These 2024 irons recorded the fastest ball speeds during robot testing

Unless you’re an elite ball-striker wielding a set of musclebacks that absolutely have to hit a certain speed threshold, adding some velocity through the bag is generally a good thing.

More speed means more distance, and more distance means a shorter club in your hands on a 150-yard approach. That’s a scenario every golfer wants to encounter during a round.

Tracking down an iron with plenty of ball speed in the tank is one way to shorten those approaches. But it’s not just speed out of the middle. Unless you possess a tour card, it’s generally good to have something in the bag that generates strong ball speed numbers across the entire face.

As expected, the five fastest models were in the game-improvement category, which makes sense considering these offerings are usually loaded with ultra-thin faces, tungsten weighting and high-tech cavity badges. Let’s check out the numbers.

(How we calculate: Each 7-iron is tested at 80 mph using three-point face mapping. We hit six balls from each location on the face — heel, toe and geometric center — and then came up with an average based on the 18 strikes.)

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Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke | 117.7 mph

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Custom Irons

Ai SMOKE IRONS The Paradym Ai Smoke irons represent a total revolution in iron performance. The Ai Smoke family of irons utilizes the most advanced iron face in Callaway history: the Ai Smart Face Industry-First Ai Smart Face™ The all-new Ai Smart Face optimizes iron performance using swing data from thousands of real golfers. The result is a face that promotes maximum distance with tight dispersion into the green. Improved Turf Interaction The all-new Dynamic Sole Design features a pre-worn leading edge with variable bounce that cuts through the turf with extreme efficiency. This dynamic design promotes crisp contact on all shots and is engineered to provide exceptional forgiveness.

$114.28 from Fairway Jockey

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Callaway ’23 Big Bertha | 117.3 mph

Cleveland ZipCore XL | 116 mph

Cobra Darkspeed | 116 mph

Ping G730 | 115.5 mph

PING G730 Custom Irons

Maximizing distance was the primary objective in PING’s longest and most forgiving iron to date, generating typical distance gains of approximately five yards from the flexing, hyper 17-4 stainless steel face. Flexing Face By employing hyper 17-4 stainless steel through heat treating, we thinned the face and optimized its overall structure to increase flexing and help lower the CG, delivering higher-launching shots with ball-speed gains and approximately five more yards of distance. Powerful Sound The cavity-back design is supplemented with the proven PurFlex cavity badge that enhances feel and produces a more powerful sound. Extreme Forgiveness The bigger head, more offset and wider sole in the investment-cast design increase the MOI in both axes, elevating forgiveness for improved stability and accuracy in this premium game-improvement design.

$170.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Want to overhaul your bag for 2024? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.