FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED...

1 THE LINES BETWEEN IRON CATEGORIES ARE BLURRING

Irons like Taylormade’s P790 and Mizuno’s MP-18 MMC marry the looks of better player irons with the off-centre hit forgiveness of game improvement models, which is a first. It makes it tougher to decide which iron best fits you. That’s why we came up with a forgiveness rating for each model (left).

2 HOLLOW BODIES OFFER SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Different brands are coming at hollow body irons in different ways, but each brings something new to the party. Lynx’s Prowler VT is a more playable blade; the P790 and Titleist 718 AP3 are distance player’s irons; while Ping has created the decent looking but ultimately forgiving G700. Expect more hollow body irons to come.

3 LIGHTER, STRONGER, LONGER IS A THING

We listen to lots of marketing guff when it comes to new product launches, and we were sceptical when Callaway revealed their Rogue X iron under the banner of “lighter, stronger, longer” back in November. But every golfer we’ve seen hit the Rogue X has hit them further.

4 BLADES REALLY SHOULD BE LEFT TO THE PROS

Our testing threw up a massive 24 yards carry distance difference (with a 7-iron) between blade and cavity back irons, which is absolutely huge. The difference comes because game improvement irons usually have stronger lofts, there’s more fast face tech and cavity backs usually have plenty of forgiving mass positioned around the head and sole.

5 IT’S GETTING TOUGHER TO FIND NEW CLUB BARGAINS

Only a few years ago it was possible to buy a very good set of irons for £300. That isn’t the case any more. Budget brands have felt the pinch, and the least expensive set of irons we tested this year were the Benross HTX Compressor at £350.