MEMBER REVIEWS: Sub70 639 Forged Irons! See What Members Are Saying!

Glad to see it was a pair of established users, and not one of those (many) fly-by-night folks that signed up for the forums just to win a new set of irons. Really looking forward to seeing the reviews!

So let me start with the obvious - huge thanks to Sub70 for this awesome opportunity and of course thanks to GolfWRX for helping to make it happen. I was already aware of Sub70 via Instagram and thought they had some cool looking stuff so naturally I was interested when I saw the posting to enter to be a tester. Totally blown away when I found out I was one of the ones chosen! After submitting my order/specs, I started following Sub70 and reading up on the company. Very cool to hear the history and it wasn't until I read up that I discovered Jason is also the one behind Hurricane Golf, who I've definitely done business with in the past. It was also refreshing to read some comments/reviews and just hear endless props for how awesome the customer service experience is and how Jason himself goes out of his way to help their clients. In less than two day's time, I discovered this was 100% true....but more on that in a few. First, here's what my requested makeup/build consisted of:

Models/Makeup: 639 Forged CB (4-7), 639 Forged MB (8-P)

Shaft: KBS $-Taper Lite 100 stiff flex (black nickel finish, no hard or soft stepping)

Others: 1* flat, -1/4", Golf Pride MCC+4 grips, D2 sw

Here's the link to their product page if you'd like to check out the specs: https://www.golfsub70.com/sub-70-639-forged-irons-combo.html

My current set is what's in my signature - Bridgestone Tour B X-CB's w/ KBS $-Taper 120 S. I've been playing these guys for almost 2 years now and have loved them. Granted I've never hit the infamous J-15's but these irons have been among the best I've owned. I think this is going to be a really cool comparison.

I just received them yesterday evening and have not yet been able to hit them, but just to kick this off I wanted to start by providing some initial thoughts right out of the box, explain the minor issue I've experienced, and share some early photos.Initial Thoughts

Right away the company-branded black box was a nice touch, very cool looking. The hand-written note and Sub70 swag was also a nice bonus and much-appreciated. Right away as I pulled off the bubble wrap on each head, I was impressed by the initial appearance - they just grab your attention with the unique milling and sharp lines. Once I got them all unpacked and pulled off some of the plastic wrappings, I was able to evaluate the head shapes/sizes: The 639 CB's are exactly what you would expect to see in a player's cavity - fairly minimal offset, average toplines (maybe a hair thick), and slightly small heal to toe. I'll be following up soon with comparison shots with my B-Stones but I might go as far as to say the offset is a bit less in the Sub70. The MB's are interesting and not quite what I was expecting (although it's part of why I'm excited to try them). Surprisingly, the offset and the topline thickness is actually greater than the CB's. Additionally, the offset minorly increases as you go from the 8 to the wedge (I purposely pictured the 9 below to demonstrate this). As someone who has only hit some blades here and there and never actually owned a set, I thought this would be a great way to introduce them into my scoring irons as it's something I've been thinking of doing anyway. When looking down at address, the design of these blades really give you the impression that they should be easy to hit. So yeah.....irons that have more control that you would expect in a blade but possibly more forgiveness than your average blade? Ok, I'm in.

Oh.....and the black $-Tapers just look awesome. You might have noticed these are the Lite’s even though I currently play the 120’s. Going a little lighter in the irons was on my radar anyway, so it’s a perfect opportunity as I have come to really like the flight and feel of the $-Taper profile.Minor Issue (and awesome CS)

So as I started pulling each iron out of the box and doing what we all do - couple waggles per club - I started noticing something felt odd right away. The grips felt kinda.....tiny in my hand. In the last year or so I've gravitated towards the "+" style grips. I started with Lamkin Z-5 Swing grip in the "Standard+" size. It's basically like a "+2". I still have those on most of my clubs since we're only coming up on about a year for them, but I'm now also experimenting the Tour Velvet +4's. I'm actually digging the +4 feel, not just the softer feel of the TV. So it would happen to work out that I'm leaning towards the MCC +4 anyway and here it was an option, so I went with it. Naturally you can imagine why I was surprised when they felt small. Took a look at the butt of the grip - "UNDERSIZED". I immediately checked the build sheet fearful that I unknowingly ordered them but was relieved to see that it said "standard" on the sheet. As I went on to pull all clubs from the box, I came to find that 3 of the irons (6,7, and P) actually had standard sized grip, while the rest had the undersized. Long story short(er) - I emailed Jason and he got back to me super quick saying that he would give me a call tomorrow (today). Spoke with him on the phone earlier and he couldn't have been more helpful or set on making everything right. Explained that they had a bin that that just happened to have mixed up grips. So without going into the details, we're getting everything worked out nice and quick and I ALREADY can't say enough about Jason and how much he cares about what he puts out there.

