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

Course bound today for a couple rounds and some range work, any questions or things you'd like me to focus in on, please feel free to post up!
 
Course bound today for a couple rounds and some range work, any questions or things you'd like me to focus in on, please feel free to post up!

you have talked to it some already but for someone with an inconsistent but improving swing im curious on 1) how penal mishits are, especially towards the heel 2) how much more concentration and effort is needed when hitting 3i and 4i compared to 5i-wedges
 
I'm not a fan of the way these clubs look overall, but I like the idea of ordering by lofts and really like the look of the sole. I am interested in hitting them though just because.
 
I tried out the online fitting last night it told me I need 6 scoring clubs from my 8 iron down. I have 6 clubs from my 8 iron down the only adjustment it gave me were the 8&9 iron were 1 degree weaker. My interpritation is that I have a bag for success and just need to swing the weapons better.
 
Course bound today for a couple rounds and some range work, any questions or things you'd like me to focus in on, please feel free to post up!

Curious about the ability to control ball flight with these irons. Are they easier than most other irons to flight down or up and left and right? Thanks Jman and have fun.
 
Curious about the ability to control ball flight with these irons. Are they easier than most other irons to flight down or up and left and right? Thanks Jman and have fun.
I didn't find them any easier than any other iron in their class. Similar in that regards to most musclebacks.
 
I didn't find them any easier than any other iron in their class. Similar in that regards to most musclebacks.

I would assume that would mean they are a little easier to flight than cavity back irons though?
 
I would assume that would mean they are a little easier to flight than cavity back irons though?
Completely dependent on the iron. I don't find too much difficulty flighting most irons left and right and outside of the largest deep soled, up and down either. Much of that comes from technique.
 
Course bound today for a couple rounds and some range work, any questions or things you'd like me to focus in on, please feel free to post up!

Just interested in the feel on mishits, meaning how harsh or severe are off center hits felt in the hands.
 
Irons came on Saturday and with as crazy as my weekend was, I didn't actually get to play golf. I did spend an hour or so hitting balls on the GC2 with a few irons though. I'm not going to get too in-depth here quite yet, but should be able to either play or hit the range today if all works out as hoped.

First I want to talk about the setup I've got here.

Lofts are : 24/28/32/36/40/44 in the irons and 48/52/56/60 in the wedges. That's almost number for number the same I'd been playing in the past.
Lengths are: 1/2" long, which is 1/4" shorter than what I've been playing.
Lie is: 3° up, which is still a tiny bit flatter than I typically play
Shaft is: Recoil 680 F4 - approximately 35g lighter than my current graphite shafts (Aldila RIP Tour)
Grip is: Lamkin REL ACE in blue with Hogan branding on it. Standard +1 wrap.

Regarding the fitting system, I've read some complaints about it, but it's fine in comparison to the others I've seen. These things are rarely perfect and often geared towards selling the company's golf clubs, balls or shafts, so it is what it is. The concept of these irons and wedges is to improve precision and distance control and dial in scoring yardages. The fitting tool is going to have some bias in that direction and things may not make sense at times. I can think of three fitting tools off the top of my that don't make sense all the time. I did like that there were a good number of questions and think based on just the bare minimum of info provided, they came up with pretty good recommendations from a logical sense if we look at how these things work.

Moving on...

Love the red/black ferrule. Very old school looking.

Regarding the shape/size, I'll restate the obvious and say they have some pretty slim lines. I've seen slimmer, but we're looking at an iron that is very much on the small end. The sole is where it's especially noticeable, though I'll say that's never really concerned me too much. I can't hit a wide-soled 4 iron, so seeing a thin-soled one doesn't really change much in my eyes. Address presents the slim topline and low offset look that is quite popular with some and I didn't have any 'fear' standing over the ball. Blade length doesn't appear that much smaller than my 545's, though they (545's) are on the short side for a GI iron.

The thumb print cavity appears a little more pronounced in pictures compared to how it looks in person, but it's very much there. Not unattractive to me in any way. Though these have characteristics of a blade iron, this 'cavity' obviously shows that weight's been moved from the center. However, it's not taken to the very edges of the golf club. Instead, it sort of envelopes the sweet spot. It should provide a little help on misses, little being the key word (little help and little misses). It's there though. Curious how (or if) that moves the CG of the head. You'll see companies try to move it closer to center at times, when typically blades will have it closer to the heel. In my world, that's probably a good thing. Anything closer to the toe.

