Best irons in golf 2023: Most technology packed

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At GolfWRX, to determine the 2023 best irons, we have compiled an expert panel of fitters to help you find out which of 2023 irons is best for your game. We’re seeing new technology, more technology packed into the cavity of a club, catering toward combo sets, more consistency across the face, game improvement irons that really improve your game, and increased model segmentation against a backdrop of a few models that work well for wide sections of the fitting bell curve.

Ultimately the best way to find your personal iron set is to work with a professional fitter using a launch monitor. The difficult part is a lot of people don't have easy access to fitters, launch monitors, and club builders—so at GolfWRX, we have done a lot of the work for you.

We are in the era of not just maximizing distance but also minimizing the penalty of common misses for each player — this applies to irons just as much as it does with any other club in the bag. This is why, now more than ever, custom fitting is essential to help you see results on every swing you make.

We want to give you the tools and information to go out and find what works best for you by offering recommendations for your individual iron set wants and needs with insight and feedback from the people who work every single day to help golfers get peak performance out of their equipment.

Before starting the process of building our best iron survey, we reached out to our trusted fitters to discuss how they sort through the endless number of iron options available to golfers. The consensus was clear—the best fitters in the world see all the options available in the marketplace, analyze their performance traits, and pull from that internal database of knowledge and experience like a supercomputer when they are working with a golfer.

It's essentially a huge decision tree derived from experience and boiled down to a starting point of options—and it has nothing to do with a handicap!

Modern iron sets are designed into player categories that overlap the outdated "what's your handicap?" model, and at GolfWRX we believe it was important to go beyond handicap and ask specific questions about the most crucial performance elements fitters are looking at to help golfers find the best set of irons for them. From overall performance to shotmaking, to helping players achieve better trajectories and speed, we strived to ask the right questions.

These are the best iron categories we have developed to help you the reader determine what rankings are most important for your swing and game.

This is the "give me everything you got" list. These irons are the cream of the crop for offering technology to improve feel, distance, and ball speed. The great thing about the technology category is it's not reserved for higher handicap golfers—it's for anyone looking to get everything they can out of their game in an iron that also suits their eye.

Their story: Billed as Ping's "longest iron ever", the G430 irons combine a lower CG with stronger, custom- engineered lofts and a thinner face that delivers up to 2 more mph of ball speed, per the company. At the heart of the new addition is the PurFlex cavity badge, an innovation which features seven flex zones that allow more free bending in design to increase ball speed across the face. In combination with a lower CG, the badge aims to contribute to the solid feel and pleasing impact sound.

From the fitters:

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Their story: SpeedFoam, which was the showpiece of the original (2017) P790 line gets an upgrade in the 2021 edition. Dubbed SpeedFoam Air, the ultralight urethane foam is 69 percent less dense than the 2019 iteration. As is the formula in golf club design, saving weight in one area allows engineers to relocate it to another to accomplish specific aims. In this case, it's to aid launch. And that's just what the folks at TM have done, moving the CG lower in the heads of P790 irons to the tune of an average of .5 millimeters.

From the fitters:

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Their story: Industry-leading A.I. face technology is applied to a high-strength Forged 455 Face, creating Callaway's most powerful forged iron face ever. Each face is uniquely optimized for more speed, higher launch, and increased spin consistency.The all-new Hollow Body design features Speed Frame construction for added stiffness to the body and support for the high-strength Forged 455 Face Cup. This unique construction is the catalyst that stabilizes a thinner face in design for incredibly fast ball speeds.

From the fitters:

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Their story: By leveraging materials that are typically reserved for drivers, Callaway generated up to 96g of discretionary weight and precisely repositioned this saved weight in their new irons in design to increase launch and forgiveness. The Great Big Bertha iron features the thinnest titanium face the brand has ever used in an iron. On top of that, it's also the lightest. In addition, the Commercially Pure Grade 4 (CP4) Titanium body flexes more at impact than traditional steel and works together with the thinner face in a bid to transfer more energy to the ball.

