Review: Titleist T-MB irons (Full set of 4-PW)

andrevdp

Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Messages
147
Reaction score
1
Location
Round Hill, VA
Handicap
Scratch
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......
 
Great thoughts man! Looking forward to following along!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Good review. Its always nice finding something that just works for you.
 
15 sets...I don't feel so bad about my dealings now haha. Glad you found something that works!
 
15 sets...I don't feel so bad about my dealings now haha. Glad you found something that works!

This was one of my first thoughts as well haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It feels great to find clubs that fit your swing... I felt the Same way when I bought my Mizuno MP 69's. Love them and now that we are up to MP-5's i couldnt imaging getting rid of these things.
 
Seriously one the best non-official THP reviews I have seen in a while. Seems like they are working great for your game as well.
 
Yeah, the real deal!

Proud member of the Titleist T-MB Club
 
Great Review! How are they wearing for you?

You compared them to the Apex Pros, but how would they compare to the Apex (last year)?

Thx!
 
Glad to see this review been thinking about these a lot!
 
They don't mark up like forged irons so they are still looking really great. I have never hit the normal Apex irons as in just don't like the look of so much offset unfortunately.....sorry ��
 
Any new updates from you on these irons? I'm interesting in a full set as well but demoing them is really hard as stated earlier. I play to a 10. Currently gaming Ben Hogan Ft Wt. Love them. I gamed 712 ap2 before that. Looking for something a little more forgiving, but love the blade look. Thanks
 
Still using (and loving) them, though I did change the shafts out for KBS Tour V (stiff). I have hit pretty much every 2016 iron out there and these still outperform all the others....
 
Thank you for the quick reply. How has the PW treated you? Did you ever get a chance to try the GW? I'm a full swing guy. So that worries me a little being hollow. Any help is much appreciated. Tough to buy something without hitting them.
 
I haven't used the GW but did use the PW for the whole of last season. I could not tell that the shirt irons we're hollow as they feel exactly like any other blade like iron to me with just way more forgiveness. This year, with the release of the SM6 Vokey's I have swapped the PW out for a 46* Vokey just because the SM6 are that good....
 
Again, thanks for the quick reply. I am a full swing wedge player. Not too much touch to my game. More due to lack of time practicing. I am also looking at the SM 6. I play Scor wedges now and love them due to the full swing I use. Thanks. You are making me feel more comfortable about these irons.
 
My recommendation would go with 9 iron in the T-MB and a 46* SM6. I bent mine to 45* (with a 49* (50* bent strong) a 53* (52 bent weak) and a 58*)

given that you are love your Hogans have you thought about replacing the long irons with the new Ft. Worth 15 HI irons? Same tech as the T-MBs and designed to be a natural replacement for the Ft. Worth 15 long irons....
 
I have a set i purchased over the winter ... 5 iron to the W wedge with true temper xp95 .. r300 shafts ... 2 flat and 2 strong ... since then i also bought the 2 , 3 and 4 iron to complete the set ... i played with them last week in 2 rounds and so far they have exceded my expectations but i would like to play with them a few more times before giving a detailed review ... but i already know i like these irons and these are keepers ...
 
Great review, I just picked up a 2 & 4 iron, look forward to hitting off the real grass in 90 days lol
Nice feel off the matts.
 
Hit the 4 and 5 iron from a friends bag using range balls...blew me away. It was the end of a pretty good session and I had been swinging well but was getting tired but after a couple of flushed 5i shots (not best strikes tbh but they shot off the face and dispersion was very good) I just kept wanting to hit more and more balls. Only hit another 15x shots with 4i and 5i though as I had to go but these clubs have got me seriously interested. I play off 2 and hit my irons pretty good but these seemed like cheating. Would love to try them in my preferred KBS Tour V or even X100's as these were the stock DGS300 AMT shafts...launched a little high for me but I could certainly cope with it.

Saw them ages ago when they were launched and kinda parked them in the " lets wait a bit and see if I can pick them up on ebay at the end of the season" category because I got fit for Miura CB57 at the start of the season and have been loving them.

Price is always a factor but going to get 4i, 5i to start and may go for 2i also to kick my Adams pro mini 16deg out of the bag as this is a superb club but launches very high for me. Trying to get down to scratch so even small changes are going to make a big difference to me now and apart from putting and sub 100 yds distance control/accuracy (which I practice most) my long irons is where I would like to see measurable improvement as I am very poor at this and hate practicing it.

Great review...thanks
 
I have been playing them for about a month now and they just keep getting better for me.
 
I just picked up a 4-PW set off ebay with C Taper 120s that I'm hoping to have some fun with.

Anyone still gaming these?
 
I just picked up a 4-PW set off ebay with C Taper 120s that I'm hoping to have some fun with.

Anyone still gaming these?

which ones? i had the 718 for a little while.
 
716s


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

4-7i were some of the best irons i’ve ever played. i adored them. but the 8-w just didn’t perform right at all. i was committed to giving them more time and maybe a gapping session, but i got into another awesome thp event with gear and moved on.

for a brief time i put the 4i back in the bag as a driving iron, but being the idiot i am i put a different shaft in it and really ruined the combo for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Back
Top