As for being 'hard to hit', I've never really fully been on board with that in practical purposes. I get the concept that a certain club just looks easy to work with, but experience has shown me that is overstated at times. Yes, they are small, but I've played many small irons (and been borderline insulted for it) even in competitions and the fact is that you can get them airborne and down range with a decent or even mediocre swing. I'd say that a majority of the people on the forum could take a few swings and hit decent looking balls with these. That being said, if we look at it from the perspective of what will happen on the mediocre or poor impact spots in terms of getting the most out of them, then that's a different story. However, I'm not really going to hold that against the irons. They are what they are and that works for some and not for others. Will just report that as I see it.

I have not put these on my swing weight scale, but they seem well balanced to me in-hand. They are conderably lighter in total weight - one of the first things I noticed. I think that's to be expected with the differences in shaft weight. Not bad of course. Just relaying what I noticed and that's going to be different with every different build offered. Shaft still felt sufficiently stiff regardless of the weight, but we're not really reviewing the shafts I suppose.

Feel on center impacts was very nice, as I'd expect. A solid sound that is pretty typical of a forged iron with a big hunk of metal behind the hitting area. Soft gets tossed around a lot, but I think at times the plastic-badged (Cleveland Black CB comes to mind) irons can come off more muted to my ears than these irons for example. Nothing struck me as unusual or different here than what I'd expect. Very pleasing to the senses.

Misses were a mixed bag, depending on where I hit the ball. Heel shot (low) felt pretty rotten, though I think I hit maybe one of those the whole time. I live on the toe. Low face and toe had that sharper sound and was very evident. I didn't get any instances of pain or discomfort in the hands, though it was 75° outside. I can attribute some of that to the shafts and grip though too, so results may vary.

I did mention hitting balls on the GC2, but I wasn't super scientific there. I did put some tape on the face, but this was just cursory observation. I didn't record any data in a detailed manner. I will say that center impact on the 36° Hogan were producing virtually the same ball speed I saw from my 545 8 iron. I want to say my top ball speed with the 545 was 1mph higher than the Ft Worth. Launch angles were within the ranges I would expect as well, which is a good sign. I've had some high and slow players irons before and that is never very fun for me. I expect these will produce distances similar to what I see now when I hit the middle of the face based off what I saw. Though I have expressed the loft numbers as being odd or ungainly to me, I do like that I was able to match a set to my normal setup.

The impact tape thing is interesting to me and I'm going to look for a different way to test this going forward - likely foot powder spray. Tape dropped my spin numbers by something crazy like 4000rpms and that messes with any true distance recording.

Mishits towards the toe (a ball from center or less) dropped about 5mph ball speed and on my very worst impacts I saw as much as 10mph lower ball speed. Big misses for the latter. Lower on the face was not bad from a ball speed perspective. Again though, this is just going off memory.


Anyway, sorry of the long post. Looking forward to getting some more time in and seeing ball flight on the course.
 
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I tried out the online fitting last night it told me I need 6 scoring clubs from my 8 iron down. I have 6 clubs from my 8 iron down the only adjustment it gave me were the 8&9 iron were 1 degree weaker. My interpritation is that I have a bag for success and just need to swing the weapons better.

many of us saw this same message. i did the fitting a few times and change the handicap variable each time to see if it would change the output but it didn't
 
Great thoughts Hawk!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I had the same feedback, except for my only changes were making my PW (which is 48*) 1 degree stronger, and then strengthening my wedges 1* as well to 51, 55, and 59. Basically the same set I have today. I love the look of these irons, don't get me wrong, but I didn't need to be chastised for my bag setup, when it essentially met their criteria. I agree with their basic premise for this fitting, but not every golfer would benefit from bladed long irons and an extra wedge either. I might, Ben Hogan might have, but not everyone. That being said, I am intrigued by the product and love the look of the irons.

I tried out the online fitting last night it told me I need 6 scoring clubs from my 8 iron down. I have 6 clubs from my 8 iron down the only adjustment it gave me were the 8&9 iron were 1 degree weaker. My interpritation is that I have a bag for success and just need to swing the weapons better.
 
Had the option of range or play yesterday and opted to play. Missed my Sunday round and had already spent a little time hitting balls with the irons/wedges, so I figured why not see how they worked out on the golf course.

Little background: I played a course down the road that plays to a little over 5000 yards at a par of 66. I wish I could say I played it so I could hit more iron shots, but the truth is that I was lazy and it is close to home lol. The first part was a nice byproduct though.

Par 4's (10) range from 280 to 390
Par 3's (7) range from 126 to 233
Par 5 (1) is 475

So, you can see it's an unique course with a good amount of variety in the par 3's. Not exactly an executive course and obviously not a championship course. Lots of trees. Good for iron testing for sure. I hit shorter clubs than normal on some of the par 4's to get full irons or wedges in.