So hopefully I'll be able to grab quick range session with just a couple of the irons tonight. It's just up at our nice and new, but unfortunately mats-only range that's only a few minutes from the house. It won't be any great test but I'm too excited to not hit at least a couple of the clubs. Playing Saturday morning but unlikely that I'll have the grip situation resolved by that point, so the first round will have to probably wait. Regardless, I'll be continuing to provide updates and certainly plenty of in-depth reviews once the full set is ready and I'm getting them on the course. I'll certainly do my best to answer all questions (although I might have to be a little absent tomorrow night as it's the wedding anniversary and i'm sure many here knows how the evening will likely go if I'm caught spending time on WRX, haha).

Here's some photos from last night, enjoy:

Glad this thread is finally here! I've pulled the trigger on a few Sub70 clubs recently and really enjoy them... Currently gaming a 639 black CB 5 iron and a 699u 4 iron... Love both clubs thus far, though my on course time has been minimal.

Bought the 4u on a whim as I was carrying 12 clubs and didn't have anything in the 215 range or anything I felt confident in flight lower... Got it, and it's been a stand out in my bag... great off the tee and great off the fairway... I'm still adjusting to having a utility iron in my setup, though...

Was playing a quick few holes and the greenskeepr had moved "my" tees back to the back tees on a par three... pin tucked behind a bunker, and my 6 iron doesn't have the juice... I should have tried to lay off the 4u and see how it did, but instead put myself in the bunker and decided to order a 5 iron. ... Had a long talk with Jason... LONG. It was a Sunday night... My wife asked me who I was talking to... it was mostly about golf... Ended up in an S400 (which I didn't know existed) as the X100 wasn't a great fit at my last fitting and I don't love the PW i bought with the S300... Jason made the non-stock shaft happen, they were a pleasure to spend money with and I will continue to spend money with them.

My 5 iron is the best feeling club in my bag, and I usually hate 5 irons... My wife has Jason's e-mail for fathers day, we will see what happens.

Well first off let me say thank you to GolfWRX and Sub70 Golf for providing the opportunity to try out a set of clubs and provide the review here! It’s a lot of pressure providing a review to lots of educated golfers here hopefully these are helpful!

I elected to get the Sub70 639mb iron, half inch over standard with the FST 125 shaft and Lamkin Crossline standard grips. My regular set was a set of old Nike Tour Issue VR Forged Split Cavity irons with True Temper Tour Concept XC1 shafts and Lamkin grips. (These Nike’s I wanna be buried with lol).

FIRST IMPRESSION:

I was informed that I had been selected to review these on Friday by Knudson and gave him the specifications to be ordered he let me know that he had sent them to Sub70. I expected at least two weeks, especially with all this madness going on, to my surprise they showed the following Thursday. That is incredibly fast and very much appreciated!!!

It is always exciting to come home to a new box of golf clubs, especially when the box is as stylish as this one...black with bold white lettering and the sweet Sub70 logo on it. It’s a very good looking box that grabs your attention and begs you to open it! Once you do you’re treated to a very personal touch, some nice extras such as logo’d tees, a ball marker, and some stickers. The personal touch really wowed me, I really appreciate stuff like that. It was a nice little note from Mr. Hiland, the founder of Sub70 Golf. In no way did this influence my opinion on the performance of the golf clubs but it definitely made me a believer in Sub70 Golf and their products!

As far as the club build is concerned, they are exactly what I had asked for length matched perfectly to my previous set and lie angles (I haven’t had them measured) feel right! Furthermore the grips and shaft labels all line up perfectly from club to club.

As far as the aesthetics of these irons, they are absolutely gorgeous (and I just found out the made a black iron!!!) the micro milling on the back of the back is a sweet touch the definition between the circles on the muscle and lines on the top create some nice definition and add some pop in the bag! Playing in Florida for a long time, I’m not really a fan of chrome irons, however these ones I could sense might change my mind! From the top on carpet they have nice sharp lines and the stamping around the hosel make this club seem like a classic Wilson blade iron from way back in the day! Very sharp looking iron!!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

Upon seeing the the box, my mind was immediately made up to go to the range and hit a few (like I already wasn’t gunna go lol). But I just brought the 3, 7, and wedge with me to try. After warming a few with my regular set I grabbed the 7 and set it down behind the ball, it looked wonderful square and nice sharp lines, chrome shining brightly! I made my swing and the ball rocketed off on a very penetrating and strong trajectory! That is something these short irons are very good at, for me at least, a nice boring ball flight with short irons. (The linger irons I need some more practice with lol, but off the tee they are exceptional!). One thing I noticed is how well these moves through the turf, the sharp edge gets into the turf easily and the sole prevents too much digging giving me the perfect dollar size divots I have been striving for! As far as distance goes I’d say these are a smidge shorter for me than my Nikes. I feel like that might be through slightly less carry, I noticed my pitch marks when I played Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were less than hole high more often than not, and I’m usually fairly good at controlling distance.

