I've said it before, but Jay's detailed reviews have opened my eyes to the possibilities of my being able to test some clubs that I used to think were beyond my skill level. I'll also walk into my next fitting with a pre-curated list of irons that I wish to try.
My thoughts exactly! Never even considered trying any of these irons in the past. But definitely opened my eyes. I was in the simulator at my club today and they had a set of PXG 0311 T (Gen 5 I believe) and I couldn’t believe how good I was hitting them. They looked super compact at address with very little offset. They just felt so pure. I’m a firm believer on what looks confident to you at address definitely plays a part.
I switched out from the ‘21 p790’s to the i230’s last year. I may have lost half a club of distance but the distance dispersion and spin control is so much more consistent with the i230’s. Great all rounder.
Definitive body of work you have there Jay. Congratulations on bringing it all together in such a concise explanation. Your research allows us to cut through the OEM’s marketing jargon and make more informed decisions. It really is invaluable so thank you. I was surprised to see the blueprints not in the top half and amazed to see the 241,s do so so well! Incredible!
The amount of detail and thoughtfulness that you put in your reviews are unrivaled. Straight up raw data to back everything up. This is honestly what separates you from everyone else. You have opened my eyes to clubs that I normally thought I would never put in my bag. But now I am definitely having second thoughts. I just swung some PXG today at my club in the simulator. 0311 T Gen 5. I’m not sure if it was the much smaller topline and compact footprint, but I love how these clubs set up at address. They just felt pure. I feel like down the road it would make me a better ball striker with less room of error if that makes sense. It is all what you are comfortable with at address, and they look spectacular when you frame the ball. I am definitely getting fit for new irons next season and I am also keeping an open mind on swinging everything. Thanks again!
Great video sir. I came to the same conclusion myself through numerous fittings. The i230’s are the best players iron out there in every sense. My greens in regulation has gone up 8% since I put them in play this spring and my handicap is down 3 strokes. Can’t say enough good things about the i230. It’s the first ping iron I’ve owned and I’ll be on the look out for its replacement whenever Ping decides it’s time.
Probably not until September or so next year. Although Ping being Ping if they haven't got anything that in their opinion beats the i230 they won't release for release sake and it might be even longer before it's replaced 👍
Brilliantly detailed review. Just got fitted and the Mizuno 243 came out on top, but I didn't get to try all of these yet. Would love to see a review of Haitch Golf from Australia. Looks to have a bit of potential in the DTC market
Cannot agree more with the Ping I230. I spent two fitting sessions to pick a winner and have now been playing these I230's for 3 months and they are fantastic. Do everything well and I agree that they are forgiving for players irons.
Jay - this is the benchmark of golf club reviews , superb! What does surprise when comparing these results to the game improvement sector is the forgiveness stats as you have identified. Does make you think!!
Wonderful video! Answers a lot of questions for me and confirms a lot of my subjective experiences. I started playing seriously just a couple of years ago. Started with PXG 0211 and progressed to the P model as my swing got better. Found a used set Pro 223 irons in my shaft specs, based on your content and comparisons, took a chance on them. They are working out great. Definitely need the help with low shots. That's where the hollow bodied irons haven't worked the best for me. I totally agree about the forgiveness of this class of irons. I'm happy with the 223 irons and confident from this video that they are the right choice for me. Those heat maps and comparisons available through your membership are fantastic.
Really glad you have found a nice set of irons that are fitted and can grow along with you as you improve. Also happy that you like the heatmaps and appreciate the work that has gone into creating them and also adding to the increasing database of irons 👍👍
A great analysis as always, Ive had the I230 a couple of years great clubs most consistent ive played and can't see me taking them out the bag for a while
Great detailed and stat driven video as always. The amount of time and work involved here is unbelievable. I know Titleist doesn't respond to your emails.... would've loved to see T100 in here. My 2021 T100S irons are incredibly forgiving with i believe 70-85 grams of tungsten in the heel & toe of each mid to long iron. I can attest to this: I've hit a 7 iron once on the edge of the border of grooves towards the toe and i lost only about 3-5 yards and direction was spot on. amazing clubs. They'll be in my bag until the grooves wear out !!
I used to wonder why people went on about feel so much, until I started playing forged irons with excellent feel. Maybe this makes me a golf snob, but I can't go back now, even if I should. It's night and day. It's great to see that you can have forgiveness and feel. Also, I don't know if a relatively compact head helps to make me focus more, but I tend to hit more compact heads better. Plus, aside from feel, I think the turf interaction makes the visceral sensation of striking a golf ball much more pleasing.
Its not until you do this kind of data backed transparent conclusion that the Players sector are more helpful that marketing says, that the myth is well on the way to be busted. There are clear advantages that the other categories have over the Players sector, but for a lot of golfers the Players sector also brings in qualities that certain golfers appreciate 👍
Until I'm playing for big money (which I will never be), feel will always be a very important factor for me. Just makes the game so much more enjoyable for me.
