Combo Iron Sets EXPLAINED – MORE Forgiveness?? MORE Control??

As more pros on tour move away from full iron sets in favour of combo sets, should you be doing the same? We explain what mixing and matching head styles means from a gapping perspective, and how it could improve your game.

Join us as we test both the Srixon ZXi5 and the ZXi7 at the same loft, and explain why you might opt for one over the other at the top end of your bag. Whether you’re after greater forgiveness or more control, it all comes down to what you value most in your iron play.

00:25 Combo Set Irons Explained
01:15 Srixon ZXi7 Iron
03:09 Srixon ZXi5 Iron
05:22 What the Data Shows Us About Spin and Distance
10:19 Should You Make the Switch?

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combo sets we’re seeing more and more of it in the pros bags you know why are they doing it you know what are the reasons for it and what does it really mean to you is it something that you should be thinking about you know what are the properties of the different heads that make them worth doing it with and you know what could you do glean from what the pros are doing in their bags on tour [Music] so with so many different head styles out there and each brand offering several categories of head how do you know which one’s right for you and which one suits which bit of the bag you we’re seeing on tour so many long irons going to the more forgiving sort of higher ball speed heads in the pros bags as well uh let alone you know the very top end going to something like a driving iron like this Stricksson head here you world number one Scotty Sheffller has two of these in the bag unless he’s on a particular course where he’s just put a sevenwood in you so why are the pros doing that and actually what are the considerations when you’re looking at switching between the heads you know is there’s the control versus forgiveness/d distance so we’re going to hit a couple of different head styles we’re going to use the two stricks on heads ZXI7 and ZXI5 uh to compare some of the data but to explain why you might use each of these heads and what are the considerations from a gapping point of view when you’re doing that so start with the ZXi7 so the more player style head it’s a more of a single piece forging still got a bit of tungsten in the toe for a bit of toe stability but you’ve got the kind of muscle bar in the middle um this is really geared around consistency control solid feel um but not so much help out the head so we’re generally from a data point of view we tend to get that slightly stronger launch retain a little bit of spin um you know it’s more about control we’re not looking for it to be a cannon of a head but we want to get that softer feel off the head but you know there’s less tech in it and the reason for less tech is you know the more tech goes into the head the more you’re moving the center of mass away the more you get the flexion of the face and you historically used to get a lot of variations in spin ball speed and so distance so you’re using the less tech you use the more the more you’re guarding against the one that goes long on you so you tend to see the best players on tour most of their short irons have very little tech in and then as we move up the set they get a bit more tech so as you can see this swing there 16 launch 47 on spin now the the strikes on heads do keep the spin down a little bit versus some other heads so 47 on a 69 is on the lower end and we’d look for kind of over 5,000 really there but yeah lovely soft feel there’s no jump off the face good efficiency 141 you 177 carry nice set of numbers but we’re not going to see lots of variations in there because ultimately they’re not spreading loads of weight to the outer side of the heads and they’re not putting loads of tech in so very solid very reliable very controllable you know great for the kind of the lower handicap player or where you’re not looking to gain much from the head just get a representative result let’s move on to the ZXi5 so moving on to ZedXi 5 what we’ve got here wider sole more tungsten the toe more perimeter weighting marage face to get a little bit more ball speed so this head is whilst it’s still a forged frame so it’s still technically falls into the slightly on the players side of things it’s the more forgiving end of so we’re putting more tech in it trying to gain a little bit of ball speed gain a little bit of performance so prioritizing a little bit more distance versus reliability so these are both exactly the same loft so there’s nothing changed there a little bit clean so what we’ve got there slightly thinner strike but even though I didn’t absolutely middle that we’ve got higher launch lower spin higher ball speed uh I’m going to do one more to try and get as clean a hit as I did on the ZXI7 um but automatically we’re seeing a different pitch of flight so our spin’s down we’re still getting height so he’s still getting a certain amount of control into the green but we’ve got a head that’s designed to give me a little bit more back that was a proper hit so it’s a less soft sound and feel because we’ve got that badge in the back we’ve got that thinner face we’ve got the tungsten in the head all of that hardens the sound up it kind of creates that slightly clickier note um so that kind of it’s still very stable it’s not a harsh note but in order to gain that ball speed the acoustics have to change because the materials change so that’s often what people talk about that forged feeling because most of the traditional forged heads are one piece there’s no tech in them whatsoever the blades and things have that lovely soft sound and feel because there’s no that that tungsten in the toe is a harder material and therefore creates a different pitch of note so it hardens the sound up but you’re gaining forgiveness so looking at that shot there was a better hit 144 efficiency 18 launch 44 on spin so we’ve picked up a couple of degrees in launch angle but we lost 300 revs in spin um picked up a few yards distance-wise as well what I’m going to do is I’m going to go onto the screen we’ll compare the data and then talk about the reasons why you might make that switch uh just referring back to the numbers a little bit now so looking at the numbers here and this this tells us a little bit more about the differences in performance so the swings with the ZX5 were slightly slower but what that gives us is actually the same ball speed so we’ve gained that smash at 143 versus 141 both are good but there’s a little bit more pop off the face so even at a slower club speed and the same ball speed we’re looking at the yardage there i’ve picked up three yards so how is that possible well the answer is the flight’s more efficient so that spin relative to launch angle of the ZXA5 we’ve got higher launch because the weight sits lower in the head if I get that head back we’ve got more tungsten in the bottom so the center mass gets under the ball launches it up a little bit higher what it also does is it gears spin off so you’ve got higher launch and lower spin so if we’re looking with a driver that maximizes yardage uh it’s total distance as well as a bit of extra carry and we’re seeing the same thing here so we’ve picked up three yards of carry um and four odd yards total so the runout distance