In recent weeks, a trend has emerged on the PGA and European Tours.
Many players, several of them winners, have been using 2-irons and strong-lofted driving irons instead of hybrids.
Whether it’s a control thing or preparation for the next two Majors is anyone’s guess, but Jason Day has taken it one step further by putting a 1-iron in the bag.
The Australian said in a press conference that he bent his TaylorMade RocketBladez 2-iron to 1-iron loft and swapped in a graphite shaft to get a better flight on the ball.
When asked how many fellow pros have a 1-iron in the bag, Day said: “I wouldn’t think there would be too many.
“TaylorMade don’t even make a 1‑iron so we got a Rocketbladez 2‑iron and bent it to a 1‑iron. I was out there today and hit a couple of shots with it. It was downwind and there was a couple that went 300 easy with the bounce and roll. The ball flight is very strong.”
The 25-year-old went on to explain the reasoning behind the swap, referring to it as an experiment.
“What the experiment was, we were going to try a 1‑iron and try it out here because we know if we have a 1‑iron here and it works well in the wind, when we go overseas to the British this year we can have the full confidence that it’s going to go the right distance and can come out low and hit different types of shots when I need to,” said Day.
"Normally I feel like I’m more accurate with the 1‑iron, it doesn’t spin too much, it comes off with a pretty boring flight, penetrates through the wind and when I’m hitting downwind it stays up in the air a lot." – Jason Day “I know that it’s not a British Open course but the wind is very strong here.”
A lot of players believe using a strong-lofted hybrid is a better bet, but the Aussie disagrees.
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“Normally I feel like I’m more accurate with the 1‑iron, it doesn’t spin too much, it comes off with a pretty boring flight, penetrates through the wind and when I’m hitting downwind it stays up in the air a lot.
“Initially we thought of taking driver out and putting in 2‑wood. We fiddled around with a wood and we couldn’t quite get the right configuration with the shaft and the flight.
“This was probably back, I want to say, about a month ago we were thinking about putting in a 1‑iron and just practising with it because of the British. We finally put it in this week and we practised with it yesterday and the numbers on TrackMan, they weren’t quite going as well as I’d hoped they would. I hit it great [on the practice days]. Didn’t go off line too much, strong flight, I ended up putting a graphite shaft in instead of the normal Pro‑Deck shaft that I put in.”
Day also thinks it could be a good bet this year’s US Open venue.
“I haven’t played Merion yet so I know that from what I hear it is very short, the first 13 holes or so, I’m not too sure but that’s what I hear, and the last five or so are the longest.
“So I think that would be a very good club around there but I don’t know until I get there. I’m definitely going to use it this week and I’m not too sure what I’m going to do with it for Memorial but I know I’m going to use it at the British.”
It turns out the one-time PGA Tour winner has history with this club.
“I think I was 13 [when he last used one], and I had a Callaway set and I think it was X‑12s and 1‑iron all the way through to sand wedge and that was the last time, and that was, I want to say, 13 years ago.”
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