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2015 Ben Hogan FT15 Irons and TK15 Wedges: THP Review Thread

SuperStroke
Good thoughts Hawk. We are seeing several similarities, which always makes me feel sane.

I'll have a big write up this evening, I believe I'll also be handling the homepage review now so the thoughts are a many for sure.
 
Hawk said:
Mix of poor, average, and good swings in my last round. No range. Went +1 on the par 3's, which is usually my recipe for putting up reasonable scores, which I did. All iron shots. Bogey was a short miss on the second hole.

A couple misses that were very short when I really put a stinker swing on the ball - like short of the green short. These were about the worst swings I can manage these days. Very low and very toe side. That's probably the worst place to miss with the FT 15 in my experience.

A handful of short in relation to the pin shots - smaller misses that still ended up on the green, but weren't darts.

And then a few quality results.

Again, I'll note that in cases where trouble is looming I'm clubbing up. Example would be a par 3, front pin, water short/left that wrapped around the left side of the front third of the green. That miss is a definite possibility, so I opted for a club extra. Ended up hitting it well and leaving a longer putt, but a putt nonetheless. Certainly have to plan a little if the hole has big number misses that are in play.

The wedges I continue to like quite a bit. Had some very nice greenside action going on, both with a steeper and a shallower approach (depending on the shot and lie). Almost chipped one in again, but the stick scooted it left. Didn't have a ton of success in the 80-100 yard range like I'd been having thanks to some pretty lame partial swings. Won't attribute that to the golf clubs. Once I got my takeaway a little more where it should be that cleared up. These clubs like to be hit into the ground from my experience.
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It's great to see the similarities. I find myself clubbing up to be long (or poor swing JUST short) when there's a hazard in front of my target as well. You have to be very sharp to get the right distance on the Hogan irons, which makes for some longer putts on the misses, if they stay on the green.

I think the biggest asset to the FT iron and TK wedge setup is the way it blends throughout the set. There's no "I hit my lowest iron better than my highest wedge so I'll just go easy on the lowest iron" prep thought for me, which adds some confidence and consistency in my 'tweener' swings. I'm still left scratching my head a bit in regards to what loft is going to produce what distance, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was when I first got the irons.

My trepidation over the 20* hasn't really subsided. I can really pepper the ball when struck well, but that's only about 30-40% of the time. The other swings are less than flush and create distance loss I can't accept in my longer iron-hybrid game.

Do you guys have any more thoughts on V-Sole? I still think there's a built in benefit there over a regular MB head that has a much sharper leading edge, especially when you stray away fro the 0-5 handicap range (and a wider swing variety for the individual).
 
Canadan said:
It's great to see the similarities. I find myself clubbing up to be long (or poor swing JUST short) when there's a hazard in front of my target as well. You have to be very sharp to get the right distance on the Hogan irons, which makes for some longer putts on the misses, if they stay on the green.

I think the biggest asset to the FT iron and TK wedge setup is the way it blends throughout the set. There's no "I hit my lowest iron better than my highest wedge so I'll just go easy on the lowest iron" prep thought for me, which adds some confidence and consistency in my 'tweener' swings. I'm still left scratching my head a bit in regards to what loft is going to produce what distance, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was when I first got the irons.

My trepidation over the 20* hasn't really subsided. I can really pepper the ball when struck well, but that's only about 30-40% of the time. The other swings are less than flush and create distance loss I can't accept in my longer iron-hybrid game.

Do you guys have any more thoughts on V-Sole? I still think there's a built in benefit there over a regular MB head that has a much sharper leading edge, especially when you stray away fro the 0-5 handicap range (and a wider swing variety for the individual).
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One thing I've been happy with for tweener yardages, especially with the wedges, is the longer grip. I've found a nice little system for pulling off 5 yards in the 70-100 yard range, which has come in handy a few times.

As for the longer clubs, your 20° mirrors my 24° experience and I just took it out in favor of the hybrid. With a great deal of benefit I should say. I don't know why that 4° difference matters so much, but my chance of having success with the 28° is far greater than with the 24°.

As for the sole, all I know is I like it. When my swing changes are working, it's a very effortless feeling through the ground, but the divots maintains a relatively shallow look to it. Even the slight heavy contact isn't all that bad from what I'm seeing - meaning those wedge shots that have that softer grass-infused sound to them rather than the perfect click when you hit it clean.
 
I've enjoyed reading this thread, fine job as usual gentlemen.
 
One more update before I start looking at another iron review - not to say I won't revisit these FT 15's.

I think I can safely say the irons have seen my best, my average, and my worst at this point. Previous weekend showed both a worst, a below average and and an average outing. Should note that I never went over 92 though, which may not be internet good, but for me I'll take on a bad day with blade irons.

Couple items to note:

- As mentioned earlier, playing less penal courses makes misses less penal. The opposite is true as well, of course. Good example was last Friday's round on a short par 3 with a creek fronting the green and on Saturday with a lake fronting the green. Both times I did what I said I was trying not to do and just went after a front pin. Both times found water on a mis-hit.

-My partial wedge swing sucked all weekend. 70-80-90-100 yards were all a big bust. Found the green quite often in these scenarios, but usually a much longer putt than I should have been. It happens though. Certainly not the first time.

-The irons/wedges don't like a flippy, gross impact position and I was really delivering one for 2/3 rounds. When I see the best results I am taking a small divot.

- I've got the greenside action with wedges dialed in pretty good. They accomodate a variety of deliveries into the ball. I didn't leave any balls in the bunker either. Put one over the green, but in my defense I couldn't really stand in the bunker for that shot (ball was against the lip).

-I still managed some nice shots here and there.

That's about it for now.

I'll recap my favorites and not-so-favorites real quick.

Likes

-Love the lighter weight shaft.
-Love the feeling and ball flight on well struck shots.
-Like that I can build a sleek set of irons without going to a different gapping scenario.
-LIke the accuracy I saw and conistency in distance I saw when I struck the ball well.
-Sole is money.
-For a blade iron, the blade size is not all that small. I didn't find them scary to look at.
-Wedges are really good.

Not likes

-Forgiveness would be the biggest thing, especially if there's a lot of forced carries or other trouble where I'm playing.
-More forgiving than I expected in some scenarios, exactly as I expected in others.
-Feel off center is yucky, but some will see that as a good thing. No pain, which I attribute to the grahpite shaft.
-
 
Finally got a chance to check these out in KC, I'll be honest and thought there'd be no way I could hit them, and they were surprisingly fun to hit, I think the shafts Ryan had in his would be more of the route I would go, but they sure are pretty to look at. And perform great at Top Golf!
 
Ha. Forgot about that. They dominated Top Golf.
 
Finally got to hit the Hogan FT 15 yesterday and was ... underwhelmed :dont-know:

I hit the 29°, close to my 6-iron. First thing, the cavity/depression, whatever you want to call it, was a lot larger than I had expected with all the talk about them being musclebacks and concentrating more mass behind the ball. Next, the club was way too light for my liking - no head feel/heft whatsoever - probably party due to the KBS Tour-V shaft. I play C-Taper 120s and actually prefer a shaft in the 125-130 range.
The flight was on par with my Adams CMBs but the feel was not even close to a MP-64 that I used to A-B-C with.

Conclusion - I was really excited to try these out and maybe had my expectations too high. I probably need to go to a fitter and try them with the right shaft and swingweight combination, but there's usually a WOW factor when I get an iron in my hand that really stands out and I didn't have that yesterday. In fact it just reaffirmed that the MP-64 is a great club for me (been waiting for the price to drop on those). Since I really can't afford a fitting, I may just end up with TK wedges when I need to replace my SCORs and wait for the MP-5 & MP-25 to be available to test before diving into a set of MP-64s
 
Got a chance to see and take a few swings with these at PGA Superstore. They certainly feel nice and have some good weight in the head. They're tough though, much more MB than players iron. Either they're the most forgiving muscleback I've ever hit or the hardest cavity back I've ever hit.
 
Nice review James! I'm really interested to hit these and get a feel for what the V-Sole does in a full iron set environment, as well as the forgiveness they offer.
 
Jman said:
Nudge for the afternoon crowd.
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Great review Jman. They are alittle to demanding for me but from the rep on the site said they have some new stuff geared more towards my speed on the horizon. I love the fact that they decided to bring the brand back into the industry.
 
I am interested in the Ben Hogan irons and the Srixon Z 545 or Z 745 irons. For those of you who have hit both, how would you compare them? It looks to me like both have similar soles. Do they have similar turf interaction? Thanks.
 
