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Best irons in golf of 2024: Slower swing speed (Easiest to launch)

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2 years ago

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In our effort to assemble the 2024 best irons, we have again compiled an expert panel of fitters to help you find out which of the 2024 irons is best for your game.

Ultimately the best way to find your personal best iron set is to work with a professional fitter using a launch monitor. The difficult part is a lot of people don’t have easy access to fitters, launch monitors, and club builders — so at GolfWRX, we have done a lot of the work for you.

We are in the era of not just maximizing distance but also minimizing the penalty of common misses for each player — this applies to irons just as much as it does with any other club in the bag. And of course, proper set makeup and gapping is essential. This is why, now more than ever, custom fitting is essential to help you see results on every swing you make.

We want to give you the tools and information to go out and find what works best for you by offering recommendations for your individual iron set wants and needs with insight and feedback from the people who work every single day to help golfers get peak performance out of their equipment.

Best irons of 2024: The process

The best fitters in the world see all the options available in the marketplace, analyze their performance traits, and pull from that internal database of knowledge and experience like a supercomputer when they are working with a golfer.

It’s essentially a huge decision tree derived from experience and boiled down to a starting point of options—and it has nothing to do with a handicap!

Modern iron sets are designed into player categories that overlap the outdated “what’s your handicap?” model, and at GolfWRX we believe it was important to go beyond handicap and ask specific questions about the most crucial performance elements fitters are looking at.

These are the best iron categories we have developed to help you determine which category is most important for your swing and game.

Best irons of 2024: The categories

  • Overall performance
  • Easiest to launch/Slower swing speed
  • Pure enjoyment
  • Shotmakers
  • Most technology-packed
  • Best blade

2024 Best irons: Easy to launch/Slower swing speed

These are the irons for golfers who need height. With today’s modern golf ball, creating proper flight widows and spin can be difficult for some players — especially those at lower speeds — and this is where technology can really help. All of these irons do everything they can to create shot-stopping trajectories and a steeper angle of descent.

Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal HL

Their story: With the JPX923 Hot Metal, Mizuno introduced “4355 nickel chromoly,” which is 35 percent stronger than the original Hot Metal material and allows for an eight-percent thinner clubface. Cup face construction works in tandem with a deep center of gravity for high launch with stopping power. Mizuno developed Hot Metal Pro, Hot Metal and Hot Metal HL (High Launch) from 175,000 real golf swings recorded via Mizuno’s Swing DNA system. JPX923 Hot Metal HL is a high launch speed cavity delivering a higher launching option for players with moderate swing speeds or aggressive shaft lean, it’s suitable for mid to high-handicap golfers.

Fitter comments:

  • “We’re talking about… people who need forgiveness, but they don’t spin it enough. They don’t get it in the air. The HL is a little little weaker-lofted, but they have the size and the forgiveness they need. It’s one of the go-tos for us.”
  • “We’ve been getting a lot of guys where it’s like, you know, the way you deliver it, you really need the loft of a, of a blade, but you’re not good enough to hit a blade. So, you know, we need to get some height. Like the slower swing speed player, aging golfer, like they don’t have 130 MPH ball speed with a seven that they can launch it at 15 degrees and still get it in the air. They gotta get that thing off the ground and up to get some distance out of it. And this thing is just, it’s so easy to get up in the air…even if we do bend other things weaker, we can’t get it as high lofted as that thing, and it just goes straight up in the air.”
  • “It’s super forgiving and it feels pretty good that. We sell more HL’s than we do standard Hot Metals. It’s such a popular golf club.”
  • “It’s a spectacular club and really is probably the best club in that high-launch category. If you take the high launch QI, you take the [Callaway Paradym] Ai Smoke HL, [Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal] HL, that’s the best one.”

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke HL

Their story: At the core of Callaway’s new Ai Paradym Smoke irons is the Ai Smart Face. With the Ai Smart Face, these irons are designed to promote exceptional distance, tight dispersion into the green, and optimal launch in a modern construction. The new shape consists of longer blade lengths, thinner toplines, and optimized sole widths in a bid to create a forgiving, yet streamlined look at address. In addition, an all-new Dynamic Sole Design features a pre-worn leading edge with variable bounce that cuts through the turf with efficiency.

