2024 Game-Improvement irons – Syndication Server

Ping i730 irons

The G730 is for mid- and higher-handicap golfers who want a big, easy-to-hit iron that delivers more distance and forgiveness.

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Gear: Ping i730 irons
Price: $185 each with True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline grips. $200 each with Ping Alta CB Black graphite shafts
Specs: Cast and heat-treated 17-4 stainless steel with high-density toe and heel weights.

Who It’s For: Mid- and higher-handicap golfers who want a big, easy-to-hit iron that delivers more distance and forgiveness.

The Skinny: This powerful iron is the most forgiving in the Ping lineup for 2024, and golfers who typically shoot in the 90s and 100s should find it delivers more distance thanks to a thin face with enhanced feel.

The Deep Dive: From its start in 1959, Ping has been synonymous with golf equipment that is designed to make the game easier to play. Sure, the Phoenix-based brand has always offered irons for elite ballstrikers, like the just-released Blueprint T and Blueprint S, but this is the company that created the most-copied putter in golf, the Anser, which was designed to be forgiving. Ping also deserves credit for jumping on the stability train earlier than just about any equipment maker and leading the trend in high-MOI drivers that help golfers overcome mis-hits.

Now, for 2024, Ping is releasing the G730, a game-improvement iron that replaces the G710.

While many irons designed to be forgiving and increase ball speed feature a hollow-body construction, the G730 has a cavity-back design. It has a slightly shorter blade length than the G710 but slightly more offset and a wider sole from the leading edge to the back to help golfers square the face more efficiently and make solid contact more often.

Knowing that the G730 was not going to appeal to fast-swinging, low-handicap players, Ping’s designers were freed to make the face especially thin and not worry about durability and excessive stress. As a result, the face of the G730 is 7 percent thinner than the G430’s face, so it flexes more efficiently. The center of gravity has also been positioned very low in the head, which should promote a higher ball flight.

Ping G730 irons — The PuFlex badge flexes at impact to soak up vibrations without decreasing ball speed. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Enhanced feel is a trait commonly associated with better-player irons, but a PreFlex badge on the back of the G730 – which is made using 10 different pieces and bends in five different areas – improves the sensation of impact because two different molded plastic pieces soak up excessive vibrations.

Golfers who routinely shoot in the 90s and 100s should not be playing a 3-iron or a 4-iron, and Ping is not making those clubs in the G730. The strongest-lofted iron available is a 23-degree 5-iron. While the lofts of all the clubs are strong, Ping is making four G730 wedges (44, 49, 54 and 56 degrees), so working with a custom fitter, players should be able to create a set configuration that gives them the yardages and the gaps they need. A stronger-lofted PWR Spec version and a weaker-lofted Retro Spec version are also available.

Finally, to normalize spin and improve performance in wet conditions, Ping gave the G730 a Hydropearl 2.0 finish that repels water and helps to reduce its presence between the ball and the hitting area.

Cleveland ZipCore XL irons

Cleveland ZipCore XL irons are designed to create more ball speed and more spin consistency.

Gear: Cleveland ZipCore XL irons.
Price: $899.88 (7 clubs) with KBS Tour Lite steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline 360 grips; $999.99 with UST Mamiya Helium Nanocore 60 graphite shafts.
Specs: Cavity-back designed stainless steel heads with stainless steel faces. Available 4-iron through sand wedge.
Available: January 19, but available via pre-order NOW

Who It’s For: Golfers with a handicap ranging from eight to 18 who want a traditional cavity-back iron designed to deliver more distance and consistency.

The Skinny: A unique face design combined with a surface-roughening treatment that changes throughout the set helps the Cleveland ZipCore XL irons produce more ball speed and more spin consistency through the bag.

The Deep Dive: One of Cleveland Golf’s sister brands under the Dunlop Sports umbrella, Srixon, makes several different cavity-back irons, including last season’s ZX4 Mk II, ZX5 MkII and the ZX7 Mk II, but if you perused Cleveland’s website recently you would not find clubs like those. Instead, the brand focused on hollow-bodied game-improvement irons like the Launcher XL and the Launcher Halo XL that dropped two years ago.

