Popular Post jwlong410 Posted April 14, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 14, 2020 Earlier this Spring (obviously) I went through a wonderful fitting to get new irons. I'll give some background on this in a bit here but I went in with no preconceptions of what I should buy other than some historical preferences and experiences. Ultimately, my fitter and I decided that going for a split/combo set was the best option to put me in a chance to succeed out on the course. I've only played a little bit since my new clubs arrived in the mail (again, obviously) but luckily I live 700 yards from the center of the first green of our local muni so I have had a chance to hit them quite a bit. Ultimately I wanted to share what I've learned with the hope that this may help you - prospective iron set buyer - when you consider replacing your irons, whenever that comes around. What I Bought In the end, we ended up building a combo set of P790s (4-7) and P760s (8-PW). You may be thinking, after looking at my handicap in my profile, "what the hell is this guy doing playing P760s? That's where the fitting came in - I'll touch on that in the next section. Before I get into the fitting and what I learned during hte process, I wanted to share my set build. The chart below walks through the make/model, specs, and yardages for my full set to give you proper context for the rest of the post below. The Fitting - Finding the Right Model My old irons were Callaway RAZR X Tours, which at this point are a good 9 years old. I didn't have a specific complaint about my irons other than looking for more distance and more consistency/accuracy (aren't we all?!). I've only ever played Callaway irons (my first set were X-16 Pro Series) but have played everything else in my full set over the years, so I was totally open. Generally I've felt that I hit TaylorMade and Titleist clubs well and really liked the feel of the clubs from those brands (as you can tell by my current set), but I wasn't married to them as the solution here. I had three preferences going into this fitting: I prefer a thinner topline and profile. Since I've always played the Pro/Tour version of the Callaway irons I really struggle looking down at a thick topline. Nothing else mattered a ton to me in terms of aethetics. I wanted long irons that I felt confident in. One major issue I had with my previous set was little/no confidence in my 4-6 irons. I wanted better feedback from my irons as I'm focused on improving my ballstriking. After I got warmed up I went through and hit some irons from a variety of manufacturers (Mizuno, Titleist, Callaway, TaylorMade) and models. Ultimately we zeroed in on the Titleist T-200 and TaylorMade P790 as the top contenders (I was hitting 7 irons). We went through the process to fit me for length (+ 0.5" across the set) and lie (no change, slightly upright because of added length) and then we switched to hitting some different clubs. I hit 5 irons and 9 irons from both sets to take a look at my metrics to see how they held up across the set. I ended up having more consistent results across all 3 clubs with the TaylorMades, so we narrowed in on those. My fitter felt that I had strong consistency in my short irons, to the point where a players' iron might be an option in the shorter clubs. I hit both T-100 and P760 9 irons to compare to the players-distance versions. The P760s maintained the consistency we saw in the longer irons with TaylorMade while also offering some more workability (my natural ballflight is a high cut but hit more draws than I ever have in my life with that 9 iron). At that point we decided to pursue a split/combo set enabling me to take advantage of the workability of the P760 short irons and the forgiveness of the P790 long irons. The Fitting - Finding the Right Specs (Lofts) We had already nailed down the length and lie angle part of the equation but the biggest challenge with blending two different iron sets is matching lofts. Our focus was on finding a good blend of yardages (and being a little less focused on lofts necessarily). This isn't quite as easy to figure out in a fitting setting because you'd essentially hundreds of versions of each club in various length/loft/lie combinations to make work. We did our best with imperfect information/tools. Ultimately we opted to leave the P790s at stock lofts. We found some good/natural aligment between the long irons and my existing hybrid setup that made keeping those stock lofts work. The big challenge came in trying to blend the P760s and the P790s at the split, as well as ensuring there wasn't too large a gap with my existing wedges. We ended up deciding to strengthen the lofts on the P760s to help blend the set more smoothly - resulting in a smaller gap at the transition. We originally intended to add 1.5° of loft to the 8 iron, but the TaylorMade ordering system only allows for loft changes of whole degrees. As a result, we went with a straight 1° strong across the board on those three clubs. There's still a bit of a gap between the 7 iron and 8 iron, as well as the PW and GW. The latter is easily addressed (I'm leaning to a 50/54/58 wedge setup in the future) if/when I buy new wedges. The former can potentially be addressed by having the 8 iron bent 0.5° strong, but I'm wary of making that change too hastily. For now, a choked down 7 has worked fine as a solution when I'm between those two clubs. For reference, here are some photos of the 7 and 8 next to each other: Overall Impression Since I've started gaming these irons I've been really impressed. Technology has obviously