Whether you’re a beginner looking for your first set of irons, or a scratch golfer who is just “scratching” your head at where to begin your search, the process can feel daunting. Today, there are many different golf brands that offer irons, and most of them offer anywhere from three to seven (or more) options to choose from. If you are someone that feels lost looking at all the options, you’re in the right place.

Here is exactly what this article will provide: as a Curated Golfing Expert, I’ll lay out my top three picks for beginners/high-handicappers, intermediate/mid-handicappers, and low-handicap golfers. Beyond that, I'll explain what sets these options apart from the rest to help make your choice of new irons simpler and a little more well-informed.

Beginners and High-Handicap Golfers

If you’re someone looking for a new iron primarily to help you get the ball up in the air, hit the ball a little farther, and offer a little more forgiveness, you probably fit in this category of golfer.

The type of irons listed for beginners will be what are called “game improvement irons.” Game improvement irons are the most forgiving irons that have low loft angles to help golfers that need a little more distance hit the ball farther, a low center of gravity to help achieve higher launch, and a hollow clubhead design which moves the weight of the clubhead to the perimeter of the club, making it more stable and forgiving. Visually, these irons will often have a thicker topline look and wider sole for a more forgiving turf interaction that helps to prevent a beginner from hitting them from a shot fat.

These irons will also, more often than not, be a cast iron. You might be asking, “What on earth is a cast iron, and why should I care?” Well, that’s certainly a fair question. The simple explanation is that there’s two types of irons: cast and forged. A forged iron is—like you might guess—a club that is forged from a single block of metal. A cast iron is instead made from liquid metal poured into a mold and cast into the shape of the club. For a game improvement style iron, you’re primarily going to find cast clubs because manufacturers can make these clubs in larger quantities more affordably. It’s also easier to create a hollow club design through this process than forging each club from an individual piece of metal.

Alright, now for my picks:

1. Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal Irons

The Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal irons are one of, if not the best feeling, non-forged irons on the market right now, and they feel far softer than many other options in this category. What makes this club stand out is the material—Mizuno developed a proprietary metal alloy called 4335 Nickel Chromoly that’s used in many of their irons, and it really has a substantial impact on the feel of the ball off the face. For the 2023 model, they’ve refined this material even more, claiming it’s 35% stronger, which allows for a face that’s 8% thinner, increasing the speed off of the clubface.

The Mizuno Hot Metal line of irons also has two more models in the lineup. The Hot Metal Pro offers the same clubhead features with a slightly thinner topline and a little less offset. The Hot Metal HL offers a clubhead that helps the moderate-swing-speed golfer achieve high launch shots.

2. Titleist T300 Irons

There aren't many golf brands out there with more heritage and better brand reputation than Titleist, and the T300 irons do a great job of living up to the name stamped on the back of the club. What makes this club special is its utilization of tungsten in the weighting of the clubhead. The D18 tungsten is denser than other forms, allowing Titleist to move a smaller amount of that tungsten weighting around the clubhead. The lighter the amount of weight, the more precise they can be in where they move it, and the more precise they can be, the more efficient and effective the perimeter weighting for providing forgiveness on mishits.

Another benefit I see in this club is that it’s not as chunky-looking as many other game improvement irons. A slightly slimmer topline makes this club more appealing to golfers that don't want to sacrifice looks for performance.

3. TaylorMade Stealth HD Irons

The TaylorMade Stealth HD is definitely the most non-traditional looking iron of this list, I would describe them as “squat.” That may not sound very flattering, but let's be honest, the look of these irons isn’t very flattering. Why are they in my top three then? The performance speaks for itself.

HD stands for High Draw, and these irons are designed for the golfer that tends to slice the ball and struggles to get it up into the air. Ultimately, they’re made to be squat-looking, as their wide sole provides the high-handicap golfer a forgiving interaction with the turf. This design moves all the weight really low in the clubhead, putting the center of gravity underneath the center of the ball at impact. This leads to a high ball flight for someone who tends to have a slower swing speed.

TaylorMade also incorporates a Thru-Slot Speed Pocket (found on the club’s sole, behind the leading edge) designed to let the bottom of the clubface flex more. This way, you don’t get as much distance drop-off when you catch the ball a little low on the face.

