Irons – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Learn everything you need to know about the Titleist T150 irons

Titleist T150 irons are for accomplished golfers who want extra distance.

Gear: Titleist T150 irons
Price: $200 per club with True Temper AMT Tour White steel shafts and Titleist Universal 360 grips; $216 per club with Mitsubishi Tensei White AM2 graphite shafts
Specs: Dual-cavity design with SUP-10 stainless steel body, 17-4 stainless steel cradle and internal tungsten weights.
Available: August 28

Who They’re For: Low-handicap golfers seeking more distance, but who still want the look and feel of a compact iron.

The Skinny: Designed like the T100 irons, the T150 delivers extra distance thanks to a polymer-filled muscle channel bar and lofts that are 2 degrees stronger than on the T100, but Titleist focused on making them sound and feel better than the T100•S irons they replace.

The Deep Dive: For a decade, before Titleist developed the T Series irons, many golfers enjoyed playing the brand’s AP irons, especially the AP2, which was the iron of choice for Jordan Spieth. Many of those golfers have transitioned into the compact T100 irons, and some found they liked the T100•S, a stronger-lofted version of the T100. But for AP2 loyalists, the company’s T200 was simply too big.

With the release of the new T150 irons, which replaces the T100•S, Titleist has tried to thread the needle and develop a club that fits between the T100 and the T200, offering accomplished golfers the feel, control and looks that they love, but with some distance-enhancing help.

The T150 and the T100 are built in the same way, but the T150 has a blade length that is a few millimeters longer and a topline that is a few millimeters thicker. You need to hold the clubs side-by-side and study them carefully to see the difference.

Both clubs utilize a forged SUP-10 stainless steel face and body with a 17-4 stainless steel capsule on the back. Inside the capsule, Titelist has added a pair of tungsten weights, one in the heel and the other in the toe, to increase stability and help the T150 resist twisting on off-center hits.

While the T150 line has lofts that are 2 degrees stronger through the set than the T100, the biggest difference between the two irons is the addition of a muscle channel in the T150 that is in a bar connecting the toe to the heel. It is filled with a silicone-like polymer that absorbs some of the vibrations created at impact and encourages a slightly higher launch. It also helps the hitting area flex more effectively. The last version of T100•S had this feature too, but in the T150 irons it has been pushed slightly closer to the hitting area, which lets it work more effectively.

At the same time, Titleist made the lower portion of the face slightly thicker. Brands often tout thin faces to help golfers generate more ball speed on mis-hits, but thicker faces can create more-pleasing sounds and sensations at impact. It’s a paradox that designers have to deal with in every club. In this case, Titleist wanted to change the vibrations and the frequencies created at impact, and thickening the lower part of the hitting area does that.

The combination of the polymer bar being moved forward and the lower part of the hitting area being made thicker, Titleist said, allows the T150 to have the sound and feel of the T100, which Titleist knew golfers wanted, while maintaining the ball speed of the T100•S.

Finally, Titleist designed the T150 with a curved trailing edge that bends upward more than the back edge of the T100•S. This should help the clubs get in and out of the turf more efficiently, so golfers can maintain speed through the strike.

The price of the T150 and the T100 are the same, $200 per club with steel shafts, and they look similar. Titleist made them that way so players can work with a custom fitter and easily create blended sets.

Below are several close-up photos of the new Titleist T150 irons.

See the new 2023 Titleist T200 irons

Titleist T200 irons deliver distance, stability with enhanced sound and feel.

Gear: Titleist T200 irons
Price: $200 per club with True Temper AMT Black shafts and Titleist Universal 360 grips; $216 with Mitsubishi Tensei Blue AM2 graphite shafts
Specs: Forged, L-shaped stainless steel face and forged body with internal tungsten weights.
Available: August 28

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Who They’re For: Golfers who need game-improvement clubs that deliver more distance and stability, but who also want softer feel.

