ClubTest 2024: 22 game-changing irons tested and reviewed

Six new golf irons for 2024

Check out the complete reviews and test results for all the top new irons below.

Club photos: Courtesy; Design: Tanya DeSelm

For the latest edition of GOLF magazine’s 2024 ClubTest, we relied on a two-pronged approach to deliver valuable insights into the new crop of irons so that you can make better informed purchasing decisions. The GOLF staff tested all the irons to provide feedback and performance thoughts on gear from manufacturers big and small, and we completed thorough robot testing of each iron with the help of Golf Laboratories founder Gene Parente.

Below you will find our full reviews and test results of 22 new iron models from the top manufacturers in the game. See something you like? Click through and buy your new irons today.

MORE CLUBTEST: 18 NEW DRIVERS REVIEWED | 18 FAIRWAY WOODS REVIEWED | 13 HYBRIDS REVIEWED

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

BEST NEW IRONS OF 2024

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Irons

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke iron
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke HL iron
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast iron

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Irons

$142.86/club
Get yourself new Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke, Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast and Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke HL

NEED TO KNOW: Instead of lumping golfers in the game-improvement category into one group, Callaway’s R&D team let Artificial Intelligence take the lead in designing the face architecture on Paradym Ai Smoke. Similar to the “swing code” found on the drivers, each iron face was created using AI to benefit specific swing speeds. The standard, hollow-body Ai Smoke is geared for moderate to high swing speeds — someone who carries their 7-iron 130 yards or more — with minimal distance loss on off-center strikes for a tighter downrange dispersion.

Recognizing not every golfer fits into a better-player profile, the Ai Smoke HL is designed around a more traditional cavity-back shape with more mass positioned lower in the head to induce a higher launch and more spin — roughly 750 RPMs — for moderate swing speeds that typically struggle to keep the ball in the air. Once again prioritizing a high launch and more spin, the lightweight Ai Smoke Max Fast adds an additional 2 degrees of launch and 500 RPMs, when compared to its HL counterpart. The goal behind lengthening the blade and concentrating mass low in the head is to make it incredibly easy to get the ball in the air with consistent carry numbers, regardless of impact location.

Club Comparison

Compare Callaway Ai Smoke iron models below.
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke HL
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast
Price
Player Type
The standard Ai Smoke is geared for moderate to high swing speeds — someone who carries their 7-iron 130 yards or more.
Forgiveness
The Ai Smoke irons offer minimal distance loss on off-center strikes for a tighter downrange dispersion.
Price
Player Type
The Ai Smoke HL irons are designed for moderate swing speeds that typically struggle to keep the ball in the air.
Forgiveness
The HL irons have a high level of forgiveness in a traditional cavity-back design.
Price
Player Type
The lightweight Max Fast is designed for slower swing speeds who need extra help with launch and spin.
Forgiveness
The Max Fast irons feature the most forgiveness in the Ai Smoke iron line.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF CALLAWAY’S PARADYM AI SMOKE IRONS

Cleveland ZipCore XL and Halo XL Full-Face Irons

Cleveland ZipCore XL iron
Cleveland Halo XL Full-Face iron

Cleveland ZipCore XL and Halo XL Full-Face Irons

$128.57/club
Get yourself a new set of Cleveland irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: Cleveland ZipCore XL and Cleveland Halo XL Full-Face

NEED TO KNOW: Cleveland has aggressively positioned itself as a company making easy-to-hit clubs, designed for maximum fun and enjoyment of the game, and with both the ZipCore XL and Halo XL Full-Face irons, they’ve created two options to help golfers do just that.

Forgiveness where you need it and precision where you want it is at the heart of the ZipCore XL irons design. The longer 4-7-irons are equipped with Cleveland’s MainFrame technology that positions CNC grooves and channels on the back of the face to increase flex to help deliver more ball speed — especially on mishits. The looks of the Halo XL Full-Face irons are quick to grab anyone’s attention thanks to their hybrid-iron design to deliver maximum forgiveness and high launch. Also as the name suggests, the Full-Face irons feature full-face grooves for the first time in an iron design to create a larger effective hitting area to help maintain spin, and that’s to go along with the 20% larger striking area to further boost MOI.

