Women's Iron Design Characteristics

(What Women Need To Know To Play Better Golf)

Introduction

In the mid 90’s I became very interested in women’s golf clubs. This all came about because my wife knew that I was working on a new ladies club for The GolfWorks called the Logic Lady. Being an avid golfer, she felt that women needed additional design considerations simply because many of her golfing friends had trouble hitting irons and especially in getting the ball airborne. There was also a lack of consistency in hitting acceptable shots. I could associate with these statements, but all I could come up with was what I always thought and that was to make sure women’s irons had a low center of gravity.

Well, as the conversation continued, she said something that I had never heard before nor ever thought of. She said that women do not take divots. Sure, some of the better playing women golfers take a divot, but the vast majority of women golfers do not take divots. Women are simply not strong enough and consequently they mostly swing in a sweeping arc vs. a down and through arc.

So, while designing this iron, two very important things were about to come together. First, my wife’s statement about women not taking divots and secondly, the fact that I was well into proving out the Maltby Playability Factor (MPF) for irons. This made me realize that it would be important to get a cross section of women golfers together and find out any additional information and to also confirm what women think concerning hitting a golf ball and simply playing the game. One of the new pieces of data to prominently emerge was that many women felt that golf was a difficult game to play. I assumed from this statement that they probably felt they did not have equipment that was easy to hit. Wrong! They had no idea why. Most felt that it was difficult to be good at hitting the golf ball. Many women golfers planned on playing the clubs they had and were not considering a new set, other than possibly the addition of a chipper or other utility club. This obviously pointed out that somehow, someway, women needed to know that there is equipment out there that can help them.

Every woman’s iron design should be in the Ultra Game Improvement playability range.

The Design Solution

Basically, the ideal iron designs (some of these design characteristics apply to metal woods also) for most women golfers have seven very important characteristics. The first is an extremely low center of gravity. Not just the ordinary low center of gravity, but a really low center of gravity. Actually, it needs to be below .700”. The second characteristic is a bigger “C” Dimension (horizontal center of gravity moved farther away from the hosel) of no less than 1.500”. Third, a more rearward positioned center of gravity than most irons would normally have. The minimum recommended is .600”. Fourth, a much wider sole than most all other irons and fifth the addition of at least 4° of bounce angle. Sixth, a weaker loft than what is typically found on most men’s irons. 28° loft is a good minimum and 30° is still not too much. Seventh, a woman’s iron head needs to be heavier than men’s iron heads because the golf club length for women is shorter than men’s. A woman will not feel the heavier head weight because of the shorter overall club length.

The previous seven important design characteristics just discussed apply to the head design itself. This now brings us to two additional important considerations concerning the overall golf club. First, most women’s clubs are simply too long. A woman’s #5 iron should be no longer than 37 ¼” unless special lengths are needed for taller women golfers of better playing ability. While we are discussing length, the driver should be no longer than 43” (today, some manufacturers are building stock ladies driver lengths at 44”, 44½” and even 45”). Secondly, most women’s shaft flexes are much too stiff for them and the bend points are too high. Most shafts that I measure are actually in the “A” flex category and not even in the standard “L” flex category. The actual flex that works best is an “LL” flex or a flex that is actually more flexible than the so-called standard “L” flex. The shaft should also have a low shaft bend point. This means that most of the bending in the shaft favors the lower portion of the shaft.

The Result

Here is what happens when the overall design considerations already discussed are applied to the above clubhead. Since women do not take divots and are basically sweepers of the ball, the wider sole coupled with the increased bounce angle, will not allow the clubhead to dig into the ground and create fat shots. The sole simply glides on top of the turf, so the fear of sticking the clubhead into the ground and hitting a chunk shot is eliminated. In other words, one bad variable is gone.

Once again, since most women sweep the ball, the extremely low center of gravity allows the clubhead to slide into the ball and always have its center of gravity well below that of the golf balls center of gravity. For proper trajectory and a solid hit to happen, the clubheads center of gravity must always be lower than the golf balls center of gravity at impact. This is easy for most men who hit down and through the ball and take divots because they are driving the center of gravity of the clubhead downward (not sweeping it horizontally) and impacting the ball well below its center of gravity. Bottom line so far: The extremely low center of gravity in women’s irons makes it easy to get every shot airborne without the fear of hitting the shot fat because of the wider bounce sole which resists digging.

Every woman’s iron design should be in the Ultra Game Improvement Category regarding the Maltby Playability Factor (MPF). The extremely low center of gravity coupled with the longer “C” Dimension (horizontal center of gravity located farther from the hosel centerline) and a farther back rearward center of gravity location assures the head design to be in the maximum playability category. This is the easiest to hit iron head design for women.

Finally, take this very forgiving and easy to hit iron head design and mate it with a more flexible (“LL”), low bend point shaft at an overall club length that is not too long and you have a great playing ladies golf club that makes the game of golf so much easier to play and the absolute fastest way to improve.

After all the articles I have written and the seminars that I have given (since 1998) regarding my findings on ladies clubs, it has now finally spurred the leading OEM’s into designing ladies clubs using many of these same principles discussed here. At least some of them are treating women separately and not simply putting a different shaft and a different color medallion into their men’s head models.