I built up a set of King Tour irons, 3-GW, about 6 weeks ago. I've been thoroughly pleased with them. Great irons. They replaced my ZX7 irons that were due to be replaced. I was debating between the King Tour irons and the Mizuno Pro 243 irons. However, I got an incredible deal on the King Tour heads so that's what ultimately made the decision.
I was not expecting the top of the crop Iron, but I'm not entirely surprised. Basing a lot of the choice on forgiveness, it adds up. Another great list 🙌🏽
All amazing options for golfers of many abilities. Mainly it's finding an iron that suits your standard miss strike point, with the face speed and launch and spin properties that you need. After that it's about testing the short list for an unbiased club selection 👍
Awesome video, really surprising results. So you’re saying the Mizuno 243 is only 4% less forgiving across the face vs jpx 925 pro? Might switch to the 243s in a few years when I wanna divorce my 923s if that’s the case
Great video. I would like to see you include an assessment of how well or not irons perform high on the face. Appreciate that from a mat or tight lie a high strike implies ground first contact - but in reality there are plenty of shots on the course where this matters (e.g. teed up on par threes, semi rough, and even most of the fairways on the continent where the ball is effectively teed up). For me personally, this is very much a factor.
I sum i up to, if you have high swingspeed. You should go with cb irons cuz you dont need distanse and the springy faces? Cb and mb have more even speed all over the face? Very interesting video. Thx for all your work!
Being honest I'd probably maybe put the P7CB slightly ahead of the MP243 at least in 7 irons, as soon as you go into 8 iron down, then the 1025E is comparable. So on balance it's marginally better 👍
I have the i230's in 4 and 5 iron and Blueprint S in 6-9. I hit my 4-5 better than I hit my 7 Blueprint, so that goes to show how easy they are to hit. As a 9 handicap, I think anyone could play them tbh.
I was buying all the hype too, but I gotta admit this is a much more objective review. The i230 and 243 dispersion patterns on CoolClubs are both really solid as well meaning they are also fairly accurate
So hard to believe that the Mizuno 241 is more forgiving than the new P770, that just seems crazy to me! I know they have more loft which helps and also a less springy face which in a way helps with drop off but to think that those blades are only 5 clubs away from the i230s which are incredibly forgiving is just mind blowing to me
I’m very curious if you can do a mizuno mp59 vs the top options as the mp59 still feel great and I’m wondering if the new tech is worth the change. Ie the 245’s vs and or the Wilson Staff blades and CB.. p770… the strong degrees always makes it difficult to compare apples to Apples.
Cobra king tour 4-gw player for about 6 months. Best iron I’ve played. I’ve gamed Titleist, taylormade and yes even mizunos(still own them)in the past.
What surprises me is how high (on forgiveness) the Mizuno 241 gets. A blade being 28% more forgiving than the average club on that list is insane to me.
Both Jay and I as we looked at the data over time and questioned this many times as it just seems to counter intuitive we've rerun the math and still come to the same results. Giving up a few yards on center strikes to have much tighter dispersion across the face needs to every golfers goal for lower scores.
Is the scoring comparable from club category to club category. For example, if I drop the i230 in the players distance category would it win that as well? Great reviews and thank you!
The rank score at the end is across all irons, by joining the AGN youtube silver member tier you have access to the full file. But as an example the i230 is 3rd in all categories, but not far behind 1 and 2.
I'm curious. Have you ever tested a club pre and post lead or tungsten tape placed around desired areas of the perimeter? I can't help but wonder if a couple of bucks of tungsten tape in strategic locations will make a significant difference, and turn little orange and red squares into green.
Unfortunately I'm not shaft sensitive so even a massive change in weight or bend profile makes no difference to my delivery dynamics and as such ball dynamics so if I did this such test it would show that all shafts are the same..... Of which I can categorically say they are not. Shafts for the vast majority of golfers make a huge difference. But for me, luckily due to the above with getting media samples in weird specs sometimes, it's very useful 👍
I have already reached out to them after their strong marketing plan on social media platforms..... Haven't heard anything back after they said they would get back to me..... That was October the 1st......sure hope their customer services are better and quicker to respond 🤔
Good point I haven't included them in the list. I see if there are enough data points to be able to create a heat map for it. If I can do it I'll put it up on the master compare file that my UA-cam Members can access whenever they want 👍
Fantastic review. As an i210 player I may have an odd view of the i230 - I think the i210 performs better, at least in my hands, especially on spin where the i210s spin just a touch more.
As always in golf..... If its not broke don't fix it. The fact that you have found the set that works best for you is great and long may it continue and you enjoy your golf 👍
Nobody else has commented on this, and I reckon Jay that you might be waiting for this question from me 😂 so here goes: Are the Wilson Staff blades & CB’s the best combo set available? Given how similarly they perform, one could argue “just play the blades and forget about the CB”. But there is always that mental side to golf, where no matter what the stats say, your eyes & brain can play tricks on you. So if the perimeter weighting of the CB gives you confidence, you can play the 4-6 irons as CB, and play 7-PW in the blade, knowing you’ll still be as consistent as hell across the full combo set. Amazing!
