Low Handicap Iron Review For This Year
Joe Ferguson runs through the best irons for low handicap golfers on the market in 2024
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00:00 So there is a vast array of choice
00:02 for low handicap irons in 2024.
00:04 It might be the most packed category of the bunch.
00:08 And I've tested dozens and dozens of these at home.
00:11 I've now come out to the beautiful
00:13 Santo de Serra Golf Club in Madeira
00:16 to take these through a bit more of a thorough test.
00:17 We're going to look at looks, feel, sound, performance,
00:21 and stay tuned to the end of the video
00:23 where I'm going to name my overall
00:24 best low handicap iron for 2024.
00:29 Okay, so the first thing I want to talk to you about
00:31 is the looks of the club, the aesthetics.
00:33 And in this low handicap range,
00:35 it's really, really important.
00:37 Low handicappers tend to be a little bit more discerning
00:39 about shapes and angles and offsets.
00:41 So it's really important to get that right.
00:43 So I've picked out three of my favorites
00:45 and I'm going to show you now.
00:47 My first standout in the looks category
00:50 is the Mizuno Pro 243.
00:53 So it should be no surprise to anyone
00:54 who's ever played Mizuno irons
00:56 that the Pro 243 iron is going to get
00:59 in the best looking mentions.
01:01 From a shelf appeal point of view, I think it's faultless.
01:04 It's just got a stunning finish.
01:06 I love the shaping, some real attention to detail
01:09 in terms of sophistication from Mizuno here.
01:11 Not putting any paint fill in the Mizuno badge.
01:13 Just little touches like that look great.
01:15 And the paint fill they have used
01:16 just here on the Mizuno Pro, really subtle.
01:19 And I just think they look fantastic in the bag,
01:21 gleaming here in the sunshine.
01:24 They're just top notch from a shelf appeal point of view.
01:26 The only thing that stopped them getting
01:28 probably the top spot in this category for me
01:30 is just down behind the ball,
01:32 the head shape just doesn't quite suit my eye
01:34 as well as some of the others.
01:35 And that's not to say it's a bad head shape.
01:37 It is not at all.
01:38 It just doesn't quite have the symmetry
01:40 of some of the others in this category for me.
01:43 But I'd be far from disappointed seeing these in my bag.
01:45 Next up for a special mention in looks
01:48 is the Titleist T100.
01:50 Now this is just a really classic looking iron.
01:53 There's not too much going on here.
01:55 And that's, I think, to its benefit, not to its detriment.
01:58 It's got a really lovely, clean,
02:00 sort of brushed steel finish.
02:02 Nice Titleist logo.
02:04 Little bit of nod to technology in the cavity.
02:06 But all in all, just a really sort of minimalist,
02:08 clean, tidy, and neat head.
02:11 And that sort of blends down
02:12 when you're looking down behind the ball
02:14 from an address position.
02:15 It's a really neat aesthetic, very symmetrical.
02:18 So for that reason, from a shelf appeal
02:21 and an address position point of view,
02:23 the combination here is really, really good.
02:25 And that's why it had a special mention in looks.
02:28 My favorite looking low-handicap iron of 2024
02:31 is the Ben Hogan PTX Tour.
02:34 I just think it's absolutely gorgeous.
02:36 From every angle, the shaping, the grinding,
02:40 the finish, the colors, it's just a stunning iron.
02:43 It's a bit of a throwback with kind of the longer ferrules.
02:46 That's a bit of a hallmark of older clubs.
02:49 The kind of little dimple patterns around the hosel.
02:52 But everything about it just makes me want to hit it.
02:54 And down behind the ball,
02:56 the head shapes through the bag are just perfect.
02:59 Perfect dimensions, perfect amount of offset.
03:02 The top line's great.
03:03 They just tick all the boxes for me in terms of looks.
03:07 So for me, PTX Tour, best looking,
03:09 low-handicap iron of 2024.
03:12 (metal clanging)
03:14 So now we come on to feel.
03:15 And feel is something that's really important
03:17 in these low-handicap irons.