The more I played with these, the more I like them. I love how square the shorter irons setup. I love a simple square iron. The short irons make it easy to belly those wedges around the greens and snuggle them up close! They are very easy to flight, I love knocking down 8,9, and wedges with these the ball flight is pure and strong! I like these so much they went straight into my bag for everyday play...I have no qualms about using these in any competition or money games.

COMPLAINTS:

As much as I love these, the look, the feel, the presentation, there is one problem that doesn’t bother me but might make irk others. The transition from hosel to ferrule is a little rough, it’s not like it’s separating but the ferrule seems a little short, and slightly smaller diameter than the hosel. It’s not a big deal and no way affects performance, but I noticed it and feel like it should be mentioned. Other than that build quality has been fantastic!

PHOTOS:

Please feel free to message me with any questions or if you want additional pictures! Thanks again GolfWRX and Sub70 Golf for this opportunity!!

That’s what the black looks like.

That looks fantastic as well. Does it seem like the finish will hold up well?

Was Jason wearing khakis and a red shirt?

too soon to tell... It looks better in person, especially when my work boots aren’t in the background.

I hadn’t even noticed....now I do, haha

Looking forward to the reviews. These are on my short list for new irons. Would love to hear about turf interaction.

My turf interaction has been good, but I’ve never really struggled with that... it seems like a fairly standard sole, comparable to my adams cmb.

great updates guys... I happen to live just over an hour away from Sub70. I drover there last April and got fit by Jason. Hes an awesome dude who will do everything he can to help you and make sure youre happy. I played the cb 4-6 , mb 7-P all last year and have 0 complaints. Like mentioned the MB's might be slightly thicker, but it didnt bother me. These felt just as good as any club out there and performed exceptional all year long for me

I still have them and love them but I won a set of Forged Tec's I have to review through the year so ive been putting my focus on those.... but overall anyone who is looking for a high quality forged iron for under $600, you won't find better!

Looking at my five iron on the range, face is definitely showing some wear. Not in a bad or unexpected way. I’ve hit a decent number of range balls on a sandy range.

ill grab pictures.

Great feedback and definitely not surprised one bit regarding your interaction with Jason. As noted, my issue was extremely minor (at least by my standards) but you could tell that Jason was really bothered by anything going wrong and wanted to make sure he took care of it ASAP.

Wear on the face after a few heavy range sessions. Doesn’t bother me any.

Any of you guys step into the ball or take the occasional huge divot?

Gosh those are pretty!

Played 18 on Saturday and while I'm waiting until I have the grips all set to put all of the Sub70's in the bag, I did decide to take out my 7 and PW and put the CB 7 and MB wedge in to at least get a couple swings with each model in on the course. Gave me a chance to hit both my current Tour B's in contrast to one of each of the new irons albeit with an extremely small sample size. Specifically I hit each one 3 times throughout the round. Quick thoughts:

The good

While I admittedly have not owned a ton of different iron sets, I think I can safely say these are the softest forgings I've ever hit or played. My BStones are certainly soft in their own right, but in a direct comparison today, both Sub70 models had a noticeably different feel at impact that I can only describe as muted/soft. Both models set up and frame the ball well, although it was definitely a bit of a different look with the wedge. The shape of the 7 is not far off of what I've been playing so that was a very easy transition. I'm very happy with the shafts - the weight change is extremely noticeable but in a good way. I can feel the club head a little more and right about now I think that's exactly what I need. Distance was on par with what I've been used to and while the flight was perfectly decent on the shots I got to hit, I'll reserve further comment on that until I'm playing the full set and have a large sample size to report.

