These New Bettinardi Irons Require A Tough Decision

When Bettinardi launched their first irons in 2024, you had to decide if you were a muscle-back or cavity-back player. For their 2025 limited-edition irons, there is an even tougher decision to make.

Do you prefer Black Rainbow or Oil-Rubbed Bronze?

While the overall builds of the Bettinardi CB24 and MB24 irons are the same this year, the finishes are new and they are spectacular.

Previously, if you wanted a set of Bettinardi irons in an exotic finish, you had to have the luck (and the cash) to snag a set in The Hive.

As of today, Bettinardi has removed luck from the acquiring fancy irons requirement list.

Pre-orders begin today for both versions of irons. They are available in left and right dexterities, finished in either the darkly chromatic Black Rainbow PVD or the classically antique Oil-Rubbed Bronze PVD.

Before we look at the new finishes, let’s rehash the Bettinardi irons basics.

The Bettinardi MB24 and CB24 irons

In March of 2024, Bettinardi launched their first iron sets. Though they had been making wedges for a decade, I was surprised when Bettinardi moved into the irons arena. My brain says Bettinardi is a putter company.

Bettinardi actually launched two different categories of irons. The muscle-back MB24 blades were targeted toward the better player. Bettinardi built their cavity-back CB24 irons to be more forgiving. They were still not what I’d call a super game-improvement iron but there was some help in the heads.

Both sets of irons were forged from 1025 carbon steel and featured tungsten and military-grade ceramic matrix composite (CMC) inclusions. The latter two elements were positioned at different spots before forging. This allowed Bettinardi to precisely position the center of gravity in each iron head. By doing so, Bettinardi’s engineers were able to fine-tune launch, spin and gapping values for each head.

The new finish options

For the new limited-edition Bettinardi MB24 and CB24 irons, all of the original build characteristics are the same as the previous sets. The big change this year is the replacement of the Diamond Blast finish with either Black Rainbow PVD or Oil-Rubbed Bronze PVD.

“With these new finishes, we set out to bring the visual energy and attention to detail from our putter line to our forged irons. This drop reflects the same high-performance foundation with an elevated sense of design.”

–Sam Bettinardi, President of Bettinardi Golf

In most situations, I’d give a company grief for rolling out the same product with a new paint job. I’m willing to give Bettinardi a bit of a pass this time for a couple of reasons.

First of all, I’m not sure the majority of the purchasing public was aware that “putter company” Bettinardi was now making irons. Second of all, the finishes are so cool-looking that I forgot to be cynical.

Just like with the original irons, Bettinardi gives you a whole mess of build choices on their website when you order your irons. Get all of the loft/lie/length, shaft and grip choices dialed in and then make the finish choice.

Here are the renderings of the heads with the various finishes:

Bettinardi CB24 and MB24 irons: Oil-Rubbed Bronze

Bettinardi CB24 and MB24 irons: Black Rainbow

Pre-orders begin today, in-hand review coming soon

Did you pick your favorite finish? I went back and forth between the two a number of times. The Oil-Rubbed Bronze looks classic enough to be from ancient Greece and totally different from other irons out there. These will stand out on the course.

In the end, I went with the Black Rainbow finish on my CB24 irons. I just kept staring at the colors in the cavity and how they made the trademark Bettinardi hexagons pop. I expect the non-cavity parts of the irons will wear out with use. However, the cavities should be visually spectacular for a long time.

I’ve submitted my Black Rainbow CB24 order. As of today, you can pre-order your Bettinardi irons as well. If you are in the Chicago area and looking for a fitting, head to Bettinardi’s Studio B facility. Their fitters will dial in your build.

You’ll still need to make the finish decision but Bettinardi’s club fitters can help you figure out all of the other specs.

Leave a comment below with your favorite finish. I’ll follow up in a few weeks with some in-hand photos and a report on how they worked out on the course.

Find out more and pre-order your Bettinardi irons today at Bettinardi.com

In-Hand Photos of the Bettinardi Black Rainbow CB24 irons

As luck would have it, the brown truck of golf treasures just dropped off my set of Bettinardi irons. Naturally, I had to grab some quick snaps for you to enjoy.

As expected, the Black Rainbow finish is spectacular. The colors change with the angles of the sun. The cavity iridescence is gorgeous!

It will be interesting to see how the finish at the impact sites wears, but the cavity colors should endure nicely.

All in all, I think I made the correct finish decision, but that Oil-Rubbed Bronze is nice too. Now I’m off to get these dirty.