come a long way in 9 years, but I think the biggest difference for me is the great feedback on both flush and off-center hits. In general I have much more confidence standing over the ball regardless of lie or situation. In fact, I've found myself using my 4 iron off the tee quite a bit - a new experience since I rarely pulled my old 4 iron out of the bag. One other big change was moving to the Golf Pride Align grips (photos below) which I feel have been helpful in allowing me to feel confident in my grip and alignment. My old grips were jumbo +4 wraps (I think I was poorly fit) so moving to a standard grip +2 was a major change. There are two key differences between the P790 and P760 sets: tungsten weighting and speedfoam technology. Both are present in the P790s but absent in the P760 (worth noting that the P760 set features Speedfoam in the 3-7, but since my set only includes 8-PW it doesn't have Speedfoam). The short irons are, undoubtedly, more fickle than the longer irons - but overall the blended nature of the set will, I believe anyway, enable me to become a better ballstriker while also taking advantage of that ballstriking where it matters most. I've been very pleased with the overall fitting process as well as the set itself despite the limited time I've had it. I'm still working through some yardage adjustments (I'm hitting these clubs 10-15 yards further than my old set) but overall I feel really good with the investment and setup. I hope this helps anyone who's considering going with a split set. My fitter had done 3 in three weeks (one each of Titleist, Mizuno, & TaylorMade) so it certainly seems to be becoming a more popular option for all golfers - not just the pros. Set pics included in the attached images below (for those who are interested). pooley7, 5footslider107, Kanoito and 7 others 10 Quote TSi3 @ 9° w/ Tensei AV White 65 TSi2 5W @ 14.5° w/ Tensei AV White 75 P790 4-7, P760 8-PW w/ Project X 6.0 50°, 56°, 60° Pro Platinum Newport Mid-Slant Hybrid 14 Stand Bag ProV1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozzit Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 Great write up looks like a beautiful set. I've never played a combo set I've looked into it briefly but this is a fantastic level of detail. Also I have yet to go to a fitter that has a 5 & 9 to test. Using MyGolfSpy mobile app jwlong410 1 Quote Driver: Ben Hogan GS53 4W: Maltby KE4 2i: Maltby KE4 FDI 4-PW: Maltby TS-1 - C-Taper 120g 50,54,58: Maltby TSW Putter: L.A.B. DF2.1 Accra Shaft 2023 Forum Testers - L.A.B. Putters Ball: Mixed prefer ProV1 or Snell Handicap: 9.2 - Best Score: 72 (E) Springdale CC, Canton NC -2022 2020 Forum Tester - Ben Hogan GS53 Driver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwlong410 Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share Posted April 15, 2020 9 minutes ago, pozzit said: Great write up looks like a beautiful set. I've never played a combo set I've looked into it briefly but this is a fantastic level of detail. Also I have yet to go to a fitter that has a 5 & 9 to test. Using MyGolfSpy mobile app It wasn't a perfect test because he pulled a stock set off the wall - but it was close enough to get an idea. We ran into some issues because I needed the extra length and they were doing multiple fittings so availability of the right shaft/head combo was iffy. We made it work as best we could. Quote TSi3 @ 9° w/ Tensei AV White 65 TSi2 5W @ 14.5° w/ Tensei AV White 75 P790 4-7, P760 8-PW w/ Project X 6.0 50°, 56°, 60° Pro Platinum Newport Mid-Slant Hybrid 14 Stand Bag ProV1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sluggo42 Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Good job jw ! I had some 790’s but had the wrong shafts, so I never got along with them, but I did have a combo set with Mizunos and I loved em. nice way to jump into the mix!... Quote TSr2 on tensi blue stiff Speedzone 3-wood on Tensi blue S Epic Max 5 and 7 woods on HZRDUS Reg flex Paradym 9 wood on HZRDUS reg flex P770 / P790 combo set on Ventus R-6 shafts 6-AW T22 Denim Copper 54°, 58° on Kinetic X Trajectory ER3 or, E.A.S. #4 (“Fang” or “Adele”) ProV1x, or, Maxfli Tour X .Org 14 cart bag Adidas Tour 360 , or Sketcher shoes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfSpy BOS Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Nice looking set! I look forward to your updates on how they feel this summer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Epic Max LS 10.5 - Motore X F3 6X | Speedzone 5-wood - Ventus Blue 8S | TSi3 20* Hybrid - KBS Proto 85S SMS Pro 4-PW - Steelfiber i110S | MG3 Raw Black 50.09, 54.11, 58.11 - DG TI S200 ER2B | Pro V1x | NX9 Slope | Jones Trouper R | CaddyLite EZ v8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bills300 Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Great looking set. Awesome write up STUDque 1 Quote Driver: Ping G410+ Fairway Wood: Ping G425 (x2) Hyrbrid: Mizuno CLK Irons: Mizuno JPX 919 HM Pro Wedges: Ping Glide 2.0 50*, 54*, and 58* Putter: Ping Fetch 2021 Ball: Snell MTB-X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gchester33 Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Set looks beautful! You talk a little bit about additional workability in your short irons as a reason to go with 760's. Do you find yourself using more shot shaping with these and therefore gaining some benefits from them? And do you find yourself having issues in that 7-8 transition as far as club appearance when standing over them? Quote Driver: Callaway Rogue - Project X HZRDUS Yellow, 6.0, 63g Fairway: Callaway Epic 3 wood, Rogue MAX stiff, 