We take a look at the best golf irons for beginners on the market to help you get started and improve your game.
Best Golf Irons For Beginners
If you’re new to the game of golf or in the early stages of your playing career, you need to find the best irons to help you progress.
Within this category of the best golf irons for beginners, you’ll find clubs designed to get the ball up in the air quickly to give you longer carries.
The best golf models for beginners also tend to be larger in order to be the most forgiving irons possible, giving you the best chance of getting the ball away, even with off-centre hits.
Some of these iron sets will include the option of switching out the 3, 4 and even 5-irons for easier-to-hit hybrids, which could help your game in the trickier end of your bag.
So to help you narrow your iron search, below we have taken a look at some of the best golf irons for beginners in the golf world right now.
We also recommend taking a look at our other iron guides on the best distance irons, best game improvement irons, or also the best budget irons if you want great value.
Best Golf Irons For Beginners
Titleist T400 Irons
+ Outstanding forgiveness and distance on offer
+ Confidence-inspiring shape
– Workability
The Titleist T400 iron has been designed to be the most forgiving and longest iron in Titleist’s popular T series.
It has the strongest lofts in the Titleist range, but the launch is not compromised with a strong, high ball flight produced.
The split sole design delivers smooth turf interaction, while super-thin face and hollow head are fortified by high-density tungsten weighting making this a powerful and supremely forgiving iron.
The set is progressive with blade lengths, sole widths and hosel lengths decreasing towards the shorter irons.
Overall, we think the T400 is a great game improvement iron that could really help beginners and high handicappers get the most from their games.
Callaway Big Bertha B21 Irons
+ Looks inviting to hit
+ Strong, high draw bias trajectory
– Not most workable iron in the Callaway range
The Callaway Big Bertha B21 irons are the first Big Bertha irons to be designed using Artificial Intelligence.
The irons feature a generous offset, wide soles and a thick topline to inspire confidence.
Flash face technology delivers high ball speeds and a strong ball flight and tungsten toe weighting moves the centre of gravity to the middle of the score-lines for extra forgiveness.
Callaway’s urethane microspheres provide a soft feel. These are over one million tiny air pockets that absorb unwanted vibration without slowing the face.
Overall, after testing, we thought the Big Bertha B21 iron to be ideal for beginners and high-handicap golfers who struggle with launch and strike. There is a good deal of technology to help you get the ball up with more speed while the feel off the face is also pleasing on the senses.
Callaway Big Bertha B21 Irons Review
Benross Aero X Irons
+ Confidence-inspiring topline
+ Good value for money
– Not easy to shape the ball
Featuring a heat-treated 431 stainless steel construction, these irons deliver excellent ball speed and carry. The CT-Face design allows ball speeds to stay high across the face, ideal for a beginner golfer who won’t be hitting the sweet spot very consistently.
The positioning of the centre of gravity has been designed to help you get the ball airborne and it’s progressive through the set to give you more assistance with the longer irons.
We were impressed with the launch and the feel of these irons. Offering great value for money, these are a great option for beginners.
Inesis 500 Irons
+ Low price
+ Strong flight
– Not the most attractive iron on the market
This great value set of irons has been designed for higher handicap golfers to offer great forgiveness and distance.
The ultra slim face gives good ball speed and power while the perimeter weighting means even off-centre hits get good flight and distance.
Inesis have come up with an interesting way for you to find the right irons for you without having to do the traditional custom fit.
Within the Inesis iron range you have 6 different setups to choose from and the first thing you need to do is figure out your hand to floor measurement which will give you an idea on the length of golf clubs you need.
The second thing you do is you select the iron set you want based on your swing speed. After you have been through this process via the Decathlon website, you will get a set that is slightly more tailored towards you.
In testing we found these irons easy to flight and with a good feel at impact. There is plenty of forgiveness on offer, packed into a package that looks good too.
Ping G425 Irons
+ Striking black finish
+ High ball flight with good distance
– Not the most workable iron in the Ping range
Ping irons that don the ‘G’ moniker are known for being a forgiving distance iron that is well built and stylish.
