OUR JOB IS YOUR GAME.

What characteristics determine a great players iron?

Is it distance? Accuracy? Control? A little added forgiveness? We’ve found that it’s a combination of all of the above. This year we leveraged our testing facility in Virginia to deliver the most comprehensive, unbiased Players Iron Test in the world. If you’re in the market for new irons in 2017, this is for you.

To determine this year’s rankings we considered the following metrics:

• Distance
• Shot Area
• Radial Distance (pin proximity)
• Consistency
• Outlier Percentage

For more information, view our How We Test page.

DEFINING THE PLAYERS CATEGORY

11 of the top non-blade players irons were put to the test.  The clubs tested, while not quite the butter-knife blades your grandfather played, maintain the workability better players demand and offer that bit of forgiveness we all need.

The target handicap for this iron category ranges from scratch(or better) to the high single-digits. The designs of these irons feature more compact head profiles, small cavities, and minimal offset.

DISCLAIMER: While we all want to game the same irons as the pros, the clubs in this category aren’t for everyone. These players irons are designed for golfers who hit the center of the club face more often than not. Miss and the punishment will be more severe than with game-improvement or super game-improvement irons.

ADVANCED GOLF ANALYTICS

Data matters. And when it comes to finding the right equipment, it’s critical. We help solve this by applying the largest connected set of head-to-head data to tackle one of golf’s biggest challenges.

All testing was conducted inside our fully independent test facility located in Virginia. All testers used Bridgestone B330-RX golf balls for consistency and to reduce test variables. All ball data was collected using the world’s most trusted launch monitor, Foresight Sports. All head data was captured using the Foresight’s HMT.

• SHOTS HIT: 6,759
• DATA POINTS: 338,000
• TIME: 60 hours
• TESTERS: 20
• HANDICAP RANGE: +2 – 8
• AGE RANGE: 23 – 50
• DRIVER SWING SPEED RANGE: 90 mph – 120 mph
• IRONS TESTED: Three irons, a short, middle, and long iron from each set

Data. Aggregated. Normalized. Delivered.

For more details, see our How We Test page.

RESULTS AND RANKINGS

Our rankings aren’t determined inside a conference room. We don’t have a panel, and there are no votes. The launch monitor is the one and only judge. For our 2017 Most Wanted Players Iron test, we collected a standard set of launch monitor metrics (ball speed, launch angle, spin rates, distance, etc.).

Using that data, we, consider five metrics when determining our rankings:

• Shot Area: Sometimes referred to as dispersion, Shot Area describes the stat area (in yards²) of a 90% confidence interval ellipse.
• Radial Distance: Similar to Shot Area, Radial Distance represents the average distance (feet) to a theoretical pin centered on the target line.
• Distance: The most straightforward of all the metrics, distance is the average total distance for a given club.
• Consistency: Using standard deviation of carry yards as the metric, we consider each club’s tendency to produce similar distance from shot to shot.
• Outlier Rate: New to our ranking system, we now consider the percentage of outliers produced with each club. Clubs that produce a disproportionate number of outliers can be considered harder to hit.

2017 Players Irons Rankings

2017 Most Wanted Players Iron Data

Below you’ll find the data from our 2017 Most Wanted Players Test. Note that you can use the Iron Model filter to limit the display to specific models. Also note that, by default, we show the comparative metrics for long irons. To see middle and short irons, use the Iron Type drop down located on the top right of the charts.