On the next episode of The Hot List (above), Golf Digest’s new equipment-focused video series, we talk about the hottest club in golf today, Players Distance Irons, a category of golf clubs that didn’t really exist a decade ago. Is it for you, or who’s this category for? That’s the question we help you answer.
Sales of “players distance” irons have grown so rapidly for one simple reason: They take the relatively compact shape just about every golfer secretly desires and infuses it with the game-improvement technologies just about every golfer would be hard-pressed to say isn’t necessary in an iron: specifically, distance. How far you might hit an iron sounds like it might be a low priority—but if your 7-iron isn’t long enough, just choose the 6-iron, right—it really can be a game-changer. You’ll be able to hit shorter irons into greens, giving you both more distance and better control of that distance.
“I think it’s an iron that not only works for better players but really kind of the mid-handicapper who’s either aspiring to get better or maybe has lot a little hop off his fastball and is looking to get back a little juice,” we say in the episode (watch above).
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Those game-improvement technologies include hollow constructions, thinner high-strength steel faces, and multiple materials to help lower the center of gravity, so stronger lofted irons will launch the ball higher to give you extra height for a trajectory that holds more greens.
While the Players Distance Irons category takes some of the inspiration for their sleek shapes from the players iron category, the latter hasn’t stood sill either. We discuss the latest Players Irons, which although they’re still targeted at golfers at the top of the playing pyramid, continue to be refined for the modern game.
As we say in the video: “These are not your grandfather’s butter knife blade musclebacks of years gone by. To think that just because they are a players iron they are devoid of technology is making a big mistake.”
The episode (above) also features a discussion about how tour players are approaching these technology enhanced iron categories in filling out their own bags, as well as some frank answers for a question about whether the 3-iron still needs to be part of your set.
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