See the irons and shafts currently being used by the most consistent iron players on the PGA Tour.
Distance and power off the tee get a lot of attention, but there has always been an aura surrounding the players who are great at hitting iron shots. Ben Hogan had it, and so did Lee Trevino, Tom Kite and Jack Nicklaus. Tiger Woods has it too.
The sound of the ball compressing against the metal face, the hollow thump made as the club works through the turf and then hissing of the ball as it zips through the air can be mesmerizing. The golfers listed below all demonstrate fantastic consistency from the fairway and lead the PGA Tour in greens in regulation. See who they are and what irons they play.
The new Icon irons have a classic look at address and a progressive center of gravity to enhance control and feel.
Gear: Ben Hogan Icon irons Price: $770 (chrome) for seven clubs (4-PW), $800 (black) Specs: Forged irons with a progressive center of gravity and V-sole design Available: Pre-orders for chrome clubs are being taken now. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, orders for Black clubs will be available soon.
The new Hogan Icon irons are for accomplished golfers who want to curve and turn the ball in different directions and control its flight, not for golfers who struggle to repeat their swing or who need extra forgiveness. Instead, Hogan makes Edge irons for mid- and higher-handicap players.
The Icon irons have a thin topline, minimal offset and a narrow, V-shaped sole. (Ben Hogan)
In the Icon’s address position, golfers will see virtually no offset, a short blade length and a thin topline. The lofts are very traditional, with the 5-iron being 26 degrees and the pitching wedge at 46 degrees.
What golfers won’t see is a weight pad on the back of the heads that the company calls a Progressive Center of Mass system. The long irons have more mass positioned low in the heads, which pulls the center of gravity down and encourages higher-launching shots. The center of gravity rises progressively through the mid-irons and peaks in the short irons. The benefit is good players should be able to flight their approach shots down with their scoring clubs for enhanced distance and trajectory control.
The Ben Hogan Icon irons (Ben Hogan)
To help the clubs work through the turf more efficiently, the Icon irons have a V-sole that lifts the leading edge. By designing more bounce into the sole, the Icon irons should be less apt to dig and slow down through the impact zone.
See a complete list of the irons used by the best ballstrikers on the PGA Tour in 2020.
The offseason, such as it was, is long over and the West Coast Swing is now in the rearview mirror too. These days, most of golf’s best players are in Florida, honing their games and getting ready for the Players Championship and the season’s first major, the Masters, which is just a month away.
While there has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about distance, solid iron play is always critical for success. The players listed below all rank in the top 10 in strokes gained approach the green, which means, statisically, they have been the best irons players this season on the PGA Tour. The number listed next to their names is their strokes gained approach the green average. If a player averages a one, that means he is one shot better than the field average on Tour, meaning he would pick up four shots against the field – based solely on his iron play – during a 72-hole event.
The new Titleist T100•S irons have the same classic look and feel, but offer better players more distance.
Gear: Titleist T100•S irons Price: $137 per club with Project X LZ shafts Specs: Stainless steel and tungsten heads Available: March 27
Before the U.S. Open in June at Pebble Beach, Titleist made the T100 irons available to the game’s elite players for the first time. Designed to replace the AP2, the T100 was warmly received by pros who liked the compact blade length, thinner topline, cambered sole and touch of forgiveness the internal tungsten weights provided. Jordan Spieth, Cameron Smith and several other golfers soon switched into the T100, but some players were hoping to get a little more distance. For those players, Titleist just announced the release of the T100•S irons.
You can think of the S as standing for “strong,” because the main difference between the standard T100 and the Titleist T100•S is the lofts in the T100•S irons are 2 degrees stronger (or lower). For example, the T100’s 5-iron has 27 degrees of loft while the T100•S 5-iron has 25 degrees.
Internal tungsten weights in the heel and toe boost stability in the Titleist T100•S irons. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
If a player wanted more distance from the T100, couldn’t he or she take the clubs to a fitter and have the lofts strengthened? Yes, but shifting the faces downward and de-lofting them also changes the bounce angles, lowers the leading edges and changes the way the T100 irons work through turf. Most elite golfers liked those features, so golfers might would have had to choose between getting more distance and having the T100 irons play and feel better. With the release of T100•S, Titleist eliminated the need to alter the clubs.
Like the standard clubs, the T100•S irons are forged and feature a dual-cavity construction with internal tungsten weights in the heel and toe. The precise amount of tungsten varies by club, but the average amount is 66 grams, and it let Titleist design the T100•S with more stability and forgiveness than a compact club typically offers.
The soles of the Titleist T100•S irons were designed to work through the turf easily. At address, the clubs look like classic, better-player irons. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The T100•S also has progressive blade lengths, meaning the long irons are slightly larger than the mid-irons, which is turn are a touch bigger than the short irons. This helps to shift the center of gravity lower in the long irons, which players usually want to help hit the ball higher, while the center of gravity is higher in the short irons, which better players often like to flight the ball lower for enhanced control.
Wilson’s newest irons for better players are designed to create more distance without sacrificing looks or feel.
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Gear: Wilson Staff D7 Forged irons Price: $999 (4-PW) with KBS $-Taper Lite steel or True Temper Catalyst Black 80 graphite shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips Specs: Forged 8620 carbon steel, urethane-filled inner chamber and slots in the sole Available: Jan. 21
For elite golfers with powerful, repeatable swings, such as 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, Wilson offers the Staff Model blade irons. For players with slow swings who struggle to hit the ball consistently, the company has the Staff Launch Pad irons.
There is plenty of middle ground between those clubs, and for golfers who like the look of a better-player iron but want enhanced distance, Wilson will offer the Staff D7 Staff Forged.
Wilson debuted the standard Staff D7 irons last season, and they are distance-enhancing, game-improvement clubs with good looks. Instead of placing the primary emphasis on distance in the Staff D7 Forged irons, however, Wilson engineers’ first goal was to make a club that would visually appeal to better players, then get more distance from it.
At address, the Staff D7 Forged has a traditional look. You can’t see the Power Holes designed into the sole. (Wilson)
With that in mind, when golfers look down at this cavity-back design in the address position, they will see only a touch of offset, a modest topline and a very clean look.
The distance-boosting technology is in the sole, where two rows of Power Holes were designed behind the leading edge. They are small slots, each covered by a polymer to stop grass and debris from getting inside the heads, that allow the face to flex more efficiently at impact to create more ball speed.
Adding urethane to a chamber behind the face enhances the feel at impact. (Wilson)
To enhance feel, Wilson created an area inside the lower portion of the back of the head and filled it with vibration-dampening urethane. It’s called a Power Chamber and should help produce a more solid feel when golfers strike the ball.
Designers also added extra mass to the topline, making it firmer to reduce twist and support the face more effectively. The extra mass pulls up the center of gravity slightly, but Wilson is fine with that because the Staff D7 Forged is made for more-accomplished players who have some speed and may be looking to shape shots. Moving the center of gravity fractionally higher and increasing spin will not be a problem for those players.
Being distance-enhancing clubs for better players, Wilson made the lofts of the Staff D7 Forged irons stronger than the Staff Model blades’ lofts but weaker than the standard Staff D7. The 7-iron is 30.5 degrees and the pitching wedge is 43 degrees. With that in mind, golfers may want to work with a custom fitter to ensure the gapping between their irons and their first wedge is appropriate to avoid excessive distance gaps.
