The perfect iron - can it be made?

[MPAndreassi]

21 hours ago, bladehunter said:

T100.  

This. 

[bladehunter]

Callaway legacy black if you’re wanting forged , wide sole , and little to no offset.  Probably the best GI iron ever made.  Ever.  It’s nasty good feeling , and I don’t see how the sole isn’t wide enough for anyone. 

[tdeutmeyer]

I would buy a satin chrome, forged set of Ping Eye 2+ irons with stronger lofts and less offset.  Zz-65 shafts.

[5baytjd]

11 hours ago, wam78 said:

 Sold my beloved bridgestone cb’s

If they fall into the "beloved" category, don't EVER sell 'em !

[ChipNRun]

On 4/10/2021 at 6:35 PM, barnum1 said:

If we start with feel, would it be possible to make a forged club with the same forgiveness? Or is the cast process a necessity to be able design the club to make it forgiving?

 

Forging and casting are the two primary processes for fabricating golf clubheads. The clubhead design determines degree of forgiveness.

 

Forged irons tend to cost more, so you find fewer GI or SGI irons which are forged rather than cast.

 

One of the exceptions to this was the Nike VR.S Forged irons (2012 release). I encountered the club late morning on a Friday demo day before post-lunch herds arrived. I got to hit 10 shots each with 4i, 6i, 8i and AW. The stock shaft was a special NS Pro HT (high trajectory) shaft.

 

The shots all flew nice and high, and I could even hit the 4i off the deck with no distance loss. Action through the turf was quite good. I ended up doing a positive review on the irons for another golf blog.

 

I did advise golfers, however, to avoid the HT shaft as it tended to balloon the 8i and AW. Almost too forgiving with the high-launch shaft.

 

[jplroper]

11 hours ago, cgasucks said:

The perfect iron was created long ago.  It was this.

 

     I was thinking the same thing before I saw your post. The great thing is you can buy this perfection for about $100 a set.

[cgasucks]

14 minutes ago, jplroper said:

     I was thinking the same thing before I saw your post. The great thing is you can buy this perfection for about $100 a set.

I got my 845s in a 1-SW for $100....CDN.

[shoot4par]

On 4/10/2021 at 10:41 PM, phizzy30 said:

To me, the perfect set is a players cb or mb that offers some level of forgiveness, forged and where I can work the ball both ways and hit it high and low.  I don't get along with are the Miura Baby Blades for example.  I have tried my father's old Honma blades from the 90's and the heads are tiny and the sweet spot is the size of a dime.  The Baby Blades are similar.  Had a chance about 8 years ago to try one of buddy's at the time.  While she is a thing of beauty, it would punish on even slight mis hits.  It's not practical or playable for me especially when I used to play in tournaments back in the day.  The irons I have now are perfect for me.  Blades but as forgiving as most player's irons including cbs.  I can hit them low, high and work them if need be.  They also feel like butter when struck right. 

 

 

You don't say..... I second that opinion. What fool would play those? Golf's hard enough. 😂

[Haber]

Has to be Srixon 7 series irons. I’ve been playing the 785’s for 2 years now and the honeymoon phase hasn’t worn off. A flushed shot feels buttery soft and there’s enough help that off center strikes aren’t too badly punished. 

[Yoshifan151]

If you have the money, NCW can make an iron exactly how you want it (which I'll hopefully do in the future).

[OsnolaKinnard]

On 4/10/2021 at 8:47 PM, TexasTBag said:

X14 pro!

I came here to post this.

[Stonewalled]

Like others have mentioned everyone's idea of perfect will be a little  different. Finding perfect can take a lot of trial and error. I'm a big fan of Ping irons, among other's, had some G410's last year had very similar results with them as you are experencing with the G425's. Forgiving but not great feeling.  On the looks factor I'm thinking the G425's are better looking than the G410's by a long shot. Very similar irons but the 425's have a minimal look to them, almost snagged a set but held off. 

 

I have some Ping Rapture V2 irons, I love the feel of the titanium face vs the standard face of the G15, almost identical irons but to me the V2's felt way better, wasn't even a contest feel wise for me. Not sure why the Titanium feels better to me but I like it.   I found some V2's in Japan specs, (lower offset) these feel pretty good, but they are more in the SGI category, wish they were a bit more compact. I was looking on the Maltby Playability site and the 2006 Ping Raptures seemed to be closer to what I was looking for. I was luckily able to find a set of J-Spec 2006 Raptures in my specs. I had never even seen a set for sale never mind in my specs, so I eagerly waited there arrival. Was able to try them out a few times this spring, I was very impressed with the feel, distance and dispersion. I was thinking to myself these are the perfect clubs for my swing. Lower CG closer to the toe, with the right lie angle does wonders for getting the ball closer to the hole with less strokes. 

 

I have some Ping i5's, they feel like a forged iron when struck well, kind of a midsize iron with forgiveness. Very accurate irons, but a club short compared to my Stenson's. Always wondered why Ping couldn't  make a club in the i5 size with a Titanium face and 2021 tech?  I did find some Ping i5  wedges, U & SW & LW's, been pretty pleased with them so far. 2006 seems to be my year. 

 

Best of luck in your search. 

[Mitchell]

On 4/10/2021 at 11:48 PM, bladehunter said:

T100.  

Or 962b 😀

[bladehunter]

19 minutes ago, Mitchell said:

Or 962b 😀

Absolutely 

[Mitchell]

50 minutes ago, bladehunter said:

Absolutely 

....back in the bag, Miura stuff sold...I will just calmly back away before some arrive with the torches and pitchforks.

[Stinger83]

they made that perfect iron already. - it's called the PING blueprint 

[Feelingofgreatness]

If you like PING and want something that feels better and don't show the cavity, check out PXG. Both their 0211 and their 0311 perform great and sound and feel great.

[Scootre]

Take the tech of the ZX5 in the head shape of the ZX7 (narrower sole). 

[tomc262]

On 4/11/2021 at 8:35 AM, joostin said:

The type of steel will affect the feel more than the process of forging or casting.  It's just that certain types are more commonly used or are more friendly for each process.  You can cast "soft" 1020 steel.  You can also forge "hard" stainless steel.

 

A one-piece forging process is limited to the designs that can be done.  Casting can open the door to more design options that won't be possible to forging.  Multi-piece construction can open the door even more.

 

In this case more forgiveness means getting MOI as high as possible, meaning you have to move mass away from the center of the face as much as possible and get the center of gravity as far back as possible to minimize twisting on off-center hits.  Casting and multi-piece designs can help accomplish this, though sometimes they can forge the face or something else (and call it "forged").  Hiding the cavity back may actually help distribute weight rearward to help this cause.

 

Gotta agree with you and everyone that perfect "for me" doesn't apply across the board.  There are definitely irons that have stood the test of time from pros to ams... Eye2.  And those that are cult-ish on wrx - like J15CB, Z745, ... - that combine clean looks, feel, and some kind of forgiveness.  Those would be my perfect ones as well. 

Eye2's for sure! As a 45 y/o with a non-Wxer 100 mph driver swing speed I had to mark through the numbers and increased them by 2. Hitting by becu 9i just like my old 7i. 😉