Choosing the best golf irons for you

Choosing the best golf irons doesn’t have to be hard. All players have different needs that change as skill level increases or decreases. There are many factors that change a set of irons like the style of the club head, what the club head loft is as well as the rigidity of the shaft.

The most important factor in choosing the best irons is the style of the club head. There are multiple styles that are intended for different uses. Professional and advanced players tend to stick with a blade style design, experienced players gravitate towards cavity back irons and beginner players benefit the most from using hollow cavity game improvement irons.

Takomo Golf Company produces premium golf irons that help all levels of players from beginners to the most advanced.

The first step in choosing the best golf irons for you is to determine which type irons will be the best for your level of skill. There are three distinct categories for golf irons, game improvement irons (which are typically hollow inside), cavity back irons (that have a hollowed out back side) and blade irons (classic design a solid thin club head).

Blade irons are the best irons for low handicap, highly skilled players that hit the ball in the same spot on the club head every time. Blade irons are not forgiving and require the golfer to be very consistent in their swing and contact.

Let’s recap before we dive deeper into different types and best golf irons. These are the things you need to know when choosing the best golf irons for you:

• Know your handicap: Not all irons suit all level of players
• Know your goal: Choose a set of irons which will suit your goals
• Know your budget: Great golf irons don’t need to break the bank but they are still a big investment

The best golf irons depend on what skill level a player performs at. Different club construction methods make an iron ‘easier’ or ‘harder’ to hit depending on your swing consistency and power.

Blade irons are heavily influenced by the first generation of golf clubs that were invented in the mid 1700’s. These irons are one solid piece of cast metal that are normally made of carbon steel. Original golf irons were cast of iron and milled by hand into their final form. One major distinction between the first era of golf irons and currency technology is the introduction of increased weight at the bottom of the clubhead. This helped players by increasing the ‘sweet spot’, or the spot on the club head that will help hit the ball farther and more accurately.

Blade irons are also known as ‘Players’ irons.

Cavity back irons are another category of golf irons. They are made with the same process as modern blade irons with one key difference. Cavity back irons have material removed from the back of the club and are often coated in a rubber material. This helps experienced players who have a mostly consistent swing avoid mishits.

Cavity back irons were the first club to be called a ‘game improvement’ iron but that has changed recently. These irons help experienced players gain more loft and distance.

The best game improvement irons are called ‘hollow body irons’ and feature a wide club head that has a hollow body. Hollow body irons are the most recent innovation in golf and are actually two separate pieces that are welded together. They are similar to cut out cavity back irons but most are hollow on the inside. They are very forgiving to the beginner or average golfer and generally speaking are what a majority of golfers should be playing with.

A hollow club drastically reduces the amount of vibration and movement, or twist, that the club head experiences on contact. This helps a bad shot not go so far off course when a golf ball is mishit.

The best game improvement irons in 2023 feature a large, wide club head that is forgiving for mishits. This has the effect of increasing the ‘sweet spot’ size while using the iron. The ‘sweet spot’ is the perfect location on the club head to hit the golf ball.

Increased club head size in the best game improvement irons of 2023 also help novice golfers power their way through thick roughs. It’s no secret that new golfers tend to hit the ball in the rough more often than fairways and need a little extra power to get back in play.

Our response to mid and high handicappers is the Takomo 101 iron. It offers great distance, forgiveness without forgetting the looks. But don’t only trust our word on it, see the below review by TXG on the Iron 101.

You can choose the most suitable golf irons for your personal golf game by first determining what irons are best for your skill level. The best irons for a mid handicap tend to fall in the ‘cavity back’ category while the best irons for beginners lie solidify in the ‘game improvement’ classification.

The best irons for a mid handicapper are either traditional ‘blade’ style irons or the more popular ‘cavity back’ options that are available. Mid handicappers can use blade style irons and have success with them, however, cavity back designs are much more forgiving. Cavity back irons allow for an experienced player that has a consistent swing but still occasionally mishit the golf ball to drastically reduce how far out of bounds a bad shot will go.

