A year into their reimagined Dynapowr campaign, Wilson Golf has dropped a full line of metalwoods, a set of game improvement irons, and just a few weeks ago announced the new Staff Model CB and Blade irons. That’s a bunch of golf clubs, but there was still a hole in the lineup for players looking for enhanced forgiveness and distance in a smaller-sized iron. The so-called “players distance” category is incredibly popular this day and age, but last year’s Dynapower irons didn’t really check the necessary boxes to qualify. Luckily for Wilson fans, the company’s final piece of the puzzle is here – the Dynapower Forged irons.
According to the Wilson, the Dynapower Forged irons, “are designed for players who are looking for the best of both worlds – a compact head shape and sophisticated design, without wanting to sacrifice both powerful distance and pinpoint accuracy.”
These types of irons are often the proverbial “just right” clubs that Goldilocks would be looking for, which is why we’ve seen such a strong shift towards them in recent years. The Dynapower Forged are constructed of 8620 carbon steel and are just compact enough to feel like a better players iron, yet they still provide a substantial boost in both distance and forgiveness over something like the Staff Model CB’s.
Wilson Dynapower Forged Irons – Key Technologies
We had a chance to talk with Wilson ahead of this release and asked them to give us a brief overview of the Dynapower Forged irons and what technologies they felt would help golfers the most.
Harry Nodwell, Product Line Manager, Pro Equipment, told us that, “The Dynapower Forged is the most powerful players distance iron we have ever made. Using AI, we’ve optimized both the Power Hole configuration and thicknesses across the face to maximize flexion on impact and create faster ball speeds. The weight savings from our updated Power Hole configuration allows us to drop the CG lower into the head and push more weight for the toe, creating an extremely forgiving and accurate iron while maintaining distance and speed.”
AI Designed Variable Face Thickness
Like many other companies, Wilson is utilizing machine learning, more often described as AI to the masses, in their quest to create the fastest and most forgiving iron possible. At the moment, they are calling it Dynapower AI modeling. The company describes their process by saying they, “analyzed thousands of permutations to identify the perfect variable thickness option for each section of the face to make the whole face faster while maintaining high MOI for mishits.”
There’s certainly a lot of give and take here, especially with an iron in this segment, as you not only have to provide a measure of speed, but also consistency in things like trajectory and distance control. As if that isn’t hard enough, companies must deliver something that sounds and feels good too. In Wilson’s case, they do that, at least in part, with a high quality, 8620 Carbon Steel. Anyway, finding the right recipe can’t be easy, but machine learning certainly makes the process more efficient. We’ve already seen hints of “AI weariness” among our readers, even though its application is still in its infancy. However, it’s our opinion that though we may be tired of hearing the same buzzwords repeatedly, the minor annoyance is a small price to pay when you consider the potential benefits the technology offers.
New Power Hole 3.0 Configuration
Power Holes are a carryover technology that Wilson has utilized for years now. While we’ll again kindly suggest that the company finds another name for this feature (Power Channels?), it’s an effective tool in iron design for several reasons. While we’ve seen this feature in many past Wilson irons, with the application ranging from subtle to chaotic (we’re looking at you C300’s), the 3.0 version has been tweaked a bit from the D9 Forged irons. It’s relatively understated, but a close look shows that the toe side’s Power Hole is now lengthened, likely in a quest to provide better performance on that portion of the face.
That of course begs the question: What performance benefits do Power Holes provide? There are a couple things they do, but probably most notable is that they allow the face to flex easier, resulting in higher ball speeds. You’ll see in the graphic above that Wilson has designed them to provide faster speeds in areas most commonly impacted by amateurs. Additionally, by removing heavy carbon steel from the iron and replacing it with a lightweight TPU material, club designers have discretionary weight that they can position elsewhere in the head, optimizing things like center of gravity and MOI.
Low Center of Gravity and High MOI
As we just alluded to, the new Power Hole 3.0 configuration gave designers the ability to manipulate the center-of-gravity and MOI properties of the Dynapower Forged irons. As you might expect, a low CG is in play here, as these stronger lofted irons are intended to launch the ball high and fast. However, a substantial amount of weight has also been pushed out towards the toe. In reality, this often makes the sweet spot closer to the true center of the face, but it also enhances club face stability on toe impacts, by far the most common misses a typical amateur will experience.