The not-so-good

This isn't so much a negative aspect of a review as it just one of those "wow, how did that happen?" kinda things. I'm very much a classic picker and rarely dig at anything. Unfortunately I made a poor swing on the 17th with the wedge and hit it very chunky. It would appear that I got a first hand look at the potential con of playing irons as soft as these - something incredibly small (tiny little rock or something) must have gotten compressed between the ball and the face on the fat hit because as I cleaned off the club following the shot, I could feel something on the face. I looked and saw that the face actually had a small area of damage right near the center and a little high up (picture below). I was pretty blown away as I've never done this with any other club I've owned. But to end this segment on a positive note, I reached out to Jason as soon as I got home and showed him the pictures. He said it was honestly the first time he'd seen that happen and immediately offered to work with me and get it replaced if I felt I needed it. I actually told him no, I'll hold off and see if it looks like it'll have any effect but true to their reputation, he insisted that if it becomes a problem to just send it back and it'll get taken care of. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but just can't say enough about how helpful Jason is willing to be.

That's all I got for now, but I'll leave with some comparison shots between some of my current gamers and the Sub70's, as well as a picture of the face of the wedge (sorry if some of the angles aren’t fantastic...I’m quite an amateur when it comes to good comparison shots):

5 iron (Sub70 CB)

8 iron (Sub70 MB)

PW (Sub70 MB, and sorry....the MB is on the left in the first photo)

And finally, here’s the nick on the wedge face from Saturday:

I know it's early in your testing, but have you noticed any more instances of the sub70's wanting to dig vs your B'stones?

No honestly I can't say I've noticed that but again - small number of swings so far. I'll be sure to follow up on this once I have more to go off of.

Thanks for jumping in Jay! Yeah....Jason pretty much echoed the exact same thoughts regarding how he'd never seen that before but of course was more than willing to help. I hate to say it but I think we can just chalk it up to nothing more than bad luck, haha.

Looks like I'll have the grips taken care of this evening and will be starting to test out the full set this week/weekend, definitely excited to do so.

Thanks again!

I'm still waiting on my set (I didn't win here, I just won by marrying a wonderful woman) but I'm really enjoying the 699u and the 639 CB 5 iron...

The 699u is great... I had been in the market for something like it, and I have hit a variety of driving irons and utility clubs... I wanted something I could readily flight, something that felt solid and something with built in forgiveness... Definitely got all that in the Sub70.

I've found it great for punch shots and off the tee.... I haven't had much opportunity to hit it into greens, but I'm confident enough with it off the turf that I think it will be just fine... I wanted a club that performed differently that my hybrid and the 699u fit the bill perfectly... Look good, feel good, hit good. Proforce V2 shaft is my favorite and it was built exactly to my specs... I'll provide pictures if anyone is interested.

The 639 five iron was a test club to see if I wanted a whole set of Sub70... My wife bought me a set for father's day... so I think we can say the experiment was a success. I went with black (pictures above) and Jason recommended the s400 shaft after a long chat on the phone... Speaking of Jason (and Jay)... wonderful customer service... Just good guys... Jay tossed me to Jason on a question he wasn't comfortable with because he knew Jason would be happy to take the time to answer it... We discussed shafts and preferences for a long time... I had never heard of the S400 (i'm a shame to the GolfWRX family) but they are in the sweet spot for me between the S300 and the X100... I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing how they perform in the other irons.

Five iron has always been my least favorite club... I've always thought I SHOULD hit it better and have never managed to get it to perform the way I want it to... I've always loved 6 irons, so I thought the 5 iron should be a strong club for me... The 639 5 iron is a good fit for me... not sure what it is, but it looks great and I'm happy to attack greens with it. I haven't notched my first eagle with a Sub70 in my hand, but I'm playing tomorrow and will try to get it done.

If you are in the market for a new set of clubs, and are trying to figure out how to get a custom set for a used price... Sub70 worked for me. I wasn't ready to drop $150 a club on a new set of irons... I was happy to drop $112 on the ones I have (upgraded shafts and grips). Check them out!

Got some more time in over the weekend with the Sub70s, so I figured I'd check in:

699u - 4 iron... I really like this club. It fills a niche I had never really worried about... Solid low ball flight, explosive and forgiving, but I'm still able to work it. Hit my best shot of the weekend with it out of the rough and around a tree... I really like the look and feel of this club. Still working on getting used to using it in the right situations and have some user error problems (I still have to put a good swing on the ball)

639 Black CB 5 iron - Still really like this club. Looks great, love the shaft that Jason recommended. 5 iron has always been a tough spot for me... especially since I play clubs +3/4... It's built well and performs exactly how I expect it to. Hasn't seen much on course play, as I don't often hit a 5 iron (and have been using the 4u as my rescue club) but it's a range hero for sure. Face shows some wear, but club still looks great.

