This may seem like a really daft question (!) but why are irons made in different lengths. I mean, why is your 3 iron significantly longer than your 9 iron? Obviously a longer shaft = more speed = greater distance, but shouldn't you get that anyway from the lower loft on longer irons.

I ask because I have seen a few posts with people commenting on how easy to hit rescue clubs are because they are shorter and feel like mid irons - so why not just make a set that all have the same swingweight and shaft length, just with different lofts on the irons. Wouldn't that be better for higher handicap golfers? Or is it just not that simple?
Advice from any club manufacturers or pros would be welcome....

there are sets with the same length shafts through all clubs. 1 iron golf i think its called. i havent heard too many reviews about them however.

you need a longer shaft which means speed in order to get the lower lofted clubs in the air. thats why amatuers have a hard time hitting long irons. even with the longer shafts, some still cant generate the clubhead speed.

Its because this game isn't difficult enough for some. If all the clubs were easy to hit, we'd all be able to play properly

Wher's the fun in that?

Plus if you ever get the urge to hit slow players up the jacksie you may favour the longer shaft..

But standing 100 yards from pin you may favour a shorter 9 iron..The closer you are to your work (ie the ball) the easier it is (in theory)...

Longer shafts are more use reaching golf balls that are in the margins of a lake!

Shorter clubs fit in the dustbin more easily!

Nail on the head Ian!

Most people struggle with long ions, so to stop you throwing perfectly good clubs in the bin, and thus potentially tarnishing the club makers reputation, they make them so they don't fit. The hardest to hit being the most likely to get binned is therefore the longest, and so on.

It simply that if they were all the same length, they wouldn't fit in your golf bag properly.

You can get more thrust with a longer shafted iron - makes it easier to ram into the bag after a poorly hit shot !

I wish I'd never started this. I was hoping for enlightenment, not the online equivalent of the Gong Show for new comedians!

Anyway, thanks for the responses, and at least one of them made sense...

Paulie
If you think about it changing the loft by 4 degrees and the shaft length only half an inch gives a variation of 10 to 15 yards. If the shafts were the same length then the difference between distances would only be about five yards betwwen clubs.

You would only then need half a set and that would not please the manufacturers.

and they look so much more elegant in the pro shops racks....the way they taper due to the different lengths looks great

length is also headweight driven this incremental weight decrease from s iron to 3 iron means that the shafts have to be different to enable the clubs to feel similar with the same swing balance.