Cleveland used to make several irons for mid-handicap and even low-handicap golfers (Vijay Singh and David Toms won majors using Cleveland irons) and for 2024 Cleveland is re-entering the game-improvement category with the ZipCore XL.

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In the address position, the ZipCore XL showcases a moderately-thin topline. However, the extra length in the blade and the offset hint that this club is made to help golfers overcome shortcomings in their swing and reduce the penalty for mis-hits.

To help golfers generate more ball speed and distance, engineers gave the ZipCore XL irons a MainFrame face. It is a series of channels that are milled into the inner-facing side of the face of the 4-iron through 7-iron. They allow the hitting area to flex more efficiently, while weight pads help to lower the center of gravity location and encourage higher-flying shots.

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The ZipCore XL irons also feature the same ZipCore design found in many of Cleveland’s popular wedges. Instead of steel, designers fill the lower portion of the hosel area with a lighter material. This is the first time Cleveland is bringing the technology to an iron, and it helps to make the heel area lighter, so the ideal hitting area shifts in the center of the face.

To help players get consistent spin, Cleveland has added a face-blast treatment called HydraZip that changes throughout the set. In the long irons (4-7), the HydraZip face-roughening treatment is rougher to reduce spin and encourage more carry. In the short irons and wedges (8-SW), the HydraZip treatment is less aggressive to help golfers get more spin and stopping power on the greens.

The V-shaped sole should help golfers who have a steep angle of attack work the ZipCore XL irons through the turf more efficiently. Golfers will also benefit from an 8-gram weight Cleveland adds under the top of the grip. Referred to as Action Mass CB, the weight counterbalances the head of the club and makes it feel lighter when you swing.

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Cobra Darkspeed, Darkspeed One-Length irons

The Cobra Darkspeed irons are made to help mid- and high-handicap golfers hit shots farther, higher and straighter.

Gear: Cobra Darkspeed, Darkspeed One-Length irons
Price: $999 (4-PW or 5-GW) with KBS Tour Lite steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline grips.
Specs: Hollow-bodied long and mid-irons with 17-4 stainless steel faces, 431 stainless steel chassis, CNC-milled grooves and internal weights.
Available: Jan. 11 presale, Jan. 19 in stores

Who They’re For: Mid- and higher-handicap golfers who struggle with inconsistent contact, need more distance and want more height on their shots.

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The Skinny: The hollow-body design, low center of gravity and vibration-dampening foam combine to give the Darkspeed irons more ball speed, greater height and a softer feel at impact.

The Deep Dive: Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose broke through and won again on the PGA Tour in 2023, and both players used Cobra irons. In Fowler’s case, it was Cobra King Forged Tour irons, while Rose used a blended set of a Cobra King Tour (4), King CB (5-6) and King MB (7-PW). As might be expected, all those clubs are designed for accomplished ballstrikers with powerful, repeatable swings.

Conversely, most amateur players likely would benefit from a game-improvement iron that delivers more distance and more forgiveness on mis-hit shots. That is the type of iron Cobra set out to make with the new Darkspeed and Darkspeed One-Length.

The Darkspeed irons have a reassuringly thick topline and some offset to help mid-handicap golfers square the face more effectively on the downswing.

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Cobra Darkspeed Iron — The PWR Shell face wraps into the sole, while the PWR Bridge lowers the center of gravity. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Inside the heads of the 4-iron through pitching wedge, the Darkspeed irons are hollow to allow the thin 17-4 stainless steel faces to flex more efficiently at impact. The sand wedge and gap wedge are half-hollow, with an open chamber behind the hitting area.

Cobra gave the 4-iron through 7-iron a PWRShell face, which is 21 percent thinner than the face of last season’s AeroJet iron and wraps under the leading edge of the club and into the sole to broaden the sweet spot.

These irons also were designed with a single post in the head that supports a weight that designers call a PWR-Bridge. It extends from the heel to the toe, lowers the center of gravity and helps golfers hit higher-flying, faster-stopping shots.

The hitting area and grooves have been CNC-milled to ensure the face is perfectly flat and the grooves are precisely in place.