Final score was a 75 (+9), which isn't exceptionally good at this place, but is acceptable. That included two big numbers that accounted for 5 strokes over par, both on par 3's, but we'll tell that story here in a bit. Other than those two holes I felt I played well.

I would also like to say quickly that I really enjoyed the round and the irons. Trying new things is fun and golf is fun. This is what I live for :D

Irons

Flight

Ranged between mid to high, depending on the lie and the quality of my strike. I actually felt that flew a little lower than I expected at first glance, though I did hit some that were as high as I'd like to see in normal circumstances.

Feel

Let me first say that misses low or near the toe are quite evident, even ones that aren't that severe. Not so much in the way of discomfort, but very much so in terms of sound at impact. It was crystal clear every time I missed. I'll say again that I do believe the graphite shafts and the grip help with the discomfort thing. No way they couldn't. The point being that others may experience different sensations than I do on misses. I can't speak for them.

Hitting the center of the face is definitely a great experience for a couple reasons. Everything about it is just right from a feel perspective, plus there's a small feeling of accomplishment followed by a positive result. You may scoff at that last part, but it's how I felt.

Distances, Forgiveness and Consistency

Regarding distances, I hit the same club that I would if I had my 545's and found that worked just fine. Monitor testing seemed to indicate this would be the case and it was. I guess you could infer some of that is related to the lighter shaft, but since I don't have any means to track swing speed handy I'll hold off on making that call. I think my favorite thing about this set of irons or concept is that I can play a set in my preferred makeup without having have irons bent or getting all intricate in the custom options. Again, for my criticism of the loft numbers on the irons, it's a concept that actually seems to be a postive from my perspective. I didn't have any issues of 'which club is this', but I'd consider myself fairly educated in irons and lofts. The average consumer may have a little more difficulty there, but then again I don't think these are irons for average consumers.

My misses were mostly thin (not bladed) and there were some toed balls in there, some of which I'll get into more detail with in a moment. I found thin shots were handled much better than expected. Loss of height and some distance loss, but it never got me in trouble. In fact, the first two holes I played I hit shots low on the face and ended up with a GIR and another ball on the left fringe. One pin high and the fringe shot even with the front third of the green (flag was back). In situations where I was looking at a forced carry to the edge of the green or if there was a fronting bunker there may have been some negative consequences since both hit a few yards short of the green on low-mowed areas. Still though, not really too bad of miss.

Toe misses seemed to be where I saw some issues and it was almost exclusively with one club...

The 5 iron

I call it a 5 iron at least. That's the club it's replacing. Loft is 24°. Poor 5 iron wasn't designed for swings like I put on it. In all, it was party to both big numbers I put up (a double and triple) and both times it was on par 3's. Ironically both times I'd just come off a good stretch of holes and was full of bravado. Quickly came back to earth sadly.

First one was a 175 yards over a ravine with a large tree on a hump to the left of the green. I hit a hard toe shot that came off as a screaming low hook. It still carried the ravine, but hit the hump where the tree is and chased over it and down into the forest. Ball was gone and I had to hit another from the tee - this one was toed not so bad, but hooked a little on to the hump and I didn't get up and down.

Second one was 180 yards to a green with a large bunker left and a tree line to the left of that. Again, toed it hard and it produced a low screaming hook that made haste for the woods. My second attempt (3 from the tee) hit the green and I two putted. It was a decent shot.

I do want to say that the 5 iron wasn't the only club I saw that miss with yesterday. I hit a hybrid and a driver with similar results, though both times were misses that stayed in play at least. Something about the longer clubs and my swing yesterday left me open to a big miss here and there.

Regardless, I struggled with confidence and the 5 iron going forward. Final shot of the day into another longer par 3 was left short, but I did get it up and down.

The Rest

I didn't have any of the same confidence issues with the other irons. In fact, I felt like I hit them quite well, both from the fairway and rough. I obviously had some misses with them too, as would anybody, but nothing extreme. My assumption is that toe shots produce a ball that not only lauches lower, but also spins a great deal less. I saw this based on yet another par 3 (155 yards) where I hit a 7 iron. The ball was toed (no hook yay), came off a little lower and hit the low-mow in front of the green. It rolled out like a driver and ended up going over the green.

So, we come to consistency in distance. I'll say that at the moment I can't really say too much here, because I think it takes a lot of shots to say "my well struck 8 iron always goes xxx yards". I will say that my distances on good or above average impacts were consistent with what I saw on the CG2. However, I think we have to look at that in two ways. Do our mishits fall within a window of consistency as well? In some cases and with some misses, I'd say yes. In some other cases, it was somewhat unpredictable. Toe balls seemed to be the biggest culprit there because of what I am educated guessing was a big drop off in spin. You can't predict distance to the degree that you want to in an iron in that type of situation. I did see a predictable loss of carry, but the results after impact with the ground were sort of left up to the golf gods.