03:19 It tends to go hand-in-hand with the sound.
03:21 So the acoustics and the feel are very, very much linked.
03:24 So I've picked out three of my favorites.
03:26 And the first one I want to show you
03:27 is the Ping Blueprint S.
03:29 Oh, I like the feel of that, Howard.
03:35 So what I really like about the Ping Blueprint S
03:39 is it's got kind of a robust feel to it.
03:41 It's a little bit firmer than some of the other irons
03:44 in the category.
03:45 But for some reason, it really works on this iron.
03:47 It's just a real depth of strike
03:49 that feels really sort of meaty behind the board.
03:52 I really do enjoy it.
03:53 And one other thing I really like about this,
03:55 got really narrow soles, these Blueprint S irons.
03:58 And they just cut through the turf like butter.
04:00 Entering and exiting is really, really smooth.
04:03 And that gives them,
04:04 that really does enhance the feel too.
04:06 Oh, gets in.
04:11 That's on it.
04:11 Okay, these Wilson Staff Model CB irons.
04:17 They were a real favorite of mine in testing.
04:19 I loved.
04:20 From a feel point of view, they're smooth.
04:23 They're really sort of buttery soft.
04:25 And I just like the overall simplicity of the package.
04:28 But yeah, from a feel point of view,
04:30 I thought there was a little bit more forgiveness
04:31 on some of these shots than I did on some of the other irons.
04:34 But particularly off-center, they feel gorgeous.
04:37 That's flying nice.
04:43 So from a feel point of view,
04:46 this was a real surprise package to me.
04:48 Something you might not have even heard of Takome.
04:50 It's a direct-to-consumer brand
04:52 that's starting to make a few waves on the PGA Tour.
04:55 Working with Wesley Bryan from the Bryan Brothers,
04:57 and they've just signed another couple of Tour players.
04:59 And it's a really interesting brand.
05:01 But I'll get to more of that later.
05:03 But just from a pure feel point of view,
05:06 it's just a beautifully precision-forged steel.
05:09 And it's so soft and buttery.
05:12 I can't even tell you through strike,
05:13 no matter what ball you're playing with,
05:15 you get this really sort of gentle sensation
05:18 in the hands through impact.
05:20 And another great piece about this,
05:22 it's got a relatively wide sole for an iron in this category,
05:25 but they've done a little bit of grinding on the front edge,
05:28 which really softens that entry,
05:29 and again, helps the club through the turf.
05:31 And turf interaction in these lower-handicap irons
05:34 is a really big thing.
05:35 So when you combine that with the super-soft feel
05:38 and the great aesthetic, to me, this is a real winner.
05:41 And this is my best-feeling low-handicap iron of 2024.
05:44 (upbeat music)
05:47 Right, before we get to that,
05:50 if you do enjoy this video, please hit the like button.
05:53 It really helps us.
05:54 Also, comment down below.
05:55 What's your favorite low-handicap iron of 2024?
05:58 Love to hear about it.
05:59 If you haven't subscribed to the channel, please do so.
06:02 On to the all-important performance.
06:05 So I'm just going to put some numbers up on the screen
06:07 for you from the testing I've done
06:08 of all the holes selection.
06:10 And if you need to pause it,
06:11 please do take a look and absorb it,
06:13 'cause there's quite a lot of numbers there.
06:16 But from a performance point of view, in this category,
06:18 it's not all about the numbers.
06:20 Yes, that's part of it.
06:21 We need to make sure that's adding up.
06:23 But it's also, we need to take a bit more
06:24 of a holistic approach to performance
06:26 in terms of flight control, consistency,
06:29 and some of the more unmeasurable things.
06:32 On the data table, you'll probably notice
06:34 there's a bit of a distance discrepancy
06:35 from longest to shortest.
06:37 That's probably because in this category,
06:39 manufacturers are varying between lofts of 30 and 34 degrees
06:43 so quite a big variance there in this category for me.
06:46 So that would account for some of the distance drop-offs
06:49 that you might see.
06:50 So the first one I want to talk about
06:51 taking that holistic approach to performance here
06:54 is the Srixon ZX7 Mark II Iron.
