Max game-improvement irons – Syndication Server

Cleveland Halo XL Full Face irons

These massive hollow-bodied irons were designed to help high-handicap golfers.

Gear: Cleveland Halo XL Full Face 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: Hollow-bodied 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: High-handicap and moderate clubhead speed players who want an easy-to-hit iron loaded with forgiveness.

The Skinny: These massive hollow-bodied irons have railed soles in the long irons, a low center of gravity and were designed to help high-handicap golfers get more distance, more height and more enjoyment on the course.

The Deep Dive: Grab a better-player’s iron, like a Srixon Z-Forged II or a ZX7 MkII, sole it behind a ball and then look down. What you will see is a super-compact blade length, a narrow topline and almost no offset. At this point, experienced golfers who routinely shoot in the 70s might be drooling, while golfers who are new to the game or who struggle to make consistent contact might be thinking about giving Pickleball a try. Those irons can be intimidating and offer almost no features to compensate for mis-hits or slow swings.

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Cleveland Halo XL Full Face irons — The Halo XL Full Face irons look like miniature hybrids in the address position. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Cleveland, which is one of Srixon’s sister brands under the Dunlop Sports umbrella, specializes in clubs that are made to be easy to hit, fun and affordable, and for 2024, it has a new super game-improvement iron, the Halo XL Full Face.

The Halo XL Full Face irons are enormous, which should immediately give confidence to players who routinely shoot in the 90s and 100s. They are designed like small hybrids, so each club is hollow and made to allow the faces to flex easily at the moment of impact for increased ball speed. As the name implies, the entire hitting area is also covered by the groove pattern, which also features two white grooves on the bottom. The lowest, shortest white groove is there to help position the ball in the center of the face, while the wider groove can help players align more easily with their target.

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The large head size and sloped HiBore crown design helped Cleveland designers shift the center of gravity location down and back, away from the hitting area, to encourage a higher launch angle.

Many golfers who struggle with inconsistent contact also have trouble working the club through the strike without hitting the ground first. To help golfers who tend to hit the ball fat, Cleveland gave the Halo XL Full Face long irons (4-7) rails to help the sole skim over the turf. The short irons (8-9) have been designed with a V-sole that adds extra bounce in the center of the sole.

To help players get consistent results, Cleveland has added a face-blast treatment called HydraZip. In the long irons (4-7), it is rougher to slightly reduce spin and encourage more carry, but in the short irons and wedges (8-SW), it is somewhat smoother to help golfers get more spin and stopping power on the greens.

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Callaway Big Bertha woods and irons (2023)

The newest Big Bertha family includes a slice-fighting driver and easy-to-hit fairway woods and hybrids.

Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters Tournament using a new Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver and a prototype Paradym Triple Diamond 3-wood. Both are clubs designed for fast-swinging golfers who want to shape shots around the course and who have powerful, repeatable swings.

For golfers on the other side of the spectrum, Callaway has prided itself on offering game-improvement and max game-improvement clubs that are made to deliver more distance and forgiveness, often giving them the hallowed moniker of Big Bertha. The brand released the Big Bertha B21 woods and irons in the fall of 2020, and last October saw the debut of an ultra-premium offering for slower-swinging players, the Great Big Bertha line. Now it is releasing the new Big Bertha 2023 family of woods and irons.

Best irons for 2023 for every handicap and playing style

New muscleback blades for elite golfers, cavity-back irons that blend forgiveness and feel, they’re all here.

In the weeks leading up to the holiday season and throughout January, equipment makers released several new sets of irons designed for players at every game level. New muscleback blades for elite golfers, cavity-back irons that blend forgiveness and feel and offerings made for inexperienced players and slower swingers, they’re all here.

The trouble is finding the new set of irons that will complement your game. The best way to do that is to work with a custom fitter and hit lots of different options under the watchful eye of a launch monitor, but the list of irons below will give you a great place to start your research and narrow down your search.

TaylorMade Stealth HD irons

The Stealth HD irons are designed to get the ball up quickly for slow-swinging players.

