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120
Hours
Researched
9,199
Shots
Hit
17
Products
Considered
36.1m
Readers
OUR JOB IS YOUR GAME
Are you playing the right irons for your game?
Unfortunately, for most of us, the answer is “no.” The right irons for every golfer combine precision, distance, and forgiveness – all while maintaining a pleasant appearance at address.
So, how do you choose? If you don’t hit the center of the clubface nearly every time, chances are you need some help from your clubs. That’s where game improvement irons come in. These are designed to offer more forgiveness across the clubface, and even give you a little bit of the extra distance you’ve always wanted (or used to have).
This year we levered our Testing Facility in Yorktown, VA and put 17 of the top game-improvement models to the test. With over 9,000 shots hit, this is the most comprehensive and independent iron test in the world.
If you’re in the market for irons in 2018, this test is for you.
DEFINING THE GAME IMPROVEMENT CATEGORY
What characteristics define a game-improvement iron?
These types of clubs typically have a larger profile, some depth inside the cavity, and stronger-than-traditional lofts throughout the set.
While these aren’t your most workable clubs, what they will offer is some forgiveness for those inevitable off-center strikes, and that little bit of extra distance you might need to get it to that back pin placement.
The handicap level for these types of irons varies from scratch golfers, all the way into the high-teens. Game-improvement irons know no limits when it comes to the skill level of golfers gaming them. Some tour pros will often replace long irons with these easier-to-hit clubs.
REFINED ANALYTICS
Each year we strive to bring you the most accurate data possible to help you make the right purchasing decisions. As with years in the past, we’ve worked to improve our analytics, tightening our outlier detection system and tweaking our calculations. We’re still utilizing strokes gained, but have added another piece to the puzzle – statistical significance.
All testing was conducted inside our fully independent test facility located in Virginia. All testers used Bridgestone Tour B-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 GCQuad. All head data was captured using the Foresight’s HMT.
- SHOTS HIT: 9,199
- DATA POINTS: 662,328
- TIME: 120 hours
- TESTERS: 20
- HANDICAP RANGE: +2 – 15
- AGE RANGE: 25 – 83
- DRIVER SWING SPEED RANGE: 80 mph – 120 mph
- IRONS TESTED: Three irons, a short, middle, and long iron from each set
Data. Aggregated. Normalized. Delivered.
RESULTS AND RANKINGS
For all MyGolfSpy Most Wanted Testing, we yield to only one boss – the launch monitor. There is no panel of judges, no round-table discussions and certainly no voting. As with all Most Wanted tests, we collected the standard set of launch monitor metrics (ball speed, launch angle, spin rates, distance, offline, etc.).
Our Most Wanted winner is the club that finished in the statistically significant top group (based on Strokes Gained) for the highest percentage of our testers. To simplify things a bit, we call the final order TRUERank; a metric that includes the order of finish (rank), along with the percentage of golfers for whom each club was shown to be in the top group.
For more information, view our How We Test page.
2018 Best Game Improvement Irons
2018 Most Wanted Game Improvement Iron Data
2018 Most Wanted Game Improvement Rankings
Club Name | Long Iron Rank | Mid Iron Rank | Short Iron Rank | TRUERank | % in Top Group |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Srixon Z585 | 2nd | 4th | 1st | 1st | 67% |
Callaway Rogue | 6th | 7th | 2nd | 2nd | 58% |
TaylorMade M4 | 7th | 1st | 4th | 3rd | 57% |
Cleveland Launcher CBX | 4th | 2nd | 11th | 4th | 53% |
TaylorMade M3 | 4th | 11th | 4th | 4th | 53% |
Fourteen TC 544 | 2nd | 2nd | 16th | 6th | 52% |
Wilson Staff C300 | 15th | 4th | 4th | 7th | 50% |
Mizuno JPX 919 Hot Metal | 1st | 16th | 11th | 7th | 50% |
PING G400 | 15th | 11th | 3rd | 9th | 48% |
Callaway EPIC | 7th | 4th | 11th | 9th | 48% |
Cobra KING F8 ONE | 7th | 7th | 7th | 9th | 48% |
PING G700 | 7th | 7th | 7th | 9th | 48% |
Cobra KING F8 | 13th | 11th | 7th | 13th | 45% |
Titleist 718 AP1 | 13th | 11th | 11th | 14th | 43% |
Ben Hogan EDGE | 7th | 16th | 7th | 14th | 43% |
Tommy Armour TA1 | 15th | 15th | 11th | 16th | 40% |
VEGA Mizar | 7th | 7th | 17th | 17th | 37% |
Below you’ll find the data from our 2018 Most Wanted Game Improvement Iron 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.
Mike Wood
6 years ago
In looking at the data table for your 2018 Most Wanted Game Improvement Irons, the last column is titled “Shot Area”. What do the data in that column represent? In other words, how is Shot Area defined? Does it represent the total area covered by all shots (Short/Long/Left/Right of target) for a given iron?