As mentioned in my first update in this thread, I'm not relaying this so much in a critical way, but rather a matter-of-fact way for the readers. I'm very much an average-type golfer and make my fair share of mistakes. The misses I detailed in the 5 iron section did have a negative impact on my final score, but 1) I can't definitely say that particular miss would have been better with my other irons and 2) I still had a really nice time.

I hit some good ones too and that made my day. Most of them with wedges, but a couple with irons. Definitely brought a smile to my face.

I'm going to end this one now and move on to the wedges next.
 
Love that all 3 of you got to test these. Killing it so far!
 
Great review Hawk, and one I have been waiting for.
 
The longer the better as far as I'm concerned. I'm intrigued by this set for a number of reasons but whether a higher handicap like me should consider playing them is something I wonder. Your thoughts definitely provide insight on that.
 
Great one, Hawk. These are very interesting to me in that they're basically MB's (or player's CB's, if we're being generous), and yet Hogan is promoting them as an iron that will improve even mid to high cappers' games. So, everything you have to say about that "impact zone cavity", if you will, intrigues me significantly. Did you notice a modicum of forgiveness there, or is it concentrated in too small an area to tell? I do note that you said thin balls were better than expected for an iron like this.
 
The longer the better as far as I'm concerned. I'm intrigued by this set for a number of reasons but whether a higher handicap like me should consider playing them is something I wonder. Your thoughts definitely provide insight on that.

I'll just say this coming from years now of testing many different types of irons at varying skill levels. My scores usually aren't that different, nor are my GIR numbers, and that does include playing in competition rounds at big boy golf courses and with THP'rs. That doesn't mean certain things are optimal for me by any means, but if we look at a baseline number like that I've never seen a big jump up or down that I attribute to irons. Certainly some better outcomes on varying shots though.
 
Great one, Hawk. These are very interesting to me in that they're basically MB's (or player's CB's, if we're being generous), and yet Hogan is promoting them as an iron that will improve even mid to high cappers' games. So, everything you have to say about that "impact zone cavity", if you will, intrigues me significantly. Did you notice a modicum of forgiveness there, or is it concentrated in too small an area to tell? I do note that you said thin balls were better than expected for an iron like this.

I think I don't know lol. Clear as mud, right? There has to be something there, but my experience tells me it's for little misses, and I'm not sure I'm versed enough in blades to notice the difference. I bet Dan would be a really good person to ask that question when he gets going.
 
I think I don't know lol. Clear as mud, right? There has to be something there, but my experience tells me it's for little misses, and I'm not sure I'm versed enough in blades to notice the difference. I bet Dan would be a really good person to ask that question when he gets going.

Haha as I suspected. It's so hard for me as well to judge forgiveness in small designs like this. Hand me any blade or small CB and the results are likely to be similar, assuming we've taken the shaft variation out.
 
I think I don't know lol. Clear as mud, right? There has to be something there, but my experience tells me it's for little misses, and I'm not sure I'm versed enough in blades to notice the difference. I bet Dan would be a really good person to ask that question when he gets going.

I'm looking forward to contributing.

I've played a handful of blades in the past. Most are exactly what would be expected (flush contact when swinging great, miserable when swinging poorly). Lately I've found that clubs offering good material dispersion towards the bottom of the club, moving from the heel to to the toe, are the best options. This relates to 'thin' shots, or shots only slightly away from center.

Workability may be a different story. Many who play blades seem to really enjoy working the ball. I'm the type of player that wants one type of flight unless I am really scrambling. That will be the first thing I'll seek, is whether these irons are predictable.
 
I'm looking forward to contributing.

I've played a handful of blades in the past. Most are exactly what would be expected (flush contact when swinging great, miserable when swinging poorly). Lately I've found that clubs offering good material dispersion towards the bottom of the club, moving from the heel to to the toe, are the best options. This relates to 'thin' shots, or shots only slightly away from center.

Workability may be a different story. Many who play blades seem to really enjoy working the ball. I'm the type of player that wants one type of flight unless I am really scrambling. That will be the first thing I'll seek, is whether these irons are predictable.

will you have them in Pittsburgh? I know they dont make them for lefties but I would like to take a look at them
 
will you have them in Pittsburgh? I know they dont make them for lefties but I would like to take a look at them

I'm not sure. I suspect I will, however based on the event sponsor I likely wont' be gaming these for the round on Saturday.

If I've got them, though, I'll bring them.
 
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