Irons for golfers who shoot in the 80s

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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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: