Golf Irons
The role of the iron set is changing in golf. The traditional set of irons comprises 3-9,PW,SW (9 irons), and these will give you a variety of full shot distances from 60 yards to 200 yards depending on your ability. Nowadays golfers use their irons less during the course of a round. With easy to hit drivers, rescue clubs and specialist wedges taking over, you may be surprised to know that the average 18 handicap golfer may only use their irons 20 times during a round.
Specialist Golf Iron Sets
Careful consideration needs to go into deciding how many irons to buy. Every golfer needs the 6, 7, 8 and 9 irons so that's 4, but the rest is up for debate. You may prefer to use rescue clubs instead of the 3, 4 and 5 irons. You may even prefer to use specialist wedges instead of the "standard" PW and SW that feature in a 9 iron set. As a general guide the average golfer should look to buy 4 or 5 irons through to PW and then consider a rescue 3 or 4, plus a specialist sand wedge.
Most top manufacturer irons can be purchased in any combination. Some budget sets can only be purchased as 3-PW or 3-SW, but with the prices on offer this is not a problem as you can simply discard your 3 or 4 iron without losing too much.
Steel & Graphite Iron Shafts
All iron sets come with graphite or steel shafts. As irons are scoring clubs and not designed in such a way that you have to maximise your distance on each shot, the benefits of additional clubhead speed with graphite are not such a consideration as they are with drivers or fairway woods. Due to the price and consistent properties of steel, this is the most popular choice of shaft. Graphite shafts are popular with seniors, ladies and golfers with slower swing speeds, however, they shouldn't be discounted as there are some very good golfers who prefer this material.
For shaft flex and grip advice, see the Driver section.