The Skinny: Titleist adjusted the internal Max Impact system and the polymer back plate to enhance the sound and feel of the T200, while maintaining ball speed and forgiveness.

The Deep Dive: While the Titleist T100 and T150 are aimed at accomplished golfers looking for control and consistency, the T200 is a true game-improvement club made for golfers who want more distance, forgiveness and stability. With the release of the 2023 version, Titleist tasked its designers to make the clubs sound and feel better at impact, without losing ball speed. While the T200 looks a little different on the outside, to achieve that goal, engineers made bigger changes on the inside.

The T200 has a forged, SUP-10 stainless steel body and face, with the face plate being shaped like an L. The hitting area wraps under the leading edge, which allows the lower portion to flex more easily on thin shots. Titleist also designed the entire hitting area to gradually become thinner toward the perimeter to broaden the sweet spot and protect ball speed more effectively on mis-hits.

The first Titleist T200 irons debuted a distance-enhancing system called the Max Impact Generator on the back. In the 2021 version, it returned but was hidden inside the heads. The Max Impact system is back in the 2023 T200 irons and continues to be a polymer piece designed into a metal bar that connects the topline and sole. When a ball is hit, the face flexes and presses into the polymer, which helps the hitting area snap back faster, increasing ball speed and distance.

In the updated T200 irons, the Max Impact polymer piece is thinner, and the support bar has been shifted more toward the heel, so it is now near the center of the face. Titleist also made the shelf that the back plate rests upon much wider in the toe area. The polymer plate that covers the back of the club and encases the hollow chamber has also been given a series of ribs and panels. All these things work together to stiffen the T200 at impact and change the harmonics, so it sounds better and feels better without a loss of speed or distance.

To help the T200 resist twisting on off-center hits, Titleist added tungsten to the heel and toe areas. The precise amount of tungsten varies by club but averages about 80 grams, and it helps increase the moment of inertia.

Finally, Titleist gave the T200 the same sole design as the T100 and T150 (although it’s wider). The trailing edge has extra upward curvature, which should help the club work through the turf more effectively, especially on fat shots or for players who have an especially steep angle of attack.

Below are several close-up images of the 2023 Titleist T200 irons.

Callaway Apex Pro irons (2023)

The updated Callaway Apex Pro offers more consistency, better feel and controlable spin.

Gear: Callaway Apex Pro Irons (2023)
Price: $215 each with True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid steel shafts and Golf Pride Z grips.
Specs: Hollow-body construction with a forged 1025 carbon steel body, forged 455 cup face (3-5) and internal urethane microspheres. Available in 3-iron (19 degrees) through attack wedge (50 degrees)
Available: August 18 (pre-sale) / Sept. 8 (in stores)

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Who They’re For: Low and mid-handicap golfers who want a better-player’s distance iron that also delivers shot-shaping and forgiveness.

The Skinny: Using a softer metal and urethane microspheres enhances the feel of this iron, while the hollow-body construction helps increase ball speed. The updated sole improves turf interaction.

The Deep Dive: Callaway purchased the Ben Hogan brand in 2003 and sold the company in 2012, but it retained the right to use several iconic Hogan names, with Apex the most coveted. The first Callaway Apex irons arrived in 2014 along with a version for better players called the Apex Pro. At that time, before the better-player’s distance category took off, “pro” versions of irons were often simply smaller versions of the standard clubs with less offset, thinner toplines and narrower soles.

But with each passing generation, the Apex Pro has evolved more and more into its own club. With the release of the 2023 Apex Pro, Callaway is now positioning this better-player’s distance club alongside other designs for accomplished players.

Cosmetically, the new Apex Pro resembles the Apex TCB used by Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele, but this club has a slightly longer blade and more game-improving features designed into it.