The Ping G425 delivers on all these fronts and has a classy and understated look compared to the bolder red colours featured on the G410. Of course the look is completely subjective, but we think this new design gives the G425 an altogether more premium look. The overall size of the blade is slightly smaller than the G410 too, creating a slightly more compact look at address, but the shape has pretty much stayed the same.
Off the face, the G425 feels fast, making a nice loud sound without being too clicky. It is very stable off the face too, with toe and heel strikes maintaining a strong line through the air. The strong descent angle through most of the set also means it’s nice and easy to control these irons when approaching greens.
Arccos sensors are now embedded in the grips throughout the G425 family and the premium shot tracking technology is another way these irons can directly improve your game. By resisting changing the lofts for even more distance, Ping has evolved the G425 into a forgiving, controllable and classy looking iron suited to a wide-range of golfers.
TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS Irons
+ Good distance and forgiveness
+ Nice soft sound
– Minor performance differences on the last model
The SIM2 Max OS iron is a larger, longer and more forgiving version of the SIM2 Max Iron for golfers seeking maximum assistance on iron shots.
This year’s TaylorMade game improvement iron does what all good cavity back irons should do: go far and offer forgiveness. While the SIM2 Max OS arguably offers little in performance difference from last year’s SIM Max OS, it still does a very good job at offering distance and forgiveness, all in a good looking iron head.
There were some fairly significant design changes made to the SIM2 Max irons over last year’s SIM Max with the Speed Bridge removed in place of a polymer cap. Aesthetically, this has created a much more pleasing look from the back and the subtle carbon fibre details have created a hollow cavity back effect from the future.
From address, the SIM2 Max has a generous sole width with a confidence inspiring amount of offset and a thick topline. This is ideal for the higher handicap golfer who needs a bit of extra help from the club.
The SIM2 Max standard head is a great option for beginners who don’t like the size of this OS head. However, if you are just starting out, we’d highly recommend this club for its extra size and extra forgiveness.
TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS Irons Review
Cobra Radspeed Irons
+ Strong flight with low spin
+ Increased distance
– Not everyone will like look of carbon fibre topline
The Radspeed irons from Cobra are a fantastic upgrade on last year’s Speedzone iron and the subtle improvements have made a marked difference to this excellent game improvement offering.
Cobra have kept the lofts on the Radspeed the same as the Speedzone, but during our testing we found the 7 iron went five yards further on average. This is very impressive considering the lofts have not changed and it is a credit to Cobra’s clever design in the Radspeed.
What has changed however is the look of this club at address and it is much more appealing to the eye. The sole shape is smaller – playing narrower and with a little less camber – which means you can’t see the back of the sole at address. The carbon fibre effect on the top line has been made a little darker, which also tricks the eye into thinking this is a thinner club that it really is.
The Radspeed has a soft feel to it too, thanks to the 3D printed medallion sitting behind the face, but still offers plenty of zing off the face that provides that excellent overall distance. With Cobra Connect grips as standard – and a One Length option available – the Radspeed irons offer some of the best pound for pound performance and value in the iron market.
Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo Irons
+ Easy launch
+ Fast face
– Not all will like the chunky looks
Comprising a fully hollow construction along with internal stabilising ribs to provide maximum forgiveness, each iron head within Cleveland’s Launcher HB Turbo set features a turbocharged, high strength steel face that is thinner and hotter for increased ball speeds and distance.
Each iron head within the set features a turbocharged, high strength steel face that is thinner and hotter for increased ball speeds and distance.
A redesigned HiBore Crown features low, deep weighting to produce an easy to hit, high ball flight while progressive shaping provides a smooth transition from hybrid-like long irons to iron-like short irons.