Inside the hollow chamber of the 4-iron through pitching wedge, Cobra added 924D foam microspheres, a material that soaks up excessive vibrations to improve sound and feel. However, the material is elastic, so it allows the face to flex and snap back quickly without inhibiting ball speed. Cobra studies showed that adding the foam helped reduce spin, which led to more distance and straighter shots.

The standard Darkspeed has a darker finish over the 431 stainless steel body, which helps reduce glare. The set’s lofts are strong, with a 5-iron being 21 degrees and the pitching wedge at 42 degrees. Those lofts help golfers achieve more distance, while the low center of gravity helps shots fly as high as players expect.

Cobra also offers the Darkspeed iron in a One-Length edition, with each club being 37.25 inches long (the same as a typical 7-iron). Some golfers find that using irons that are all the same length makes it easier to achieve solid contact and consistency.

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Below are several images of the Darkspeed and Darkspeed One-Length irons:

TaylorMade Qi, Qi HL irons

TaylorMade Qi and Qi HL irons aim to enhance consistency and forgiveness.

Gear: TaylorMade Qi, Qi HL irons
Price: $1,099 with KBS Max 85 steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline 360 grips; $1,199 with Fujikura Ventus Blue TR graphite shafts
Specs: Hollow-body heads with multi-material back badge
Available: Feb. 2 (Qi), March 15 (Qi HL), but available for pre-order NOW

Who They’re For: Golfers with a handicap between 10 and 20 who want more consistency from shot to shot and enhanced ball-speed protection on mis-hits.

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The Skinny: By modifying the thickness of each iron face and managing how the hitting area flexes, TaylorMade aims to improve accuracy and consistency for mid- and higher-handicap golfers.

The Deep Dive: For golfers who typically shoot in the 80s and 90s, the most-common miss off the tee with a driver is to right because they slice. With game-improvement irons, many of the same players also struggle with a right miss, especially with their long irons, but for a different reason. With the release of the new Qi and Qi HL irons, TaylorMade set out to help golfers improve their accuracy from the fairway, especially with their long irons, while also providing more distance and enhanced feel.

TaylorMade said the typical construction of a game-improvement long iron can significantly contribute to the right miss. As the blade length grows longer, the toe side of the hitting area bends back more at impact than the heel side, even on shots hit in the center of the face, creating a fade bias. As blade lengths grow shorter in the scoring clubs – such as the 7-iron, 8-iron and 9-iron – the effect decreases, which is why many golfers don’t see the impact in fittings because the 7-iron is commonly used in iron fittings.

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TaylorMade Qi irons — The faces of the Qi irons have been made thicker in some areas and thinner in others to enhance consistency. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

With the Qi and Qi HL irons, TaylorMade has brought a design philosophy that debuted in its recently released P·790 irons – individual head optimization – to game-improvement clubs. In the P·790, that meant shifting the center of gravity in each iron to a different location to make it easier to hit the type of shots players often hit with that specific club. In the Qi and Qi HL, it involves integrating the face thickness, the Speed Pocket slot, topline ribs and the toe wrap.

In the long irons, TaylorMade made the low-toe portion of the face thicker so it flexes less, and the area close to the heel is thinned so it bends more easily at impact. In addition to making the hitting area flex more uniformly, which should help golfers hit straighter shots, by adding mass low in the hitting area and stiffening the metal around the Speed Pocket slot in the sole, the Qi and Qi HL long irons can help golfers get long-iron shots up more quickly.

Most golfers don’t struggle to get a 7-iron high in the air because it has more loft, so TaylorMade designers modified the construction and made the high-toe area stiffer while the area around the Speed Pocket is thinner and more flexible. To enlarge the sweet spot, the area around the edge of the face is very thin.

The Speed Pocket has not been designed into the 8-iron, 9-iron and wedges, and the thickest regions of the hitting area are once again high in the toe. This design should help golfers control spin and trajectory more easily.

While each Qi and Qi HL iron is designed slightly differently, they share several common technologies that make the set cohesive.