The Apex Pro long irons (3-5) have a hollow-body design and a thin 455 stainless steel cup face designed to flex more efficiently at impact to enhance ball speed. This is the same material and construction found in Callaway’s game-improving Paradym irons but in a more compact package. The 6-iron through attack wedge have faces made from forged 1025 carbon steel, the same soft material used in the Apex Pro irons’ chassis. Opting for 1025 carbon steel in mid- and short irons should soften the impact feel and enhance spin and distance consistency on approach shots.

Inside the hollow chamber of each head, Callaway added urethane microspheres, a material the brand has used for several years to reduce excessive vibrations while improving sound and feel. The key trait of the material, however, is that it does not inhibit the face from flexing, so golfers get those benefits without sacrificing speed or distance.

Callaway designed the Apex Pro irons to have a progressive center of gravity. The CG is lower in the 3-5 irons to encourage a higher ball flight, then transitions upward slightly in the mid-irons (6-8) and then even higher in the short irons (9-AW) to help golfers flight approach shots down for better distance control.

The screwed-in plate on the back of each head is adjustable for fitters and allows them to change the swing weight of the clubs based on their length and a player’s preference. To help golfers maintain speed through the turf and hitting area, Callaway designed the soles of the new Apex Pro to be slightly wider, more curved and to have a pre-worn leading edge. The trailing edge also has been rounded slightly. The sole is still narrower than the bottom of Callaway’s game-improvement irons such as the Paradym, Rogue ST or Big Bertha.

The Apex Pro will be available from 3-iron through attack wedge, and they have some technologies and look similar to Callaway’s updated Apex CB, Apex MB and Apex UT, so golfers can easily create combo sets. Callaway plans to offer pre-created combo sets such as The Player (Apex Pro 3-7, CB 8-AW) and Triple Play (Apex Pro 3-6, CB 7-9, MB PW-AW).

Golf instruction: Turn the club over to stop slicing your long irons

If you have been dealing with that slight slice, this is the tip to try.

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Hitting more greens in regulation is one of the main contributors to shooting lower scores. There’s no better feeling than striping a long iron into the green and setting yourself up for an easy birdie putt.

This week, Golfweek‘s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek demonstrates a tip to help you hit those longer irons a little straighter.

Timing in the swing can become off as you start to hit longer irons compared to something like an 8-iron. If you have been dealing with that slight slice, this is the tip to try.

If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

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Why do golfers add driving irons to their bags at British Opens?

Driving irons can be a smart club to use on links courses

Links golf courses like St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal St. Georges and Royal Liverpool, the site of this week’s Open Championship, are built on sandy, wind-spect ground that would not be good for agriculture or almost anything other than golf.

The sandy ground allows water to drain quickly, so the fairways tend to be firm and bouncy, and strategically-placed pot bunkers can be extremely challenging to play from, but the main defense for any true links course is wind. Elite golfers are not bothered by playing in rain because it tends to soften the course and make approach shots to the green stop quicker, but wind bedevils them. When it swirls, gusts and shifts, wind adds unpredictability to the game, and that drives control-hungry golfers crazy.

To battle the wind and take advantage of the firm fairway conditions, many golfers take out high-lofted fairway woods before the start of events like the Scottish Open and the British Open, then add a driving iron or two in their place.

Open Championship 2023: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole

Modern fairway woods have a low center of gravity that is typically pulled back, away from the face, to encourage higher-flying shots that maximize carry distance. In windy conditions, hitting a 5-wood or a 7-wood low can be challenging. Even with the same amount of loft, driving irons have a higher center of gravity and it is positioned closer to the face, so they produce lower-flying shots that tend to roll out. Nearly all players also fit their driving irons with graphite shafts, typically designed for hybrids, so they can generate more speed and create the spin rate and launch angle they desire. As a result, fast-swinging golfers can use driving irons can keep the ball below the fiercest winds, adding control off the tee, without sacrificing too much distance.

The players listed below are some of the competitors trying to win the Claret Jug this week at Royal Liverpool who have added driving irons to their bag this week.