Gear: TaylorMade Stealth HD irons
Price: $999 with KBS Max 85 steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline Black grips. $1,099 with Fujikura NX Red graphite shafts
Specs: Cast stainless steel with polymer insert
Available: Feb. 17

Who It’s For: New and high-handicap golfers who need to maximize height, distance and forgiveness.

The Skinny: The Stealth HD irons were designed to get the ball up quickly for slow-swinging players who want a club that has an inspiring shape.

The Deep Dive: When TaylorMade wants to create a new, better-player’s club, it talks with staff players such as Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. They discover what elite golfers prefer and look for, then create something that provides those attributes.

TaylorMade does not, however, have a staff of golfers who shoot in the 90s and 100s, so to make a new max-game-improvement club, the company did extensive testing with new and slower-swinging players. After hitting shots, reps asked if the player liked that shot, then asked why. TaylorMade learned that players who struggle with the game love seeing the ball go high into the air, prefer to see shots that fly to the left or go straight and want to see a club that inspires confidence.

Keeping the game-improvement Stealth irons in the stable, the brand now offers the Stealth HD, a max-game-improvement iron.

Cobra T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set

Many players want to hit it more solidly and see the ball pop high. This updated set is designed to do that.

Gear: Cobra T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set
Price: $999.99 (4-hybrid, 5-iron through pitching wedge) with Cobra Ultralite graphite shafts and Lamkin Crossline grips
Specs: Hybrid and hollow-bodied irons are made with stainless steel bodies, faces and railed soles.
Available: Nov. 4

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Who It’s For: Slower-swinging golfers who struggle to generate ball speed, distance and height off the tee on par 3s and from the fairway.

The Skinny: Combining hybrids (instead of long irons) with hollow-bodied irons, Cobra’s T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set is designed to increase ball speed and produce a higher flight, while their unique railed-sole design helps golfers overcome poor contact.

The Deep Dive: Elite golfers such as Lexi Thompson, Rickie Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau swing fast and make solid contact on their iron shots nearly every time, but golfers who are new to the game and players who struggle to generate clubhead speed make inconsistent contact with unpredictable results. While the pros are looking for equipment that will give them more control and let them curve the ball around the course, many players just want to hit it more solidly, see the ball pop high into the air and hopefully go a little farther.

The updated T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set was designed to do that, replacing hard-to-hit long irons with uniquely designed hybrids and combining them with irons designed like miniature hybrids.

Cobra T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set — The T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set comes standard with a 4-hybrid club instead of a long iron. (Cobra)

All the clubs in the set are hollow to allow the hitting area to flex more efficiently at impact. To maximize that trampoline effect, Cobra gave the T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set a redesigned, variable-thickness H.O.T Face insert. Designed with artificial intelligence, it has areas that are thicker in some spots and thinner in others, and Cobra said the result is a sweet spot that is 30 percent larger. That should lead to greater consistency for players who make inconsistent contact and mis-hit their iron shots.

While an internal rib structure enhances sound and feel, the Baffler Split Rail system on the bottom of each club helps players maintain speed through the hitting area. The rails are designed to act like skid plates, letting the clubs skim through the turf more easily, so if a player’s swing is steep and the club makes contact with the ground first instead of the ball, it is less likely to dig and result in a fat shot that doesn’t fly too far. The front portion of each rail is hollow, making the sole and the lower portion of the hitting area more flexible and resulting in a higher launch on low-struck shots.

The T-Rail Hybrid Iron Combo set is comprised of a 4-hybrid and hybrid irons as the 5-iron through pitching wedge, and a women’s version of the set is made up of two hybrids (4 and 5) and five irons (6-iron through pitching wedge). A gap wedge and sand wedge are also available for the standard and women’s sets.

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Callaway Great Big Bertha woods and irons (2023)

The new Great Big Bertha line takes the place of Callaway’s Epic Max Star family and features lightweight clubs designed to be easy to hit and maximize carry distance and forgiveness.

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Gear: Callaway Great Big Bertha woods and irons (2022)
Available: November 11

Who It’s For: Golfers with slow to moderate swing speeds who need more carry distance and forgiveness to hit longer, straighter shots.