Everybody take note. Don't let your handicap # determine what irons to try. Some players wither higher hcp may lose several strokes in a well fit "players" iron
@andybt3989 it's a very common happening that actually when you test all golfers that the smaller iron you put in their hand, their spray consistency of their strike gets better / tighter. The human sees the smaller iron face and concentrates that little bit more 👍👍
@@AskGolfNut yep. You can give a high handicap an oversize iron and if they don’t like the feel they won’t hit them well. I’m 17 and about to try G430 and i530 irons.
The HL isn't designed to be the most forgiving , its designed to help slow swingers get the ball up high and get good descent angles. A lot of irons in the GI sector have thinner faces to promote more speed on middle strikes but that speed drops off quicker on misses. The i230 player gives up some face speed in order to have a more consistent ball slight across the face.
How does blade length factor in (sorry if i missed it). For example 241 has a high forgiveness score but if the blade length is much smaller wouldn't that automatically make less mm to move out to the toe or while the center is small the whole blade is small. Does that factor in? Am i making sense lol
Blade size is not a factor(unless you hit so far away that you not hitting the whole ball or are outside of the groves), the loss per mm is from the measure center of the face. Doesnt matter if the blade is 30mm or 50mm long. the longer blade will give you even more room to miss but at that point no club is to blame for the shot.
@@AskGolfNut No one who knew him even slightly would ever accuse Jay of being biased, hating the word "compression" and being a "blade player", well they are different things altogether!😀
Do the forgiveness scores cross over all of the categories? I saw that the MP 245 had a -7 forgiveness score while the MP 241 had a +28. I can’t imagine that the 241 is 35 points more forgiving than the 245.
Remember Forgiveness or Consistency is a measure or middle to extremes, the Players Distance and also Game Improvement have much faster faces within their design to assist in distance creation and absolutely maximised in the Game Improvement sector. This always has a big struggle of trying to keep that speed gain from miss hits. Commonly the Players category has slow face speeds so really only played by golfers that produce the speed themselves. 👍
Do these numbers translate across categories? In other words - could I look at the numbers for the i230, i530 and G430 in their three respective videos, and draw conclusions about how one Ping iron performs compared to another, in terms of heel, toe and low strikes, face speed and spin? The reason I ask is overall, I’m somewhat surprised to see the players’ irons forgiveness look more impressive than the forgiveness in the players’ distance category.
@@andy_bickley Fascinating. And not just the best PD - the i230 for example appears to be quite a bit more forgiving than the G430, right? I would never have expected that. Any thoughts on why these results show such a difference from how OEMs market these clubs?
@@ericbradner6986 Marketing is marketing , if you make a terrible iron the PR teams still will say its "forgiving". The i230 is very much more forgiving than the G430, but you are giving up about 4 yards for the average golfer as the face is slower over all if the lofts were the same. But i think that's a very good trade off as the ball will be twice as close to your desired distance on a miss hit.
@@andy_bickley Oh I agree. I just never would have imagined that the ZX7 Mk II is more forgiving than the ZX5 Mk II, or that the Mizuno Pro 245 would be significantly less forgiving than the 241 and 243. I wonder if there’s some other way of evaluating these that would move the conclusion closer to how these are sold to customers? In other words - marketers are gonna market, obviously. But it doesn’t seem like OEMs would want their entire pitch to be completely bogus. What holes might Mizuno or Ping or another OEM try to poke in these test results? (Which isn’t to question them or criticize Jay, by the way. I think questioning and testing and poking and prodding at methodology is a good thing, and can be educational, and I’d just be curious to see what the folks who designed these irons might say.)
@@ericbradner6986it’s because PD, GI and SGI have focused heavily on maximising ball speed with hollow bodies and super thin faces, that you can get some mental numbers when struck pure out of the middle (I.e. the notorious flyer). That leads to bigger drops offs as you move away from centre strikes, that you just don’t get with blades and CB’s
I can’t help but notice that some of your numbers contradict some tests you’ve done before. For example, in the i230 vs p770(‘23) forgiveness test video you concluded that the p770 performed better than the i230 on low strikes. However in this video your numbers indicate that the i230 is considerably better low on the face compared to the ‘23 p770 (-0.09 vs -0.41). What’s the reason for this?
I had to go back to Apr 2023 for this video and the channel has come along way since then and improved data collection and accuracy. that being said the video actually didn't show a shot on the i230 from low center , the only 2 low shots we can compare are the 2 low toe shots at -9mm,-13mm for the i230 and -8mm, -14mm on the p770 and the i1230 scores 1.27 vs the 770 1.25. As i previously started our methodology and measurements have gotten much better since then.
@@andy_bickleythanks I appreciate that response. One more question. So if I am interpreting this correct, the i230 irons are EQUALLY AS FORGIVING overall as the Srixon ZX4 irons in the game improvement category video. Both scored 41%.
@@andy_bickley so I have a high swing speed but I hit it all over the face, your saying if I was willing to sacrifice 5ish% In Yardage the ZX7 would actually make the ball go where I want it more than the ZX5?
@@kieranwhitton-booth5354 in a very simplistic terms, do not buy clubs solely on our data. It should be a guide to help you narrow down what clubs to test for yourself.
I didn't forget them...... I haven't received them yet to review them. I reached out to them 6 months prior but they took so long to reply that I didnt get to do the reviews ready for these Best of 2024 videos. I am expecting them soon and should they perform well I will absolutely remake these with them included 👍
I dont think it did that poorly , its on the edge of the CB and PD and picks up some of the downsides of having a faster face. But if you consider it a PD with week loft its really good.
@@AskGolfNutI tried them recently and your numbers said the same as my hands: not as much forgiveness as I thought between them and my mp63s. Came here proving I’m wrong to reconsider an irons change😅😅
Unfortunately Titleist isn't on this list due to them not returning my emails and many attempts at communication for me to review their products. Any Titleist reviews on my channel have had to be sourced from other means. Therefore as I haven't been able to test them to evaluate them, unfortunately I can not recommend to anyone to use them. Titleist..... Answer your emails please 👍
many thanks for the test; i am very suprice by the result of the P770 off course every test can give a diff result but when i check ua-cam.com/video/8GNntfWbJ6M/v-deo.html the P770 is perfect also at heel strikes
That's not exactly perfect the middle strike is 174 and the low heel is 164/165 that's about 6% and this test is done at 1/4 or 6mm misses. the low center looks to be about 168 or 3.5% that would be -0.57% per mm , which is actually worse that our data which was -0.32% heel and -0.17% low. I have a feeling the 6mm heel only strike on that image is miss placed.
@@hansmichiels6783 Those values were all in the video , but we can discuss it further on the AGN discord ( see description for link) with a silver level channel membership you can have access to detailed data.
Brah? 🤷 Drawers as a common pattern hit toe biaaed misses and the exact opposite for Faders, they hit commonly heel biased strikes. This is due to the moving CG with the face open or closed to path, more prominent on wood heads as the CG is further away from the face 👍
@@AskGolfNut just saying swing path dictates strike pattern too. i live off the Toe even if i start with the ball near the heel. just have a strong grip and managed it over the years. As long as u dont let it twist u can survive lol.
Best comparison//review channel on UA-cam. Thanks for all the hard work!
Wow, thank you for your kind words 👍
100% agree with this
And it keeps getting better. More, better and more relevant data.
@@ImaBearOk 100%. Different class this guy. Likeable. Fundamentally an excellent swing.
I've said it before, but Jay's detailed reviews have opened my eyes to the possibilities of my being able to test some clubs that I used to think were beyond my skill level. I'll also walk into my next fitting with a pre-curated list of irons that I wish to try.
My thoughts exactly! Never even considered trying any of these irons in the past. But definitely opened my eyes. I was in the simulator at my club today and they had a set of PXG 0311 T (Gen 5 I believe) and I couldn’t believe how good I was hitting them. They looked super compact at address with very little offset. They just felt so pure. I’m a firm believer on what looks confident to you at address definitely plays a part.
I switched out from the ‘21 p790’s to the i230’s last year. I may have lost half a club of distance but the distance dispersion and spin control is so much more consistent with the i230’s. Great all rounder.
wow these are super suprising results! Best golf reviews on YT hands down!
Absolutely loved the data and work put in on this video. Thank you Jay and you have a new subscriber!
Welcome aboard and Thank You 👍
Best reviews on the interwebs. Thank you for the information Jay!!
Definitive body of work you have there Jay. Congratulations on bringing it all together in such a concise explanation. Your research allows us to cut through the OEM’s marketing jargon and make more informed decisions. It really is invaluable so thank you. I was surprised to see the blueprints not in the top half and amazed to see the 241,s do so so well! Incredible!
Awesome data crunching, thank you Jay! 🔥
Glad you liked it!👍👍
The amount of detail and thoughtfulness that you put in your reviews are unrivaled. Straight up raw data to back everything up. This is honestly what separates you from everyone else. You have opened my eyes to clubs that I normally thought I would never put in my bag. But now I am definitely having second thoughts.
I just swung some PXG today at my club in the simulator. 0311 T Gen 5. I’m not sure if it was the much smaller topline and compact footprint, but I love how these clubs set up at address. They just felt pure. I feel like down the road it would make me a better ball striker with less room of error if that makes sense. It is all what you are comfortable with at address, and they look spectacular when you frame the ball. I am definitely getting fit for new irons next season and I am also keeping an open mind on swinging everything. Thanks again!
Great video sir. I came to the same conclusion myself through numerous fittings. The i230’s are the best players iron out there in every sense. My greens in regulation has gone up 8% since I put them in play this spring and my handicap is down 3 strokes. Can’t say enough good things about the i230. It’s the first ping iron I’ve owned and I’ll be on the look out for its replacement whenever Ping decides it’s time.
Probably not until September or so next year. Although Ping being Ping if they haven't got anything that in their opinion beats the i230 they won't release for release sake and it might be even longer before it's replaced 👍
Brilliantly detailed review. Just got fitted and the Mizuno 243 came out on top, but I didn't get to try all of these yet.
Would love to see a review of Haitch Golf from Australia. Looks to have a bit of potential in the DTC market
Great comparison! Thanks!
Cannot agree more with the Ping I230. I spent two fitting sessions to pick a winner and have now been playing these I230's for 3 months and they are fantastic. Do everything well and I agree that they are forgiving for players irons.
Possibly the most rounded iron that Ping have ever made 👍
Jay - this is the benchmark of golf club reviews , superb! What does surprise when comparing these results to the game improvement sector is the forgiveness stats as you have identified. Does make you think!!
Wonderful video! Answers a lot of questions for me and confirms a lot of my subjective experiences. I started playing seriously just a couple of years ago. Started with PXG 0211 and progressed to the P model as my swing got better. Found a used set Pro 223 irons in my shaft specs, based on your content and comparisons, took a chance on them. They are working out great. Definitely need the help with low shots. That's where the hollow bodied irons haven't worked the best for me. I totally agree about the forgiveness of this class of irons. I'm happy with the 223 irons and confident from this video that they are the right choice for me. Those heat maps and comparisons available through your membership are fantastic.
Really glad you have found a nice set of irons that are fitted and can grow along with you as you improve. Also happy that you like the heatmaps and appreciate the work that has gone into creating them and also adding to the increasing database of irons 👍👍
A great analysis as always, Ive had the I230 a couple of years great clubs most consistent ive played and can't see me taking them out the bag for a while
Workhorse of a UA-cam channel!! You’re the best
Great detailed and stat driven video as always. The amount of time and work involved here is unbelievable. I know Titleist doesn't respond to your emails.... would've loved to see T100 in here. My 2021 T100S irons are incredibly forgiving with i believe 70-85 grams of tungsten in the heel & toe of each mid to long iron. I can attest to this: I've hit a 7 iron once on the edge of the border of grooves towards the toe and i lost only about 3-5 yards and direction was spot on. amazing clubs. They'll be in my bag until the grooves wear out !!
I used to wonder why people went on about feel so much, until I started playing forged irons with excellent feel. Maybe this makes me a golf snob, but I can't go back now, even if I should. It's night and day. It's great to see that you can have forgiveness and feel. Also, I don't know if a relatively compact head helps to make me focus more, but I tend to hit more compact heads better. Plus, aside from feel, I think the turf interaction makes the visceral sensation of striking a golf ball much more pleasing.
Its not until you do this kind of data backed transparent conclusion that the Players sector are more helpful that marketing says, that the myth is well on the way to be busted. There are clear advantages that the other categories have over the Players sector, but for a lot of golfers the Players sector also brings in qualities that certain golfers appreciate 👍
Until I'm playing for big money (which I will never be), feel will always be a very important factor for me. Just makes the game so much more enjoyable for me.
Another great comparison! Glad to see the Cobra King Tour getting some love!
I been playing the Mizuno 245 and I just ordered the 243. Cannot wait to game them
Looking forward to this one. Thank you for all the work you put into these.
You are very welcome, let me know your thoughts 👍👍
@@AskGolfNut I’ve always had a thing for Mizunos. Your testing has me excited to try the 243’s.
I built up a set of King Tour irons, 3-GW, about 6 weeks ago. I've been thoroughly pleased with them. Great irons. They replaced my ZX7 irons that were due to be replaced. I was debating between the King Tour irons and the Mizuno Pro 243 irons. However, I got an incredible deal on the King Tour heads so that's what ultimately made the decision.
I was not expecting the top of the crop Iron, but I'm not entirely surprised. Basing a lot of the choice on forgiveness, it adds up. Another great list 🙌🏽
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed the videos 👍
Such great work in this series and well done to you sir
#1 Wilson SM blades! Just had mine bent down by a heap because Jay said so. 😎 Don't know how I ever hit the middle before! They are fantastic now.
Would love to see an "overall all irons comparison" to see the top 10
Love your content
I’ll second that Jay!
I was thinking the top 3 of each category ranked, but Top 10 would be great too
Commenting before watching. Biased hope for my winter purchase. 1. '24 770 2. King Tour 3. I230.
Overall you made decent purchases 👍👍
Great job. Mizuno blade so high up is shocking, I230 is a very popular iron on the tour as is the ZX7.
All amazing options for golfers of many abilities. Mainly it's finding an iron that suits your standard miss strike point, with the face speed and launch and spin properties that you need. After that it's about testing the short list for an unbiased club selection 👍
Awesome video, really surprising results. So you’re saying the Mizuno 243 is only 4% less forgiving across the face vs jpx 925 pro? Might switch to the 243s in a few years when I wanna divorce my 923s if that’s the case
Got a combo set of Cobra CB/MB for the past month and am absolutely loving them.
So you should, really nice irons 👍
Great video. I would like to see you include an assessment of how well or not irons perform high on the face. Appreciate that from a mat or tight lie a high strike implies ground first contact - but in reality there are plenty of shots on the course where this matters (e.g. teed up on par threes, semi rough, and even most of the fairways on the continent where the ball is effectively teed up). For me personally, this is very much a factor.
