The new Wilson Dynapower Forged irons are going to complicate your life. Sorry. There’s no other way to look at it.
If you have your heart set on new player’s distance irons from Mizuno, Titleist, TaylorMade or any of the other usual suspects, do NOT hit the Wilson Dynapower Forged. And if you’ve pledged your undying love and devotion to your current irons, you really don’t want to hit the Wilson Dynapower Forged.
Seriously, these irons will make you rethink every decision you’ve ever made and regret every conclusion you’ve ever jumped to.
Ignore these warnings at your own peril.
You don’t usually get that kind of rash impetuosity from MyGolfSpy and, yes, the supporting material is largely anecdotal. But all I can say, my friends, is that you and I have been together on these pages for nearly 10 years now. If our relationship means anything at all to you, give these things a whack.
Maybe they’ll work for you, maybe they won’t, but they will complicate your life.
Wilson Dynapower Forged Irons: Footstep Followers
Wilson has hit the ground running in 2024. The new Staff Model and Staff Model X golf balls are promising and the new Staff Model Blades and CB irons are, quite simply, way too ridiculously sexy for words.
And now we get the new Dynapower Forged.
“It’s the most powerful player’s distance iron we’ve ever made,” says Bob Thurman, Wilson Global Golf GM and VP of R&D.
If you like to say there’s nothing new and technology is maxed out, the player’s distance category doesn’t help your argument any. It didn’t exist a decade ago, but evolution in multi-material construction, variable face thickness and face-flexing technology has allowed OEMs to create a unicorn of sorts. We now have hollow-body clubs with the looks, sound and feel that a better player appreciates. And they go like hell.
And say what you want about Wilson but the company knows player’s distance. In MyGolfSpy’s very first player’s distance testing back in 2018, the Wilson C300 Forged finished 4th overall. Two years later the D7 Forged finished first overall. In 2022, the D9 Forged finished a close second to the Mizuno Pro 225.
Those are some tough acts to follow.
“It’s hard to improve on such a high-performing iron,” says Harry Nodwell, Wilson Pro Performance Equipment Manager, “but the R&D team has made a few modifications to improve forgiveness and dispersion while creating a little more ball speed.”
How, you may ask, did R&D do all that? With a little help from a big-ass computer, that’s how.
2024: The Year of AI
Wilson Golf is part of the multi-billion-dollar Wilson Sporting Goods complex. And it may surprise you to learn it was one of the early adopters of artificial intelligence. Wilson is leveraging AI to refine two key design elements for Dynapower Forged: a new variable thickness face and updated Power Holes.
“This is where innovation comes in,” says Nodwell. “We’re always testing, always learning.”
The newly designed face technology is a further refinement of D9 Forged, which itself was a major improvement over D7 Forged in terms of forgiveness. Wilson says AI modeling has made the whole face faster while improving MOI and forgiveness on mishits.
“With the new variable face thickness, it’s a little more forgiving than the D9,” explains Nodwell. “And we’ve used AI to create a whole new Power Hole construction.”
Updated Power Hole Technology
If there’s one piece of visible technology that polarizes golfers, it’s Power Holes. Introduced in 2016, Power Hole technology is how Wilson maximizes face flex. Every OEM has face flex technology in their game-improvement and player’s distance irons. The more the face flexes, the more ball speed you get. And when you combine face flex with variable face thickness, you maximize ball speed over a wider area.
Said another (and more accurate) way, you minimize ball speed loss on less-than-perfect strikes.
“As 85 percent of golfers tend to miss toward the toe, we’ve elongated the Power Hole structure,” says Nodwell. “On D9, the structure was smaller. We’ve now increased the surface area toward the toe.”
As Wilson has moved into AI, Power Holes have become thinner, sleeker and more strategically placed. As mentioned, Wilson introduced Power Hole technology in its C200 irons and metalwoods in 2016. That first iteration had Power Holes on the top line, sole and toe. The tech was not subtle but it did work. The new Wilson Dynapower Forged irons feature Power Hole technology on the 5-, 6- and 7-irons, where distance and forgiveness are king. The 8-iron on up are Power Hole free.
