Best new 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.

Best new golf irons you can buy in 2024

Check out Golfweek’s list of the best irons available to purchase in 2024.

As Golfweek explained in our 2024 Driver wrap-up, the undeniable trend in the world of drivers is toward higher-stability offerings that not only perform well when you hit the ball in the middle of the face, but also help you hit straighter shots and help you maintain distance when you mis-hit toward the heel or the toe.

When it comes to irons, the trend continues to be the broadening array of offers to meet the needs of different types of players. Not that long ago, equipment makers sold blades to the best players, cavity-backs to golfers who needed some forgiveness and oversized clubs to high-handicappers and beginners. Those clubs still exist, but they are complemented by better-player distance irons, sets that blend hybrids and irons for forgiveness, and sets that blend hollow-bodied long irons with precision-minded scoring clubs.

Take Ping as an example. The Phoenix-based brand now has the Blueprint T and Blueprint S for elite players, the tour-proven i230 for good players who want more forgiveness, the i525 for golfers who want a better-player’s distance iron, the game-improvement G430 and it still offers the G710 as a max game-improvement club. Brands like Callaway, Cobra, Mizuno, TaylorMade and Titleist have similarly deep stables.

That’s a double-edged sword for consumers because while a larger variety of irons means there is a better chance that brands are now making sets that match your needs (and your budget), finding those clubs can be a daunting task. Therefore, it has never been more important to seek out a good custom fitter, try several different shafts and heads and see what the data reveals.

Pro Tip: Indoor club fittings have come a long way and are convenient, but as spring approaches, if you have a chance to do a fitting outside, hitting off real grass and seeing real ball flights is always best.

Below are many of the irons that you will see in pro shops and specialty stores. Use this list as a starting point to discover clubs that might be ideal for you game.

Best golf irons in 2024

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:

Ping Blueprint S irons

A new forging process helps make Ping Blueprint S iron more forgiving.

Gear: Blueprint S irons
Price: $230 each with True Temper Dynamic Gold S300 steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips, $245 each with Ping Alta CB Black graphite shafts
Specs: Forged 8620 carbon steel with a high-density toe screw and Hyrdopearl 2.0 finish. Available 3-iron through pitching wedge.
Available: Jan. 9

Who They’re For: Accomplished golfers who want a better-player’s distance iron with extra forgiveness in the long irons.

The Skinny: A new forging process gives the Blueprint S enhanced performance and feel in the long irons without making them too big, while the short irons in this better-player’s distance set deliver control and precision.

The Deep Dive: The better-player distance category has been one of the hottest parts of the golf industry for the last few years, with more and more brands offering distancing-enhancing clubs that look like muscleback blades. In 2021, Ping released the i59, a club with a clean look, a thin topline and a touch of offset but that hides an internal aluminum piece (AlumiCore) that creates more perimeter weighting and stability.

The i59 is being replaced in 2024 by the new Blueprint S iron, a club that resembles the forged muscleback blades that most tour players love. And once again, Ping is hiding some features that make the Blueprint S more playable.

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The new Blueprint S has a topline that is a few millimeters wider than the i59, and there is a little more offset, too. The Blueprint S is forged from a piece of 8620 carbon steel, but what sets it apart is how it is forged compared to other forged irons.

The hitting area of every other forged iron is flat once the forging process begins and the hot steel is pressed into shape. But in the Blueprint S 3-iron, 4-iron and 5-iron, the first rough forging and second strike bend the head so the top portion of the club angles downward, spreading the back of the club. Then the metal is reoriented (tipped) to allow a small pocket to be milled into the back of the head. The pocket is like a pilot hole you might use when screwing something into a wall. The next strike utilizes the milled pocket and creates a pocket in the back of the head. Finally, with the pocket in place, a final two strikes of the hot metal flatten the hitting area again.

Previously, a construction like this was only possible in a cast club because you cannot create an angled cavity in the back of an iron head if the press comes straight down on top of the billet.

Ping believes this seven-step forging process can uniquely deliver the feel low-handicap players demand while removing 10 grams of steel (weight) and replacing it with a piece of vibration-absorbing thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) that is capped with stainless steel. It also helped Ping designers lower the center of gravity and make it easier to hit the Blueprint S long irons on a higher trajectory.

The 6-iron through pitching wedge are traditionally forged and do not have the TPU insert in the long irons. The mid-irons and scoring clubs also have blade lengths that are progressively shorter.

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For several years, Ping has added weight screws in the toe and tip weights in the heel of irons to boost the moment of inertia and increase stability. The Blueprint S has these features, plus an updated steel shaft hosel stick. The stick weight is molded in a cap that goes up from the hosel and into the tip of a steel shaft. It ranges from 1 to 10 grams. Ping now also has a molded sleeve ranging from 1 to 5 grams designed to accommodate graphite shafts with a much smaller hollow area in the center.

Compared to Ping’s new Blueprint T, the Blueprint S is slightly larger and has more perimeter weighting, and will be more forgiving. The Blueprint S will also launch the ball higher, but it still creates a lower launch than the i230, which has the highest launch angle in Ping’s better-player iron lineup.

Finally, to make it easier for players and fitters to create blended sets that include Blueprint S and the new Blueprint T irons, Ping matched all the lofts of its better-player irons (including the i230). The flight and feel varies subtly from club to club, but now it should be easier to create consistent distance gaps between different types of irons.

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Below are several images of the Ping Blueprint S irons:

Ping Blueprint T irons

For elite ballstrikers, collegiate players and low-handicap golfers, Ping offers the new Blueprint T.

Gear: Ping Blueprint T irons
Price: $230 with True Temper Dynamic Gold S300 steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips, $245 with Ping Alta CB Black graphite shafts
Specs: Forged 8620 carbon steel with a high-density toe screw and Hyrdopearl 2.0 finish. Available 3-pitching wedge.
Available: Jan. 9

Who They’re For: Low-handicap golfers who want a traditional-looking iron that maximizes feel, control and precision.

The Skinny: The Blueprint T has the compact size, clean lines and control-oriented design that elite ballstrikers crave.

The Deep Dive: Golfers such as Tony Finau and Tyrrell Hatton have powerful, repeatable swings, so they don’t look for irons designed to create more ball speed. They aren’t looking for more forgiveness. What elite golfers want from their irons is an enhanced sense of feel. They want to know exactly where each shot was struck on the hitting area, along with the highest level of predictability, because when golfers like Finau and Hatton make a particular swing, they demand a specific result.

For elite ballstrikers, collegiate players and low-handicap golfers, Ping offers the new Blueprint T, and the Phoenix, Arizona-based company has tried to design it as everything low-handicappers want.

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The Blueprint T replaces the original Blueprint, which was released in 2019. It is the most compact Ping iron, with an extremely short blade length, a narrow topline and only a touch of offset. The Blueprint T is also the only Ping iron with a single, non-variable blade length in the 3-iron through 8-iron.

The heads are forged from a single piece of 8620 carbon steel before the hitting area is machined flat, and the grooves are added.

Ping designers added tip and toe weights to the Blueprint T to subtly increase its perimeter weighting. This should make the clubs resist twisting on off-center hits. Slightly.

The Blueprint T creates a lower launch angle than the new Blueprint S and generates slightly less spin. The clubs come standard with the same traditional lofts, with the 5-iron being 26 degrees and the 9-iron being 41 degrees. This should make it easier for players and fitters to create blended sets while maintaining consistent distance gaps between different types of irons.

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Below are several close-up images of the Ping Blueprint T 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: