Need New irons, need help!

[Yags]

I was about a 9 hcp when I got tested in 2021 and got the T100s. Since then I have played less and these irons have caused my scores to skyrocket! I am currently a 13.3 I am looking for a lot more forgiveness. I am considering the pxg 0311 P gen 6, srixon zx5, callaway apex dcb, and titleist T200-300. I have x stiff on my T100s but going back to stiff. I have a steep swing as have good ball height. I hit them all well in an indoor simulator but last time that screwed me. So looking for on course feed back. Thanks! 

[shortgameneedswork]

The Titleist T200s haven't been as forgiving for me as the Apex DCBs. 

[Byrdman2230]

Out of those options, I’d lean PXG. What about Ping i230? 

[Chunkitgood]

Irons don’t make bad shots.

 

People do.

[Arlin964]

The more game improvement/players distance models from Titleist are very good.  The option of PXG 0311 P is very highly rated.  PING i230s are wonderful.  Super forgiving for their size.

 

You say you're coming from T100.  Comparatively:

- PXG model P will be much longer blade length.  Are you ok with that?  But very forgiving on strike.

- i230s will be maybe slightly longer blade length compared to T100.  Maybe a good middle ground.

- T200 will have similar blade length, so if you're used to that and want more forgiveness, this is a good option.  T300/T350 grow a little more.

- ZX5 probably slot in near the i230/T200, but longer blade than T200.  I found that ZX5 and ZX7 don't do well for me on low strikes.  If your miss is low on the face, I'd avoid Srixon unless you go ZX4.

 

Personally speaking, I tend to find a bit more comfort in the slightly longer blade length irons. 

 

Others will suggest different ones, but these are the ones I'm most familiar with and have seen in person.

Edited June 14 by Arlin964

[Tree Levino]

15 hours ago, Chunkitgood said:

Irons don’t make bad shots.

 

People do.

 

 

 

 

 

[BCULAW]

Have you considered trying softer flex shafts?  
 

I have “fit” into KBS Tour 130x for over a decade now. Went for a titleist fitting last year - outdoors on grass with ProVs and a Trackman. No surprise, the pro fit me into KBS Tour 130x and I paired them with the 620cb heads. I played well for the honeymoon period, but scores started to climb during the winter. In a fit of frustration, I decided to go for more forgiving irons. I went with ZX7s for a spell, then with PXG 0311Ps, and then G425s. I couldn’t find the sweet spot with any of them. 
 

The best golf I’ve ever played was with a “garage” set of MP32s with DGR400 shafts. I put them back in the bag a few weeks ago and proceeded to hit greens again. Replaced them about 5 weeks ago with Pro 221s and R400 shafts and am back to playing really good golf. The heavy shaft is easy to keep in rhythm and the softer flex is easier to load. 
 

My guess is there are a lot of us swinging shafts that are too stout.  My suggestion is to go pick up a heavy weight, regular flex 7 iron shaft and try it in the T100 before you move on. You might be surprised. I’m a concert for life. 

[GoldenAges]

I have the Mizuno JPX921  hot metal pro's. I've been playing golf for over 45 years and these are the best irons I've ever played. I used to struggle with iron distance and consistency. Not anymore, and the beauty of the hot metal range is they have every player category represented. I chose players distance model with very little offset. I demo'd the Titleist range when the new models came out (100, 150, 200) and I can say if I gamed them my handicap would go backwards as well. The Mizuno's are way more forgiving. I hated the big bulky 200's and the 100's felt awful. I have played forged blades and CB's my entire life, and these irons feel even more amazing than the forged irons I've played. Leave it to Mizuno to make great feeling irons. The irons on your list that would compare to the forged version of the JPX would be the Srixon Zx5. If I were you I'd check out the Mizuno 923 hot metal pro, or if you prefer standard lofts, try the forged version. These are irreplacable for me.

 

[ldh692002]

Wilson staff cb- great players iron forged, ton of forgiveness to 

[MikeG]

6 hours ago, BCULAW said:

My guess is there are a lot of us swinging shafts that are too stout.  My suggestion is to go pick up a heavy weight, regular flex 7 iron shaft and try it in the T100 before you move on. You might be surprised. I’m a concert for life. 

