Road Noise: Long Irons

Rick Nichols
Director of Tour Operations, Nike Golf
 
Casey / Q:
Rick, what is the state of the 2-iron on TOUR?
 
Rick / A:
The 2-iron is almost extinct on TOUR. With the introduction of hybrids the last four or five years you just don’t see too many 2-irons. Occasionally a very strong player like Tiger will put it in play. You saw him do that at the Open Championship where the ground was very firm and fast and that was a good club for him off the tee. But, typically, guys are replacing or have replaced the 2-iron with an 18-degree hybrid.
 
Casey / Q:
We hear that all the time, but, why is this so?
 
Rick / A:
It’s a much more versatile club out of a bad lie or out of the rough. They still have a chance of stopping the ball on the green even from a long way out because the hybrid is going to get the ball up in the air faster than a 2-iron. If their only option was a 2-iron out of a tough situation they might have to lay up because if they hit the ball hard enough to get to the green but can’t hold it they might end up getting themselves in more trouble than it’s worth.
 
Casey / Q:
What about 3-irons and 4-irons?
 
Rick / A:
3-irons and 4-irons are still in play in most of the bags on the PGA TOUR. But, they are a different kind of long iron than in the past. They are much more user friendly with the weight real low and deep and away from the face to help get the ball up in the air faster. You see wider flanges and wider soles than ever before to make it easier to hit, especially out of the rough. Let’s face it, the long irons are the hardest clubs in the bag to hit so the easier we as club designers can make them function the better it is for the player. Even the players at the highest level of the game out here on the PGA TOUR.
 
Casey / Q:
What makes perimeter weighting work?
 
Rick / A:
Perimeter weighting helps you on off-center hits. Loss of distance will be reduced when you have a perimeter weighted golf club because the energy is dispersed over a greater area of the face and you don’t have to be as exact with your strike. And hitting it on the screws of a long iron is tough to do consistently. On center hits you won’t really find a difference but you will notice a difference on off-center hits.
 
Casey / Q:
You have so much experience around professional golf. Who is the best long iron player you’ve ever seen?
 
Rick / A:
My dad has played a lot of golf with Jack Nicklaus. And I remember watching them play when I was a young man. Jack could hit a 1-iron and it would look like the trajectory of everyone else’s 3-iron or even 4-iron in the case of the some of the low ball hitters. Jack was just so powerful. It takes a lot of strength to hit a long iron high up in the air, especially a 1-iron. To this day, especially because of how far many of these guys out here are hitting today, I’m not sure if Jack Nicklaus is given enough credit for exactly how strong and powerful he was. There are a few guys out here who can get a long iron up like Jack did. Tiger, of course, is one of them. Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes come to mind as exceptionally strong players. But, honestly, Nicklaus was a sight to behold with a 1-iron in his hand. It’s hard to imagine how high he could hit it when he wanted to.
 
Casey / Q:
Who else?
 
Rick / A:
Another wonderful long iron player that you don’t here talked about in that regard very often was Arnold Palmer. He’s another one of these guys who had incredible power and strength and while generally speaking he had a much different ball flight than Nicklaus – Palmer hit a lower trajectory draw – he could still launch a long iron high up in the air when he wanted to. The advantage that Palmer and Nicklaus had was generating club head speed that most of the other guys just didn’t have. And that was a great advantage for them.