When the Ben Hogan brand was reborn and introduced its new products to the world in 2015, it garnered quite a bit of attention. After all, the Hogan brand was one that resonated with golf fans. When the Ft. Worth irons were unveiled, they brought back many fond memories; however, they did not exactly look like your father’s Ben Hogan irons. The brand has expanded their irons to multiple lines and finishes, but yet there still wasn’t that full-on classic Ben Hogan blade iron. That all changes today with the announcement of the new ICON irons.
These are your father’s Ben Hogan irons. I can hear my father now when he hears about this release; it will go something like this, “I have a set of those in the basement.” Honestly, he’s not wrong, and he probably has two sets of them. The styling of the ICON irons will likely strike that nostalgic chord with many. Even if you are not a golfer who only dates back to the ’90s, you only need to look at the 1999 Hogan Apex irons to see the resemblance.
Don’t think for one second that these are just a classic remake because Ben Hogan did incorporate some of their modern technology to make these blades a bit friendlier than the ones Mr. Hogan enjoyed playing so much. By looking at the back of the ICON irons, there is some visible movement of mass and center of gravity manipulation taking place. This redistribution is known to the brand as a “Progressive Center of Mass,” and is put in place to help players achieve a consistent and optimal ball flight in both length and trajectory. Similar to what we have seen lately in wedge designs, the scoring clubs have weight higher in the clubhead to help produce a lower ball flight and increased control. In contrast, the mid and long irons have weight positioned lower in the head to accomplish a higher trajectory and more spin.
Featured underneath is the V-Sole, which has become a staple of the Ben Hogan line. For those that are unfamiliar with this design, we see a high-bounce leading edge with a lower-bounce trailing edge to promote forgiveness and prevent digging. Having played clubs with a V-Sole in the past, I can tell you it certainly does help. Not only does contact feel great from the fairway, but it also helps the club cut through the rough, which helps on days when your driver is not cooperating. According to Scott White, Ben Hogan’s CEO, “Serious players can take comfort in knowing that ICON gives them the opportunity to hit their mark on every shot while feeling the satisfying pureness of flush contact.”
If you have gotten to this point, you might have already concluded that the ICON irons are created for the upper echelon of players out there. Blade irons aren’t geared towards golfers looking for a jump in distance or forgiveness. They are there for those who are looking for complete control and consistency. You won’t find a 30? 7-iron here. Instead, Ben Hogan’s loft structure sticks to their tradition, which is a consistent four-degree loft separation with the 4-iron coming in at 22? and the PW sitting at 46?. These more traditional lofts should come as no surprise to anyone considering the mold of these irons.
These ICON irons from Ben Hogan are going to be available in two different finish options, chrome, and back DBM. Chrome will maintain that classic look to them, while the DMB finish has shown to wear well on the Ft. Worth irons, but be aware that after some time, there will be some lightening up on the face and sole. Both finishes are likely to draw some double takes by your playing partners.
As has been the case with the new Ben Hogan brand, their pricing is more wallet-friendly due to their direct to consumer model. Traditionally speaking, when we see a company introduce a new set of blade irons, we are looking at price tags that jump over that $1,000 mark. With Ben Hogan, that is not the case as these come in at a price tag of $770(chrome) and $800(black) for a set of 7 irons. While the direct to consumer model could make it hard to gather some in-hand experiences, Ben Hogan does offer a risk-free demo program. Keep in mind that Ben Hogan entered into a partnership with Club Champion this year, which provides golfers another avenue when it comes to demo and fitting opportunities.
The Details
Price: $770 – Chrome
$800 – Black DBM
Pre-order: Chrome available for pre-order now and Black DBM pre-order TBD
Shafts: No-Upcharge Steel and Graphite Options
More information is available at www.benhogangolf.com
Nothing. Rust doesn’t add spin. Old wives tale.
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yup.
Guys! These are freaking fun!!
Fun is such a great description for them. Ben Hogan seriously crushed it with this release.
What I mean by that is, if I try and hit a baby draw or fade, it’s not a random rope hook or slice 1 out of 3 times. When I hit the draw, it’ll be a draw. If I have to hook one, which I had to today, it’ll hook but I exactly know where to expect it to land even if it’s a miss.
The TM’s weren’t as precise. If I tried to draw a 4 iron, it’ll hook left….hard. If I try to slice one, it’ll just fade.
I’ve had a very similar experience. It really takes a lot of work, or an absolutely horrific swing, for me to really turn one over or slice hard. They just want to hit the ball straight for the most part. It’s weird, I was expecting the opposite with this style of club but then again I didn’t really know what to expect. My misses are either pushes or pulls, not because the ball moved too much.
I keep wondering if I could play them and these kinds of posts really make me want to try.
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I think I would like to try a combo set of Hogans, with Xcaliber rapid taper shafts (75g in the long irons, 95g in the short), in the black DBM finish.