Fitter comments:

  • “Compared to the standard Ai Smoke, it’s definitely launching a little bit higher. I would say blade length is a little bit longer. So, you know, it’s a little bit more forgiving a little bit easier to hit than that traditional AI Smoke. It’s gonna launch higher than Ai Smoke and spin a little bit more for that player that needs that help.”
  • “Amazing when it comes to getting the ball airborne and retaining spin. Very easy to hit and very stable through impact. Second place to Mizuno, for me.”
  • “The HL version allows for a player to play a strong lofted iron in a lightweight package that helps achieve great distance. This iron is long! The ball speeds are crazy high. This iron is great for a player who flips at it.”
  • “Even though not as light as the others, the HL gets the ball in air faster and slower speed needs that for distance”
  • “Powerful but still helps get the ball to launch at a playable angle. Generates height well with lots of speed across the face.”

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

TaylorMade Qi HL

Their story: With a blend of minimalistic aesthetics and advanced multi-material technology, TaylorMade’s new Qi irons aim to deliver the optimal combination of distance, accuracy and solid feel in an inviting game-improvement package. At the heart of the Qi iron is individual head optimization, organic face designs, and FLTD CG, all working in unison to help golfers minimize the right miss. With their latest irons, TaylorMade has designed the all-new Qi irons to have significantly less right bias for straighter and more accurate shots.

Fitter comments: 

  • “That’s a big ass iron. But you also have a much better look than the [Stealth] HD last year. That [iron] was really shallow in the face that got the ball up great. But it just didn’t look the way some people wanted, right? They didn’t want a small face. So it’s a really good option for people.”
  • “You’re seeing some of these companies…I think they’re seeing that sometimes…a little bit of loft can be, be good, you know, but they’re combing it with heads now that are super tight off the face. You get some of those guys catching it all on the face, the thing still getting up in the air, still producing ball speed.”
  • “I would say the Qi HL, it’s like kind of top charts when it comes to…if someone’s hitting it, that thing wants to go. And I think they definitely did a good job…with the redesign of it compared to Stealth HD.”
  • “The previous generation was a little bit off-putting, you know, some, most people don’t wanna play kind of, you know, a hybrid-iron. It’s a little bit easier to hit a little bit better package…compared to the HD, the packaging is 1,000,000 bucks.”
  • “I mean…[Stealth] HD worked really good but it was very hard to…get someone to accept that they had to use it. Now at the [Qi10] HL you put that in someone’s hands, it looks good. It feels good. And they feel like, ‘I’m using a, a golfer golf club,’ you know. It’s a real battle sometimes with people…our job is performance, but they also want something that’s gonna look good in their bag.”
  • “The fact that it looks like a regular golf club is helpful. I think in that modern-day iron, it’s just lofts are getting so strong, and the ball is spinning so little off of these things that if you don’t naturally hit it super high, irons like that are just perfect for guys, they’re able to hold greens, stop it quicker. For a lot of guys, that height means more distance. So they’re actually hitting it farther with more loft and, and be able to hold a green better. And guys that maybe had a five hybrid are now getting a five iron back in their bag and it’s great.”

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Ping G430 HL

Their story: Billed as Ping’s “longest iron ever”, the G430 irons combine a lower CG with stronger, custom- engineered lofts and a thinner face that delivers up to 2 more mph of ball speed, per the company. At the heart of the new addition is the PurFlex cavity badge, an innovation which features seven flex zones that allow more free bending in design to increase ball speed across the face. In combination with a lower CG, the badge aims to contribute to the solid feel and pleasing impact sound. The stronger lofts across the set resulted in the addition of a 41 degree PW to ensure proper gapping options and allowed for standard lofts in the traditional scoring wedges (45.5, 50, 54 and 58 degrees).

From the fitters:

