Gear: TaylorMade P-770 irons
Price: $1,399 (3-PW) with KBS Tour steel shafts and Golf Pride Z-Grip grips
Specs: Foam-filled, hollow-bodied construction with a forged 4140 stainless steel face and 8620 carbon steel body and tungsten weight.
Available: Sept. 4
TaylorMade Tour staffers such Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa play muscleback blades. The company has also had success in the red-hot player’s-distance iron category with the P-790 over the last two years. TaylorMade’s P-760 irons were designed to be a combo set that bridged the gap between those two worlds, with forged short irons and hollow-bodied long irons.
However, with the just-released P-7MC now being the logical club for players who want more forgiveness than a bag full of musclebacks can provide, TaylorMade saw an opportunity to bring back an old friend, the P-770.
The original P-770 came out in early 2017 and featured a 70-gram tungsten bar in the back of the 3- to 7-irons top make them more forgiving and create a higher ball flight.
The new P-770 is an entirely different club, and it is packed with more technologies.
TaylorMade filled the hollow area between the thin, forged 4140 stainless steel face and 8620 carbon steel body with Speed Foam. It is a light material that absorbs vibrations to enhance sound and feel. The foam does not inhibit the face from flexing at impact, so golfers still get the ball-speed benefits of a hollow-bodied club for increased distance.
To improve performance on low-struck shots, TaylorMade gave the P-770 a Speed Pocket slot in the sole. A polymer covers it, so grass and debris stay out, but the slot allows the bottom of the face to flex more efficiently, pulling the sweet spot down.
A large internal tungsten weight is positioned low and toward the toe, which should encourage a higher ball flight and pull the ideal hitting area into the center of the face. That weight also adds stability without making the irons larger.
To ensure accomplished players like what they see in the address position, the P-770 has a thin topline, minimal offset and relatively narrow sole. It is slightly larger than the P-7MC but smaller than the P-790.
TaylorMade said that the P-770 is longer and higher-launching than the P-760, which it replaces. It also launches higher and creates more spin than the P-790, even though the clubs have the same lofts, and TaylorMade said the P-770 and P-790 have nearly identical carry distances.