7-irons are all built differently. Today 7-irons have lofts ranging from 26 degrees to 35 degrees. Do you hit your 7-iron the optimal distance? Can you stop the ball on the green with the optimal landing angle? Is the ball flight high or low? Does the ball spin back or have topspin? Just because a player in your group is playing a certain iron it doesn’t mean it’s similar to yours. When club fitting the goal is to get the golfer in the most optimal carry distance, landing angle and total distance. This is why certain irons are stronger or weaker in loft. Using the Trackman optimizer you can learn a lot about how far your 7-iron should go.
For this videos test, Thomas Campbell PGA Member and Director of Instruction at Swing Lab conducts a test with swing speeds ranging from 70-90 mph and with three different types of irons. These are Game Improvement Irons (Taylormade Stealth – 28*), Players Distance Irons (Taylormade P790 – 30.5*) & Traditional Players Irons (Taylormade P7MC – 34*) comparing all the differences so you can learn the optimal 7-iron distances based on your club speed & iron type.
Swing Lab Performance Golf is a high-performance golf training & fitting facility that opened in February 2023. We are located in Lakeville, Minnesota and utilize top of the line technology to revolutionize the way golfers improve their game. Our technology includes Trackman, Quintic, Zen Green Stage, Putt View & Swing Catalyst. We also offer club fitting services for all the major manufacturers including Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, Mizuno, Cobra & Srixon / Cleveland Golf come see us to gain some distance, improve your dispersion or to make more putts.
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29 Comments
I don't use irons when I play scratch golf, so I don't have to worry about how far people hit a 7 iron. I like flexible shafts that get the ball up in the air quickly and play with women's hybrids: 40*, 36*, 30*, 27*, 24*, 18*. My 40* hybrid I hit 117.5 yards. My 36* hybrid I hit 130 yards. My 30* hybrid I hit 142.5 yards. My 27* hybrid I hit 155 yards. My 24* hybrid I hit 170 yards. My 18* hybrid I hit 190+ yards. As a scratch golfer, I could care less how far a 7 iron is supposed to go. I'm not worried about that. What is important to me is knowing my yardages with each of my 4 wedges and 6 hybrids. Get familiar with how far you hit each club and don't compare yourself to anyone else or to any charts. If someone your playing with hits a 7 iron on a par 3 and you know the distance matches your 5 iron or 5 hybrid, play what works for you. If someone asks you what club you are hitting tell them that is against the rules of Golf and I will have to assess you 2 penalty stokes on this hole, or loss of hole in match play. This is why I can't stand the PGA Tour announcing on tv each club a player has selected to hit. That is privileged information and is nobody's business except for the individual player and his caddie.
would be interesting to see the numbers from the equivalent lofts rather than the random number they have written on the bottom of the club
I have just started playing golf, but I can already swing my driver 180mph. not sure how fast I swing my irons but I am now feeling that the jpg 923 hot metal pro's I was fitted into may be a little too powerful… my 7 goes around 200-210.
just checked my performance average on my shotscope based on 25 rounds. 7 iron = 199 yards
Excellent video!
Interesting and well done. But wouldn’t you really need to compare stats on clubs that carry the same distance in each design category? For example, with a 180 yd approach shot, pick the clubs that travel and compare height, angle of descent, and spin.
Thomas breaking free from second swing golf?
140 yards carry is ideal
Thank you for the great info. It will help me in my new club purchase. One thing I would recommend, especially for us newbie’s , is that you somehow highlight or laser pointer the information on the graph. Hard to follow but valuable information just the same..Thanks again!
I've been wondering where this guy was. I loved his videos from his other channel.
Great test, with my 80 mph club head speed that is why I play i210s, just so much more controllable. If I want to hit the ball a bit further than my 7i I use a 5i or 6i!
Seems like a lot of these hollow body irons are not generating enough height or spin for slow or mid speed golfers. Mizuno may be on to something with their 923 HL irons.
Well I went with epic forged that went far but never would stop on green. It was really nice to get 180 out of 6 iron but scores went through the roof. Went back to t100 6 iron 155 an back to scoring in 70’s.
I got the stealth 2 weeks ago when I picked up golf (played college baseball) and I carry it 195 yards. Maybe I should I don’t more research before buy my iron set
It better be 150 yards!
Great information, thank you, so many people think it's all about distance!
So hit the P7MC with your speed and it will go 205ish – how do those numbers compare to the stealth 7i you were hitting? Or pick the iron from each set that goes 180 and do that comparison – is it still a problem? Who cares what number is stamped on the bottom
Very informative video, as usual.
Do you feel it is ridiculous to call these irons by the number shown on the clubhead? Isn't it better to compare a 34-degree iron with another brand's 34-degree iron?
These are the specs of the 5-iron, 6-iron, and 7-iron of the three brands.
26, 30, 34
23.5, 26.5, 30
21, 24, 28 (this last set had a slightly longer length of shaft as well)
The last brand's 7 iron was nearly the same loft as the first brand's 5-iron! The first brand's seven iron has more loft that the last brand's 8 iron!
You stated that your 7-iron has the same loft as the first brand and you normally hit a 7-iron about 180. How far do you hit your 5-iron? It's probably about as far as the last brand's seven iron (200+ yards).
I think there needs to be some consistency in what we call a 7-iron across all brands or, when we do comparisons, we should really be comparing same lofts regardless of the useless number under the sole of the clubhead.
Very interesting numbers. For someone with a 90 mph swing speed, how do you optimize a fitting for accuracy, control and consistency? I switched from a blade to a cavity back; but my pure shots go ten yards or more farther than my off-center hits (in which case I toe my shots). Thanks.
I play the p770; I’m 148 -150 with my 88-90 swing speed
My 1972 Titleist AC-108 7 iron has 36° loft and I average 135 yards carry. I don't know my clubhead speed, but I'm guessing it's about 80mph
Horrible. Cannot see the numbers
I think if you Highlighted Distance, Height, Spin, and Landing Angle it would have been easier to absorb.
I would have to throw this Video up on my TV Screen to properly view all the Data presented.
I’m 67 senior golfer. 7 iron distance only 120 with club speed mid 69’s. Playing Callaway Mavrik irons with regular stock graphite shaft. Thoughts on possible changes? Love your videos. 😊
I used to play Ping i15's (33deg) and switched to Mizuno Pro 225's (30deg)… i15's were a 155-160 carry with a low/mid ball flight and 225's are a 160-165 carry with a high(er) ball flight. At 56, I dropped from a solid 8HC (prior 5 years) to a solid 5HC over the last 9 months I've owned the Mizuno's. I did take two 1-hr iron lessons prior to getting the Mizuno's but I honestly think the drop in HC was due more in part to (10yr) newer irons.
Should go half way between your 6 and 8 irons🤷🏻♂️
Driver is for distance, every other club is for precision. It doesn’t really matter how far you can hit your 7 iron as long as it goes a predictable distance.
without changing shafts to match swing speed (you didn't say anything so no idea what you did), not sure how this data means much but interesting to see
This so good. I always wondered why good players would not play with game improvement irons. Why bother with the harder to hit blades or CB?