Other days, it feels like you've never played golf before.
Every shot goes wrong, your score is lost, and you feel ready to quit the game entirely.
Inconsistency frustrates us most as mid-handicappers.
That inconsistency manifests itself in our iron play on a regular basis.
Iron shots end up short, right, and left of the green more than they find the target. Ball-striking can be streaky at best, and we can find that at times our eight iron goes further than the six iron.
Mid handicap means we lack the consistency for blades but don’t require deep cavity backs with extreme offset or thick toplines.
So, what are the best irons for mid-handicap golfers?
That’s the question we’re going to answer by looking at the following areas:
- When We Get Our Iron Choice Wrong
- The Key Characteristics You’re Looking For
- Different Iron Types In The Market
- What Are The Best Irons For Mid Handicap Golfers?
When We Get Our Iron Choice Wrong
We see two common mistakes when we get mid handicap players coming in for custom-fitting sessions, and it’s easy to understand why the mistakes are made when we talk to each player.
The first is going for a set of bladed golf irons.
Blades look beautiful, and they lend a large degree of kudos to anybody’s golf bag, but you have to pay close attention to the players who use blades and what characteristics they share.
Players who can maximise blades are consistent ball strikers who generate enough clubhead speed to the ball as far as they need to with each iron.
These players want maximum control in how they flight the ball, and be able to shape shots at will to attack the tightest pins.
When you’re a mid-handicap player, you can have those days where you strike it really well, and it feels like your overall control is good.
That’s when the decision comes that you are ready to jump into getting a set of blades because you feel that you can get the most out of them.
However, with blades, the bite is far worse than the bark. They are uncompromising, and when you miss the centre, the punishment is harsh. There are fewer golf clubs available that can suck the confidence out of a player more than when they struggle with blades.
The second common occurrence we see is golfers using golf irons with lofts that are too strong.
Making lofts stronger is nothing new. Manufacturers have been stealthily making iron lofts stronger for years and wrapping it up in marketing spin about hitting less club into greens.
Like being twenty yards past your playing partners on every drive, hitting less iron into greens is a very attractive option.
The problem and the reality we see all too often is that many mid-handicap golfers don’t have enough clubhead speed to get the right launch and spin numbers on their irons.
The telltale signs are lower than normal trajectories and little stop on approach shots, even from short irons.
What this means on the golf course is trying to second-guess where to land the ball because you can’t consistently judge how much run-out the ball will have when it lands.
So, if these are some of the common faults we see from mid handicap players who are looking to improve, what are the key characteristics of the right irons for players in this category?
The Key Characteristics You’re Looking For
Hitting the ball further is always welcome, and one of the benefits of investing in a new set of irons is gaining more distance.
The key facet is predictable distance gains.
Good iron play comes from building a level of consistency in key areas, such as distance gapping. There’s no point in hitting your new eight iron 160 yards if your seven iron goes 165 yards, and the six iron goes 185 yards.
On the golf course, this leads to many difficult decisions about club and shot selection to handle the inconsistent gapping.
A consistent trajectory is another key element.
Many tour pros now work on the basis that they want each iron in their bag to have a consistent peak height, which helps them gain maximum control.
Where you and the professionals can achieve this by maximising the launch and spin numbers for each golf iron. A rough rule of thumb to know whether your spin numbers are right is going by the rule of 1000 rpm for the number of iron you’re hitting, so if you’re hitting a seven iron, you should be achieving at least 7000rpm.
Mid-handicap golfers are still going to need some assistance to manage off-centre strikes.
Manufacturers are taking different paths to tackle this particular problem, but what they are looking to achieve is to close the gap in ball speed numbers, launch, and spin from an off-centre strike to a centre strike.
What this means for you out on the course is an increased likelihood of hitting your target from a poor strike as opposed to missing short, left, or right, and having to rely on your short game to keep your score going.
If improved distance, launch, spin, and forgiveness are key characteristics in the irons that will help move you from mid handicap to low handicap, it’s worth now taking a look at the different iron types in the market to start to understand which type we should be honing in on.