Club Comparison

Compare Cleveland iron models below.
Cleveland ZipCore XL Irons
Cleveland Halo XL Full-Face Irons
Price
Player Type
The ZipCore XL irons are easy-to-hit clubs, designed for maximum fun and enjoyment of the game.
Forgiveness
The ZipCore XL irons are designed to provide a maximum amount of forgiveness in a traditional iron shape.
Price
Player Type
The Halo XL Full-Face irons are designed to help players who struggle with launch.
Forgiveness
The Halo XL Full-Face irons feature maximum forgiveness with extra help to launch shots high in the air.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF CLEVELAND’S NEWEST IRONS

Cobra Darkspeed and Air-X Irons

Cobra Darkspeed iron
Cobra Darkspeed One Length iron
Cobra Air-X Iron

Cobra Darkspeed Irons

$142.71/club
Get yourself new Cobra Darkspeed irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: Cobra Darkspeed, Cobra Darkspeed One Length and Cobra Air-X

NEED TO KNOW: To help provide golfers with distance, forgiveness and feel, the engineers at Cobra refined key technologies from the Darkspeed metal wood line (like PWR-Bridge) and shrunk them down to create the new Darkspeed irons. Then, to enhance the feel of the hollow-body design, they injected foam microspheres to fill the internal cavity to finely tune the acoustics. To help optimize ball flight and distance control through the set, Darkspeed irons offer what Cobra calls progressive TECFLO construction that transitions from a full-hollow design with PWR-Bridge and PWRSHELL in the longer 4-7-irons, to a full hollow-body with no face insert in the 8-PW. And, finally, to a half-hollow design in the gap and sand wedges.

What separates the PWR-Bridge of the woods from the irons is that the weight in the irons is suspended on a small post, which allows it to sit almost completely free floating within the hollow clubhead thanks to the supporting foam microspheres. This design allows for the precise positioning of the center of gravity for optimal launch while creating an improved face and sole that helps increase ball speed and launch.

Club Comparison

Compare Cobra iron models below.
Cobra Darkspeed Irons
Cobra Darkspeed One Length Irons
Cobra AIr-X Irons
Price
Player Type
The standard Darkspeed iron model is designed for a wide range of golfers.
Forgiveness
The Darkspeed irons are designed to help provide golfers with a balance of distance, forgiveness and feel
Price
Player Type
Designed for golfers who prefer all of their irons to be the same legnth.
Forgiveness
The One Length features the same forgiveness tech as the standard model, along with added accuracy for proponents of one-length irons.
Price
Player Type
The ultra-lightweight Air-X irons are designed for players with slow to moderate swing speeds.
Forgiveness
The Air-X model features a ton of forgiveness and additional tech to help slow swing speeds launch balls high.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF COBRA’S NEWEST IRONS

Miura CB-302 Irons

Miura CB-302 iron

Miura CB-302 Irons

$350/club
Get yourself new Miura CB-302 irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: Miura CB-302

NEED TO KNOW: The new CB-302 builds on the lineage of the 301 with a redesigned sole and address profile to create a stronger flight and more forgiveness, along with less offset. The sole is a key piece of the 302 because at 19mm wide (in the 7-iron) it is the widest sole on an iron that has ever been produced at the Miura factory. The combination of the wide sole and deeper cavity positions more mass lower in the head to increase launch on shots hit lower on the face while the V-shape helps moves mass to the heel and toe to boost stability.

Last but certainly not least, to help golfers of all skill levels achieve a stronger more penetrating ball flight the lofts on the CB-302 fit into the modern player profile to reduce spin and deliver the highest level of trajectory control.

Club Comparison

Compare Miura club models below.
Miura CB-302
Miura MC-502
Price
Player Type
The CB-302 model is designed for a wide range of golfers looking for Miura performance with added forgiveness.
Forgiveness
The CB-302 is the longest, most forgiving forged cavity-back iron ever produced by Miura Golf.
Price
Player Type
The MC-502 is designed for better players who want the looks and performance of a blade with the playability of a smaller forged cavity-back iron.
Forgiveness
While the CB-302 is more forgiving, the MC-502 features more forgiveness than your average blade.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF MIURA’S CB-302 IRONS

Mizuno Pro 24x Irons

Mizuno Pro 241 iron
Mizuno Pro 243 iron
Mizuno Pro 245 iron

Mizuno Pro 24x Irons

$200/club
Get yourself new Mizuno Pro 24x irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: Mizuno Pro 241, Mizuno Pro 243 and Mizuno Pro 245

NEED TO KNOW: Mizuno Pro, a.k.a. Mizuno MP, irons have always been distinctive, and now for 2024 Mizuno is once again refining what it means to truly be a Mizuno Pro iron with the release of the 24X series, which includes the 241 blades, the 243 speed cavity and the 245 hollow body built for precision distance and Tour-level speed.