I'm still excited to buy a whole set of the 639s, but that dream is on hold for a little while right now... I think sub70 fits a nice niche of high level customer service, well built equipment and great pricing. Jason and Jay are both great and genuinely want to deliver the best possible product to their customers.

I'd love to hear how others are faring with their equipment!

Good call....definitely time for a check in from me! Here's been my recent timeline and thoughts:
Early last week
The replacement grips arrived nice and quick...obviously no issues as they were the correct ones. I swapped them out that day and was ready to roll.
Later last week
I was itching to get in a range session with the full set but I just couldn't bring myself to go to the newer place right by my house and subject them to mats for the first time. So I experimented and went to a place I'd never been but was still a reasonable distance away (~15-20 min). I knew this place had a grass tee area but had to cross my fingers that it was usable. Fortunately it was and I proceeded to get in a nice session hitting every iron off of a nice surface. Granted I'm ALWAYS prone to striking it much better on the range than the course but man, some of the strikes were just eye-opening. So incredibly soft and flighting pretty much exactly as I'd like to see it. As a ~13-capper, I don't claim to be able to work the ball both ways or anything....but I generally look for either a straight or slightly left-to-right flight with virtually all clubs in my bag. I was getting just that with the exceptions of a few bad swings here and there.
This past weekend
Played 18 Saturday morning and got to have my first on-course experience with the full set in play. Certainly there are factors to consider - honeymoon period, new sticks = motivation to have better focus/mechanics, etc. But....I actually had the best ball striking round I've had in some time. Unfortunately at same time my putter went ice cold so there's no great score to report, haha. I know I previously reported on my impression of the looks, but to add a couple things: the CB-to-MB blends together REALLY well. This actually becomes more noticeable when you're in a round and pulling different clubs. I think at times I forgot that sometimes I had a CB in my hand and sometimes it was an MB. My opinion of the look of the PW still stands, but that's about the closest thing to a negative you're going to get out of me in that department. The 8 and 9 irons are fantastic to look down at and coincidentally I hit both of those clubs multiple times. In fact I had my shot of the round with the 9 - very well struck from the right side of the fairway, ball found the right front portion of the green and then used the contours to feed down to about 4 feet from the hole (even made that putt! About the only thing the putter did right all day, haha). I found the forgiveness to be right on point with other players-CB irons I've played recently, including my Bridgestones, which is perfectly fine. Added forgiveness is always great but at the same time, you expect irons of this type of design to give you that feedback and let you know if you missed the center - the 639's definitely deliver that but I will say.....I found no drop off between the CB's and the MB's. Maybe it's just the nature of it being easier to find the center of the face on a short iron, but either way.....the 639's impressed me in this category for sure.
I did want to make a quick mention on the shafts - I know the important thing here is feedback on the heads, but VERY glad I was able to pair them with these shafts. Sounds cliche, but it's probably exactly as marketing would suggest - I'm getting virtually the same type of flight that I'm used to with the $-Taper 120, but the reduction in weight simply changes the feel "in-swing". I really couldn't have asked for more in that area.
I'll plan to follow up again sometime after the holiday weekend since I'm definitely getting in 3 rounds over that time.@Myherobobhope - really cool to hear your experience with the 699u. I used to love hitting my 4 iron but not quite as much recently. I may consider demoing one of those guys and see if I might benefit from having something more forgiving and versatile in that spot.

Sweet, appreciate the feedback!

Sorry.....just realized that there are two things I meant to mention and forgot:

Turf interaction

I know this question has been asked a couple times over and I certainly didn't want anyone to think I was ignoring it but, I have to be very honest - I'm definitely a classic picker through-and-through. With short irons, small divots are not uncommon but that's about the extent of it. As I've heard said before, I'm kind of a superintendent's dream - not many blades of grass are damaged by the making of my rounds, haha. So ultimately I'm not a good source for this information but fortunately a couple others in this thread are commenting on it.

Value

I'd really be remiss if I didn't echo the same thoughts I've heard from others. When you consider what you'll pay going through Sub70 for your choice of different iron types (CB's, MB's, player's distance, etc), custom shaft/grip options, and a fresh build just for you regardless of what you pick, there's no comparison for what you're getting for the money. I recently listened to Knudson's TG2 podcast in which he reviewed the 699 and 699 pro. He reiterated several times how the price point is unbeatable for the level of product you're getting. I can't agree more in my short experience so far.

Such good feedback! Great clubs, great pricing, even better customer service. I've been on the fence with giving Sub70 a try, but this certainly helps... will be looking into a fairway wood ASAP!

Still interested in this... just recently got some Sub70 fairways and loving them. Wouldn't mind trying out some irons..