BEST OF THE REST

TITLEIST T200

£178.50 (s), £192.50 (g) per club

TG VERDICT: Our indoor Top Gear test facility accentuates the sound clubs make at impact, and compared to the competition, the T200s sound relatively loud and clicky at impact. If that doesn’t bother you, the T200s are beautifully proportioned and, thanks to their very reasonable lofts, they’re a model that’s playable for reasonably consistent and confident ball strikers, even at slightly more average swing speeds. If the T200 appeals, make sure to get a full Titleist fitting.

PING i525

£180 (s), £190 (g) per club TG VERDICT: The i525 will soon disappear from pro shop shelves (to be replaced by the i530), but we love the simple, classy styling and how focus has been on eradicating the no-spin knuckle ball that some experience with hollow body, fast face irons. Our test pro also loved how the extra face grooves give a proper players’ iron feel, a feature that doesn’t come with every model in the category. For the second year in a row, launch angle, backspin, shot height and descent angle were all spot on our test averages.

MIZUNO JPX923 HOT METAL PRO

£150 per club TG VERDICT: With 124.1mph of ball speed, our 28.5° 7-iron delivered the fastest ball speed and longest carry (186 yards) of the 15 models tested, but note that it also has the strongest loft. All that speed and distance comes with some drawbacks, though. At 4881rpm, it produced the least amount of backspin of any iron tested. It also flighted shots lower and landed balls on the green at a shallower angle than our test averages, so you’ll need to hit shots high enough to make it work.

MIZUNO JPX923 FORGED

£185 per club

TG VERDICT: Cast an eye over the data charts on our website and you’ll see that the Forged is very much a top performer for distance (180 yards carry; fourth longest), an obvious prerequisite within this category. Our test pro loved the feel and feedback, and how the Forged delivered the smallest carry drop-off of the category while also squeezing shots into a 36.6% smaller dispersion area than our test average. However, with the model now fast approaching its second birthday, we couldn’t quite hand it top honours in 2024.

COBRA FORGED TEC

£999 TG VERDICT: Six of our 10 best performing players’ distance irons of 2024 have hollow body constructions like the Cobra Forged Tec, a great indicator of how the market has changed over the last few years. It has a lovely, refined head shape and it sounds and feels good, thanks to it being filled with foam. The 20g of tungsten helps significantly boost forgiveness. It didn’t rip up any trees in testing, but consider it if you want a very solid performer that won’t let you down.