Wilson Staff Launch Pad Irons
+ Extra assistance from wide sole
+ Good accuracy
– Unorthodox looks take some getting used to
The clubhead of the Launch Pad irons incorporates a wide, progressive sole throughout the set that prevents the sole from digging into the turf before impact. The short irons (7-SW) feature more traditional sole widths, while the longer irons (4-6) feature wider, more forgiving soles, for more consistent ball-striking and greater distance.
In testing we were impressed with the Wilson Staff Launch Pad irons. They’re not going to hit the ball for you and they’re certainly not going to save a really poor swing, especially in wet conditions, but the margin for error on the strike is definitely larger on a club like this and if you’re a beginner or high handicapper it’s certainly an option worth trying.
As well as being one of the best golf irons for beginners, it also made our guide on the best golf irons for seniors too because of the consistent performance on offer.
Wilson Staff Launch Pad Irons Review
How To Choose The Best Golf Irons For Beginners
It can be a daunting task buying a set of golf clubs for the first time and chances are – if you are a pure beginner to the game – you are not very good at swinging a golf club yet, which makes the task even more daunting.
And that is okay – no one is expecting you to stripe it off the tee like Tiger Woods at your first range session. The best golf irons for beginners are ideally a set that will offer as much help as possible as you begin the long journey to perfecting the game of golf.
Price
Our first recommendation is to think about price. How committed are you to playing golf? Are you recently retired and will soon have a lot of time on your hands? Are you only going to start out by going to the range once a week? Are you only going to play twice a year with work?
Deciphering how much you’ll be playing to start out can really help narrow down the options. If you’re going to be playing a lot, then spending nearly £1000 on golf clubs is a sound investment, but if you’re only going to play a few times a year a much cheaper but equally forgiving set will suffice.
This also helps if you don’t know how committed you are to golf yet. The last thing you want to do is spend £1000 on clubs only to find them collecting dust in the garage six months later.
Custom Fit
Next, do you need your beginner set of irons custom fit? This depends entirely on your build, specifically how tall you are. If you are anywhere between 5ft 6″ and 6ft 2″, a standard set of clubs will be fine as a beginner set.
However, we’d recommend if you are taller or shorter than these numbers, getting custom fit for a set of irons will help you out massively. Custom fitters will stake static measurement to decipher how much longer or shorter the clubs need to be to suit your height; having the right length clubs is essential to starting out right.
Again, it may be a daunting task as a total beginner having a custom fit session, but getting clubs that are the correct size will help you in the long and short run to enjoy the game and learn the correct fundamentals from the get go.
If you don’t need a custom fit, then why not look at our list of the best package sets of golf clubs as a way to get a quality beginners set of clubs.
Shape
Beginner set of golf irons come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are shaped in what we would consider a conventional iron head (see Ping G425 and Callaway Big Bertha) and others with a much wider, more forgiving sole (see Wilson Launch Pad and Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo).
If you feel as though you have good hand-eye coordination or have already used a set of similar conventional shaped iron heads, then these are the best to go for as your beginner set.
If you are less confident in your ability, the less conventional head shapes of the Wilson Launch Pad and Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo irons are a great place to start as they offer ample forgiveness and will help you get the most enjoyment out of golf as early as possible.
It can also be as simple as which you like the look of the best!
Shafts
This is the territory where beginners to golf often get confused and it is a very important factor in getting the right irons from the outset
The choices of shaft type are either steel or graphite material, all of which come in different flexes – regular, stiff or senior.
The difference between steel and graphite shafts is simply how much they weigh. Graphite shafts are aimed at those with a slower swing speed who need help getting the ball in the air and steel for those with quicker swing speeds. Many beginners suit a graphite shafted club as they start, but be aware that clubs with graphite shafts are more expensive
Flexes of shaft are also dependant on how quickly you swing the club. Senior flex is self explanatory and is aimed at senior golfers who have a slow swing speed, stiff flex is for those who swing the club quickly and regular flex sits somewhere in the middle.
If you are not sure how fast you swing the club, this is where a custom fitting comes in handy where a specialist can tell you how fast you swing your irons and which material and flex of shaft suits you best.
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