75g 4-6 Iron: Mizuno JPX-850 - Project X 5.5 7-PW: Mizuno JPX-850 Forged - Project X 5.5 Wedges: Mizuno MP-T5 (50, 54), Ping Glide 2.0 Stealth 60 ES Putter: Odyssey Marxman, Currently tested and kept Golf Pride Tour SNSR Contour Pro 140cc grip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.B. TexasEx Posted April 22, 2020 Share Posted April 22, 2020 Great write-up, JW, thanks for sharing your process with us. I'm finally thinking about getting new irons and am also considering a combo set for a lot of the same reasons. I, too, prefer a thinner topline and don't need much help with my mid to short irons. I haven't been fitted properly since 2007 and didn't get the "tour experience" then. Just an old-fashioned lie board. I can't really work the ball much left-to-right, but can adjust trajectory when necessary. My stock shot is a medium-high draw. I'll probably just pay PGA Superstore $40 to get fitted and then purchase some new Hogans or a Sub 70 combo set after a demo. GolfSub70 1 Quote My C-130 cart bag currently includes; Driver: z565 10.5*, Miyazaki Kaula Mizu 6 S-Flex Fairways: X-Hot 15* & 18*, Project X PXv R-Flex Irons: Apex Plus, 4-PW, Apex S4-Flex Wedges: CG10; 50*, 54*, 58*, Dynamic Gold W-flex Putter: White Hot Pro Blade #2 Grips: Golf Pride MCC-Plus 4 & Lamkin UTx Ball: Kirkland Signature 3-Piece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny B Posted April 22, 2020 Share Posted April 22, 2020 Nice set and a great write-up! I think we have a candidate for testing right here! cciciora13 1 Quote “We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5footslider107 Posted April 22, 2020 Share Posted April 22, 2020 Awesome write up! I think this seems to be the more popular route people (and including myself) are considering when buying an iron set. I worked at a golf shop and you could always tell an educated golfer when he talked about split sets. As I've become more experienced, my pride for playing my bladed 3I has decreased and I've made the decision to buy a more consistent 3H. What have you noticed in term of feel? Both models were very popular amongst shoppers and I've thought about a set myself. Again, great write up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cciciora13 Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 Great write up! I was thinking of possibly going this route when i get fit-- Get a little more forgiving irons in the lower clubs and players clubs in 8-PW. Looking forward to seeing how they perform in the future this summer. Quote In my bag: Driver: Ben Hogan GS53 10.5* Stiff Mitsubishi tensei blue Stiff 3 Wood: 939 x 15 deg. UST Proforce Black V2 7F4 stiff Hybrid: 939x Hybrid UST 680 recoil shaft stiff Irons: 699 irons 4-PW KBS tour 90 v Stiff 50 Deg: TAIII Satin 54 deg: TAIII Satin 58 Deg: TAIII Satin Putter: 004 Single Bend Masters Edition Rangefinder: Caddytek V2 Check out my MyGolfSpy 2020 Forum Official Tester: Ben Hogan GS53 Driver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChitownM2 Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Nice looking set. Did you consider bending the 7 iron 0.5° degree weak? That would even out the gapping between 5-6-7-8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwlong410 Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 On 4/20/2020 at 10:57 AM, gchester33 said: Set looks beautful! You talk a little bit about additional workability in your short irons as a reason to go with 760's. Do you find yourself using more shot shaping with these and therefore gaining some benefits from them? And do you find yourself having issues in that 7-8 transition as far as club appearance when standing over them? At first there was a little bit of weirdness but I've hit the 7 so well that it's been easy to forgive the change in looks. Honestly it's given me some more confidence to get aggressive with the 7 while being more finesse with the 8. I do find myself hitting some purposeful baby draws with the shorter irons while I mostly play a high cut with the 4-7. The 8 is borderline on being able to execute the draw on command so not sure I'd need the workability further down the set just yet. Maybe when I'm better! On 4/22/2020 at 3:29 PM, 5footslider107 said: Awesome write up! I think this seems to be the more popular route people (and including myself) are considering when buying an iron set. I worked at a golf shop and you could always tell an educated golfer when he talked about split sets. As I've become more experienced, my pride for playing my bladed 3I has decreased and I've made the decision to buy a more consistent 3H. What have you noticed in term of feel? Both models were very popular amongst shoppers and I've thought about a set myself. Again, great write up! Thanks! There are definitely some nuances in feel where I really notice the mishits on the short irons while it's muted a bit on the longer ones. It works for me because I'm not good enough to need the workability in my longer irons. I think the split is pretty good on feel. If I was a better player I might feel differently haha. On 4/25/2020 at 4:04 PM, ChitownM2 said: Nice looking set. Did you consider bending the 7 iron 0.5° degree weak? That would even out the gapping between 5-6-7-8. I wanted to! TaylorMade only offered full degree changes on the order so I'll have to have my shop do it if I decide that gap is causing issues. Quote TSi3 @ 9° w/ Tensei AV White 65 TSi2 5W @ 14.5° w/ Tensei AV White 75 P790 4-7, P760 8-PW w/ Project X 6.0 50°, 56°, 60° Pro Platinum Newport Mid-Slant Hybrid 14 Stand Bag ProV1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.