06:58 You'll see from the data,
06:59 it's got a very competitive ball speed,
07:01 a slightly lower launch than some of the others
07:03 in the category, and a good mid-level spin.
07:05 It just produces a really nice sort of mid-trajectory,
07:09 very controllable flight.
07:11 And it's really repeatable.
07:12 Off-center, it's good.
07:14 You don't get any strange feeling strikes.
07:16 It's just a really good, all-round, solid,
07:19 reliable performer.
07:20 A lot of tour validation from this iron.
07:22 There's a lot of good players,
07:24 your Ryan Foxes, Shane Lowry's of the world,
07:26 using this iron, and those guys don't use irons
07:28 that aren't good.
07:29 So this would be a welcome addition to most people's bags.
07:32 So next special mention in this category of performance
07:35 is the Callaway Apex CB.
07:37 Now I like this iron as soon as I picked it up,
07:39 and that's always a good start.
07:40 And the performance results
07:42 warranted my initial enthusiasm.
07:45 So you'll see from the data, if you did have a good look,
07:48 it's not necessarily a standout in any of the categories.
07:50 It's not jumping ahead and leading the way
07:52 in any of the categories,
07:53 but it's really solid across the board,
07:56 and that's what I look for in performance
07:58 in this kind of iron.
07:59 Just something you can rely on,
08:01 something you know you're going to get the same result
08:03 from time after time.
08:04 Produces a lovely mid-level flight, nice feel,
08:08 and the dispersion was really, really tight for me
08:10 from left to right and a front to back perspective.
08:15 It was really, really strong.
08:16 So I found this to be a really, really good performer,
08:20 and again, it'd be a great addition to anyone's bag.
08:23 So the winner for me overall in terms of performance
08:25 in this low-handicap category has to be TaylorMade P770.
08:30 This is the younger sibling of the P790,
08:34 and it packs so much of that performance
08:36 and the technology that goes into the P790,
08:38 but just in a more smaller, compact head
08:40 with a little bit less offset.
08:43 It offers you all of the reliability
08:44 of the other two models that I've just mentioned there,
08:47 but what elevates it just above the rest,
08:49 it just packs a little bit more of a punch,
08:51 just a little bit more ball speed, a nice peak height,
08:54 a nice steep landing angle,
08:56 which is important in this category,
08:57 'cause it gives you more control
08:58 when the ball's landing on the green.
09:00 So for covering everything those other irons do
09:02 and just giving that little bit more oomph,
09:04 the winner in the performance category
09:05 of low-handicap irons is the TaylorMade P770.
09:09 So we've got to that time, and in my hand,
09:13 I've got my favorite low-handicap iron of 2024,
09:18 and that iron is the Callaway Apex CB.
09:23 Now, from the second I picked this iron up,
09:25 I liked everything about it.
09:26 Always a good start when the aesthetics get in your brain
09:29 and really suit your eye.
09:31 I just think the curves are in all the right places,
09:33 the shelf appeal, I even like the badge at the back,
09:36 which would normally put me off,
09:37 the sort of weight that sits behind there.
09:39 I think that actually adds to the club head.
09:42 I like the subtle touches that Callaway have done
09:44 where they've not colored in their logo here,
09:46 just a very soft, embossed silver Callaway
09:49 in the cavity there.
09:50 I just think they look so premium,
09:52 both from a shelf appeal point of view,
09:54 and they've just got the ideal shape down behind the ball.
09:58 Now, it was a tough call, this,
09:59 between this Apex CB and the P770,
10:02 which, as you know, I've just crowned the best performing
10:04 iron in terms of raw data,
10:07 but the overall package, the sum of its parts,
10:10 when you include the overall performance,
10:12 plus the aesthetic, plus the feel,
10:15 and there was a very tight dispersion,
10:17 which I mentioned earlier,
10:18 for me, it's just about nicks it.
10:21 So the best performing iron for me,
10:23 or my favorite iron in the low handicap category of 2024,
10:27 is the Callaway Apex CB.