Equipment Lab: Irons
We gave muscle-back blades to 15-handicappers and other crimes against humanity.
The PGA Tour’s Jon Rahm uses a cavity-back model.
DISTANCE AND forgiveness are as much a part of iron design today as they are for drivers. But not all players, especially better ones, need—or maybe a better word is “want”—all the help they can get. Just what are they giving up, and are they right?
In an exclusive test for Golf Digest, Club Champion, a national fitting chain, found that a larger, hotter, more forgiving iron produced shots at least a club farther than a classic blade for very good players and very average players. But despite this evidence, the better player still wasn’t smitten.
Game-improvement irons are designed with wide soles and thin, fast-flexing faces to hit the ball high, far and straight for players who have a hard time doing those things. But put that iron in the hands of a player with skill and speed, and all that extra help might lead to shots that fly too high. Better players often talk about wanting to control trajectory or “flighting” shots, but “that should not be part of the lexicon for average golfers,” says Alan Hocknell, senior vice president of research and development for Callaway, whose new Big Bertha B-21 irons emphasise game improvement. “They’re just measuring the distance and trying to put a normal swing on it.”
In our test, when Club Champion’s co-founder Nick Sherburne asked scratch players about the super
Better players focus more on trajectory than distance.
game-improvement iron, they worried about “trusting the distance control.” The 15-handicapper’s answer was different: “I don’t have control. Just get me up by the green.”
It’s not that better players want irons that aren’t forgiving, but characteristics like a thin topline or little offset (the distance the face is set back from the front of the hosel) help them hit the shots they expect to hit more often, says TaylorMade’s Matt Bovee, senior manager of iron product creation. “It’s amazing how much a couple tenths of a millimeter on a topline will cause a better player to shy away,” he says.
Still, as attractive as gameimprovement technology can be to average golfers, it’s also starting to resonate with the world’s best players. (For example, Jon Rahm plays a cavityback iron.) The newest models, such as TaylorMade’s P ·770, use distance technology like tungsten and thin-face inserts once reserved for larger irons.
“There are going to be a lot of players who see an iron that fits their visual criteria but gives them half a club more distance,” Bovee says.
In the end, maybe average golfers are more likely to respond to an iron after seeing the results, and better players are inspired by the way an iron makes them feel. But the gap between them is narrowing.
Says Hocknell: “If supergame-improvement irons are meant as a stepping stone to other kinds of irons, you would ask, ‘Well, where do those players go next? Why wouldn’t they stay with this because it does everything they need?’ Style of game might be as much a part of it as ability.”
If you’re an iron player who likes to shape shots, you’ll likely want an iron with less help. If you’re just trying to get the ball to fly period, take all the help you can get.