What sets this club apart—despite its unorthodox look—is that I truly think it’s the best club on the market right now to “fight the slice.” With a low center of gravity and weighting toward the heel for draw bias, this club is definitely worth taking a look at.

Intermediate or Mid-Handicap Golfers

So, how am I defining an intermediate or mid-handicap golfer? I’ll be considering a mid-handicapper someone who has a handicap index between around 9 and 18, and generally shoots from the low 80s to the low 90s.

For this skill level of golfer, you’ll want what’s known as a “player's distance iron.” If you’re a golfer that’s played with game improvement irons and improved over the years to want something with better feel and workability, a player’s distance iron is probably the right choice for you. This skill level is also where we start getting into forged iron territory. A forged iron provides a much softer feel off of the center of the clubface, but is more punishing on mishits than a game improvement iron would be.

Player’s distance irons are versatile as well: you’ll see many tour professionals with players' distance irons for their long irons. The reason tour professionals do this is because these irons have a larger sweet spot and more forgiveness than true player’s irons, the type of irons that they often play with in their scoring irons. An obvious question is, “Why don’t pros use these throughout their whole bag?” Well, a professional golfer often prefers a more compact clubhead with maximum feel and feedback at every shot—for which you can’t beat a blade or muscle cavity iron. We’ll discuss these options further in the low-handicap golfer section.

If any of this feels like where your game is at, or what you want out of a new set of irons, give my top three player’s distance irons a look:

1. TaylorMade P770 Irons

A major key to the TaylorMade P770’s success lies in their SpeedFoam technology, which is included both in this club model as well as the P790. SpeedFoam, which is injected behind the face, creates a hollow head design with a forged clubface that’s able to flex more.

Over the years, TaylorMade has refined SpeedFoam technology to be more consistent. A complaint about previous club models with SpeedFoam is that you would get the occasional rocket off of the clubface—think 20 yards longer than your stock yardage. Though it’s cool to be able to say that you can hit a 7 iron a country mile, on the golf course that can lead to a lot of trouble. Fortunately, it seems that the current iteration of SpeedFoam has largely solved that problem.

The P770 makes this list over the P790 because it’s been refined for 2023. The P770 is designed to look similar to a blade, with a slightly thicker topline that most non-scratch golfers may honestly prefer. Additionally, the P770 has what TaylorMade is calling FLTD CG, or “flighted center of gravity.” This technology positions the tungsten weighting differently in every single iron in the bag, which flights your long irons higher, with more stopping power to help with long approach shots.

Now, if the look of these irons is attractive to you, but you’re a golfer that prefers a club with a bit longer blade length and slightly larger sweet spot, you may want to look at the P790 instead.

2. Callaway Paradym Irons

I have to say, when this club was announced, I was a little perplexed. Normally, when a brand comes out with an iron that shares its name with the driver for that model year, it’s a cast club designed as a game improvement iron for high-handicap golfers, but that’s not the case with the Paradym. Callaway gave these irons a slim look with minimal offset and a premium forged face that was designed by AI. If you like a very compact look with a super slim topline, this iron won’t provide that, but it is by no means a chunky-looking club.

In my opinion, the technology that makes this club worth looking at is the Speed Frame design. Similar to the P770 we just talked about, the Paradym uses a forged face in a hollow clubhead design, but Callaway doesn't mess around with foam in this clubhead. Instead, they use Speed Frame to increase the rigidity of the clubface. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, the Forged 455 face has more support to flex, leading to faster ball speeds. And faster ball speeds equals more distance.

This club is a new approach for Callaway, and it’s worth checking out. If you’re someone that would like these same technologies but with a little more offset to help with confidence at address, you should check out the Paradym X.

3. Srixon ZX5 MKII Irons

The ZX5 MKII fits the mold of a player's distance iron pretty much to a T. You get all the feel benefits of a forged face, but all the confidence of a club with a longer blade length and larger sweet spot.

An interesting thing about these irons is Srixon’s utilization of progressive grooves. In 3i-7i, they design the grooves to be a little wider, allowing the ball to connect with more of the clubface. This reduces spin enough to prevent a shot from spinning so much that it’d cause a significant distance dropoff with the long irons. In 8i-AW, they use deeper grooves which lets the cover of the golf ball go deeper into the grooves, increasing grab from the clubface/increasing the spin—something very desirable for your short irons.