SCC4380 said:
I am interested in the Ben Hogan irons and the Srixon Z 545 or Z 745 irons. For those of you who have hit both, how would you compare them? It looks to me like both have similar soles. Do they have similar turf interaction? Thanks.
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Different beasts honestly. In profile these are IMO a LOT smaller than the 745's, especially in sole width. When it comes to the soles, the Srixons are the closest I have seen out there of all the "variable soles" because they also have the increased bounce on the leading edge and reduced bounce on the rear/main portion of the sole.

Both soles work really well, it will come back to what you need and what you can handle though, the Hogans ARE a demanding iron and that comes naturally to them by profile alone, they just are. The 545 will be the easiest to play of the bunch in terms of ball speed retention on misses, while the 745 will be a good bit more demanding than those, and then the Hogans IMO the most demanding of them all. These are more playable than any other iron of this profile I have played, but it HAS to be kept in mind that they are still MB's. .
 
Different beasts honestly. In profile these are IMO a LOT smaller than the 745's, especially in sole width. When it comes to the soles, the Srixons are the closest I have seen out there of all the "variable soles" because they also have the increased bounce on the leading edge and reduced bounce on the rear/main portion of the sole.

Both soles work really well, it will come back to what you need and what you can handle though, the Hogans ARE a demanding iron and that comes naturally to them by profile alone, they just are. The 545 will be the easiest to play of the bunch in terms of ball speed retention on misses, while the 745 will be a good bit more demanding than those, and then the Hogans IMO the most demanding of them all. These are more playable than any other iron of this profile I have played, but it HAS to be kept in mind that they are still MB's.
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Thanks for the answer. In the past I have picked the ball cleanly off the turf, but it led to a lot of thin shots on mishits. I have been working on taking a small divot, but right now I am a bit of a digger. I like the design of the Ben Hogan soles and what I have heard about the turf interaction, but I have decided that it isn't the right club for me. Hearing that the Srixons have similar turf interaction makes me happy. Now it is just a matter of whether the Z 545 or Z 745 is going to be a better fit for my game.
 
The one small drawback is that the club heads are weighted in sets of four consecutive lofts. If you choose 5º or more loft increments, you get either inconsistent length increments or inconsistent swingweights. Overall, though, I say, Well done!
 
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I'm getting closer and closer to pulling the trigger on these things. I've been hitting my Titleist irons since '98, if I remember correctly, so they don't owe me a dime.

When I got the DCI 962s, they were numbered a club stronger than what I'd been playing before. Now they're a club weaker than what's out presently. I would be delighted to get rid of the club numbers altogether. Over fifty plus years of playing the game, they've changed so much as to be meaningless to me.

I'm also interested in trying those Recoil 660 shafts from UST Mamiya. I've got NV Pro 105s from Aldila on the Titleists, but I'm probably ready for senior flex now.

Buying clubs directly from the clubmaker without even touching them is probably a risk, especially at $168.00 per iron. I know my lie angle / length correlations cold, however, so that wouldn't stop me.
 
Another thread got me thinking about doing the online fitting and seeing what it spits out for my desired loft vs my current S55's. I was actually surprised that my gammers are weaker in the long irons.

S55's
4-Iron 24.00°
5-Iron 27.00°
6-Iron 30.00°
7-Iron 33.00°
8-Iron 37.00°
9-Iron 41.00°
Pitching Wedge 46.00°

Hogans
22
26
30
32
38
42
46
 
Does anyone have a TK15 wedge - preferably in the 50 or 51 loft - laying around they'd be interested in trading/selling/loaning?
 
I have a TK15 62 loft That I might be interested dealing, I frankly just never could get it to feel right for me.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Does anyone have a TK15 wedge - preferably in the 50 or 51 loft - laying around they'd be interested in trading/selling/loaning?
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Not sure if you are interested in this sort of thing, but they offer a "Trial Pack" program. It's like the Bridgestone program where you pay shipping and get 30 days to T&E them.

http://benhogandirect.com/
 
So I went in for a shaft fitting with my CF16's and the fitter had some demo clubs of these in. He handed me a 8 iron and 6 iron to give a try and my first thought was that this was going to be a disaster. I then proceeded to hit some amazingly consistent shots. My grouping and yardage gap was awesome. Surprisingly I really liked these clubs.
 
Pretty stoked to get our TK Wedges and put those through their paces as well. Mine will be KBS Tour V Stiff, Std. Length and lie angle. I'm sticking with 4 degree gaps right off my iron set like Hogan recommends.
 
I just put in my request. 4* increments off my 45*, up to 61*, with stiff Recoil 680's to match my PTx irons. I'm really anxious to start gaming them.
 
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