Some cavity back irons are rated as the best irons for beginners or the best game improvement irons. There are distinct differences between cavity back irons and game improvement irons although some people consider them the same.

The best rated golf irons are different for each level of player. Advanced golfers will gravitate towards traditional blade options, experienced players will tend to use a cavity back or hollow club head and new golfers almost always use game improvement club designs.

Best rated golf irons of 2023 are still big box brand names like Titleist, Cobra, Callaway, TaylorMade, Mizuno and Ping. These are heavily advertised brands that you expect to see in any golf shop.

While the most popular golf irons in 2021 were from the same brands, we do expect even more direct to consumer golf irons in this year 2023.

As new and innovative golf companies are emerging. Golfers look to alternative options for game improvement irons. These are direct to consumer golf equipment manufacturers that are cutting down on costs for their customers by avoiding costly marketing and sponsor campaigns that the established companies use.

There are three distinctly different types of golf irons. Traditional irons, where the club head is made up of a solid piece of metal, are called blade irons and are used by professional golfers and low handicap players.

Cavity back irons emerged in the 1960s and offered a new option for intermediate players that occasionally mishit balls using blade irons. The most recent developments (and best budget irons) are called game improvement irons and are designed to help an inconsistent player make better contact with the golf ball.

Brand new best golf clubs can be expensive and players look to used products as an alternative. The best used irons are ones that are still in good condition. Used clubs can perform the same as new clubs assuming that the club head and shaft are still connected properly.

The most talented players in the world can use blades just as well as they use game improvement irons. Average players do not benefit from using blade irons and are better off using the best game improvement irons.

Blade irons are based on the original way that golf clubs were made and used. The golf club head is a single piece of metal that has been forged or milled to create a blade. Blade irons are not forgiving and when mishit can cause golf balls to fly far out of bounds.

Game improvement irons are much more modern and generally feature a large faced hollow design that is intended to help players with inconsistent swings. The large club face is forgiving to mishits and provides a substantially larger ‘sweet spot’ to help launch balls straight and high in the air.

The best game improvement irons will almost always be a hollow design to promote high ball compression and spring effect for maximum ball speed, even on mishits.

There are some distinct differences between medium handicap irons and high handicap irons. Both clubs help players below the professional level hit the golf ball more consistently. High handicap players use irons that are forgiving to mishits and provide a large ‘sweet spot’ that increases their chances of hitting the ball purely.

Medium handicap irons provide the same benefit to experienced players without losing all of the shot shaping advantages of blade irons. While medium handicap irons can be considered game improvement irons there are also hollow blade design clubs intended for experienced players.

The best high handicap irons will almost always be a hollow design to promote high ball compression and spring effect for maximum ball speed, even on mishits.

The best golf irons for beginners are almost always going to be hollow body game improvement style clubs. Along with a hollow body beginner irons also feature a large, wide club head that is forgiving to mishits that come along with an inconsistent swing.

Hollow golf irons meant for beginners reduce the amount of vibration and movement drastically. This means that when a mishit ball leaves the clubface it will be helped to fly straighter and higher than it would with more advanced club designs.

Cavity back irons work by shifting more weight to the bottom, the sole, of the club which helps launch the ball off the ground at a steeper trajectory while also keeping mishit shots further in bounds. Bottoms of the best cavity back irons are wider and provide more bounce helping to provide more consistent ball contact.

‘Driving irons’ used to be considered your typical 2 iron, 3 iron or even 4 iron. Some iron sets come with a 1 iron as well. These are some of the most complicated clubs to use and even professional golfers tend to stay away from using them.

Recently, however, the term driving irons has changed in meaning. Manufacturers are now designing the best driving irons in golf by focusing on what they’re used for, driving balls off of a tee.

Historically the low numbered irons in your bag were not designed for use off the tee. The best driving irons in golf are designed for players that have a high amount of swing speed and a consistent swing. They are not forgiving off the tee and should be avoided by most players.