The biggest focus for the Mizuno design team with the new 24X line was to dig into what each iron truly means to the golfers it’s intended for, and after taking positive and constructive criticism about each model, the engineers went to work with no stone left unturned to make sure each model was a better fit. The Mizuno design team stressed every possible detail they could to make sure each model lived up to the lofty expectations bestowed upon them, and with that in mind, they believe they have delivered on those, while also making each iron slightly smaller than the previous generation.

Club Comparison

Compare Mizuno irons models below.
Mizuno Pro 241
Mizuno Pro 243
Mizuno Pro 245
Price
Player Type
The Mizuno Pro 241 is designed for better players looking for a pure-as-can-be muscle back.
Forgiveness
The 241 model features the least amount of traditional forgiveness in the Pro 24x line.
Price
Player Type
The 243 is aimed at better players looking to boost launch and speed.
Forgiveness
While still putting an emphasis on workability, the 243 features more forgiveness than the 241.
Price
Player Type
The Pro 245 model is best suited for better players who want more distance in a smaller profile.
Forgiveness
The Pro 245 features improved face construction to lower the CG and increase stability on mishits.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF MIZUNO PRO 24X IRONS

Ping Blueprint S and T Irons

Ping Blueprint S iron
Ping Blueprint T iron

Ping Blueprint S Irons

$212.50/club
Get yourself new Ping Blueprint S irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: Ping Blueprint S and Ping Blueprint T

NEED TO KNOW: Ping isn’t one to release players’ irons very often, so when they do, there’s typically a big reason behind the change. In the case of the new Blueprint S and T irons, Ping designers felt that they had enough feedback from their stable of Tour players to create a new family of Blueprint irons. The goal, they said, was simple: to deliver a performance and control advantage over the previous generation.

Both the Blueprint T and S irons are one-piece forging, but what separates the pure blade design of the T from the S is what Ping designers call “precision pocket” forging. Precision pocket forging is a patented technique that allows Ping designers to forge a “pocket” into the cavity of the longer irons (3, 4 and 5-irons) to save 10 grams that can be repositioned around the head for increased stability on mishits. To go along with very similar address profiles, the Blueprint T and S irons share the same standard lofts as each other and Ping’s very popular i230 irons, which allows them to blend seamlessly from club to club when building a combo set.

Club Comparison

Compare Ping iron models below.
Ping Blueprint S
Ping Blueprint T
Price
Player Type
The Blueprint S is best suited for better players looking for a forged, cavity-back design.
Forgiveness
While putting a premium on workability, the Blueprint S features more forgiveness than the T.
Price
Player Type
The Blueprint T is designed for expert golfers in need of a traditional muscle-back blade.
Forgiveness
The “precision pocket” on the Blueprint T increases consistency on this compact, workable iron.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF PING’S BLUEPRINT IRONS

PXG 0317 T Irons

PXG 0317 T iron

PXG 0317 T Irons

$179.99/club
Get yourself new PXG 0317 T irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: PXG 0317 T

NEED TO KNOW: The “T” is the first hollow-body iron PXG has introduced into their 0317 line. (Little info nugget: 0317 is the Military Occupational Specialty number for a scout sniper, which is used to identify PXG’s precision players iron line.) It used to be that the smaller hollow-body iron lived under the more game-improvement-focused 0311 line, but the release of the Gen6 series and the popularity of the 0317 ST and CB irons mean the smallest 0311 iron is officially dead and will now be part of the better player focused line moving forward.

The players iron category is well-defined by smaller head shapes and thinner toplines, and the designers at PXG understand this well. They have engineered the 0317 T iron in a way that helps it look smaller at address while still providing a boosted MOI (an extra 11% compared to the CB and 14% from the ST blade) and extra ball speed from the super-thin maraging steel face and injected hollow core. The 3X forged and milled body and robotic polishing process help dial in exact weights for each head to provide extremely tight tolerances right from manufacturing.

Club Comparison

Compare PXG iron models below.
PXG 0317 T
PXG 0317 CB
Price
Player Type
The 0317 T is designed for golfers looking for a better-player iron in a hollow-body construction.
Forgiveness
The 0317 T features the most forgiveness within PXG’s 0317 line.
Price
Player Type
The 0317 CB is a cavity-back iron for better players interested in high-spin shotmaking.
Forgiveness
The 0317 CB’s solid-body construction offers consistent distance control for better players.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF PXG’S 0317 T IRONS

TaylorMade Qi Irons

TaylorMade Qi iron
TaylorMade Qi HL iron

TaylorMade Qi Irons

$157/club
Get yourself new TaylorMade Qi irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: TaylorMade Qi and TaylorMade Qi HL

NEED TO KNOW: With the help of lessons learned from previous generations of game improvement clubs, TaylorMade is introducing the Qi irons, with which the company believes they have cracked the code on creating an iron that can go far, straight, and help golfers with the always annoying fade. To help bring these irons to life TaylorMade engineers brought together many technologies, including FLTD (flighted) CG, speed pocket, cap back, and an all-new organic face design process for straighter shots.

