BEST GOLF IRONS of 2024 | BEST PLAYERS CAVITY IRONS | BEST OF 2024

This edition of the BEST OF 2024 series features the best golf irons of 2024 in the players irons category, specifically the players cavity irons. These golf irons are designed to provide soft feel and workability in a compact shape and are best for low-handicap golfers seeking control over forgiveness. This best golf irons of 2024 video features the Mizuno Pro 243 irons, PING Blueprint S irons, and Callaway Apex CB irons.

0:00 Intro
2:55 Testing (Callaway Apex CB)
6:23 Testing (Mizuno Pro 243)
10:10 Testing (PING Blueprint S)
14:52 Kevin’s Picks

In this video, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald is joined by master fitter Kevin Kraft to test and review the best golf irons of 2024 in the game-improvement irons category.

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Hey golfers I’m Drew M hold the second Swing Golf here at the minona tour van joined by Kevin Craft today for another episode of the best Dove series for 2024 part one players cavity irons Kevin so um we’ve got three of them this is a

Sort of a narrowed down C uh category if you will so we don’t have a ton of uh models out there we also grabbed one from the end of 2023 that was a release in the cway Apex CB then we’ve also got two that were new here at the beginning

Of 2024 the pink blueprint s and mauno pro 243 so you’ve been fitting these already in the Bays a little bit um kind of your your first impression or or First Take on all these three models uh all are doing quite well um mauno hit another home run with their Pro

Series uh ping has gone above and beyond with what they’re they’ve been able to do with their new Blueprints and the callaways have been very good as well yeah um you know these are these are the newest right we didn’t have we just didn’t have a whole lot of

Options yeah T Taylor M’s been out for a while now Cobra’s been out for a while TI has been out for a while so uh these were the we’re doing the new guys these are the new guys yeah these are the New Kids on the Block in the players cavity

Category and you know typically these are going to be what 32 33 degrees a loft in that range um and I think what you’re looking for out of these irons is probably combination of control you know softer feel and then consistency too you know you hit that shot you don’t want

The same feeling shot to go you know 70 yards one time and 182 the next time you know yeah whereas in you know the the game improvement category it’s all about not all about distance distance and forgiveness yeah this is about you know fullon control y uh the heads aren’t

Designed to be springy and long they’re designed to get the ball up and spin mhm and and then come down nice and steep right exactly so um you’re going to see different numbers from this one than you would in in our game improvement test yeah um but that’s that is on purpose

That is what that’s the design of the club so also let’s quickly go over the shaft we’re using for each okay Club head and then um we’ll start hitting some tests or hitting some shots so Dynamic gold 120 yep um I could have gone heavier I probably

Could have gone lighter uh I don’t play Steel I just yeah that’s that’s true it it is what it is my shaft I use isn’t in The Matrix so you know that that just figures I’m weird what can I say um but uh yeah 120 it’s a you know reasonably low launching

Reasonably low spinning shaft kind of work with these heads pretty well sweet all right well uh which one you hitting first Galloway Galloway Apex CB yep all right so Kevin the Apex CB um we haven’t done a lot of testing with that on our Channel um so talk to me about

What that looks like and then uh you know both what you see now and also at a dress yeah it’s a it’s a really clean looking uh Club head I’ve heard some people push back against the the the back badge I don’t know it doesn’t bother me and I can’t

See it when I’m set up to it so right that’s not a big deal uh again I think the the shape for Callaway has changed a little bit um it’s not quite as much to my liking as what they’ve had in the past um it’s a I

Mean it’s a it’s a nice narrow sole Top Line looks really really clean looks really small which is awesome um it’s good looking Players Club though I’m pleased yeah I mean I I I’ve heard great feedback on on the appearance of that we did some testing initially last fall um

Which was really good um we just haven’t done any verses with it yet you know comparison compar comparing to other clubs let’s do that let’s do that now okay how’s the feel through what three shots four shots feels really solid really solid nice and responsive it’s got that soft forged

Feel okay that’s got to be plenty right I don’t know I I’m just kind I’m just standing got six that’s good you want one more no I hit I hit all those good I got okay yeah so the Apex CB I like I like this number right here it’s pretty good

We wanted to be uh we wanted to have more fun with it we could this this head shaft combination works well yeah right I could I mean clearly so um yeah let’s go through the numbers here just under 87 on the club speed average 118 ball speed smash RoR

136 almost every time 142 to 144 like we saw yeah that’s not going to that’s not expected um launch was right around 20° and and then the spin is just under 6,000 but very consistent yeah and I like how I mean these carry numbers are 164

167 168 163 64 64 66 and then the total distances are also even better what you want out of a player Le um Landing angles is very consistent out of 50 uh any other further thoughts here Kevin on on the Apex CB tell you what I kind of wish they still look like