The Skinny: The new Great Big Bertha line takes the place of Callaway’s Epic Max Star family and features lightweight clubs designed to be easy to hit and maximize carry distance and forgiveness. They are not for everyone and are pricy, but they utilize materials like unique carbon in the driver and titanium and tungsten in the irons to deliver premium performance for golfers who struggle to generate clubhead speed.

Best irons of 2022 for every budget and handicap

In the market for some new irons? We’ve got you covered.

Golf’s surge in popularity over the last two years has brought an influx of new players to the game, many of whom either borrowed clubs from friends or rented sets from the course. Maybe they just reached into the demo bucket at the local range and discovered that while golf is challenging, it is also rewarding, especially when you hit a great shot.

When it comes to irons, there are more options than ever before, ranging from muscleback blades for elite players who want to maximize their ability to curve the ball and shape shots to distance-enhancing irons to clubs that look and perform like miniature hybrids.

The best way to discover which set of irons is best for you is to work with a good custom fitter and try as many different combinations of heads and shafts as possible. The irons listed below can act as a great starting point on your journey to finding your next perfect set.

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PXG 0211 Z Full Bag set

Over the past two years, millions of people have tried golf and loved the game. Now PXG is offering a complete set especially for beginners.

Over the last two seasons, there has been a surge of fresh players to golf, but the equipment most “never-evers” wind up using is either borrowed or old, lacking modern technologies that can make learning to play the game a lot more fun.

PXG has focused on creating clubs that look like equipment made for accomplished golfers, but those feature hidden technologies that make the company’s game-improvement and max game-improvement products more powerful and forgiving.

With the release of the new 0211 Z set, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company is doing something completely different and trying to appeal to players who have decided to make their first investment in golf.

Everything about the 0211 Z woods and irons was designed with beginners in mind. For example, the set has 10 clubs in it instead of 14 to keep things simple for golfers who are just learning to play. There is a driver, a 4-wood, a 5-hybrid, a 6-iron through sand wedge and a putter. A golf bag and headcovers also come standard.

The driver, 4-wood and hybrid have adjustable hosels, but PXG knows most sets will be purchased online because beginners are often intimidated by the custom fitting process. On the company’s website, golfers only need to tell PXG their gender, age, height and whether they are right-handed or left-handed. Using that basic information, PXG will build a set and ship it.

At $1,695, this is not the cheapest way for beginners to get clubs. But for someone who has fallen in love with the game, who has the means and who is committed to playing, it is an uncomplicated way to get some state-of-the-art technology in their hands to make things easier. The driver, fairway wood and hybrid are available for $795, and the 6-iron through sand wedge are also available for $795.

Callaway Epic Max Star woods and irons

Callaway’s newest drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons for slower-swinging players are ultra-lightweight but pack a punch.

Professional golfers such as Phil Mickelson and Xander Schauffele typically use heavy, control-oriented equipment built to maximize feel. They have powerful, repeatable swings, so they don’t need gear that increases power and distance above everything else.

Most recreational golfers, especially older and slower-swinging players, do not practice like the pros, and their swings are less consistent. They need woods and irons that boost clubhead speed, encourage more carry distance and enhance forgiveness.

Callaway has addressed this part of the golf market for the past several seasons by making lighter, longer and easier-to-hit versions of its flagship clubs and given them the moniker Star. That trend continues in 2021 with the release of the Epic Max Star drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons.

Cleveland Launcher XL, XL Halo irons

Cleveland’s newest irons for mid- and higher-handicap golfers are designed to be easier to hit solidly and provide more distance.

While Cleveland’s sister brand, Srixon, focuses on making irons for mid- and lower-handicap golfers, the Huntington, California-based club maker long known for producing outstanding wedges continues to focus on gear that is ideally suited for recreational players. That means focusing on technologies and features that enhance distance and forgiveness, especially for players who lack speed or consistency.

The brand’s two newest irons, the Launcher XL and Launcher XL Halo irons, deliver that and offer golfers a choice of forgiveness blended with accuracy or a no-holds-barred max game-improvement set.