Low-Handicap Golfers

Maybe you’re starting to shoot in the 70s, or even breaking par pretty regularly. Maybe you want to be able to “work the ball both ways.” Or you want irons that look slim and compact behind the ball at address. Or you want an iron that’s going to give you the highest amount of feedback and best feel off the clubface. Heck, maybe all of these things are true, and you need an iron to fit the bill. Enter the player’s style iron.

This type of club isn’t designed for distance, and surely not for forgiveness. They are, however, meant to provide the best, most consistent performance off the center of the clubface. They’re going to allow more advanced players to flight the ball how they want to and much more easily than any other option. There’s very little technology in these clubs to get the ball to fly straight, because these clubs are geared toward the player that doesn’t want to hit the ball straight most times. These clubs are for players who want to be able to work a draw or fade on command—depending on what a given shot is demanding—without worrying if the club will fight against it.

So what kind of clubs fall under this category? Primarily muscle back irons (or blades) and cavity back irons. Both of these are forged from one piece of metal; blades being end products of one solid piece, with the most compact heads and smallest sweetspots. The only difference with a cavity back is that there’s a very small cavity at the back of the clubhead, as the name suggests. This allows the manufacturer to move some of that weight toward the perimeter of the club, increasing the forgiveness slightly.

Because I feel that only the-best-of-the-best ball strikers in the world should be playing a blade, I am actually going to include four different clubs in my list for the low-handicapper—three of which will be top cavity back picks, and the fourth being my favorite blade on the market.

1. TaylorMade P7MC Irons

This year, my irons got a refresh. I played Titleist AP2s for a long time, but, this year, it was time for an upgrade, and the P7MC are the irons that earned their spot in my bag. I love these irons and their no frills nature. As is the case with all of these player’s irons, they aren’t flashy in the technology they boast, but the craftsmanship and consistency in each club makes them great-looking and incredible-feeling.

Being a “feel” player myself, of all the cavity back irons that I tested, these were my favorite. TaylorMade has a process called Compact Grain Forging that uses a 2,000 ton press when forging these clubs, giving the carbon steel a more compact grain. The science of this is a little beyond me, but, from my experience, they feel amazing and soft off the face, as well as having great feedback on mishits. These clubs also allow me to work the ball as much or as little as I want to—depending on what a shot demands—while giving me a little more forgiveness than a true blade.

Also worth noting, these irons have a very thin sole (similar to a blade), as well as a slightly less rounded look than some other brands, which I prefer, but others may not.

2. Callaway Apex TCB Irons

The Apex TCB stands for their tour cavity back, and these irons are phenomenal. Outside of Callaway’s Apex MB blade model, these irons have the thinnest topline look and sole of any club in Callaway’s iron lineup. The Apex TCB provides all of the compact look and most of the feel of a blade, while offering more forgiveness. More experienced golfers will have no problem shaping the ball with these irons.

If you don’t believe how good these are, just ask Jon Rahm how they performed when he won the 2021 US Open with them.

3. Titleist 620 CB Irons

As is the case with the previous two options, the 620 CB offers a really attractive, slim, and compact look for the experienced player to feel good about. I’ve always thought that Titleist has some of the most attractive irons—both in general and at address—and these irons live up to that praise. The 620 CB are not only beautiful to look at, but they perform to match. The thing I really believe draws people to these irons is the progressive blade lengths. As you get further into the long irons, blade length gets longer, which helps to inspire a lot of confidence.

4. Mizuno Pro 221 Irons

And the winner for my pick of best blade goes to the Mizuno Pro 221! I mean, just look at them. They are beautiful, and, man, are they brutal.

I’ve hit a lot of clubs in my life, and these may be the best feeling irons I’ve ever hit. They’re soft and responsive, but they are also punishing. To play these—as is the case with all blades—you need to be an amazing ball striker. There’s nothing out there more slim and compact behind the ball, which is beautiful and daunting all at the same time. If you strike the ball with the best of them and want a blade in your bag, you need to try the Mizuno Pro 221.

Next Steps for Choosing Your Irons

If you’re wondering whether any of these irons would be a fit for your golf bag, chat with me or one of my fellow Golf Experts here on Curated for free, personalized recommendations. We’d be happy to help you find the best irons for your game.