The old callaways but performance performance was it’s tough to beat that really good felt really good felt really stable um did exactly what I wanted it to do uh yeah I’m I’m happy with that okay so good start good uh bar set by the Apex CB so that was 34 degrees of

Loft so okay we will I believe go down and Loft here that’s the Muno correct yes now how’s that one look when you put that one down really good yeah there I’m so picky about irons and there’s only a few irons out there that I look at that

I would be like really happy playing this is one of them um you know the 223 came out I was pretty pleased because i’ I’ve not necessarily been a zuno shaped guy yeah and the 223 looked really good this also looks really is better than 223 I think it’s pretty close to the

Same honestly but this one does Pinch in a little bit more where the hosle meets the meets the head Y and that for some reason your that’s your thing that’s for whatever reason there that’s the one thing on an iron that I absolutely obsess about I prefer a little bit more

Squared toe than a real Roundy toe too but this is the part that you if I’m looking down at the golf club and I see this being high I just don’t it just doesn’t appeal to me so well yeah but this one passes the test at least Yep this one’s good this

One’s definitely good automatic okay yeah that was just skinny well how does the mauno pro 243 feel compared to it feels a little hotter yeah they have been slowly making this this style iron hotter last couple of generations yeah it it definitely feels a little faster

Face so these are the numbers that you would be getting with your seven iron roughly yes yes that was a little I think I cut just a little bit behind that give me one more swing here okay okay so we got six now up there okay so interesting that and again

That you’re you have a dispersion difference here to start with I would call that user error yeah more than anything just wasn’t as good with the hands that time half a degree differ half a degree difference between the LI angle on that one and this one just a

Half yeah that one would have been no sorry that should have been 60 this would be this is 61 and a half so one and a half degrees which really should have been a little bit more that way but right human being flawed swinging stick hitting ball Yeah so this is kind of the numbers I was more expecting in terms of Spin and distance though yeah having the that one degree difference in Loft we got 200 fewer RPM mhm and then therefore the distance went up a little bit couple yards um anything else about you with

These numbers here the club speed very similar yeah that was um I actually would have expected maybe a little more ball speed than I got on out of this just two degrees Loft change um yeah I mean you you did get over 120 once I was okay in terms of Smash Factor

But the SM yeah smash Factor was good so I mean I’m if you look at launch angle and you look at like tour numbers on launch angle I’m really high compared to tour numbers on launch angle I’m also really like tour guys typically lower launch and higher spin yes than this

Exactly exactly so but that’s kind of a way for them to control they have more speed they kind of control things more that way I am what I am I got what I got so all right we go to Ping blueprint s now okay so this one is also on the flat

Setting okay we will not have any issues with this one with our new uh fitting system for the irons helps a lot with that so good yeah it is so good this is a everything that ping does right now for their for their Fitters all of us

Fitters is so great it’s just so great so talk to me about how that one looks little drooling an emoji would be good um it just looks spectacular yeah I I absolutely love it it’s it’s compact it’s clean it’s got a great shape I like the back of it looks really

Clean nothing nothing crazy going on back there um I’m a huge fan of this iron looks awesome looks absolutely awesome see what the uh numbers say okay my first gut reaction is that that launched pretty high yeah that felt amazing little bit of a Miss yeah little fat maybe

Yeah so this is 33° now okay it’s right in the middle of the other two and there’s your typical reaction to catching one heavy just catch one Thin how’s the feel of the blueprint yeah awesome absolutely awesome from from a company that released the the answer iron which which no offense ping

But I thought that was the worst feeling forged iron I’ve ever hit in my life to no offense though to this I it just wasn’t I just did not think it was a good feel it it felt harder than their cast clubs personal experience yeah individual results May Vary yeah but

This there’s there’s nothing hard about this this is as buttery as butter gets that was a bit of a Miss heavy little heavy yep all right let’s get one more I literally could stand here and hit this all day unfortunately we don’t have all day oh come on give me all

Day all right swung it slower you did swing it slower okay all right so ping blueprint s yeah what do we think interesting the spin’s a little lower yeah but your smash is way higher this is right in the middle and Loft so yeah that’s interesting um maybe a

Series of better swings could be I only left one kind of out to the right there um yeah I don’t know I didn’t feel like I was swinging slower but it ball speeds were certainly good I like seeing 13 n on a on a player Club yeah it’s good

That is that’s really good um it’s just so pretty I mean it’s so nice the in terms of let’s see looking at Landing angle the highest waso pro 243 which is very interesting because it’s the lowest lofted of the set here and uh yeah that’s I find that kind