Different Iron Types In The Market
We’ve already talked about blades, so let’s now turn our attention to the other iron types available, which fall into three types:
- Players Distance Irons
- Players Cavity Back Irons
- Game Improvement Irons
Players Distance Irons
A relatively new category of golf iron, the players’ distance iron provides a great combination of traditional looks mixed with technology and multi-material construction.
A great iron to think about in this category is the TaylorMade P790 iron, which has a more compact head compared to its bigger brother, the TaylorMade P770.
Along with a smaller footprint, a player’s distance iron will also feature less offset and a thinner topline compared to a game improvement iron.
Multi-material construction and a hollow body provide exceptional performance, as manufacturers can either make the face incredibly thin to maximise the spring-like effect, which produces more ball speed, or use a soft forged face to improve feel.
Hollow construction can also allow manufacturers to insert materials into the hollow cavity, which helps to improve feel and acoustics at impact, while tungsten is also a favourite material for altering the centre of gravity, or improving the iron head’s stability through impact.
Players Cavity Back Irons
A popular model to think about in this bracket is Srixon’s ZXi7 iron, which you’ll see in the bags of staff players like Shane Lowry.
Players' cavity back golf irons also share similar looks to blades. They are more often than not forged, so they provide the same level of feel as a blade.
Players' cavity backs will feature a small cavity in the rear of the head, which helps channel weight out towards the perimeter of the head, providing some level of forgiveness on off-centre hits.
Game Improvement Irons
The modern game improvement iron can mask a lot of its technology in a more traditional look, similar to the players’ distance iron, with some subtle differences.
At address, game improvement irons will have a longer blade length, more offset, and a thicker topline compared to the other models mentioned here.
Game improvement irons won’t offer much in the way of workability compared to the other iron types, but that’s not the focus for this style of iron.
A great example in this category is Cobra’s 3DP X irons, which look similar to the 3DP MB model. Tour-inspired looks, but the emphasis is placed on distance and forgiveness through the technology placed inside the head.
What Are The Best Irons For Mid Handicap Golfers?
What type of golf iron should you be looking at if you want to break out of mid handicap territory?
The answer depends on a number of factors, but with improving technology that can be masked more effectively, the players’ distance iron is gaining more traction, and we increasingly see more fittings towards players’ cavity backs, especially in combo sets, where they form the basis of mid to short irons.
We find with both these models that these irons don’t have an intimidation factor when you look down at them at address, and they offer premium looks when placed in your golf bag.
What we find in iron fittings for many golfers is that these iron types offer the best balance between performance (distance), forgiveness, and consistency, which is so crucial to becoming a better iron player and ultimately reducing your handicap.
Purchasing a new set of golf irons is likely to be the biggest investment you make in your golf bag, and if you’re serious about reducing your handicap, being custom fitted for your next golf irons will be crucial to you achieving the results you want.
A golf iron fitting will determine the correct distance gapping, launch, and spin rates because the focus isn’t purely on fitting the right head. A fitter will be equally focused on what the right iron shaft is to enhance your numbers, along with correct length and lie, which are often overlooked as key assets to building a more consistent iron game.
Numbers will help hone in the right spec for your golf clubs, but the irons also have to look and feel right to help install the confidence you need when you’re playing and under pressure to score well.
This is why we see players distance irons score so highly, because many golfers can’t believe they get such good results from an iron that they would consider looks closer to a traditional blade than a game improvement iron.
Custom fitting is also where you can have the perfect blended set created for you because the fitter can see in the numbers where the perfect crossover point is between one set type and another.
Manufacturers are also getting more on board with the combo set concept and creating iron lines that offer different playing characteristics but have similar looks to maintain consistency.
We see this in models like Titleist’s T150 iron, which forms the perfect bridge between the T-100 and T-250 irons, with all three models feasibly being used in a combo set.
If you are in the market to replace your iron set this year, you can start by looking at the many options we have available on the Nine By Nine Golf website, where you can use our configurator to build your ideal set if you already know your specs.
Alternatively, book yourself in for a dedicated iron fitting session in the Nine By Nine Golf studio, where you can uncover the best iron set to give you the performance and consistency you need to improve your handicap.