Clubs from Jays earlier reviews were all struck from the matt so no high data was ever captured. It could be something we do in the future.
I sum i up to, if you have high swingspeed. You should go with cb irons cuz you dont need distanse and the springy faces? Cb and mb have more even speed all over the face? Very interesting video. Thx for all your work!
Pretty accurate summary,
jay, how would you compare the p7cb to the mp243 in terms of feel? thanks so much for a great review again
Being honest I'd probably maybe put the P7CB slightly ahead of the MP243 at least in 7 irons, as soon as you go into 8 iron down, then the 1025E is comparable. So on balance it's marginally better 👍
Quality stuff 🎉
This is AMAZING video
I have the i230's in 4 and 5 iron and Blueprint S in 6-9. I hit my 4-5 better than I hit my 7 Blueprint, so that goes to show how easy they are to hit. As a 9 handicap, I think anyone could play them tbh.
and you wouldn't be wrong and the data also agrees with you 👍
you are the only guy anywhere demystifying the BS with pure data! Thanks so so much!
I try as best as I possibly can to give you as much useful and usable information for you to make the best buying decisions 👍👍
This is what I get for ordering the p7cb’s after seeing all the great reviews 🤣
I was buying all the hype too, but I gotta admit this is a much more objective review. The i230 and 243 dispersion patterns on CoolClubs are both really solid as well meaning they are also fairly accurate
So hard to believe that the Mizuno 241 is more forgiving than the new P770, that just seems crazy to me! I know they have more loft which helps and also a less springy face which in a way helps with drop off but to think that those blades are only 5 clubs away from the i230s which are incredibly forgiving is just mind blowing to me
Astonishing!
I’m very curious if you can do a mizuno mp59 vs the top options as the mp59 still feel great and I’m wondering if the new tech is worth the change. Ie the 245’s vs and or the Wilson Staff blades and CB.. p770… the strong degrees always makes it difficult to compare apples to Apples.
Cobra king tour 4-gw player for about 6 months. Best iron I’ve played. I’ve gamed Titleist, taylormade and yes even mizunos(still own them)in the past.
Great choice and also a great one for the years to come 👍
What surprises me is how high (on forgiveness) the Mizuno 241 gets. A blade being 28% more forgiving than the average club on that list is insane to me.
Both Jay and I as we looked at the data over time and questioned this many times as it just seems to counter intuitive we've rerun the math and still come to the same results. Giving up a few yards on center strikes to have much tighter dispersion across the face needs to every golfers goal for lower scores.
Is the scoring comparable from club category to club category. For example, if I drop the i230 in the players distance category would it win that as well? Great reviews and thank you!
The rank score at the end is across all irons, by joining the AGN youtube silver member tier you have access to the full file. But as an example the i230 is 3rd in all categories, but not far behind 1 and 2.
I'm curious. Have you ever tested a club pre and post lead or tungsten tape placed around desired areas of the perimeter? I can't help but wonder if a couple of bucks of tungsten tape in strategic locations will make a significant difference, and turn little orange and red squares into green.
Interesting concept.
Is there anyway you can do the same for shafts as you do heads?
Unfortunately I'm not shaft sensitive so even a massive change in weight or bend profile makes no difference to my delivery dynamics and as such ball dynamics so if I did this such test it would show that all shafts are the same..... Of which I can categorically say they are not. Shafts for the vast majority of golfers make a huge difference. But for me, luckily due to the above with getting media samples in weird specs sometimes, it's very useful 👍
Hi, could you please make a Review about the Avoda Comba length? Or do you already got some experience with them?
I have already reached out to them after their strong marketing plan on social media platforms..... Haven't heard anything back after they said they would get back to me..... That was October the 1st......sure hope their customer services are better and quicker to respond 🤔
I know you tested the sub70 659 cb irons, how would they fit in this list for forgiveness, face speed, and launch?
Good point I haven't included them in the list. I see if there are enough data points to be able to create a heat map for it. If I can do it I'll put it up on the master compare file that my UA-cam Members can access whenever they want 👍
Many thanks for this. I am right to think that swing speed is irrelevant here except for when you say it’s important and you mention it?
Correct, everything its designed to compared regardless of loft or swing speed.
Swing speed is irrelevant to forgiveness but for functional flight swing speed is very important 👍
Fantastic review. As an i210 player I may have an odd view of the i230 - I think the i210 performs better, at least in my hands, especially on spin where the i210s spin just a touch more.
As always in golf..... If its not broke don't fix it. The fact that you have found the set that works best for you is great and long may it continue and you enjoy your golf 👍
The goal of the data is to point people in the right direction, nobody can tell you ahead of time what the best in your hands will be.