doesn’t really change too much we’ll come on to another part of that in a moment but we’ve gained a little bit of flight efficiency so there are kind of critical factors here that under a certain speed that lower spin could actually hurt you my the speeds I’m swinging there 85 I’ve still got enough height which I will now talk about to get that land angle to get the control so um whilst it’s launched 2° higher it’s spun 300 rows less because of the extra height and launch angle we’ve gone from 88 ft peak height to 100 and the land angle’s gone from 44 1/2 to 46.9 so whilst the spin’s less because I’ve gained so much actual height I’m still getting stopping power and control as in kind of landing to run out distance control so it is more forgiving it is going a bit further but it’s still landing nice nice and softly and so there’d be some people that would say “Well why would you ever not want that the lower down the set you go and this is where the combo set becomes an interesting thing is the lower down the set you go as loft goes up that low center of gravity starts to get really quite deep in the head and what happens is if you go into this sort of style head at too high a loft for but if it’s an unsuitable head for you at a high loft it pops the flight up and then because you’ve not got the mass behind the ball at impact the spin can become a little bit variable and it’s down that bottom end of the set where that front back dispersion flight control solidity of feel which is important to some players you start to lose that so we then look at the performance of the ZXi7 where we’ve got that muscle bar in the middle that drags weight up the face we haven’t got as much tungsten in the bottom and we haven’t got as thinner face so the center of mass it’s higher and more on the back of the face rather than low and back so we’re not getting that weight popping underneath and flaring up it keeps that short iron flying down and forwards but retains the spin it feels a little bit more solid as well so you’re managing between the different heads at what point are you looking for that bit of extra ball speed performance that bit of extra forgiveness and that bit of extra launch angle but conscious of not dropping the spin off too much so that you lose the stopping power so there are there are a range of things from a performance point of view we’d actually look at to gauge where is that right point and there’s also the preference of the player do you prioritize forgiveness or actually that extra bit of spin control and that slightly softer you what some players will say nicer feel other players would say forgiveness and less twisting and less being able to notice a mis hit is nicer um and therefore you might go into the more forgiving head a bit further down the set other players if they played a less forgiving head in the past just will prefer that softer feel that higher center of mass that more solid feel so that there are sort of gray edges around here there is no absolute right or wrong there’s generally one or two heads that you can cross over with and get perfectly good performance no matter which way you go but it was whether your priority is you know a little less forgiveness a little more feel a little bit more spin flight control a little more forgiveness a little more margin of error and and you can afford to give up a little bit of spin just to gain that ball speed progression because that’s the other factor the more tech you have the more ball speed progression so as you go up the set you’re getting an extra little bit of ball speed from more tungsten the sole more face tech um in something like the ZXI5 that progresses much more quickly so you gain that ball speed generally about five mile an hour ball speed requirement to get a full club length distance in carry from one club to the next so several factors that go into it uh and this is why a lot of the tour pros now playing wanting that extra launch angle wanting that extra ball speed playing into long par fours long par 3es par fives that extra heightened ball speed gain for them at their speeds starting to be much more of a benefit than they used to see so we’ve looked at the sort of players head and the sort of slightly more forgiving option as that split set because that’s generally where you’re going to do it most you look at Scotty Sheffller’s bag and he adds in a couple of driving irons at the top end of the set here’s a three and a four iron in an older model of this Rickxon driving iron and again so that just extrapolates it out a little bit further you’ve got more more width to the sole so you draw the weight further back from the face makes it more forgiving allows them to put more mass lower again keeping that launch angle up um the difference with one of these heads versus a hybrid this won’t spin as much so it’s really about managing as with the split in the irons ball speed progression and then where you want your launch and spin windows to be to get that control whether it’s a more forward running flight if you’re playing Lynx golf or if you’re playing on a kind of a softer parkland course where there’s water hazards in front of greens that higher flight and higher spin window may suit you more the one thing with this I know this video will provoke a lot of questions and and actually it’s partly why I’ve done it there are very few black and white answers in how you combo sets how you split sets because ultimately every player is different the courses you play are different uh ball striking abilities are different so please if you have questions do send them in i will do my best to answer them as quickly as possible um but we are in very busy season so but rest assured I will get back to your questions because it it will be different player to player and the difficult bit is how do you know well ultimately hitting them and deciding what your priorities are how well you hit each head you know there’s a reason why some of the tour pros haven’t gone more forgiving because they don’t feel like they need that extra forgiveness but would prioritize the control whereas you then get others you know take Monty we’ve worked with for years played some game improvement irons and got to world number two there’s a misconception that forgiving heads will stop you improving and achieving beyond a certain level um equally speaking some players you may be a higher handicap but can strike these heads perfectly well you’ve got to enjoy what you’re using and yes there’s a scoring side and and you know that’s incredibly important with golf but you’ve got to enjoy your game and for some players the enjoyment is in finding the center one of these heads and for others it’s get away with as much as possible and get the score as low as possible but it’s different for everyone so any questions you got please do send them in i’ll do my best to get to them as quickly as possible but it is a complicated question um and there are so many different answers that are relevant to different players in different ways so um as I say you know do send the questions in we’ll answer them as quickly as possible but I hope this goes some way to explaining why you might utilize different heads for different parts of the set and why the tour players are doing so as well um but to say not a simple answer [Music]