Are all 7 irons the same?

“What club did you hit there?”

“6 iron”

“Well I’m only hitting a 7 Iron!”

Is that conversation something that you’re familiar with on the course?

The person hitting the 7 Iron might feel like they are the bigger hitter, but let me explain why that might not be the case.

For example, you may have a set of Titleist AP2 Irons, and your playing partner a set of Callaway Apex.

The loft on the 6 Iron of the AP2 is 30 degrees and the 7 Iron in the Apex is 31 degrees. That’s only a difference of 1 degree but your playing partner believes he is a longer hitter than you because he is taking a club “less” than you.

I recently hit a selection of 7 irons from Callaway, Titleist, TaylorMade and Ping. In the chart below are my results. The distances and height are an average over 5 balls with each club. I also used the same KBS Shaft in each club to give a fairer reading.

As you can see, the Apex did go the furthest, but as said it is almost a full club stronger in loft! With the loft being stronger there was less spin from that club compared to the rest, resulting in the ball rolling the furthest. It’s also worth noting that the Apex was the club I was the most inconsistent with direction.

The Titleist was the shortest distance of all clubs, but I didn’t mind that, and here’s why. If I’m on a par 3 and there’s a bunker in front of the green and the pin is just on the front edge, I’m going to want the ball to stop quickly when it hits the green. You could argue that you can get the same effect by taking a club less with the Apex, but as said above I won’t be as confident with my direction as I would be with the AP2.

I decided to write about this because I see a lot of people when they are trying out clubs only focusing on the distance the ball is going and not caring that it is going 20 yards left of where they want it to!

Yes, distance is a major factor when it comes to buying a new club, but I would rather have to take a club more and know that I’m going to be able to control how the ball will fly rather than hope it will work!

If you’re interested in a new set of clubs or want any advice at all feel free to pop in store for a chat or drop us an email info@noahsarkgolf.com