I'd like to know what kind of misses the OP is getting with his irons.

 

I was fit into the same irons as the OP with SF 95 S-flex shafts (90 mph SS with a 6-iron) and hit them pretty well for the most part. After coming back after a long layoff I really struggled with them. I turned 61 last month, so I thought maybe Father Time had caught up with me and the shafts were way too stout for an old man like me. As it turned out I'd developed a significant hand path issue after I returned to play.  With that fixed, the rest of my swing remains complete garbage, but it's my normal garbage with my normal misses, and I was greatly relieved to see my 8-iron fly well past a flag on the range that was 140 yards away. On the other hand I'm still not crazy about those shafts. They feel too light and too stiff, even with easy practice/rehearsal swings. I still can't get comfortable with anything less than a full swing.    

 

The T100 heads are perfectly fine for me -- they look great, feel decent, give me nice, consistent trajectory with my flippy release and don't punish my thin or toe misses more than any other club I've used in the past dozen years or so. I'm taking them for a refit on a launch monitor in a couple of weeks to check the shafts and the rest of the specs. As I discussed with the fitter, I'm going to bring in a couple of Hogan PTX Pros with R300s to compare to the Steel Fibers. I much prefer the Titleist heads over the Hogans, but I really like the feel of the R300s. I don't feel like springing for a new set of shafts until the end of the season, so hopefully we'll be able to determine that either the original fitter's call was the correct one and it's just a matter of "toughen up, buttercup," or that the R300s would work as good as they feel. 

 

I'm beginning to think the ideal fitter would be as well versed in psychology as he is in spin rates and launch angles.  

[rowersk]

I would recommend to go one step down only. T100 are pure blades, T150 would definitely help with offcenter strikes, while T200 is much chunkier and plays very different, as steep player myself I found it too much iron behind the ball (gamed the first version though). I tested T150 and MPro 243 and went with Mizuno, softer and more pleasant feeling iron, numbers were almost identical. 

 

What made the real difference to my previous set was the shaft. Coming from Project X IO 6 stiff, I was fitted into KBS Tour 120 and 130, the Xstiff had better dispersion. However, at last I tried Modus 120 Xstiff and was blown away how perfect it worked with 243 heads. The Modus Xstiff feels softer than KBS and was easier to hit on long irons (KBS 130 gets heavier).

 

So Mizuno Pro 243 with Modus 120 Xstiff was top choice for me (7i @90mph).

Edited June 16 by rowersk

[SwingBlade]

If you feel that tight distance control is beneficial to your game, I would recommend that you at least try a ZX4/ZX5/ZX7 combo set.  

[MikeGman]

I'm a 13 now, used to be single digits (15 years ago).  Be careful how far toward game improvement you go. I had the same issue two years ago.  Was playing a lot less, had some injuries and lost flexibility/strength, inconsistent strikes, etc and my scores suffered.  I thought, let me get out of these Titleist AP2s I'd been playing for 14 years and into a GI iron.  Did a ton of research, got fit, and settled on the Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal Pros.  I'm a huge Mizuno fan, driver, hybrids, bag, all Miz. Two years in and I still couldn't get comfortable with the HMPs.  Went to another fitter a month ago and tried more irons and shafts, ended up settling on Titleist T150's (in different shafts from my Miz).  I didn't hit them as far but could work the ball and everything about them during the fitting session resulted in better shots.  Sure, the misses didn't travel as far... but I'm willing to sacrifice that for an iron I have confidence in and feel good hitting.  I was miserable with the 923 HMP and I think it was because I made too big of a jump from a players iron to a larger GI iron.  I probably should have made a smaller incremental jump and gone MP225 or 923 Forged.  Still, I worked on my game this year and surprisingly ended up with the T150s after hitting them against the 245s and 243s.  Second best irons for me after T150s were the Ping Blueprints, which shocked me since Ping and PXG are unappealing to me and I would never buy them... until I saw and swung the Blueprints.  Still, when it comes to irons Titleist have always suited me best for some reason.  I miss my Miz MP32s and T-Zoid Pros, but the AP2s were the set I've played best with... and the T150s will likely be the same.

 

All this to say be careful how far into GI you go, you may regret it whether your game starts to come back or not.