Photos: Titleist’s yet-to-be-released T100, T150 and T200 irons

Take a close-up look at Titleist’s replacement for the popular T100, T100•S and T200 irons.

CROMWELL, Conn. — The timing of Titleist’s releases may not be as predictable as a Swiss watch, but for over a decade, the brand has released new woods and irons either in the days leading up to the U.S. Open or the week afterward. Last year, Titleist brought the TSR drivers, fairway woods and hybrids to the PGA Tour for the first at the 2022 Travelers Championship. Since the company operates on two-year product cycles, we knew that 2023 would be an iron year, and like clockwork, Titleist recently brought updated versions of its T Series irons to the PGA Tour.

Technically, there are four new irons in the yet-to-be-released family–the T100, T150, T200 and T350 — but Titleist has not provided details about any of them so far.

The new T100 and T200 logically replace the currently available T100 and T200. Pro shops are also currently selling the T100•S, a stronger-lofted version of the T100, for golfers who want a compact club that delivers extra distance, but there is not a T100•S in the new family, but the T150 could do that job.

The Titleist PGA Tour van does not have any T350 irons onboard, so that club will likely replace the current T300, which is a max game-improvement iron.

Below are in-hand images of Titleist’s new T100, T150 and T200 irons.

Golf instruction: Conquering up and downhill lies

Hitting on a slope does not have to be scary.

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Everyone has had a lie where the slope has you questioning how to hit it. The ball is naturally going to want to draw or fade based on the up or downhill lie.

This week, Golfweek‘s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to deal with those up and downhill lies with the Director of Instruction at Casa De Campo, Eric Lillibridge.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you have to deal with a sloping lie and adjust your feet placement. Hitting on a slope does not have to be scary.

If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

TaylorMade releases the Stealth Black game-improvement irons

In April, TaylorMade dropped the P•790 Black irons and the clubs were a hit on social media. Now come the Stealth Black irons.

The vast majority of irons for both accomplished players and intermediate golfers come in a silvery-chrome finish. However, starting about a decade ago, manufacturers began to release some irons in darker tones, often applying a PVD finish (physical vapor deposition) on top of the steel to give it a black or nearly-black look. Apparel companies have known for years that black is slimming, and golf equipment companies realized that many players prefer the look of black irons because they are not only unique, but black finishes make clubs look smaller in the address position.

In April, TaylorMade dropped the P•790 Black irons and the clubs were a hit on social media.

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Now TaylorMade is releasing the Stealth Black irons, a dark-finished version of the game-improvement clubs the company released last season.

Like the P•790 Black irons, the Stealth Black irons have been given a PVD finish that the company claims is strong and durable, but with play steady usage and play, it can wear down and fade over time in the hitting area and on the sole.

TaylorMade-Stealth-Black — The Stealth Black has a polymer black piece on the back that saves weight. (TaylorMade)

From a performance standpoint, the Stealth Black irons are identical to the standard Stealth irons. TaylorMade designed the hollow-bodied head to have 450 stainless steel faces to flex efficiently at impact for increased ball speed. But instead of making the back of the head using steel, TaylorMade gave the Stealth Black irons a polymer cap that covers the back section. It’s strong and supportive, but lighter, so more of the head’s overall weight is lower in the club. That helps to drop the center of gravity location and encourage higher-flying shots.

The 4-iron though 8-iron have a Speed Pocket slot to allow the lower portion of the face to flex more easily on thin shots, and an internal polymer piece that TaylorMade calls an Echo Dampening system reduces excessive vibrations to improve sound and feel.

The TaylorMade Stealth Black irons come standard with black KBS Max MT shafts and black Lamkin Crossline 360 grips. They are available in 4-iron through Attack Wedge (49 degrees) and a set of seven clubs will cost $1,199.99 in stores and on taylormadegolf.com.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Stealth Black irons at PGA TOUR Supestore” link=”https://pga-tour-superstore.pxf.io/Or1X7n”]

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Adams Golf relaunches with new woods, hybrids, irons, wedges and putters

Adams Golf is back with new woods, irons, wedges and putters that golfers can buy online and that come with a 60-day guarantee.