  • “With that Alta Quick shaft, I mean, it’s just, it’s super easy to kick that thing up in the air. And what I really like about it is they don’t put flex on the shaft. We’ve had, you know, I mean, you explain to the customer like, hey, you know, you might, you know, you’re gonna need that 35-gram Alta Quick. It’s not gonna say, you know, ladies flex or whatever and no one knows.”
  • “It’s super easy to hit, super easy to launch, especially for someone who needs…that help and forgiveness.”
  • “What I like about what Ping does, they don’t just like, shove a lighter-weight shaft in the same club head. They put a lighter grip on it, they put a lighter shaft in it. So like they kind of do it the right way. It’s just an overall lighter package version of the best game improvement iron out there. So it’s you get all the forgiveness and everything else that you get with G430, but now in a total balanced package for a slower swing speed player, it’s, it’s great.”
  • “What I like about it too is with the Alta Quick 35 [shaft]. It’s essentially like a ladies golf club that doesn’t say ladies on it. So like you get that guy that swings super slow or you get like that junior boy or something like that that just, you know, I’m not, you know, especially like the kids like, I mean, he’s not playing a club that says ladies on it or it’s purple or something you can get than this and it looks just like his dad’s G430s, but it just gets up in the air and goes and it’s awesome.”
  • “The best iron in the game improvement category. High launch and packed with forgiveness on those off-center hits. It’s one of the easiest irons to hit. The HL version allows players who need a lighter package and need help with higher launch are able to achieve that with this iron.”

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Titleist T350

Their story: The new T350 irons are still built for maximum distance and forgiveness, but they were redesigned with a hollow-body construction that’s inspired by the T200. Like the T200, the T350 also uses Max Impact Technology behind the face to maximize speed and forgiveness, and dual-tungsten weights in the back cavity. The T350 irons are noticeably larger, and with thicker toplines, than the T200 irons for golfers who need the additional surface area and stability.

Fitter comments: 

  • “The T350 is super good. They definitely cleaned it up, cleaned up that topline a little bit and made it…a little bit more compact, a little bit smaller for sure.”
  • “You know, I think is one of those irons that maybe sometimes can get overlooked. I don’t know…some guys, they think ‘Titleist,’ they can’t hit it. If someone’s in this category, it’s always a club you’re gonna have.”
  • “So like this is the first one in that model that’s had like a forged face and, and, and, and I think that just improved the feel of it. Topline to me looks a little bit cleaner and, they do a nice job of hiding the offset doesn’t look quite obnoxious when you look down at it. I don’t know if it’s like the chrome that they put or whatever, but it looks a lot cleaner at address. The iron’s always been super easy to get up in here.”
  • “That type of customer, I know they all want to do is just hit it nice and far. But we’re seeing so many guys come in that just need help getting it airborne in that moderate kind of clubhead speed category. And this thing is probably, if not the easiest, one of the easiest irons in this category to launch. And I think that’s what makes it so great.”
  • “High launch is a key component to this iron. Clean look, with reduced offset and a better look for a players game improvement iron. Players are surprised that this is a game improvement iron based on the looks and package size.”

For more photos/info, read our launch piece.

Best irons of 2024: Meet the fitters

RELATED: Best driver 2024

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Equipment

Then and now: Comparing Rory McIlroy’s current setup to his record-breaking 2019 Canadian Open victory

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2 hours ago

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Jun 11, 2026

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In Rory McIlroy’s first appearance at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he crushed the record books to earn his 16th PGA Tour title in dominating fashion, winning by seven shots over Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson.

McIlroy’s score of 22-under-par 258 is the lowest 72-hole score to date at the Canadian Open, and his closing 61 is also the best final-round score in the history of one of golf’s oldest tournaments. Finally, with his win in 2019, McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the career Triple Crown, adding to his victories at the U.S. Open in 2011 and The Open Championship in 2014, joining Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods in a coveted list.

So, with that, why not compare his current setup to the clubs he used to break all the records?

Driver

2019: TaylorMade M5 (9 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees @8), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45 5/8 inches)

McIroy led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2019; he’s doing the same in 2026. Between now and then, McIlroy has switched from the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX (a shaft with slightly more feeling in the tip) to the original Fujikura Ventus Black 7X, having just made the change to the heavier version from playing the 60X.

What’s interesting about McIlroy’s 2019 setup is that the weighting on his driver is actually set in the high-draw setting, using the T-Track weighting system, whereas in the Qi4D, he’s currently using a heavily rear-weighted setup. (Two 13-gram weights in the rear and only two 4-gram front weights.)

The TaylorMade M5 driver he played in during his Canadian Open win was the company’s first head that they claimed to design to initially exceed the USGA’s COR limit, and then injected with tuning resin to bring it back in bounds.

