) , but if you use standard 3-PW shafts that should cover the normal difference in head weight....no?

No. The difference in head weight is an attempt to make them feel the same when swinging with different length shafts. If you made all the shafts the same length, the long irons would feel extremely light and the short irons would be very heavy.

[alfriday101 1,149]

I tried the 1 Iron Golf clubs under their 30 day money back guarantee.  I ended up sending the clubs back for a refund.  The concept worked fine.  I didn't like the feel or look of the 1 Iron clubs.  If they made a set with better heads (less game improvement), I would try them again.  

[MattF 14,555]

No. The difference in head weight is an attempt to make them feel the same when swinging with different length shafts. If you made all the shafts the same length, the long irons would feel extremely light and the short irons would be very heavy.

 

Couldn't this be overcome with either lead tape, tungsten powder or tip weights?

[Blade 313]

Couldn't this be overcome with either lead tape, tungsten powder or tip weights?

You would have to match the heaviest head. If you went single length through PW, you would have to add 49 grams to the 3i. No way to put that much in tip weights and powder. That much lead tape wouldn't even stay on. It would start peeling off. If you managed to match weights and everything was made to 7i length, everything would be a very heavy swing weight. If you included everything through your SW, it would be even worse.

[MattF 14,555]

OK, thanks Blade!

[apprenti23 605]

I have been doing the same thing for over 20 years and people said I was nuts. I still do it

 

 

I do the same as well and play four wedges- 45* PW, 50* GW, 55* SW, 60* LW are all the same length- 36" I play a quarter inch over.

[BIG STU 10,374]

You would have to match the heaviest head. If you went single length through PW, you would have to add 49 grams to the 3i. No way to put that much in tip weights and powder. That much lead tape wouldn't even stay on. It would start peeling off. If you managed to match weights and everything was made to 7i length, everything would be a very heavy swing weight. If you included everything through your SW, it would be even worse.

What the "trick" is in matching the short irons weight to the long iron weight that is why to properly build a set it has to be extensively engineered from the start on the head and go from there. In the case of Bryson's Irons I can see why it was stated that it took a great deal of time to get them right. Had to get the head weights right and then the bounce right for him and then with those Jumbo Max grips you had to deal with the overall balance of the club. Like I said I can see where there would be a lot of engineering and time involved

[mizuno_lover 546]

It really is a fascinating concept and one that makes sense to me.  Would I buy a set of One Irons clubs - nope.  Why?  They look as has already been said really tacky/cheap and straight out of the nineteen eighties.  Put a set of MP 54 heads with those nice shiny forged heads on 'em and I'm there in a heart beat.

 

On a slightly different tack I can remember Leadbetter and Faldo talking about producing a swing that was essentially mechanically the same with every club and that was what they strove to achieve for Faldo when they rebuilt his swing.  I guess it worked to a degree when he became world no.1 for that period and won all those majors.  I can remember watching Faldo's instructional video and he did a sequence where he hit a ball with every club in the bag and the idea was to be able to pick when he changed clubs.  It was easy when he got to the woods because they had "wooden heads".  Not a chance with the irons though such was his tempo and rhythm  

[BIG STU 10,374]

Unfortunately, I don't have Bryson's driving average of 301; he has me beat by about 40 yards.  And I don't have his Iron-Byronesque swing either; my swing is fairly traditional.  But I do use a standard 45" driver, 43" 3 wood, and 41" hybrid (17 degrees); only my core iron set is all the length of a typical 8 iron.  The clubs from One Iron do come standard with jumbo grips, but I replaced them with standard grips after a few weeks.

 

The makeup of their standard set is as follows: 3i - 19 degrees, 4i - 23, 5i - 27, 6i - 31, 7i - 35, 8i - 39, 9i - 43, PW - 47, GW - 51, SW - 55, and LW - 59 degrees.  The club head lie angles are all 63.5 degrees, the bounce all 3 degrees (except for SW which has 6), the offset all 3.175mm, and the head weights all 273 grams.  I know they make a pro-level set which has slightly lighter head weights and one degree less bounce, but I have never hit those. 

 

As for wedges, I only play their PW and SW as the gapping worked out well for me.  I don't find their SW to be any longer or harder to hit than a standard SW as I have experimented with both on the course and on the range.  I only keep my standard LW because it gives me a different bounce option than is offered with this set.

 

So in all honesty, I have probably stunted my game over the years by moving from set to set, usually through ebay, knowing I could just sell it if it didn't work out.  Hell, I even got 'fit' at one of the box stores a few times, but nothing took hold.  In this case, it took a lot of self-convincing to order a set with One Iron because I knew I would not be able to trade them in if they were lousy.  I know if you buy new, they give you 30 days to try them out, but I really don't think that is long enough to see if this would work for you.  Physiologically, it makes absolute sense, but in my case, what I think or expect can color my judgment regardless of data (damn you, quantum wave-particle duality principle;-)

 

And Big Stu is right, you can't simply cut down your current irons because each of your specific irons is manufactured to different weights and lie angles.  Bryson essentially replicated the work the One Iron guys had done with his Edel irons; the One Irons are all manufactured/cast in the same weight/lie configurations but at different lofts.  Once I got comfortable with these irons, I was able to just about replicate what One Iron had published regarding quality of hit and loft being way more influential on ball flight and distance than the extra half inch you typically get per iron.  Of course, you don't need me to verify that; just look at Bryson's growing body of work.

 

And I do wish other companies would get on board with this trend.  I like One Iron for what they are doing, but have never found their club heads all that attractive.  I would also like more options regarding shafts and offset as well.  Maybe I could try Edel if I could get a good price and there wasn't too much lead tape involved.

As precise as Edel is there should not be any lead tape involved because of the way he would build them from the ground up in other words Total Engineering