andrevdp
Member
This is a long post so my upfront apologies to those with a short attention span.....
I am now 2 rounds and a few range sessions in with my 716 T-MBs (4-PW with Nippon Modus 120 stiff). Typically by this stage I am either selling irons if I don't like them (e.g. Apex Pro 16s which lasted 18 holes) or they are likely to stay in the bag a few weeks at minimum until the honeymoon period is over. These irons however are different - simply put they just perform better than anything I have played in recent years. I am a serial iron "ho" (who isn't around here) but this year alone I have gamed 15 sets of irons!!!! From a set up Scratch SB1's to Callaway Legacy Blacks and XR-Pro's and anything in between you care to mention. I just don't see these going anywhere soon!
I will keep reporting back as the honeymoon period progresses but for now here are my thoughts (I am 0.2 index whose strength is driving and putting. My iron game is probably the weakest part of my game. I carry a 4 iron about 195y (now) and a PW about 128y). I have been on the search for the last two years for a club that looks like a blade (short blade length, mid-slim top line and little to no offset), but plays like a GI in the mid/long irons.
Feel and Sound: The long irons when struck pure feel just like a modern multi-material forged club (AP2, Apex Pro, etc.) If you miss them a little you absolutely get some feedback but it is not harsh in any fashion. Above all the sound on misses is what most people might find a little different but when hit pure they are very, very similar to other multi-material forged clubs. The short irons on the other hand feel more like traditional single piece forged clubs, again however when you miss them you can hear they are different. Again not in a bad way, just different. All in all these feel no worse than AP2s, Apex Pro's etc and way better than any of the cast irons I have played recently. They certainly don't feel like hollow, cast clubs!
Ball Flight: I am a notoriously low flight, low spin player and have tried over the years to use equipment to help bring a little extra height/spin to my iron game. The only clubs I have ever been able to launch with "normal" height and spin have been GI clubs (which I hate the look and feel). The T-MBs launch at least 2 degrees higher per iron with between 500 and 1,00 RPM more spin than any players club I have ever hit. These irons now put me in the normal range of launch (16* -17* 4 iron with about 3750 - 4000 RPM spin). The same pattern follows through the irons all the way down to the wedge where my spin rate is up to the 8,500-9,000 RPM range. This translates into better distances whilst still giving me great "stopping power".
Performance (Distance and Dispersion): This is where the irons really shine. I have picked up about a full clubs distance in the 4 iron, a 1/2 club in the 5,6,and 7 and a little extra in the 8,9 and PW. This has resulted in re-establishing normal yardage gaps at the top of the bag, without compromising anything at the bottom. Typically I have about a 12 yard gap in the short irons, 8 yard in the mid irons, and only about 5 or 6 yards between the 5 iron and 4 iron. I now pretty much have 10 to 12 yards throughout the bag. The real surprise is that there is very little loss of distance if you miss the middle of the face. My misses tend to be high and low in the face rather than toe or heel which is traditionally a killer when it comes to distance loss (not so much an issue with dispersion left or right). Frankly the T-MBs are pretty consistent wherever you hit them on the face , low, high, heel or toe. Obviously you do lose some yardage but not so much that if you miss a 5 iron hitting into a green with a pin tucked 10 yard over water, that you are going to dunk it in the pond 10 yards short! They also do not have "hot spots" so yardages are very predictable and consistent (also great for chipping with the short irons). The dispersion on these was significantly better for me than the 716 AP2s and the Apex Pro16s.
Workability: These are easily as workable as Titleist CBs, AP2s, Apex Pro's or any of the other Players CBs. They are not quite so easy to knock down as some other player's clubs, but given my ability to hit the ball REALLY low when I need to, this doesn't pose a problem for me. Working them left and right is pretty much a given, though probably resulting in a little less shape than with a more traditional MB.
So this sounds incredibly positive and almost like Titleist have created the ultimate iron for the weekend warrior who still wants to play to a low index. Well like always, everything isn't perfect, though these are pretty darn close.
Cons: Price is one of the biggest issues. Starting at about $1,400 for a stock set of these presents its challenges to a lot of potential buyers who would love these. The second is that whilst they can be bent, they are not easy to bend, and Titleist recommends no more than 2* in any direction. In fact they cast two separate heads (standard and 2* up) so they can cover from 2* flat to 4* up. The third is that I honestly believe these irons will perform quite differently for different swing types (if you read the feedback on these irons in this thread you can already see how some people find them to be low launch with low spin, which is the opposite from my experience), and because of this, demoing a set is going to be critical to getting something that fits your swing. Furthermore, I believe that just hitting the long irons is not a suitable fitting method if you are considering going for them through the bag. Finding a full set to demo is going to be tough, and because they are so expensive, buying blind (like I did) is a fairly big risk.
All-in-all, I absolutely love them and hopefully I will feel the same way in a few weeks once the honeymoon period has worn off and I have had my first "bad" round with them......
