Ruminating about irons lofts vs. shaft length

[Hook DeLoft]

As you know, lofts have gotten stronger over the decades.  Shaft lengths have also gotten longer.  In the 1950's, it would not have been unusual for a 5 iron to have 32 degrees of loft and be 37 inches long, perhaps even 36.5 inches.  Now, most 5 irons are 38 inches long and lofts range from 27 degrees down to 23 degrees.  This got me to thinking:  is there an ideal shaft length for each loft?  Have shaft lengths increased in an attempt to increase the launch of stronger lofted irons?  Has it happened simply to add to distance?  If we have any club designers here, I would love to hear from you.

I am also going to ask the impossible -- please no complaining about the scourge of strong lofts.

[Shankster]

The lofts have not gotten stronger.  How the company decides to designate each iron has changed.  The stigma of 1 & 2 irons of the past are they were un-hittable, and that is still the case for modern 3 & 4 irons of the same lofts.  

The lofts have not changed… all someone needs to do is take a modern MB 32° iron and put it up against a pastime MB 32° iron.  Sure the longer shafts have probably created more distance, but again.  The loft is the same.  Just the number on the bottom.

a 52° gap wedge of today was just a 52° pitching wedge back then.  A 56° sand wedge back then is still a 56° sand wedge now.  A 48° pitching wedge now, was simply a 48° 9 iron back then… and so on.  

 

[RetiredBoomer]

10 hours ago, Shankster said:

The lofts have not gotten stronger.  How the company decides to designate each iron has changed.  The stigma of 1 & 2 irons of the past are they were un-hittable, and that is still the case for modern 3 & 4 irons of the same lofts.  

The lofts have not changed… all someone needs to do is take a modern MB 32° iron and put it up against a pastime MB 32° iron.  Sure the longer shafts have probably created more distance, but again.  The loft is the same.  Just the number on the bottom.

a 52° gap wedge of today was just a 52° pitching wedge back then.  A 56° sand wedge back then is still a 56° sand wedge now.  A 48° pitching wedge now, was simply a 48° 9 iron back then… and so on.  

 

With modern jacked loft specs, the iron length / loft correlation is actually shorter. You now have a 4-iron shaft on what was once a 2-iron but is now a 4.

It's not a full 2-clubs shorter.  More like a club and a half as they made the length / club number correlation just a tad longer.

For my part, I wish that they had left it where it was fifty years ago,
but they didn't, so I live with it like everybody else. 

With so many people starting their numbered irons at #s 5 and 6, sometimes even 7, I don't understand the modern numbering protocols at all.

I know it's just a number and shouldn't matter, but my mind just doesn't work that way.  

[RyanGi]

I agree, it would be much easier to just have clubs go by loft degree as opposed to a generic number, but it’s not that way with irons for some reason…but they do it with wedges and drivers, so maybe the irons will come around? You could always mark them yourself, but then it’d be tougher to compare against others as they’re using the convention. Sounds like it’s mostly marketing, honestly…

[Shankster]

There is no such thing as loft jacking.  It’s just number changing….

[RyanGi]

39 minutes ago, Shankster said:

There is no such thing as loft jacking.  It’s just number changing….

Totally true. A loft measurement is a loft measurement. But it would be nice if they didn’t change numbers around so you could easily discern between various clubs…or just dump the numbering system all together and go to lofts like a lot of wedges are labeled. 

Edited November 24 by RyanGi

[Shankster]

14 minutes ago, RyanGi said:

Totally true. A loft measurement is a loft measurement. But it would be nice if they didn’t change numbers around so you could easily discern between various clubs…or just dump the numbering system all together and go to lofts like a lot of wedges are labeled. 

Hogan tried that, they now have numbers. When I purchase something, I want to know more about it than the person trying to sell it to me.  I know that my “3” iron is 19°, I also know that my “9” iron is 40°, and so on.  

But it really doesn’t matter at all, zero, zip, zilch… sometimes my 3 iron has 15° of loft, and sometimes it has 24°.  My 54° is a 64° sometimes and a 48° other times, and my 9 iron is a 50° club on one shot and a 32° club on the next.

Know your equipment and whatever they put on the bottom is irrelevant.  Just think of it as a batting order.  1 being the longest hitter and wedged being the shortest hitter.

[Willie T]

Tommy Armour did numbering with its original 845s Silver Scot irons….they likewise abandoned it later in the series’ production.  The lofts then were 44* 9i, 40* 8i, 36* 7i, etc.  They were and still are some solid irons and the ones I gauge all others by.  Right now my current 9i is 41*, 8i 36*, 7i 32* - in essence one club “stronger”.  Shaft lengths match up (the new 8i is about the same length as my old 7i)….all this to say, I tend to play with the mentality that a 32* iron goes x distance no matter the number on the bottom. 

[RyanGi]

I just prefer accuracy…seems like clubs are like woman’s clothing sizes. Inconsistent from one to another and tweaked for marketing purposes…

[CPP]

Don't really care about the lofts, I just depend on which club provides me the distance I need.

[RyanGi]

1 hour ago, CPP said:

Don't really care about the lofts, I just depend on which club provides me the distance I need.

Sure, but without some way to compare them to each other, you aren’t able to contrast different clubs nd see which ones might better suit what you need…either the numbers should be comparable, or the lofts…it would just be nice to have a better commonality across brands…not unlike getting them all to use a universal shaft adapter. 

[CPP]

I go my numbers not the lofts.  I know what each club is capable of, its the distance that has been measured and noted,. I don't walk up to my ball and say, let me pull out my 23.5 degree iron, NO I say let me pull out my 5 iron.