For anyone interested, I have designed four ladies models (irons and metal woods) using the above criteria. The first design was the Logic Lady (1999, 2003) in the GolfWorks Maltby club line and has been the biggest selling ladies club in the history of the company. The next model was the Power Bilt ladies Grand Slam Oversize (2001) and for the 2004 model year, Tommy Armour Golf introduced the 845W Silverback. I recently introduced (2007 model) the LTECH ladies clubs for the GolfWorks Maltby line and also for Golf Galaxy consisting of drivers, fairway metals, hybrids, irons and wedges.

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Article Discussion

  • 4:06PM - Aug 4, 2008RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Thank you. I know that I speak for many of us, It is so good to have a knowledgable source to turn to. Again, thanks, KellyDon

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  • 3:33PM - Aug 4, 2008RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    KellyDon, When the Logic lady name was changed to the LTech, I made some very minor modifications to the irons, so they are basically the same. Yes, we added in the 460cc driver to the LTech line. Other than that the fairway metals and hybrids are the same. So, the specifications are the same as are listed in the GolfWorks catalog for the LTech.

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  • 3:29PM - Aug 4, 2008RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Christopher, yes.

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  • 2:01PM - Aug 4, 2008RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Ralph,

    Could you point me to the specifications of the Lady Logic club heads ? I have been given some of these heads and want to help out a lady with some clubs.

    She is a beginning golfer who is older (55-ish, non-athletic) and probably could never get below a 25 handicap, at absolute best. Are there any real, significant, differances between the Lady Logic Line and the new L-Tech heads, other than the size of the head of the driver?

    Thanks, KellyDon

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  • 11:12AM - Aug 4, 2008RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Thanks Ralph – Is the “Distance Master Women’s” your full ladies set, and the L-Tech the higher end components?

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  • 10:11AM - Aug 4, 2008RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Christopher, the full set thing depends on the diligence of the manufacturer. Yes, some of the full 3 & 8 sets and 4 and 9 sets or whatever are not very good designs and/or quality. Some of the sets are OK. Last year our design team of Britt, Pete and myself did a ladies full bag set for Golf Galaxy, but built every club in the set to “Ultra Game Improvement”. Since this was a high volume set, we picked a great manufacturer in China who also gave us a much higher quality for the price we needed to meet.

    Here is my thinking. The sets are a great way to get someone into the game of golf as long as they are high playability sets, meaning very easy to hit. Also, the cost is usually much lower for entry. However, there is a point when the golfer wants to get more serious and wants to improve their game. Since very few, if any, bag sets are fit to the individual, this is a good place to start. Questions like; is the grip size correct? Are the lie angles correct? Are the lengths correct? You know, all the normal fitting questions. Then there is the question of what set make-up will work best for this person. I think you are going about this in the correct manner, meaning you are identifying one or two areas to possibly help her hit the ball better and with a couple of clubs that you know are better fit to her.

    So, the made up sets do have a place and help many people get into the game to see whether they like it or not. If the sets are easy to play, hopefully that person will stay in the game.

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  • 9:31AM - Aug 4, 2008RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Hey Ralph: I was wondering – do you think these full sets for relative novices are more trouble than they’re worth sometimes? My fiancee has a full set of these Wilson ProStaff clubs (1-7 woods, 5hyb, 6-sw irons), and has begun to hit a bit of a wall in terms of consistency and improvement. I’ve greatly improved lately (in large part because of the GolfWorks!), and it’s beginning to frustrate her. As I see the similarity of designs in the Wilson Men/Women/Junior lines, and see junior clubs at around 150 MPF, I begin to wonder if her enthusiasm may wane and die if she’s held back for reasons she doesn’t need to be. I’m going to try and build a ltech or glider and slip it in her bag to see what she thinks – do you find that these sets can be more trouble than they’re worth sometimes?

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  • 7:58AM - Aug 30, 2007RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Malone, regardless of the tip diameter, the LTech LL flex shafts are the softest shafts available for women on the market. The person on the phone was wrong in that the .335 tip LTech is softer than the .370 tip (all in the tip), but not by much in the case of this shaft. The post you saw was a good question and basically asked if it was a good idea to put .335 tip shafts in .370 bore hybrids. My answer was yes and applied in situations where softer was better for the golfer. In particular a golfer who wanted a little more flexing action from the tip area would benefit most. From what you said about the clubs you built for your wife, everything should be fine. There is basically no advantage to putting reduced tip shafts in irons as I am sure you have guessed. If you had built her a 5 and 6 iron, then I would have said the LL would be a better choice. Since her iron set starts with a 7 iron down through a PW, shaft flex becomes less important because of the obliqueness of the hit (greater loft angles create less force to the ball at impact). This is why most companies put stiff flex shafts in all their wedges as there is little bending going on.

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  • 10:22AM - Aug 29, 2007RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Ralph: I built my first clubs by building set of LTECH for my wife. Driver and FWay woods with the LTECH LL .335 shaft and the Hybrids with the LTECH LL .370 shaft All the softest. But from your other posts I messed up and shoud have put .335 in the hybrids,however when called in order they said the oposite. is there really that much difference in these shafts. The irons 7-PW are with medium .370 that had on sale at 4.99-seems okay for her on the shorter irons-would an LL make much difference for her. Thnaks, Malone

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  • 1:02PM - Jul 21, 2007RE: Women's Iron Design Characteristics

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    Sharon, I always like to hear stories like this and especially so when you are using a club designed by me. I hope this helps you to get excited about golf and continue to play and improve. Above all enjoy the game.

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