The story of how Bryson DeChambeau came to play the Avoda Golf one-length irons is a fascinating one, but arguably not as fascinating as the actual specification of the irons themselves. I was fortunate enough recently to be invited for a custom fitting session with Avoda Golf (more interesting content to follow on that), and at that fitting just so happened to be one of three 7-irons in existence built specifically for Bryson DeChambeau. One of the three is in his bag (obviously), another is in Fresno with Avoda founder Tom Bailey, and the third is in the possession of Avoda’s UK contact, Toby Graves. Not one to be shy about such things, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to give it a try, and here is what I learned…
Club head
The first thing that struck me when I picked up the 7-iron was the extraordinary visual in the playing position. From the back, or the ‘in the bag’ position, there is nothing out of the ordinary, just a nice neat, minimalist, almost blade-like iron, however, when you pop it into the playing position, everything changes. One of the main features of these irons is the curved or bulging face that is designed to exploit the advantages of gear effect much like we see in the best drivers, the best fairway woods, and the best golf hybrids, but not being used to this look in irons, it is a bit of a shock at first.
Because the face bulges closer to the target in the center, it almost gives the appearance of onset, or face progression, which is strange to begin with and very different to what we see in the best golf irons, but I have to say I really started to enjoy it by the end of my session.
Another standout feature to me was the heel-to-toe length which I would class as being on the generous side for a club designed to be played specifically by one of the best players in the game. It genuinely framed the ball nicely however and really helped to inspire confidence in behind the ball.
It never ceases to amaze me with golf equipment that no matter how unusual or unorthodox the look of a club is initially, within five or ten minutes my brain adjusts and can become used to, or even fond of, almost anything, and that was certainly the case here.
Lie angle
Now this one crept up on me a little. I knew Bryson played his irons in a pretty upright spec - his irons and wedges are all built to the exact same length and lie angle, but the 69-degree lie angle (or around 7˚ more upright from a somewhat ‘standard’ lie angle in 7-iron) creates a seriously unusual aesthetic.
The clubface almost looks like it is pointing the loft right back at your face, and as someone who predominantly fights the right miss, I found it strangely reassuring. In fact, speaking with Toby during the fitting, it seems that one of Avoda’s general preferences is for a more upright lie angle with the company's owner/founder Tom Bailey believing that most golfers are playing irons that are too flat for them. No such worries on this iron!
Grip
Bryson uses JumboMax Tour Series XL grips on all his full-swing clubs. The grips are 3/8“ larger in diameter than standard golf grips, which in grip terms is frankly enormous. Holding these grips is a completely different experience from anything I have felt before when gripping a golf club. Normally, I would be a big advocate of gripping the club more in the fingers as opposed to the palm, but the sheer girth of these things makes that impossible for me at least.
For context here, I wear a men's large golf glove, so I’ve not exactly got small hands either, and that was just at address. During the swing, I found it seriously difficult to keep my hands from actually coming away from the grip, which was a tough sensation to come to terms with and would suggest that they were just beyond a thickness that I could cope with, a theory later confirmed in my fitting session where I came away two sizes down the Jumbo Max scale. Aside from the size issue, I really enjoyed the tacky, soft feel of these grips.
Shaft
Of every unusual component to these clubs, the one that took me back the most was just how unbelievably stiff the LA Golf shafts that Bryson uses are. Once again, to provide some context, I am a PGA Professional and a relatively fast swinger of a club (around 95mph 7-iron and 120mph driver), and I switch between two pretty stout iron shafts in the Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X1OO or the Project X LS 6.5 models, but these things were on another level. They are the ‘Bryson Series Iron Shaft’ from LA Golf and have been specifically designed to marry up with his single-length iron preference.
In all honesty, to me, the shafts didn't impress me. They offered absolutely zero feedback and a very harsh feeling throughout the golf swing, akin to swinging an iron bar or a broomstick, but I could absolutely not argue with the stability. As I warmed up and began to throw myself into it a little more in terms of speed, I began to see and feel a little more from them, but I had to be honest with myself and these shafts were well beyond my capabilities strength-wise!
As I said, I feel that my speed allows me to cope with most things from a spec point of view, but these shafts were comfortably the hardest work I have ever been faced with in a golf club.
Performance
So I have touched on the specs, but the main thing is how did they perform? Firstly from a feel standpoint, I found the clubheads simply excellent. Soft without feeling weak, and with enough spring to offer up a powerful sensation, but not so much that I detected any semblance of a flier, or a ‘jumpy’ strike.
What I was most interested in, however, was how the bulging face would perform on an iron as this is something that I have never previously experienced. Truth be told, it was hard to tell as I didn’t have quite as long as I would have liked with them, but I would say that my dispersion was pleasingly tight. I would love to be able to write that unequivocally, curved-faced irons are the absolute future of golf but I don’t think I have even close to a large enough sample size of testing. Furthermore, the difficulties in bringing this technology to the mass market are vast.
The main prohibitive issue at play for me is that differing clubhead speeds will produce very different results from the same amount of face curvature. For example, if someone with a 60mph clubhead speed were to hit a shot from the toe with Bryson’s level of curvature, the reduced clubhead speed would not be sufficient to activate the gear effect in the same way that Bryson does, and their shot would likely finish a long way right of the target, more so than with a flat-faced iron.
As such the only way it could work would be to offer different levels of curvature for different swing speeds, but the complexities of that both in terms of SKU numbers, and the physics of working out and manufacturing that exact curvature are unfathomably intricate. That said, I have heard some fairly reliable rumors that both Avoda and possibly even LA Golf might just be turning this complex task into a purchasable reality sooner rather than later. Watch this space on that…