Looks, Feel, and Performance
In the players distance category, looks and feel can’t come as an afterthought. While distance and forgiveness are both important, a large subset of consumers demand an iron that at least shares some resemblance to something we see Tour players using. Smaller heads, less offset, thinner top lines, and cleaner cavities are all in high demand, if performance doesn’t suffer.
The Dynapower Forged irons are quintessential Wilson. Even with the new name, it would be almost impossible to mistake them for something else. Stalwart design choices like an abundance of chrome, soft lines, a high toe, and rounded edges are all present and familiar. The entire package made for an exciting unboxing. The chrome finish, which we admit does come across to some consumers as old-fashioned, is striking at first glance. The mirror finish absolutely gleams in the light, though fortunately the grooved portion of the face is softened with a satin finish to reduce glare.
Without perspective, it’s difficult to grasp size, so at some level you’re going to have to take our word for this until you see them yourself, but the Dynapower Forged definitely qualify as “compact” irons, at least generally speaking. If you’re more familiar with game improvement irons they’ll seem quite small (the address picture below should illustrate that) without being overly intimidating. If you’re used to players cavity back irons, they’ll seem a bit larger without approaching “oversized” territory. Again, we’ll refer back to Goldilocks and her love of the middle ground.
A moderately thin topline and pleasingly low amount of offset are the first things we noticed when addressing the ball with the Dynapower Forged irons. In fact, a quick survey of Wilson’s competitor’s shows these irons have either the same or less offset than anything in their class. While the topline is on the thin side, a gentle softening of the edges could do wonders for its appearance. In all, it’s our belief that anybody looking for irons of this type would find plenty to love about the Dynapower Forged at address.
The shaping of the Dynapower Forged cavity will look very familiar to anybody that saw the D9 Forged irons in hand, albeit with some subtle modifications in shaping. Though certainly not cavernous, the cavity makes us feel like there will be a reasonable amount of help with off center shots. We still can’t love the shortened DYNAPWR logo, especially on an iron of this type. It’s not so distracting that it detracts from the overall look of the iron, but it really does nothing to contribute to it. Also, we can’t help but wish the blank Wilson Staff shield seen on the 2024 Staff Model irons found its way to the Dynapower Forged. Of course, anybody can find nits to pick if they stare at something long enough, and we found ourselves staring at these irons quite a bit. That should tell you how impressed we were with the overall package.
Unfortunately, due to shipping schedules and a quickly approaching embargo date, we couldn’t spend more than a brief amount of time working with the Dynapower Forged irons before publication, so we encourage you to follow along on our forums for more performance feedback. Early indications showed they should perform exactly as advertised, with the speed and launch angles we’d expect to see from an iron of this type. The thing that stood out most was the outstanding feel at impact. It was a breath of fresh air in many ways. Without resorting to clichés, the 8620 forged face, smaller cavity, and weight placement came together to create a solid and responsive sound at impact that didn’t bleed into the realm of being artificially soft. Sound and feel are subjective, but we have a hunch anybody trying these irons out will have a lot of good things to say about them.
Fit AI Technology
Wilson’s Fit AI process is just hitting fitting centers now. While we haven’t had a chance to try it out, there is some potential in its use. Golfers will take shots using a special club that has an integrated sensor capable of measuring 12,000 data points per swing. Afterwards, the Wilson Black Box Algorithm will use a set of metrics including shaft plane, shaft load, wrist hinge, club face closure, and swing tempo to make a club and shaft recommendation.
The company notes that, “The Wilson Fit AI technology accurately gathers your individual swing characteristics and runs them through our proprietary machine learning algorithm. What makes this system so unique is the algorithm continues to optimize and learn in real time as golfers from around the globe input their swings. From there, Wilson Fit AI makes a custom iron build recommendation, and the app will provide a head, shaft, grip, length, and lie recommendation that maximizes both your performance and playability.”
According to Wilson, “Dynapower Forged is just one of five Wilson iron offerings that can be recommended by Wilson Fit AI. We anticipate many amateur golfers being fit into Dynapower Forged irons, as it gives them a great blend of playability, distance and forgiveness.”
Specifications and Details
- Pricing: Steel $999.99 USD ($1,299.99 CAD) / Graphite $1,099.99 USD ($1,399.99 CAD)
- Presale begins February 13, 2024.
- Available at retail locations March 5, 2024.
- More information at www.wilson.com