“As you come down to the shorter irons, we lose the power holes,” says Nodwell. “That’s where you have a little more focus on pin-seeking and less on ball speed. You want more controllability.”
Wilson Dynapower Forged: All In the Family
As a naming convention, “Dynapower” dates back to the ‘50s. The original Dynapower moved mass lower and more toward the toe and away from the neck and hosel. That had the net effect of nudging the sweet spot more toward the center of the club face and shifting the CG lower for easier launch. Yes, OEMs have known about this since Elvis was The King and it remains club designers’ Holy Grail to this day.
The Wilson Dynapower Forged irons share much of the game-improvement DNA with its stablemate, the standard Dynapower. But where that iron was made for pure distance and, as our testing showed, little else. The Dynapower Forged adds forgiveness and accuracy. You can see hints of the original Dyna-Powered mass bar in the cavity, which pushes the CG low and more toe-ward.
Aesthetically, the Dynapower Forged leans aggressively toward the understated, with just a hint of red mixed with subtle naming. With its Staff Model clubs and balls, Wilson updated its classic shield by removing the “W/S.” But Dynapower is a different branch of the family tree and, for now anyway, is keeping the old shield.
“The W/S has its heritage,” says Nodwell. “But you can see where we’re going in the future. The new shield is a bit more modern. It’s going to be our new, major-winning shield.”
Wilson Dynapower Forged Irons: Final Thoughts
As we said, the new Wilson Dynapower Forged irons are going to complicate your life. After just a couple of range sessions, I’m already questioning my Titleist T200 commitment. If you consider the T200/TaylorMade P-790/Mizuno Pro 245/Srixon ZX5 MkII to be the gold standards in the player’s distance category, the Wilson Dynapower Forged irons don’t just hold their own: they’re demanding a seat at the head table.
Without any actual numbers yet, all I can compare is launch, ease, sound and feel. But when you hit as many irons as we MGS staffers do, all I can say is you know it when you hit it. It’s safe to say these will be contenders in our 2024 Player’s Distance Iron testing.
And in a world where the category mainstays are running anywhere from $1,200 to $1,400 per set, the Wilson Dynapower Forged irons represent a relative bargain at $999.99 for a 5-GW set. That price tag is also $100 less than the D9 Forged were when they were released two years ago.
What does that mean? Maybe nothing, or maybe something strategic. In its press release, Wilson says presale, which starts today, will be on the Wilson Golf website only. Retail availability, according to Wilson, will be at “select” locations only.
Maybe it means something. Maybe it doesn’t. As I said: complicated.
You’re also starting to see the innovative Wilson Fit AI fitting system making its way into the market. It’s a simple system that leverages artificial intelligence into the fitting process to speed it up and get you into the right head and shaft in only a handful of swings. You can find Wilson Fit AI locations on the Wilson website.
Wilson Dynapower Forged: Specs, Price and Availability
As mentioned, Wilson Dynapower Forged irons are available for presale starting today on the Wilson website.
The KBS Tour Lite is the stock steel shaft. As the name suggests, it’s a lighter-weight version of the popular KBS Tour (95 to 105 grams) and has found a home in the player’s distance category. The stock graphite shaft is the UST Recoil Dart.
Lamkin’s gray Crossline 360 is the stock grip.
The Wilson Dynapower Forged irons sell for $999.99 in steel, and $1,099.99 in graphite for a seven-piece set.
They hit retail on Tuesday, March 5.
For more information, visit the Wilson Golf website.
67ViP
3 weeks ago
These are fabulous irons, I played the D7 & D9 forged sets and these are exponentially better. Wilson sold 1200 custom sets in the first three weeks of release…an unprecedented response along with 600+ custom sets of the new staff cb & blade sets. Had to push back the release of their new staff wedges by a month to handle the volume.