The BEST IRONS IN GOLF (for every handicap!)
My top recommendations for the best golf irons you should be looking at based on your handicap! While ball striking can sometimes be better or worse than your handicap suggests, this gives a great starting point for anyone looking at what type of irons would be best for their game. Many thanks to channel partners Golfbidder for helping out with this video, to learn more about Golfbidder, check out: https://www.golfbidder.co.uk
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two questions…
1. what about lefties? Mizuno for example makes great clubs but tends to limit their selection for lefties.
2. where do you stand on club fittings? recommending 2nd hand clubs is a great way to update gear in a bag at a discount but the confidence knowing that the length, lie, shaft flex, shaft weight and grip size are fitted specifically to your swing is very confidence inspiring… Have a set of fitted clubs means that every time I miss a shot I know now I can't blame the gear.
I have to say that I think videos like this from prominent content creators are extraordinarily harmful, but I want to make it clear that I like Peter Finch and think on the whole his content is excellent so this isn't really meant as a direct criticism as him and is more a comment on this "conventional wisdom" I see repeated all over the place and feel strongly needs to be squashed.
I'm of the opinion that handicap has absolutely nothing to do with what iron you should be playing, and it's a mentality that can significantly impair someone's ability to improve at golf when they blindly follow "conventional wisdom" that at it's very core was designed by club manufacturers as a marketing tool to incentivize people to continuously upgrade their clubs over time.
The only deciding factor in what irons an individual should be playing is how often they play/practice, and as an adjacent concept how much they care and how serious they are about improvement.
For example, if someone is a couple times a month golfer or someone who plays a handful of times a year, goes out for fun and to play in company scrambles, and doesn't practice or take lessons… then that person should be playing game improvement irons with a fair bit of forgiveness. On the other hand if someone plays 2-3+ times a week, takes lessons and spends time on the range and the putting green practicing… then regardless of their handicap they should be at the very least using players irons.
There are pros/cons to each club type, and the mentality of handicap determining what clubs you should use fundamentally ignores that. The more forgiveness you have the less feedback you get, meaning that it becomes more difficult to impossible to tell a pure strike from a slight mishit in addition to it altering other ball-flight characteristics. That might not sound like a big deal, but say you're a 20 handicap with the goal of reaching single digits in a couple years. Now imagine you have a practice session with highly forgiving clubs where you seem to be striping the ball and getting good results, but in reality every hit you're slightly off in a different way and because the results were good you have no way of knowing. That places a ceiling on your ball-striking ability.
Now imagine the same range session but with a less forgiving club with better feel, each time you strike the ball maybe you get slightly less distance but you feel that it wasn't quite the sweet spot (and maybe even where on the face it was slightly off). As a result you make minute adjustments, focusing on what you felt more than the result and by the end of the session you're truly striping the ball and hitting it pure.
Which of the two sessions is going to be more productive in terms of the goal of reaching single digits? Obviously the latter, that's the power of feedback/feel which you give up when you take a more forgiving club. That's why you should always base your decision on how frequently you play, how often you practice, and how serious you are about improvement. A 40 handicap who is serious about getting better at the game, plays frequently, practices and takes lessons… should NEVER be fitted into game improvement irons.
Likewise, telling people that blades are only for scratch golfers and professionals ignores all the amazing benefits they offer for someone who is passionate about the game, serious about becoming a great ball striker and who wants the absolute best feel, accuracy and shot shaping. I love my blades, I learned on them back in the 90s when they were far more unforgiving than modern clubs and I regret letting fitters and sales people talk me out of buying blades for my first couple sets of clubs. When I finally told them to "shove" their advice and bought my blades after I bought my first membership and got serious about improvement, I went from having never kept a handicap to just north of 10 in a single season and then down to a 4.7 in one more season.
It's good to educate people on the different types of clubs and who they are good for, but I strongly disagree with the principle that handicap or average score should be part of the conversation.
I’m a 6 handicap, the other day I played the worst round of my life and shot a 90. Should I dump my Mizuno JPX921 tours for the Cobra T-Rails?
Just bought a brand new set of Rouge st max irons from callaway and those are the beat irons I've hit. Spent most of last year trying out tons of pings and few callaways and Taylor made. Almost bought some mavericks but these feel so smooth, hits long, and gives me so much forgiveness.
Surprised the TaylorMade P790’s didn’t get a mention. I play off 19, and for me it was between them and the 225’s. It was so even, but the P790’s just offered a little bit more forgiveness. Both fantastic clubs, however.
Pete looks like he has been in a good paddock
Out of all the high handicap cavity backs available he has what has to be one of the ugliest sets made. I would rather take a set of Mizuno jpx 923 hot metals. I have played a set of 919s for several seasons and they are great. I had them fitted 2 degrees flat and 2 degrees more loft. Nice looking iron and not that expensive compared to other brands.?????
Well that was 8.5 mins of time I'll never get back.. what a waste
8 handicap playing Callaway Apex Pro 21s. The forged feel is like warm sand trickling through your fingers on the summer beach. Shaping a shot is as simple picturing it. The launch is higher than snoop dog, but your length will have you walking like youre 8 feet tall. The forgiveness is the chainmail that keeps a rogue swing from disemboweling your round. The feedback is so clear a bird just flew into it. 10/10 irons. Dont get me started on Titleist woods though ?
It’s the Titleist T-100 for me. Just love them.
Love that you have the pro combos in here…. I have MP69s and MP4s but I still play my pro combos to have a little bit of forgiveness.
8 handicap using Taylormade P790s
this guy doesn't like taylormade
as a beginner im confused still. what about the blades and the other lower handicap clubs, make them better choices for better players? why wouldnt a pro still want to use the more forgiving longer hitting clubs?
I’m a 10 hdcp and have been playing Mizuno JPX 850 forged for years and I love them.
I bought a set of T Rails 2 years ago figuring they would be game improvement type, fitted with the Ultra Lite 45 shafts +0.50”. I started out swinging a little too hard and could not hit it straight. (Started out around 18 HDCP). With the correct swing they work pretty good. Right around 15 now so I was looking to the to the Rogue ST Max. Backing up a little, the T Rails are classified as a distance iron by Golf Galaxy so a step or 2 up from game improvements. I hit the Rogue 7I and compared it to my TR 7I, my TR 7I was like 15-20 yards longer with consistency.
A 2nd pro fit me and said I should use standard length clubs and offered to take a 1/2” off mine. I only had 2 of the clubs with me and was going on vacation the next day so I have time to think about it… I don’t want to spend another $100 on new mid align grips. I’ll choke down on them for now..
7 handicap using Taylormade p770 and loving them
The Callaway Apex, sound like a women, beautiful but if you don't treat them well they will cause you pain.
Brilliant video, thanks for that….
I love the Ping g-max clubs and used sets are still very expensive. How do they compare to the new best improvement irons?
Клевый ролик
I’m an 8.5 handicap right now and the calaway rouge os max are the clubs for me!
Those mizunos 225 look really good, but they did feel quite “clicky”. The Callaways would look so much better without that stupid screw.
Playing beautiful clubs is definitely worth a bit of pain!