Of different didn’t expect that so launch angle was the highest there with that one so that contributes to your angle um but I mean any other I mean they’re both I mean all three of them are are high enough in the air they’re going to stop they’re all good yeah that’s not

Going to be the problem and they’re also all very consistent I mean if we talk about the carry numbers here everything’s in a very very tight range so there’s nothing to worry about with that in regard to consistency and and and sort of trusting the club

Yeah yeah I I I don’t I mean they’re all really it’s going to be a lot I think in this category especially about the look and feel aspect for a player you know you’re going to get pretty similar performance across the board with irons in this exct shape and size it’s going

To be about that looking feel element so um why don’t we uh why don’t we wrap it up here let’s go over performance let’s go over some Innovation maybe and let’s go over sound look and feel all right Mr Kevin Craft so pretty God D blueprint s um you know what we’re

Going to actually start I know typically we’ve we’ve started with performance I’m going to start with look sound and feel so that you can start talking about the blueprint ‘s a little bit more so uh how much time do we have yeah yeah so uh the look sound

Feel it’s I mean I I I think the winner is blueprint ass based on your I mean Expressions here look they all feel good I don’t want to I don’t want to diss either of these you’re not you’re not you’re not they feel really really good um this just oh my

Goodness I mean I’m practically the lost wordss and you know me I’m not very often l a lost wordss yeah uh it just feels so so good it’s soft and buttery but yet responsive and still fairly forgiving for what it is and um and it looks great I mean just H it’s it’s

Everything that it’s everything I want in an iron yeah clearly it is so so okay um now we kind of have to talk about something that I feel like you’ll have less fun with and that is we’ll go to The Innovation part and so more of the kind of nitty-gritty tech details of

Each of these irons I know there’s not a ton of that in a player’s cavity iron but which of the three do you pick for that category I’m still going with this yeah because this is the first time they’ve been able to truly Forge in a

Cavity yeah right so this is this is something that’s not been done before so therefore penguin on that one fair enough um yeah their process for being able to make this iron is truly truly impressive um being able to create this this look and this this bit of forgiving

In the back is yeah quite impressive yeah and and like we’ve talked about we talked about on our on the podcast that we’ve recorded this morning was just how in this category ping doesn’t typically uh you know they’re they’re not living there all the time right with with you

Know they their releases in this category are far and few between um and especially forged ones and so when you get blueprint s in the way you are reacting to it is tells me that they’ve hit a home run there with that they they absolutely have and it’s it’s such a I

Mean it’s such a small segment of of the the population that plays this but yet there’s so much you know buildup to when something new like this comes out the original blueprint was an an amazing Iron it was just amazingly small too like it was it was a little terrifying

Like I liked it but I was like I don’t think I’m going to go that route I was worried that it was going to that the the blueprint s was going to end up being something not as I don’t know not as beautiful as what the original blueprint was and sacrifice

Some of those looks for making it more playable I had nothing to worry about because they’ve they’ve done everything exactly right with this golf club yeah yeah yeah I mean and and the performance was fantastic too um we should note that and the testing the testing actually all

Three of these was great but um we’ve got numbers up here to to go through the performance of and dispersion yeah um from the performance of this test and also and what you’ve seen in in fittings as well is there a favorite among these three well I haven’t had this one very

Long so I’ve only done a little tiny bit with this um the mauno has been a consistent performer it was a good performer in the 223 now the 2 43 uh that player that wants something that’s you know got a it’s a little little faster face but very much a nice compact

Players Club that is an awesome awesome golf club and and I really like that one a lot it’s uh it also ticks pretty much all my boxes this one’s just I don’t know there’s an extra box for undefined and and this one clicks and

Chick T that one too so ping is going to go for the sweep in this in this test I’m given everything to this one the Ping blue PR yeah um it’s a little more expensive it is it is but uh and that’s something that we should we it’s

Important to not and and golfers for you know to consider um if they’re thinking about to getting a new Iron set this year but um I mean and we’re going to revisit this later in the year there’s going to probably be another model or two or or several more that are thrown

Into this test and we’ll do it again later in 2024 but as of right now I mean if you you should trust Kevin Craft with his thoughts and insight on this stuff and he is very much impressed with the Ping blue press so all I can tell you is

My own my own experience come in book of fitting let’s hit them let’s see what you get out of it maybe you hate this shap you know yeah that’s it’s all it’s all subjective right feel subjective look sound all subjective I can tell anybody anybody anything they want to

Know about the numbers but I can’t tell them what looks feels or sounds good to them so individual results May Vary I love this thing I got you now that’s exactly it so go get that fitting go get with someone like Kevin and we’ll get

You D then for an iron set that is perfectly suited to everything that you need in an iron so Kevin thank you for all your Insight today um we print us big time win Y