Nice! Where did you order that you were you able to get the individual irons?
I’ll let you know once it goes through. Supposed to be about 15 days.
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Normally after a few months I’d be looking round at other things, but simply not the case with these……simply a "good fit"…..where I know my bad shots are me and not the tools.
I’ll go to my grave telling people these are one of the greatest deals in golf. I’m just not sure you can find a better bang for your buck in golf.
Still loving the Icons, but I’ve noticed a little bit of a gapping issue. The gaps between my 4-6 irons are huge…I’m talking 15-20 yards (if not more). The rest of the bag seems fine as far as gaps go. I know the Hogan company believes in the four degrees for gapping purposes, whereas a lot of other manufacturers have smaller loft gaps with the longer clubs, and more of a gap with the shorter irons.
Has anyone else noticed this issue? If so, did you bend certain irons? What are your exact specs?
Thinking of keeping the 4 iron as is, bending the 5 iron 1 degree strong, the 6 iron 2 degrees strong, and the rest of the bag 3 degrees strong. This would create 3 degree gaps at the top, and 4 degrees at the bottom of the bag.
do you mean between 4 and 5 iron? Otherwise the gap seems to small.
I mean each gap. Distances are as follows…
4 iron 225-230
5 iron 205-210
6 iron 185-190
7 iron 170-175
8 iron 160-165
9 iron 145-150
PW 130-135
those do not look too bad to me..
if anything, you could strengthen everything for the 7 iron up. Between your 7 and 8 looks maybe a little tight. Otherwise 15 yard gaps through out is pretty solid IMO..
or you could adjust to 10 yard gaps. But I personally like 15 and you are basically there except that one spot.
More so the steeper a swing is and if it’s shallow with minimum ground contact, this may not be the case. Just a thought if the gaps have changed over time.
I can’t say I ever noticed this with my set. I didn’t play a 4 iron but between my 5 and 6 I seemed to get my normal 10-15 yards of gap. I would probably start by getting the lofts checked and then getting them adjusted to tighten that gap up a bit.
@GraniteRoost made a good point that I didn’t think about that it could be the extra length in the long irons, in addition to the loft gaps.
I also agree with @J4U and @KEV that I should get my lofts and lies checked first. Probably will do a gapping session on a trackman to see what changes need to be made (good thing I’ve spent too much money at Club Champion in the last year).
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Man did I forget how much fun these clubs are! The short irons performed as well as I remembered and I absolutely smoked a stinger 4 iron right down the pipe that had me giggling. It was probably a bad decision to hit them because I’m back to pondering a combo set. Goodness these are fun clubs.
I was so tempted to take my set out yesterday.
You should definitely get them out again sometime in the future. I still think they’re the iron set I’ve had the most fun with.
Icons looks great behind the ball, and have excellent feel and surprising forgiveness for a blade iron. Ball flight was great, medium trajectory and spin for me.
I also enjoyed the X100 shaft the demo came with, but not a huge fan of the stock grip. Compared to my Blueprint irons, the blade length and topline were slightly larger, but not by much. I’ll also say that my Blueprints were slightly better feeling on centered hits, but about the same for slight mishits. All in all, I really enjoy the Icons, and think the black version would be awesome. Now I just wish Hogan offered some heavier graphite or black steel shafts
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Think anyone buttered the Thanksgiving rolls with these? Yikes thin to win i guess!
I find them to look great behind the ball, bot too intimidating. Even for a blade.
The feel is very solid. A bit more firm than I expected, but that could be the shafts I’m not totally used to (KBS tours).
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I don’t miss mishitting 4 iron stingers with these. I can still feel that mishit in my hands .
Cliche, but you’d be surprised how similar. Yes, they are slightly more demanding, but if you can mange the gross mishits with the PTx Pro I don’t think you’ll notice many negatives with the ICON 8-9PW. Mishits will finish in pretty similar places. The Icons are very good at hitting a distance number.
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I will argue all day long that this may be the best feeling clubs I’ve ever hit. That true.. feels like you didn’t even hit the ball feeling.
After I gave them a good workout I let the Pro hit them.
Standing back behind him, the sound they are making through the ball is unreal. It’s a sound that you just know was nuked. He didn’t want to stop hitting them. Plus he just loves the simple beauty of the heads. View attachment 9055453View attachment 9055454View attachment 9055455View attachment 9055458
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Very cool club setup. I totally agree, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better feeling club. These are still one of my favorite sets I’ve ever owned.
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These irons are so fire. Can’t wait to hear how you get along after setting them up to your specs.
During the event the ball flight was dropping left a bit more than I prefer, so I’m planning to flatten the lie angles 2 degrees. Also plan to get my preferred ALIGN grips on them.
Also also…. Hoping BH comes through with maybe some new fun in 2022!!! ?