What Distance Do You Hit Your 7-iron? | Club Speed & Iron Model Comparison

7-irons are all built differently. Today 7-irons have lofts ranging from 26 degrees to 35 degrees. Do you hit your 7-iron the optimal distance? Can you stop the ball on the green with the optimal landing angle? Is the ball flight high or low? Does the ball spin back or have topspin? Just because a player in your group is playing a certain iron it doesn't mean it's similar to yours. When club fitting the goal is to get the golfer in the most optimal carry distance, landing angle and total distance. This is why certain irons are stronger or weaker in loft. Using the Trackman optimizer you can learn a lot about how far your 7-iron should go.
For this videos test, Thomas Campbell PGA Member and Director of Instruction at Swing Lab conducts a test with swing speeds ranging from 70-90 mph and with three different types of irons. These are Game Improvement Irons (Taylormade Stealth - 28*), Players Distance Irons (Taylormade P790 - 30.5*) & Traditional Players Irons (Taylormade P7MC - 34*) comparing all the differences so you can learn the optimal 7-iron distances based on your club speed & iron type.

Swing Lab Performance Golf is a high-performance golf training & fitting facility that opened in February 2023. We are located in Lakeville, Minnesota and utilize top of the line technology to revolutionize the way golfers improve their game. Our technology includes Trackman, Quintic, Zen Green Stage, Putt View & Swing Catalyst. We also offer club fitting services for all the major manufacturers including Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, Mizuno, Cobra & Srixon / Cleveland Golf come see us to gain some distance, improve your dispersion or to make more putts.

Thomas Campbell Golf:

[sloebone]

Driver is for distance, every other club is for precision. It doesn’t really matter how far you can hit your 7 iron as long as it goes a predictable distance.

[kennethvanhouten]

Really great video here, Thomas. High quality breakdown that’s simple and easy to understand. I love how you broke down the different speeds with different types of clubs. Most channels just switch from club to club but don’t change the swing speed to relate different level golfers 💯⛳️👍🏼

[pauld.]

this is one of your best, and definitely one of 'the' best and clearest explanation/illustration of connecting player to proper club. well done!

[cplbergman]

I play the stealth irons, s300 shafts as my swing speed is around 85 and play Callaway Supersoft ball. I've always hit more up with irons and I consistently carry 165 with my 7 iron and my landing angle is around 42 degrees. When I got fit, I wanted more distance with my irons vs my old set as I was only carrying about 140 with my previous 7 iron. It's all about how YOU hit the ball. I'm extremely happy with my stealth set :)

[brettsteven]

Great test Thomas. I've seen something similar before where the tester varied his angle of attack but kept the swing speed the same. In almost all cases the player, with an angle of attack 3-5 degrees down on a 7 iron, gets better results with traditional lofted clubs. Only where the angle of attack was more neutral (flippy) do the modern stronger lofted irons make more sense.

[drdesign]

It’s for these reasons I think all clubs should have their loft stamped. Like you have on driver, woods, wedges and even usually hybrids. Most irons don’t do this and it causes confusion too often. I always wondered why my playing partners smashed irons longer than me but not the woods and hybrids - turns out their irons are all 4-5 degrees more aggressive. Their 8 iron is equivalent to my 5-6 iron. What happens though is they have massive gapping between 9/PW and their wedges which normally start at a 52. They then get super pissed that the 52 never flies (they see it as close to their PW but in realty with their irons the degree gapping is like 11-12 - far too big). For me the gap between PW and my 52 is only 6.

Standard lofts are much much better for most half decent players. But having lofts stamped on all irons would help those new to golf massively. Also would stop the silly ego nonsense of how far you hit a 7iron!

[rickleeo]

finally a useful video correlating swing speed with the type of iron you should use!

[danielchavez]

I’ve always enjoyed how you explained things, Thomas. This is more helpful in explaining which clubs might be best suited for which players compared to marketing campaigns which group too many players together by handicap. I think swing speed is very insightful. I also think it’s good to see how taking a bit off affects distance and dispersion when you’re more concerned about contact and club face rather than distance.

[loki]

I think the stronger lofted irons are targeted at the player that swings slower and delivers more loft at impact than you are delivering.

[chachichochacorta]

Very informative video, as usual.
Do you feel it is ridiculous to call these irons by the number shown on the clubhead? Isn't it better to compare a 34-degree iron with another brand's 34-degree iron?
These are the specs of the 5-iron, 6-iron, and 7-iron of the three brands.
26, 30, 34
23.5, 26.5, 30
21, 24, 28 (this last set had a slightly longer length of shaft as well)
The last brand's 7 iron was nearly the same loft as the first brand's 5-iron! The first brand's seven iron has more loft that the last brand's 8 iron!
You stated that your 7-iron has the same loft as the first brand and you normally hit a 7-iron about 180. How far do you hit your 5-iron? It's probably about as far as the last brand's seven iron (200+ yards).
I think there needs to be some consistency in what we call a 7-iron across all brands or, when we do comparisons, we should really be comparing same lofts regardless of the useless number under the sole of the clubhead.

[CarolinaGolfer]

This was a fantastic video, Thomas. One of the best I've ever seen on club Fitting/specs on YT and I watch them all. Very Indepth info across the board with the full set of data to show each club, s showing the optimal range as well really puts it into perspective where you could/should be. The only other thing I'd like to see is almost the exact same test with someone that doesn't play at scartch or plus level. Someone that isnt' going to hit the highest possible smash factor for irons. But still more of these with you would be great.

Perhaps the same with driver. Different lofts at say 85, 100 and 115 mph swings.

[MikeYang]

Really useful. I just ran out into the backyard to test my own 7iron speed and distance!

[dakotahead]

Love this video. Helping me a lot who just started checking his data more regularly. I’m in between most stats at 82mph swing of the p790 and p7mc with my rogue st pros.

Would be really cool to see a 9i and 5i to compare an entire bag!

Thanks a lot

[Mr.Bill-cnd]

This is such an informative video. If you want to understood loft, launch and speed, watch this precise and concise video. Excellent job!

[xBlade]

This was super interesting. Never knew about the iron number times 1000 rule, and I loved the *optimal* vs what was actually swung.

[nielsaxelsson]

Great idea - excellend execution. Really clear to me.
I was literally wondering this as I was on the range today if my numbers was OK for around 82 mph. Really interesting to see this across speeds ans iron lofts. 👍
Keep making videos where mortal/average swing speeds are used 😅

[blackibeamer]

Glad I found you Thomas. This is an interesting topic in choosing irons based upon swing speed. I am currently swinging the new Taylormade Stealth irons. I left Ping. I had g425 irons. Over the years (now 74) I have lost distance. My swing is now in the low 70’s. I am happy with the distance, dispersion, and landing angle with Stealth. I hit my 7i carrying 145-150 which makes me mentally satisfied. I am a 9 handicap. You are absolutely right on matching speed with the proper irons. Thank you for the video. Looking for more videos from you in the future.

[AmmoDude]

Great looking swing, by the way. I must say it is difficult to find a club "fitter" instead of a club "salesperson." Very interesting information. Thanks!

[newsbluestv]

Was this test using the same shaft for all speeds? If it was, that would explain the results. Had you used the shaft to match the speed, the spin should have increased with each rise in speed, wouldn't it? Using the right shaft to match the head is paramount for any golfer, hence why a good club/shaft fitting is recommended.

[tannerkellis]

Wondered why I haven’t seen Thomas on the 2nd swing videos. Now I know why. Glad to have found you again Thomas!