A bit of the wise Yoda in the last few words there Andy 😊
Nobody else has commented on this, and I reckon Jay that you might be waiting for this question from me 😂 so here goes:
Are the Wilson Staff blades & CB’s the best combo set available? Given how similarly they perform, one could argue “just play the blades and forget about the CB”. But there is always that mental side to golf, where no matter what the stats say, your eyes & brain can play tricks on you. So if the perimeter weighting of the CB gives you confidence, you can play the 4-6 irons as CB, and play 7-PW in the blade, knowing you’ll still be as consistent as hell across the full combo set. Amazing!
It would be hard to argue against them being #1 Combo option if they fit your swing.
@@andy_bickley point well made: subject to fit
Everybody take note. Don't let your handicap # determine what irons to try. Some players wither higher hcp may lose several strokes in a well fit "players" iron
Spot on! I know someone was about 22 handicap and swapped Stealth irons for P790’s and played better.
@andybt3989 it's a very common happening that actually when you test all golfers that the smaller iron you put in their hand, their spray consistency of their strike gets better / tighter. The human sees the smaller iron face and concentrates that little bit more 👍👍
@@AskGolfNut yep. You can give a high handicap an oversize iron and if they don’t like the feel they won’t hit them well. I’m 17 and about to try G430 and i530 irons.
Just so you know the G430 is due to be replaced by G435 (or whatever it will be called) 👍
@@AskGolfNut yes so maybe the G430 will be discounted?
I love the fact the 241 Blade came in 4th on forgiveness 🤣
What I don’t understand is how the HL has less forgiveness a i230. Is this catagory dependent or it doesn’t matter ?
The HL isn't designed to be the most forgiving , its designed to help slow swingers get the ball up high and get good descent angles. A lot of irons in the GI sector have thinner faces to promote more speed on middle strikes but that speed drops off quicker on misses. The i230 player gives up some face speed in order to have a more consistent ball slight across the face.
How does blade length factor in (sorry if i missed it). For example 241 has a high forgiveness score but if the blade length is much smaller wouldn't that automatically make less mm to move out to the toe or while the center is small the whole blade is small. Does that factor in? Am i making sense lol
Blade size is not a factor(unless you hit so far away that you not hitting the whole ball or are outside of the groves), the loss per mm is from the measure center of the face. Doesnt matter if the blade is 30mm or 50mm long. the longer blade will give you even more room to miss but at that point no club is to blame for the shot.
Mizuno 221 all day. Forgiveness & immaculate feel.
I would agree but I'm wearing a Mizuno Hat and Top so would be called biased 😂
@@AskGolfNut 😂😂
@@AskGolfNut No one who knew him even slightly would ever accuse Jay of being biased, hating the word "compression" and being a "blade player", well they are different things altogether!😀
221s are so nice, actually chose them over the 241.
@@Doug.L me too 😂
Do the forgiveness scores cross over all of the categories? I saw that the MP 245 had a -7 forgiveness score while the MP 241 had a +28. I can’t imagine that the 241 is 35 points more forgiving than the 245.
Remember Forgiveness or Consistency is a measure or middle to extremes, the Players Distance and also Game Improvement have much faster faces within their design to assist in distance creation and absolutely maximised in the Game Improvement sector. This always has a big struggle of trying to keep that speed gain from miss hits. Commonly the Players category has slow face speeds so really only played by golfers that produce the speed themselves. 👍
Having a center speed of 1.50 and a miss of 1.48 is better for golfers than a middle of 1.54 and a miss of 1.50.
Was Titleist included in this?
No. Jay has continually tried to make contact with Titleist but to no avail. They either don’t care or are just complacent.
Do these numbers translate across categories? In other words - could I look at the numbers for the i230, i530 and G430 in their three respective videos, and draw conclusions about how one Ping iron performs compared to another, in terms of heel, toe and low strikes, face speed and spin?
The reason I ask is overall, I’m somewhat surprised to see the players’ irons forgiveness look more impressive than the forgiveness in the players’ distance category.
Yes the values are universal. And yes many of the CB's rank better than the best PD.
@@andy_bickley Fascinating. And not just the best PD - the i230 for example appears to be quite a bit more forgiving than the G430, right? I would never have expected that. Any thoughts on why these results show such a difference from how OEMs market these clubs?
@@ericbradner6986 Marketing is marketing , if you make a terrible iron the PR teams still will say its "forgiving". The i230 is very much more forgiving than the G430, but you are giving up about 4 yards for the average golfer as the face is slower over all if the lofts were the same. But i think that's a very good trade off as the ball will be twice as close to your desired distance on a miss hit.
@@andy_bickley Oh I agree. I just never would have imagined that the ZX7 Mk II is more forgiving than the ZX5 Mk II, or that the Mizuno Pro 245 would be significantly less forgiving than the 241 and 243.
I wonder if there’s some other way of evaluating these that would move the conclusion closer to how these are sold to customers? In other words - marketers are gonna market, obviously. But it doesn’t seem like OEMs would want their entire pitch to be completely bogus. What holes might Mizuno or Ping or another OEM try to poke in these test results? (Which isn’t to question them or criticize Jay, by the way. I think questioning and testing and poking and prodding at methodology is a good thing, and can be educational, and I’d just be curious to see what the folks who designed these irons might say.)