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All the Qi and Qi HL irons have an internal Echo Dampening Bridge that runs from heel to toe behind the face and soaks up excessive vibrations to improve sound and feel. They also feature a 360-degree undercut cavity design covered by a multi-material back badge. TaylorMade refers to this as Capback, a feature that debuted in 2021’s SIM2 irons. The composite back section reduces weight from the back of the head while still allowing the face to flex efficiently.

These irons have a thicker topline and ample offset, which is common among game-improvement irons. The sole is also fairly broad, but the leading edge is lower. Accomplished golfers tend to shy away from features like these, but they can be visually reassuring to many recreational golfers because the clubs look easy to hit.

While the standard Qi makes it easier for mid- and higher-handicap golfers to hit the ball straight and long, the HL model takes it further. The HL stands for higher and lighter, and with the club’s lighter shaft and grip, moderate-swinging players should be able to generate more speed with it. The lofts in the HL version are also 2 degrees weaker (higher lofts), so shots should also fly higher.

Cosmetically, the Qi and Qi HL irons look similar to the Stealth irons they replace, but TaylorMade is now complementing the visible carbon fiber on the badge with chrome-plated metal to create a more premium, aspirational look.

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Below are several close-up images of the TaylorMade Qi and Qi HL irons:

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke, Ai Smoke HL, Ai Smoke Max Fast irons

Moderate and slower-swinging golfers will benefit from the Paradym Ai Smoke’s fast faces and low centers of gravity.

Gear: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke, Ai Smoke HL, Ai Smoke Max Fast irons
Price: $999.99 (seven clubs) with True Temper Elevate steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline grips; $1,099.99 with Project X Cypher 2.0, Mitsubishi Tensei Blue White or Eldio graphite shafts
Specs: Hollow-bodied stainless steel iron
Available: Feb. 2, but available via pre-order NOW

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Who They’re For: Golfers who want a distance-oriented, game-improvement iron that launches the ball high.

The Skinny: Callaway designers used artificial intelligence to design iron faces for the Paradym Ai Smoke and Ai Smoke HL irons to deliver enhanced ball speed for moderate-swinging players and more distance and height for slower-swinging players.

The Deep Dive: Jon Rahm has no trouble generating distance with his Callaway irons because the 2023 Masters champion has a powerful, repeatable swing. Time and again, he hits the center of the face. However, recreational golfers who shoot in the mid-80s and 90s tend to swing more slowly. They often hit the ground first instead of the ball and make contact all over the face. On some shots they hit it in the center, but they are just as likely to strike the ball near the toe or in the heel.

Callaway’s new Paradym Ai Smoke irons are not for Jon Rahm. They’re game-improvement irons designed to help golfers overcome shortcomings and inconsistencies.

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To make that happen, Callaway designers used supercomputers to study hundreds of thousands of swings of actual golfers to see how they hit shots. Using that data, the supercomputers employ artificial intelligence to create thousands of iron faces and simulate how they would perform in the real world. All those faces look the same on the outside, but the inner-facing sides are covered with thick and thin areas that act like miniature sweet spots.

That work resulted in the faces designed into the Paradym Ai Smoke irons. Attached to the hollow-body chassis of each iron, the faces flex more efficiently at impact to generate more ball speed on every shot and tighten the dispersion pattern.

There are three different Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons: the standard model, HL and Max Fast.

Callaway believes most golfers who need a game-improvement iron and who have a driver swing speed between 85 and 100 mph will find the standard Ai Smoke iron fits them well. While the standard Paradym irons will remain available in 2024, the Paradym Ai Smoke will replace the Rouge ST Max irons.

Callaway offers the Paradym Ai Smoke HL, which stands for high launch, for golfers who need more height and lift on their shots. The face design and low center of gravity combine with weaker lofts in this iron to make getting the ball high in the air easier, especially with the long irons. While the Paradym Ai Smoke’s 5-iron has 22 degrees of loft, the 5-iron in the HL version has 24 degrees of loft. Callaway believes this club should be ideal for golfers with a driver swing between 70 and 90 mph.

Finally, Callaway is offering the Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast, which has been optimized for golfers who have a driver swing that is slower than 75 mph. These irons have the same weakened lofts as the HL irons, but the Max Fast irons come standard with lighter shafts and grips, which should make it easier to create more clubhead speed and carry distance.

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