I am now 2 rounds and a few range sessions in with my 716 T-MBs (4-PW with Nippon Modus 120 stiff). Typically by this stage I am either selling irons if I don't like them (e.g. Apex Pro 16s which lasted 18 holes) or they are likely to stay in the bag a few weeks at minimum until the honeymoon period is over. These irons however are different - simply put they just perform better than anything I have played in recent years. I am a serial iron "ho" (who isn't around here) but this year alone I have gamed 15 sets of irons!!!! From a set up Scratch SB1's to Callaway Legacy Blacks and XR-Pro's and anything in between you care to mention. I just don't see these going anywhere soon!
I will keep reporting back as the honeymoon period progresses but for now here are my thoughts (I am 0.2 index whose strength is driving and putting. My iron game is probably the weakest part of my game. I carry a 4 iron about 195y (now) and a PW about 128y). I have been on the search for the last two years for a club that looks like a blade (short blade length, mid-slim top line and little to no offset), but plays like a GI in the mid/long irons.
Feel and Sound: The long irons when struck pure feel just like a modern multi-material forged club (AP2, Apex Pro, etc.) If you miss them a little you absolutely get some feedback but it is not harsh in any fashion. Above all the sound on misses is what most people might find a little different but when hit pure they are very, very similar to other multi-material forged clubs. The short irons on the other hand feel more like traditional single piece forged clubs, again however when you miss them you can hear they are different. Again not in a bad way, just different. All in all these feel no worse than AP2s, Apex Pro's etc and way better than any of the cast irons I have played recently. They certainly don't feel like hollow, cast clubs!
Ball Flight: I am a notoriously low flight, low spin player and have tried over the years to use equipment to help bring a little extra height/spin to my iron game. The only clubs I have ever been able to launch with "normal" height and spin have been GI clubs (which I hate the look and feel). The T-MBs launch at least 2 degrees higher per iron with between 500 and 1,00 RPM more spin than any players club I have ever hit. These irons now put me in the normal range of launch (16* -17* 4 iron with about 3750 - 4000 RPM spin). The same pattern follows through the irons all the way down to the wedge where my spin rate is up to the 8,500-9,000 RPM range. This translates into better distances whilst still giving me great "stopping power".
Performance (Distance and Dispersion): This is where the irons really shine. I have picked up about a full clubs distance in the 4 iron, a 1/2 club in the 5,6,and 7 and a little extra in the 8,9 and PW. This has resulted in re-establishing normal yardage gaps at the top of the bag, without compromising anything at the bottom. Typically I have about a 12 yard gap in the short irons, 8 yard in the mid irons, and only about 5 or 6 yards between the 5 iron and 4 iron. I now pretty much have 10 to 12 yards throughout the bag. The real surprise is that there is very little loss of distance if you miss the middle of the face. My misses tend to be high and low in the face rather than toe or heel which is traditionally a killer when it comes to distance loss (not so much an issue with dispersion left or right). Frankly the T-MBs are pretty consistent wherever you hit them on the face , low, high, heel or toe. Obviously you do lose some yardage but not so much that if you miss a 5 iron hitting into a green with a pin tucked 10 yard over water, that you are going to dunk it in the pond 10 yards short! They also do not have "hot spots" so yardages are very predictable and consistent (also great for chipping with the short irons). The dispersion on these was significantly better for me than the 716 AP2s and the Apex Pro16s.
Workability: These are easily as workable as Titleist CBs, AP2s, Apex Pro's or any of the other Players CBs. They are not quite so easy to knock down as some other player's clubs, but given my ability to hit the ball REALLY low when I need to, this doesn't pose a problem for me. Working them left and right is pretty much a given, though probably resulting in a little less shape than with a more traditional MB.
So this sounds incredibly positive and almost like Titleist have created the ultimate iron for the weekend warrior who still wants to play to a low index. Well like always, everything isn't perfect, though these are pretty darn close.
Cons: Price is one of the biggest issues. Starting at about $1,400 for a stock set of these presents its challenges to a lot of potential buyers who would love these. The second is that whilst they can be bent, they are not easy to bend, and Titleist recommends no more than 2* in any direction. In fact they cast two separate heads (standard and 2* up) so they can cover from 2* flat to 4* up. The third is that I honestly believe these irons will perform quite differently for different swing types (if you read the feedback on these irons in this thread you can already see how some people find them to be low launch with low spin, which is the opposite from my experience), and because of this, demoing a set is going to be critical to getting something that fits your swing. Furthermore, I believe that just hitting the long irons is not a suitable fitting method if you are considering going for them through the bag. Finding a full set to demo is going to be tough, and because they are so expensive, buying blind (like I did) is a fairly big risk.
All-in-all, I absolutely love them and hopefully I will feel the same way in a few weeks once the honeymoon period has worn off and I have had my first "bad" round with them......