@@ericbradner6986it’s because PD, GI and SGI have focused heavily on maximising ball speed with hollow bodies and super thin faces, that you can get some mental numbers when struck pure out of the middle (I.e. the notorious flyer). That leads to bigger drops offs as you move away from centre strikes, that you just don’t get with blades and CB’s
I can’t help but notice that some of your numbers contradict some tests you’ve done before. For example, in the i230 vs p770(‘23) forgiveness test video you concluded that the p770 performed better than the i230 on low strikes. However in this video your numbers indicate that the i230 is considerably better low on the face compared to the ‘23 p770 (-0.09 vs -0.41). What’s the reason for this?
I had to go back to Apr 2023 for this video and the channel has come along way since then and improved data collection and accuracy. that being said the video actually didn't show a shot on the i230 from low center , the only 2 low shots we can compare are the 2 low toe shots at -9mm,-13mm for the i230 and -8mm, -14mm on the p770 and the i1230 scores 1.27 vs the 770 1.25. As i previously started our methodology and measurements have gotten much better since then.
What Andy says 😊👍👍👍
@@andy_bickleythanks I appreciate that response. One more question. So if I am interpreting this correct, the i230 irons are EQUALLY AS FORGIVING overall as the Srixon ZX4 irons in the game improvement category video. Both scored 41%.
@@justinsmit4372 Yes as a measure of how well those 2 clubs retain ball speed across the face they are overall very close.
Am I seeing this correctly that the Srixon ZX7 is more forgiving than the ZX5 by 5%!?!?
That is correct, the ZX5 is more in the Players distance section and gives up across face consistency for more center hit speed.
@@andy_bickley so I have a high swing speed but I hit it all over the face, your saying if I was willing to sacrifice 5ish% In Yardage the ZX7 would actually make the ball go where I want it more than the ZX5?
@@kieranwhitton-booth5354 in a very simplistic terms, do not buy clubs solely on our data. It should be a guide to help you narrow down what clubs to test for yourself.
No Titleist??
If you watch my previous Game Improvement or Players Distance irons best of video, I explain why there is no PXG and Titleist irons in the list 👍
😂😂😂😂😂 you forgot PxG…. Do a review with the Gen 7
I didn't forget them...... I haven't received them yet to review them. I reached out to them 6 months prior but they took so long to reply that I didnt get to do the reviews ready for these Best of 2024 videos.
I am expecting them soon and should they perform well I will absolutely remake these with them included 👍
@ I’ll lend you my set if you would like?
@purepower333 that's very generous of you, but I should be receiving my media samples of all iron models in the next week or so 👍👍
Very surprised how poorly p770 perform in comparison. I thought they’d be very high in this forgiving rank!
I dont think it did that poorly , its on the edge of the CB and PD and picks up some of the downsides of having a faster face. But if you consider it a PD with week loft its really good.
The new P770 is a big improvement over the old, and really it's only 1 location that causes it to drop down the just a little 👍
@@AskGolfNutI tried them recently and your numbers said the same as my hands: not as much forgiveness as I thought between them and my mp63s. Came here proving I’m wrong to reconsider an irons change😅😅
@@andy_bickleyAgree. But I was expecting more forgiveness than from CB.
So titleist isnt on here bcuz they were released 2023? I wonder which is better between t150 and mp 243. Would be very close.
Unfortunately Titleist isn't on this list due to them not returning my emails and many attempts at communication for me to review their products. Any Titleist reviews on my channel have had to be sourced from other means. Therefore as I haven't been able to test them to evaluate them, unfortunately I can not recommend to anyone to use them.
Titleist..... Answer your emails please 👍
It’s interesting that any comparison conducted by the other British reviewers that features a Titleist club, the Titleist club usually wins 🤔🤔🤔
many thanks for the test; i am very suprice by the result of the P770 off course every test can give a diff result but when i check ua-cam.com/video/8GNntfWbJ6M/v-deo.html the P770 is perfect also at heel strikes
That's not exactly perfect the middle strike is 174 and the low heel is 164/165 that's about 6% and this test is done at 1/4 or 6mm misses. the low center looks to be about 168 or 3.5% that would be -0.57% per mm , which is actually worse that our data which was -0.32% heel and -0.17% low. I have a feeling the 6mm heel only strike on that image is miss placed.
@@andy_bickley were can i find this detailed data?
@@hansmichiels6783 Those values were all in the video , but we can discuss it further on the AGN discord ( see description for link) with a silver level channel membership you can have access to detailed data.
Drawers hit Heels and Faders hit Toes brah.
Brah? 🤷 Drawers as a common pattern hit toe biaaed misses and the exact opposite for Faders, they hit commonly heel biased strikes. This is due to the moving CG with the face open or closed to path, more prominent on wood heads as the CG is further away from the face 👍
@@AskGolfNut just saying swing path dictates strike pattern too. i live off the Toe even if i start with the ball near the heel. just have a strong grip and managed it over the years. As long as u dont let it twist u can survive lol.