PRGR 200i driving iron

[NiftyNiblick]

As long as I'm sitting around asking questions, does anybody know if the PRGR 200i driving iron uses a standard .370 tip shaft?

These things were white hot a decade ago, and now they come up on the ebay thing. I've heard nothing but good things about them, but if I buy one, I would like to go with the old standby NV Pro 105 if it will fit.

[Larryrsf]

I don't know, but I suspect that those clubs are more like the long irons, 1,2,3. Long irons are difficult to hit for golfers who decelerate. If the golfer lags back and fails to make the transition weight shift, no matter how hard he swings, his clubhead will be decelerating at impact. High speed photos show that the clubhead MIGHT be aligned toward the target at impact-- but it also might be closed or open. So he tops and hits it sideways erratically. Teeing it up might help a little.

The test of whether you cast and decelerate is easy-- do you make long divots in front of ground balls? If you pick them off and often hit thin, you are casting and decelerating. The LAST club you need is a long iron.

Larry

[NiftyNiblick]

The test of whether you cast and decelerate is easy-- do you make long divots in front of ground balls? If you pick them off and often hit thin, you are casting and decelerating. The LAST club you need is a long iron.

Larry

It's an alternate driving club for tight driving holes, Larry. The ball is on a tee, albeit pressed all the way down to the cup of the tee with little or none of the tee's shaft above ground. Just like hitting any other iron off the tee. It's actually hollow like a metal wood or hybrid, but shaped like an iron. As I said, these were white hot about a decade ago.

I wouldn't be hitting it from the fairway. I don't even hit hybrids from the fairway. I hit old school high lofted fairway woods. It's one of my best shots. I'm going to say my best shot, the lofted fairway wood shot. I get several reasonable putts at par five eagles every season( not that I don't make sevens on those same holes). Wait---you don't know about seasons in LaJolla!

Also, to my knowledge, long irons don't make long divots. They make very small, shallow divots just in front of the ball. At least that's what they did when I was still hitting long irons from the fairway.

[NiftyNiblick]

I don't know how many remaining 1-iron and 2-iron fans are out there, but back when these clubs were popular, the very expensive Japanese PRGR 200i driving iron was a secret weapon in many of the top bags. It was a long iron that was hard to miss on the fairway and deadly straight off the tee with anything vaguely resembling a golf swing.

The club was expensive, costing about as much as a good titanium driver. But Dunlop, of all people, introduced a dead ringer of the club for a much, much more reasonable price. The real problem with that is almost nobody but the most hawk-eyed club ho even knew.

The Dunlop club was called the ProD 19° and they're beginning to show up in the usual places and they cost next to nothing used. I've got a real PRGR and the Dunlop rip-off, both previously owned, and the latter is an awesome bargain if you ever see one and want a driving iron that doesn't look like what's called, for whatever reason, a "gaybrid" on these pages.

My club ho tip for the day.