By using what TaylorMade calls Integrated System Design, the manufacturer was able to see how different technology variables impact how a golf club reacts at impact, allowing TM to tune each key technology for a better end ball flight. This comprehensive approach to design helps to ensure ideal gapping, ball speeds, launch angles, and ball flight through the full set. To go along with the core Qi irons, TaylorMade is also adding Qi HL irons to the lineup for 2024 to help golfers who struggle with getting the ball in the air and maintaining spin.

Club Comparison

Compare TaylorMade iron models below.
TaylorMade Qi
TaylorMade Qi HL
Price
Player Type
The standard Qi iron is best suited for players looking for a balance of game improvement and performance.
Forgiveness
The Qi registers high on the forgiveness scale, while avoiding unwanted fade bias.
Price
Player Type
The Qi HL model can help golfers who struggle with getting the ball in the air and maintaining spin.
Forgiveness
The Qi HL features the most forgiveness in the line, especially for players with slower swing speeds.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF TAYLORMADE’S Qi IRONS

Titleist T-Series Irons (2023)

Titleist T100 iron
Titleist T150 iron
Titleist T200 iron
Titleist T350 iron

Titleist T-Series Irons

$199.99/club
Get yourself new Titleist T-Series irons with custom shafts and specs from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: Titleist T100, Titleist T150, Titleist T200 and Titleist T350

NEED TO KNOW: Like with the previous generation T-Series irons, there are four models to help golfers find the right performance fit based on Titleist’s 3D fittings principles: distance control, dispersion and descent. These three principles ensure that all golfers have the ability to get the most from their iron approach game, while also having what is known as a playable trajectory to help stop shots closer to the target. The models include the T100, a new T150, the T200 and a new T350 model for maximum forgiveness.

If there was one thing from the previous generation that Titleist and its players wanted, it was an improved feel at impact, and that was a huge focus of the development process. For the T100 and T150, that means an updated and slightly thicker back bar to produce a solid yet soft feel that has been validated by the best players in the world. For the T200 and T350, that feel improvement comes from a refined back cavity badge and redesigned max impact dampener.

Club Comparison

Compare Titleist iron models below.
Titleist T100
Titleist T150
Titleist T200
Titleist T350
Price
Player Type
The T100 is best suited for players looking for a game-improvement iron with a compact design.
Forgiveness
The T100 offers a balanced blend of workability and forgiveness.
Price
Player Type
The T150 is for golfers who like the T100 but are interested in a larger head design for increased confidence.
Forgiveness
The T150 iron carries much of the same benefits of the T100 with increased forgiveness.
Price
Player Type
The T200 is for golfers looking for a hollow-body performance distance iron.
Forgiveness
The T200 featrues less forgiveness than the T150 with an emphasis on feel.
Price
Player Type
The T350 takes all the technology of the T200 and makes it game improvement with a wider sole and lower center of gravity.
Forgiveness
The T350 offers the most forgiveness in the new T-Series line.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF TITLEIST’S T-SERIES IRONS

XXIO 13 Irons

XXIO 13 iron

XXIO 13 Irons

$1539.99
Get yourself new XXIO 13 irons from Fairway Jockey today!

MODELS: XXIO 13

NEED TO KNOW: As one of the leaders in the lightweight club space, XXIO has become a go-to option thanks, in large part, to specialized technologies designed solely for the set.

The four-piece, hollow-cavity XXIO 13 irons follow the same high launch blueprint as the woods with a tungsten-nickel sole weight (located on the toe-side of the sole on the 5- through 7-iron) pushing the CG lower in the head for launch purposes. XXIO’s Rebound Frame also adds ball speed to the Super-TIX 51 AF titanium face plate through alternating flex and rigid zones.

Club Comparison

Compare XXIO iron models below.
XXIO 13
XXIO Prime Royal (2023)
Price
Player Type
The XXIO 13 model is best suited for golfers with slower swing speeds.
Forgiveness
XXIO’s 13 irons offer a load of forgiveness and can help golfers generate more speed.
Price
Player Type
The Prime Royal is designed for golfers with slow to moderate swing speeds looking for a premium package.
Forgiveness
The Prime Royal irons offer a maximum amount of forgiveness in a ultra-lightweight design.

READ THE FULL REVIEW OF XXIO’S 13 IRONS

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