The New Tom Wishon Single-Length Irons:
What Golfers Need To Know
Many of you remember the golf world buzz that happened last year when Bryson deChambeau won the 2015 NCAA and U.S. Amateur Championships using single-length golf clubs. It will be interesting to see how he performs this year playing as a amateur in the major tournaments. Tom Wishon from Tom Wishon Golf is coming out this year with a single-length golf club design he calls "Sterling Irons." These irons are not a reaction to Bryson's success - in fact, Tom has spent about 2 years working on their development. Here are two documents that Tom has created that provide some useful information on who might or might not benefit from single-length irons, and how this new design was developed.
Here are some of the most interesting facts about single-length irons that you might want to know... - The single-length iron concept is not new. It first hit the golf market in 1986. In fact, Tommy Armour Golf made single-length irons and woods in 1989.
- Why might you want to play single-length irons? Most likely to promote better shot consistency, since you will be using the same swing with each iron. In addition to each club having the same length, they will have the same lie angle, total weight, flex, and MOI/swingweight.
- Playing single-length irons does NOT mean you have to use a Single-Plane Swing!! Playing them just means you can use the same swing with each iron in your bag.
- A big consideration in developing a set of single-length irons is maintaining good distance gapping between clubs. Club loft is the primary factor that creates different distances with different irons. The Sterling irons use a high-COR head design for lower-lofted clubs and a cast carbon-steel head design for the higher lofted clubs. They also use 5 degree loft gaps for the higher lofted clubs (instead of the conventional 4 degree gaps). Both of these were done to improve the distance gapping between irons.
- If you are someone who would consider playing single-length irons, you would do well to play with at least two test clubs for awhile - say 5 and 9 irons - and be sure that this different club design approach can work for you.
I hope you enjoy this information on single-length golf clubs. For those who want to know more I am publishing, on Monday January 18, a Podcast Interview with Tom Wishon about this topic.
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Revisiting Two Great
Golf Improvement Books!
During the holidays, I revised two great golf improvement books - one that I had read before (and I think talked about before in this newsletter), the other that I had in my library but had not read. Both I believe provide information and suggested approaches to help you play your best in 2016. Here is a summary from each...
This is a short easy read that I talked about in this newsletter a few years ago. The main concept in this book is simple but powerful - why not practice on the golf course, where you really play? Joe suggests a way to practice that I believe is brilliant - play a 3-ball scramble! Play 9 holes with 3 balls. When you do this, you can find out what your scoring potential is, you can see things like how often do you use your first golf ball (which may mean you are relaxing more because you know you have 2 more attempts?).
Joe in the book talks about a lot of other ways that playing a 3-ball scramble can help you improve your game and your scoring. One of my goals this year is to play a 3-ball scramble at least once a month. Should be fun!
A good friend Bob Simms, the very successful golf coach at St. John Fischer College in Rochester, NY raved about this book when I saw him at Thansgiving time. Actually I had the book for about a year, but had not read it. What a mistake - it is an amazing source of practical golf improvement information for golfers! Here are a FEW tidbits from this great book... - The book is based around a concept that the authors call Separation Value - what they define as "a measure of a skill's potential to affect your score." They believe that the most important golf shot skill is Approach Shots, followed by Driving Performance; these are what they call SV4 skills. They rate Green Reading and Greenside Shots as SV3 skills, and 3-15 foot putts and greater than 25 foot putts as SV2 skills. All of the major skills are rated.
- They discuss that Greens In Regulation (GIRs) is an important measure of how well you score in your game. But they also note an interesting thought - NEAR Greens In Regulation is also very important. Their point is that the closer you are to the green, the easier your short game shot to save par or make birdie will be. I have been tracking my GIRs for the past month or so and for me higher GIRs seem to be connected to my lower scores.
- They make a big point that golfers should learn how to optimize their driving launch conditions to hit their drives as long as possible. With their students, they have noted that more than 90% of their students initially launch their drives at less than 10 degree launch angle - at least 4 degrees or more below optimum.
- The later part of the book is dedicated to using what they call "The Rule" for creating strategies for shooting your lowest scores. "The Rule" is "...safely reducing as much distance between your ball and the hole as possible." If you are looking for guidance on creating good Golf Course Strategy, you will find it in this discussion.
I believe that this is going to become a classic golf improvement book, and one that - if you are serious about Shooting Lower Scores - you need to have in your golf book library!
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Off To The 2016 PGA Equipment Show!
At the end of this month I will again spend a week in Orlando, FL at the annual PGA Equipment Show. This for me is always a week of learning about new golf improvement products, and also learning from some of the top golf experts in the world. I hope to highlight some of the things I learn at the Show in my February newsletter. And the warm weather will be fun too! -------------------- Some of you may wonder what has been happening in my efforts to use the iFocusBand neurofeedback device. The results with it have been interesting and encouraging. I will report more on my use of it in a future newsletter. If you have an interest in learning more about it, get in touch with me and I will demonstrate it to you.
Taking YOUR Game To New Heights!
Tony Wright
GAME IMPROVEMENT GOLF
Oak Ridge, TN
The True Custom Club Fitting and
Putting Improvement Expert in East Tennessee!
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