Fairway woods

2019: TaylorMade M6 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX; TaylorMade M5 5-wood (19 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X; TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood (18 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X

The TaylorMade M6 fairway wood that McIlroy was using during the 2019 season is still in the bag of some of the best golfers on Tour in 2026. Just check out Justin Rose’s winning setup from the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. This year, though, McIlroy has still been searching for his top-end-of-the-bag setup, having played both the new Qi4D and the Qi10, which he won the Masters with.

The same shaft swap can be seen in the fairway woods as the driver, along with slightly less loft on the 5-wood.

Irons

2019: TaylorMade P750 (4) Buy here, TaylorMade P730 (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
2026: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0

The biggest difference between McIlroy’s custom set and the stock P730s is the groove design. While the P730s were constructed with 14 MX-9 grooves on their milled faces, McIlroy’s proto heads instead use the higher-spinning, 16-groove layout of the TW2 grooves. Other big differences between the sets are that McIlroy’s 7- and 8-irons have thinner toplines, are 1 degree stronger in loft, and are 1/4 inch longer than the original P730 builds.

With McIlroy’s 4-iron, the switch from P750 to P760 sees a transition to a two-piece construction with Speed Foam in it, which allows McIlroy to launch the ball slightly higher, with more workability.

Wedges

2019: TaylorMade Milled Grind (48-09SB), TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09SB, 56-09SB, 60-LB09), Shafts: Project X Rifle 6.5
2026: TaylorMade MG5 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB, 60-08LB @61), Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)

Between 2019 and 2026, McIlroy’s focus on his short game has been much more apparent. It was the reason why he switched back to the TP5 golf ball, to help with launch, spin and control with his wedges leading up to his career Grand Slam victory in 2025. The most apparent changes to McIlroy’s wedge setup are his lofts and bounce. He’s slowly delofted his pitching to a sand wedge, but has increased the loft on the lob wedge, bending his current 60-degree to 61. With that, adding more loft to his lob wedge also slightly increases the bounce and leading-edge sit point, so, as a result, he plays a lower-bounce lob wedge compared to 2019. The MG5 wedges are also softer than the first Milled Grind option from 2019. McIlroy also no longer plays the full-face grooves found on the Hi-Toe.

Putter

2019: TaylorMade Spider X
2026: TaylorMade Spider Tour X

Notice anything similar. Yes, the copper finish on Rory McIlroy’s Spider X putter in 2019 is a slightly more reflective finish than the recently released torched PVD finish. McIlroy was using the True Path alignment system, but now uses only a single white sightline.

Ball

2019: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)
2026: 2025 TaylorMade TP5 (RORS)

As mentioned above, McIlroy had transitioned from the TP5 to TP5x golf ball since his victory in Canada in 2019, but now is black with the same style of golf ball as his victory at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.

Grips

2019: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
2026: Golf Pride MCC

Interesting, McIlroy actually used Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips during his victory in 2019 (it was during a 2+ year switch to the corded TV) as opposed to his usual MCC grips, which he has played for most of his career.

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Equipment

From the GolfWRX Classifieds: Titleist Vokey Proto Wedges 54M, 60T

Published

5 hours ago

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Jun 11, 2026

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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @Putt4Dough is selling some prototype wedges from Vokey Wedgeworks. These include a 54 degree wedge with the M grind and a 60 degree wedge with a T grind.

From the listing:

(1) Titleist Vokey Proto Wedge 54M with a Tour Issue DGS400 shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet (logo down). Standard length, lie, and loft. BB&F ferrule. Raw wedge in good condition. No initials. Price is $200 shipped. Buy both wedges for $380 shipped.

(2) Titleist Vokey Proto Wedge 60T with a KBS Tour 130X shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet. Standard length, lie, and loft. Raw wedge in good condition. No initials. Price is $200 shipped. Buy both wedges for $380 shipped.

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules.

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Whats in the Bag

Ryan Palmer WITB 2026 (June)

Published

5 hours ago

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Jun 11, 2026

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Driver: Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond (9 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Blue RDX 60 TX

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS T1100 70 6.5

5-wood: TaylorMade SIM2 Max (18 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 80 TX

Irons: Srixon ZXiU (23 degrees), Srixon Z785 MB (5-PW)
Shafts: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 100 6.5 (4), KBS Tour 130 X

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 (50-08F, 54-10S, 58-04T @59)
Shafts: KBS Tour 130 X

Putter: Odyssey Dual Force Rossie II

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Check out more in-hand photos of Ryan Palmer’s clubs here.

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