From the fitters:

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Their story: The new addition features an ultra-low profile head shape in the long irons designed to drive CG lower to help get the ball airborne with ease while progressive head sizes (each club is uniquely shaped and gets incrementally larger from 5-iron through pitching wedge) aim to help independently optimize the performance of each iron. An increased sole radius and step down design along the bottom of the club round out the all-new shape. Per TaylorMade, testing confirmed that increasing the sole arc from heel to toe led to more shots high on the face, which translates to higher launch and further helps this golfer get the ball airborne. The step down sole is designed to boost playability by reducing the amount of surface area that contacts the turf.

From the fitters:

For more photos/info, read our launch piece,

Join the discussion about best irons 2023 in the forums!

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Dustin Johnson emerged as the champion of the 2018 RBC Canadian Open. He secured a three-stroke victory to claim his third win of the season and 19th PGA Tour title overall. Johnson finished with a score of 23-under-par, setting a tournament record. His exceptional performance included a final round of 6-under-par 66, which propelled him to the top of the leaderboard.

It was DJ's first win in the RBC Canadian Open, and he became the first world number one-ranked player to win the tournament since 1981. Additionally, Johnson's triumph came just a week after a disappointing finish at The Open Championship, where he held the 54-hole lead but ultimately finished tied for second.

Driver: TaylorMade M4 (9.5 degrees)Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 661 Evolution 2.0 Tour Spec X

3-wood: TaylorMade M4 3HL (16.5 degrees)Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 95 6.5

Irons: TaylorMade P730 DJ Proto (3-PW)Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: TaylorMade MG (52-09SB, 60 degrees), TaylorMade Hi-Toe (64 degrees)Shaft: KBS Tour Black 120S

Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour BlackGrip: SuperStroke Pistol GT 1.0

Golf Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet (standard size built up with 3 wraps of tape in the right hand, 2 wraps in the left and 2 way tape on all)

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Golfers on professional tours use a wide range of wedge lofts to hit the shots they need in order to score well. Not many of us amateurs go with a high-lofted lob wedge like Joey Garber's 64-degree Vokey. His Vokey is a prototype but there was a 64 W Grind that was available to us in a limited edition through Vokey's WedgeWorks program. The W Grind offers a wider, low-bounce, sole for firm conditions and courses with lots of elevated greens.

Vokey describes the 64 W Grind

"The 64W is a unique wedge made for players who play in firm conditions, golf courses with elevated greens and tricky short-sided lies. This wedge is made for the player with quick hands who likes to see the ball elevate quickly, the fearless player who isn't afraid to attack any pin. The sole is a medium-width sole with slight camber and an effective bounce of 4°."

It looks like Garber's wedge might have a little more bounce than the retail model as we see a "9" stamped in the Proto stamping on the toe. He has also gone with what looks like a raw steel finish over the retail model's black finish.

A Mitsubishi MMT Scoring Wedge 125 TX is the shaft of choice and the wedge is finished off with a Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord grip.

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Our tour photographer was out at the BMW Charity Pro-Am on the Korn Ferry Tour and snapped some shots of a new Aldila Rogue wood shaft. The Rogue name has been synonymous with cutting-edge technology and tour use since it was released almost 10 years ago. Aldila hasn't given us any details yet, but the shaft has been available in Japan for a few months.

The logo looks to be the image for "infinity" after the Rogue text, so that could be a clue to a future name for the shaft. I did some searching and found some specs from a listing for a Japan version of the shaft, so these might change by the time we get the shafts here in the United States. There is also a logo for a "Dual Torque Core" technology that was described as an "ultra high modulus carbon for the entire length of the shaft." The description was a little washy on the launch of the shaft as part of it described the Rogue as a mid-launch while another section stated high launch and low spin.

50TR: Weight 58.5 / Torque 4.650TS: Weight 60.5/Torque 4.550TX: Weight 61.0/Torque 4.5

60TS: Weight 65.0/Torque 3.960TX: Weight 67.0/Torque 3.9

70TS: Weight 74.0/Torque 3.170TX: Weight 76.0/Torque 3.1

80TX: weight 84.5/torque 3.1

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