While everyone wants more distance from their Driver, when it comes to iron distance, opinions vary. One side says that irons just need to fly a consistent distance. How far they go doesn’t matter because they can always hit the next one. They say things like “I don’t want to hit my 7 iron farther. I have my distances dialed in.”

The other side seeks distance at all costs regardless of what it does to the playability (more on that in a minute). I am here to tell you, like most things in life, neither one of these things is true and the best results will come from a happy compromise. Why is that so hard for people to understand? But I digress.

For the people who say iron distance is not important, really?  

You have to know how silly that sounds? I personally don’t know a single player who hits more greens with their 6-iron than their 7-iron, do you? I don’t know a single player whose proximity to the hole is better with 8 than a 9-iron, do you? I know I’m much more accurate with my 9-iron than my 7. The point is, if you can hit a shorter club into every green you are going to score better.

That’s because every golfer, from tour pro to weekend warrior, hits their shorter irons more consistently and more accurately than they do their longer ones. Fact.

It’s easier to swing a shorter club than a longer one for everyone on the planet. Fact.

If you look at the average proximity to the hole on tour it is no surprise that shots land closer to the hole as the clubs get shorter. So, if you can hit a 9 iron instead of an 8, you are better off. The funny thing is, EVERYONE wants to hit their driver farther. Golfers want to do this not only as a sign of their great vim but also because they get rewarded. They get to hit a shorter, easier to hit club into the green which in turn gives them a better chance of success.

So why would these players want to bomb it off the tee but then balk at increasing their iron distance? Doesn’t it accomplish the same thing? Better yet, why would we not want to maximize both our distance off the tee and our iron distance. Wouldn’t this allow us to hit the shortest club possible into every green? The answer is of course yes, so likely these players have just not thought this through.

Now on to the distance at all cost crew.

While it is possible to fit irons for maximum total distance (we do this for driver) doing this for irons would increase your score as well as your distance. The laws of physics dictate that, in order to hit the ball as far as we can, we want it to not only fly far but also roll a bunch after it lands. I’m sure you can already see how that’s problematic for an iron. If you get 25 yards of roll out on every 7-iron you hit, you’re not going to be able to hold any greens. In that case, we don’t want to hit it as far as we can. Instead, we want to hit it as far as we can without rolling out much after landing. We want to maximize our carry distance.

Unfortunately, the theoretical maximum 7-iron carry distance for most golfers is still not in a reasonable flight window as far as stopping is concerned.  We’re going to need to make a further compromise. Sorry distance at all cost guys.

So, now the big question, how far should you hit a 7 Iron?

We still want to maximize the carry distance, but we’re going to need to do this conditionally. Specifically, We want to fly the ball as far as we can while still getting the ball to land at the correct angle with the correct amount of backspin to stop. Each player is free to decide how much stopping power they need, but at Total Fit we target the maximum carry distance while maintaining three yards of stopping power upon landing when fitting for a 7 iron.

To accomplish this, we need to fit each player into the ideal launch angle and back spin rate for their particular ball speed. These two critical launch conditions combine to create a max apex (the height the ball reaches at its peak) and landing angle (the angle the ball lands in relationship to the green) for each shot.

To create the proper amount of sopping power for a 7 iron, we want to target roughly 48 degrees of landing angle for your average weekend warrior but what combination of launch angle and spin rate will produce this? There is no universal set of launch conditions which work best for all players. The ideal values change depending on the club head speed each player is capable of producing.

The faster you swing the club the lower you want to launch it. The slower you swing, the higher you want to launch it. Faster swing speeds will always produce more backspin and slower swings less if all other variables remain the same. Although there is not one set of universal values which works for everyone, there are ideal theoretical values or ranges of values for each given swingspeed.

The first step in every fitting is to establish the ideal launch values for each client based on their club head speed. As an example, someone Swinging at 80 MPH with a 7 Iron would want to launch the ball in the 20-22 degree range and would need 5000-6000 RPMs of spin to achieve this. For someone swinging 90 mph, we would drop the launch to 18 degrees. Unfortunately, even with the most ideal equipment, not every player can hit these windows.

What if a golfer swings at 80 mph and can’t get their spin rate below 7000 rpms? What if they can’t launch their 7 iron higher than 17 degrees? We know they won’t be able to produce the ideal values so how do get the best outcome for these players?

In these cases, we obviously won’t be able to reach the theoretical values for maximum distance, but there is a specific launch angle which will combine best with a 7000 rpm spin rate and create the best possible distance for this player. Now you can see that how far you should hit your 7 iron depends not just on your swing speed, but a whole host of other launch conditions. Ultimately, the answer is not a specific number (unless you can in fact get to the ideal launch conditions). What you want is to hit your irons as far as you can while still getting them to stop when they land.