1 Is there a Renaissance on the PGA Tour? whether

Last week’s Genesis Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup had a great setup, but there was a club that jumped out to most casual fans:
Taylormade RSI TP UDI16˚1 iron.
Yes, 1 iron. While this may not be the little butter knife that Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus are known for, the 10-year-old driving iron equipped with the same KBS C-type 130 X-iron axle that he has in the rest of the irons, it has won the PGA Tour victory in a few years after the club type.
Players often break practical irons and drive the Irons to get the ball down the tee when the PGA Tour crosses the pond for the Scottish Open, the Open Championship, and all the elements with Links Golf. Some players are even considering extremes.
It turns out that, after all, 1 Iron is not completely dead in the PGA Tour, but we should clarify.
What is 1 iron?
At the age of 28, I can say with certainty that I haven’t seen much 1 in most of my contemporaries in the race – although I did compete with former open champion Sandy Lyle in 2015 when he carried a Misu MP-H5 1-irr, my dad played my dad in the 70s, 80s, 80s, 80s, 80s and 90s.
Recently, we measured one of his old Ben Hogan apex 1-rons and found it had an attic of 18 degrees. That was 1 iron from 25 years ago, but with the launch speeds higher and faster irons, by today’s standards, it almost universally agrees that this 18 degrees is 2 iron.
In fact, several brands today, such as Cobra, Ping and Taylormade, even offer 2 stocks in 17 degrees. Most people think 18 degrees is 2 iron, while 3 iron can vary from 19-21 degrees depending on the iron kit it is trying to blend with – a weaker, weaker, more tour-inspired iron suit and stronger in player distance. While matching 3-irons are rarely seen on the PGA Tour, many still use Utility 3-Irons around 20 or 21 degrees.
Few companies offer 1 iron in the retail industry. Like previous generations, Titleist’s new U505 utility iron has an option of 16 degrees, 1 iron loft. Just last week, Taylormade’s 17-degree P-UDI driving iron released limited. It is commonly known as 2 iron, but is known as “bomber” 1 iron and new cosmetic kits. It sold out in minutes.
Chris Voshall, Mizuno’s product owner, also told me that they would do something interesting about the Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi utility. In retail, the 16.5-degree FLI-HI is stamped with 2 iron because this is the distance in the attic progress, matching the distance to the Mizuno Pro 245 player, which both have 30-degree 7 iron.
But on their tour truck, the same head is stamped with 1 irons. Why? Because 16.5 degrees is obviously 1 iron.
Today’s 1 article is different
One of the main warnings of today’s 1 irons is that they are indeed hybrids compared to my father’s Ben Hogan Apex 1-Iron.
Hybrids only became commonplace in the early 2000s, even later than that of hollow-driving irons, so this was not the choice at the time. But the 1-rons hogan that Hogan, Nicklaus and Trevino once played are the same as the rest of the irons.
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There is no multi-material structure, peripheral weighting, ultra-thin faces, ultra-wide soles, speed foam, low CG or something like that.
They are 1 forged blade, Trevino joked, “If you are caught on a golf course in a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold 1 iron.
Today’s 1 irons are very different. Examples like the U505 have an ultra-wide sole and shallow side to help lower the club’s CG and combine a lot of tungsten to get the ball high in the air.
Taylormade’s P-udi Bomber 1 iron (not only different from cosmetics’ standard Type 2 iron and .25-inch longer reserve shaft lengths) are more compact and are designed to hit the lower sting of the tee. However, it still has a lot of techniques to make it more tolerant, such as the Speedfoam and 26 grams of tungsten weighting in a hollow body.
Titleist U505 Custom Driving Iron
A very versatile, high-fire utility iron that looks and feels better now. U•505 allows you to restore the long iron game. In the input of the tour, the sophisticated design gives you the highly explosive launch you expect, now with a solid feel and sound. The U•505 is the ultimate high launch utility. A new, clean design gives greater confidence in the address, while refined maximum impact technology, a redesigned chassis and new variable bounce soles all improve feel and overall performance. All of this adds up to work like iron. The vour recording has a shorter appearance, shallow blades and shallow sides, and the U•505 sets the way for tourism professionals. Now with a cleaner design, there is nothing to distract you, rather than the need to hit the exact shot and shape your game position. Distance enhances the feeling of distance as a priority for utility, engineering feels a unique challenge. For the U•505, Titleist engineers use exquisite Max Impact technology and add moisture to the polymer muscle badge to guide the frequency of the impact that is generated within the ideal player range. Improved eccentricity accuracy u•505 has a more stable, redesigned chassis and lower CG position to help maintain speed and stability of strikes away from the center. The new single-cone facial face improves heel performance to make the overall distance more dispersed. Working with travel professionals and Grind experts at Vokey Design, our engineers are able to further improve our variable bounce soles by softening the back end to allow clubs to flow through the turf faster even after contact. Score refinement for one of the longest clubs in the bag.