Fifteen years before the current golf boom started, Adams Golf was on a roll. The Plano, Texas-based company made highly regarded hybrids played by numerous PGA Tour stars off contract, disguising them by covering the clubs with headcovers from brands they were paid to use. Adams also made innovative woods, irons, wedges and putters before it was purchased by TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in 2012 for $70 million.

In the following years, some Adams Golf technologies and ideas made their way into TaylorMade clubs, but the brand faded with time. Until now.

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Adams Golf – which is still owned by TaylorMade – has announced a rebranding of the company, including a new logo, a new line of clubs and a new direct-to-consumer sales approach. Adams’ target market is the large number of new players who have taken up the game over the last three years, younger golfers (27 percent of new golfers are aged 18-34 in 2020) and golfers who have rediscovered the sport. Adams is not making boxed sets for these players or focusing on max-game-improvement clubs. Instead, the goal is to offer well-made equipment that has technologies, features and benefits found in higher-priced clubs but sell those clubs at a lower cost.

People’s buying habits have changed since Adams was a prominent brand in the ’90s and 2000s, so the company is trying to make itself available to younger players and other golfers who are used to buying things online. You won’t find Adams’ new drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges or putters in golf shops. Instead, individual clubs and full sets can be purchased at adamsgolf.com, which all come with a 60-day, money-back guarantee.

Here’s the new Adams Idea lineup for 2023, all of which will be available for right- or left-handed golfers:

PXG 0317 CB irons

PXG’s new cavity-back delivers excellent feel and control with a touch of forgiveness.

Gear: PXG 0317 CB irons
Price: $169.99 each
Specs: Forged 8620 carbon steel with milled back and adjustable swing weight. Available in chrome and dark finishes

Who It’s For: Accomplished golfers who want to shape shots but need more forgiveness than a muscleback blade offers.

The Skinny: Forged for a soft feel and featuring classic looks, PXG’s newest better-player offering is a cavity-back designed to deliver excellent feel and control with a touch of forgiveness.

The Deep Dive: In March, PXG released the 0311 GEN6 P and XP irons, which can be classified as a better-player’s distance iron and a game-improvement club, but last September, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company released the 0317 ST, a blended-iron set that combined cavity-back 3- and 4-irons with muscleback blades in the 5-iron through pitching wedge. The idea was that the game’s best players want the ultimate in precision and feel with their mid- and short-irons, but they will gladly accept a little forgiveness on long-iron shots.

PXG 0317 CB Irons — The 0317 CB has a thin topline, narrow sole and very little offset. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Now PXG is breaking that set apart and releasing the new 0317 CB as a stand-alone set of cavity-back irons for low-handicap golfers and players with a powerful, repeatable swing who are looking for control and feel around the course.

Like the previously released clubs, the 0317 CBs are triple forged using 8620 carbon steel, and the back of each head is milled to precisely create the shapes the designers intended. PXG engineers have also added a weight in the back of each head that can be changed during the fitting process to allow golfers to try different swing weights. It is a unique way for golfers to feel the difference between heavier and lighter versions of the same iron and discover which performs better. Once PXG installs the weight during the clubs’ assembly, it is not designed to be removed or swapped.

While the 0311 GEN6 irons are hollow and then filled with a polymer to soften the feel and enhance the sound, the 0317 CB irons are solid metal. They have a shorter blade length, thinner topline and narrower sole than the 0311 GEN6 P irons.

The 0317 CB irons can be purchased as a set or bought individually, making it easier for control-oriented golfers to work with fitters and create a personalized blended set of 0317 CB and 0317 ST muscleback blades.

The 0317 CB irons are available in chrome and Xtreme Dark finish.

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