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Additionally, most of today’s 1 Empires are uprighted with modern, lighter graphite axes to help increase speed and launch, as in the past, when players are just using the same axes as the rest of the suits.
These are still clubs designed for elite players, but I won’t try Trevino’s strategy in a thunderstorm. God may be able to hit these.
What are the benefits of 1 iron in today’s competition?
Today there are many alternatives to long iron, such as hybrid and tall fairways, so why do they still exist?
The short answer is that in the United States, conditions usually allow players to shoot in the air and stop quickly on the ground, which doesn’t require much. But in the UK, ground and crumpled terrain require creative use of ground, which is another matter.
1 club you will see professionals adding open | fully equipped
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Among Tour players using 1 iron, the average track and field athletes have a firing time of about 6-8 degrees, a ball speed of 157-165 mph and a spin speed of 3000-3500 rpms. The ball speed is comparable to the average PGA Tour 4 or 5 wood.
The difference is the launch angle, about 3-4 degrees lower than fairway wood, and the rotation rate is about 500-1000 rpm, so the peak height is only about 50 to 60 feet, rather than 100 with fairway wood.
This means fairway wood will carry further afield, but in Britain where the turf is stronger, the number one iron will be further away as it is pushed out.
Then you consider that the 1 iron ball is closer to the ground and is less affected by the sea breeze in the Links course, and the 1 iron starts to make more sense.
Chris Gotterup’s 1 iron
Gotterup’s RSI TP UDI was originally released in 2015 and was the same as the 16-degree loft he owned in the bag at the Scottish Open last week. Unlike many 1 tires today, its shaft is 130 x KBS C-type paper, the same as the rest of the irons.
Since then, the main techniques of the design are the hollow structure on the sole and Taylormade’s Speedpocket technology to help the face bend more, especially in low hits. It also has an ultra-thin 455 carpenter steel face. The club was released before the first generation of popular P-790 players was released before the iron, so Speedfoam wasn’t the same thing.
Gotterup joked that he could not tell where the 10-year-old club originally came from, but he had been there for a long time.
“We’ve been talking about new things all the time, and I don’t really like these new things, but the old things I like, they have one in the truck,” Gotterup said after his win on Sunday. “You know, they gave me one.”
However, he said he played only a few times last week and he was photographed, and she tested the new Taylormade P770 long iron at the Open this week, although he said he would keep the No. 1 iron in the bag for the rest of the season.
Who else plays 1-iron on the PGA Tour?
Although Gotterup’s 1-iron is rare on the PGA Tour, it’s far from a unicorn.
Four years ago, Phil Mickelson was the last player to win the PGA Tour on the PGA Tour when he became the oldest major champion in the 2021 PGA Championship. Ironically, Mickelson forged his Callaway 16-degree Callaway face in Sunday’s range ahead of Sunday’s serve time and replaced it with 4 wood. So when he has 1 iron in the bag, there are only three wheels.
This is the rarest club in golf, the professional just won it
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Today, the most famous 1-iron user on the PGA Tour is Byeong Hun An, who played Titleist U505 1-iron as his 3-iron for over two years.
One of the Titleist YouTube videos last year said: “I played high enough, I had enough speed, I had enough spin rate, so why not try to build that really low loft iron so I can straighten it from the tee? Because that’s the whole purpose of using 3 wood.
“A lot of people are surprised at how high I can hit it, and it’s a great club. I can hit it low, maybe 20 feet 30 feet, up to 120 feet off the ground.”
Earlier this year, upgraded to the latest generation of U505, Justin Thomas tested the U505 1-EROIN at the Scots last week, before sticking with his trusty 915d 5 wood. According to the SMS Tour, Danny Walker also owns the previous generation U505 during the practice session, which records usage on the DP World Tour.
Guido Migliozzi threw in Taylormade’s P-udi bomber last week, which Collin Morikawa tested but did not play. Tommy Fleetwood is testing this week’s new butter knife.
Mizuno owns DP World Travel Agency Marco Penge (completed T2 in Scotland last week) and Adrien Saddier, Mizuno Pro Fli-hi 1-irons in the Open bag.
It seems like last week at Renaissance clubs, there were a lot of 1s falling into the bag, but in fact only a few people were playing. Mood is held this week in Protush, and Thursday will have fewer 1 irons to play.
So, 1 Iron has not died in the modern PGA Tour, but is it said that the club is reviving? It depends on your personal definition of 1 iron.
Chris Gotterup’s 1-iron photo was taken by the SMS Tour. Check out their new website on Smsontour.com.
Want to find the best driving iron in 2025? Find a club location near your True Spec Golf.
Jack Hirsh
Golf.comEdit
Jack Hirsh is the assistant device editor for Golf. Jack is a Pennsylvania native and a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning his degree in broadcast journalism and political science. He is the captain of the high school golf team and recently returned to the program as head coach. Jack is still* trying to stay competitive among local amateurs. Before joining golf, Jack worked for two years at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a multimedia journalist/reporter, but also produced, anchored and even presented the weather. He can be contacted at jack.hirsh@golf.com.



