In this video, Martin Hopley talks through the best utility irons of 2023.
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00:00 Hi, and welcome to the Golf Monthly Guide to the best utility irons in the market this year.
00:03 Utility irons are great for better players because it gives them the option to get the ball in the fairway from the tee
00:09 or to take on a long par 3 with that slightly lower flight.
00:12 If you're a slightly higher handicapper and you're aversion to hybrids,
00:15 then really you've got some game improvement irons, you pick the longer irons from those for that type of shot.
00:20 But really for better players, we've broken this down into three categories.
00:23 We've got the most forgiving ones, we've got the better player ones,
00:26 we've got a couple of utilities we really think are better for elite players.
00:29 So first off, we're going to look at the most forgiving category,
00:32 and this is really for low to high single figure handicap players who want a bit of forgiveness,
00:37 but also that playability that these utility irons offer.
00:40 And the three models I picked out here are the Wilson Staff Model Utility Iron,
00:44 we've got the TaylorMade Stealth DHY and we've got the Ping Eye Crossover.
00:48 The Wilson is good if you're on a bit of a budget, it's a good value for money option.
00:53 The TaylorMade Stealth DHY is excellent in terms of having a bit of technology in there,
00:59 which will launch very high, it's a very forgiving iron.
01:01 But I think for me in this particular area, I would pick the Ping Eye Crossover.
01:05 And the reason is that it's got more of an iron feel and look about it.
01:09 They've narrowed the sole a little bit from the previous model.
01:12 You've got a head which has got quite a fast face on it.
01:16 There's a little bit of offset here which helps give you a bit more forgiveness in the club.
01:21 It does launch a little bit higher than most of the other models that we come to a bit later on.
01:25 And we've also got an adjustable hosel here, it's one of the few to still have this in the market at the moment,
01:30 where you can vary the loft by one degree or one and a half degrees up or down,
01:34 and also change the lie as well.
01:36 And when you've got a choice of three different loft heads,
01:39 that gives you the ability to cover a lot of different lofts in the bag,
01:42 and that should help you find a club that will really dial in to suit your needs.
01:46 Moving on now to the better player category, and this is where most of the models in the market sit.
01:52 These are aimed at single figure golfers from maybe scratch up to about five or six,
01:56 and we've got a whole variety of models we've tested.
01:58 We've got the Titleist U505, we've got the Tailor Made Stealth UDI,
02:03 we've got the Cobra King Tech Utility, we've got the Mizuno Pro, and we've got the Strixen ZX Mark II.
02:10 They all have different characteristics.
02:12 The Titleist U505 has got quite a broad sole and it's quite forgiving, gives a slightly higher flight.
02:17 The Tailor Made Stealth UDI has got quite a lot of technology in the head,
02:23 where it's got a speed pocket and it's really quite forgiving for a head of that size.
02:27 The Cobra King Tech Utility has been changed a little bit from previous models,
02:34 no adjustability now, but you've got a slightly thinner sole with a bit more of a forged head
02:38 to maybe be more like a better player's iron.
02:41 We've then got the Mizuno Pro, which gives a forged head,
02:44 and if you like black, then this is one of the two models that we've covered,
02:47 which has that colour head if you like that sort of thing.
02:50 And finally, we have the Strixen ZX Mark II, which is probably my pick of the bunch.
02:54 It's a forged head with a forged face as well.
02:58 And what they've done with the Mark II model this year is they've actually slimmed the sole down a little bit
03:02 from the previous model, so it plays a little bit more like a forged iron.
03:05 It's also got a really good feel from it as well.
03:08 And it's just got that classic iron look, which I think will fit into most sets,
03:12 whether you've got blades or whether you've got some other type of forged cavity back or compact looking irons.
03:19 So for better players, then I think the Strixen ZX Mark II is my choice for the one to go for.
03:24 Finally, the last category we've picked here is for elite players,
03:28 and by that I mean players with really quite high swing speed, so well over 100 miles an hour
03:31 with a driver in order to get the launch that comes with these irons,
03:35 because they tend to have quite compact heads and you tend to have to be quite precise with them.
03:39 And there's two models in this particular category.
03:41 We've got the Callaway Forged UT utility and also the TaylorMade P790 UDI.
03:47 The Callaway is particularly good, I think, if you like that forged feel and it's about precision
03:52 because it has great feel from it and it will flight it quite well.
03:56 It's probably not a distance utility iron, if you know what I mean,
04:00 but it is there if you like being able to shape shots and have a club
04:05 which looks more like a classic long iron to blend in to your regular set.
04:10 But really the pick from this is the TaylorMade P790 UDI.
04:13 Now, this is a distance iron if you can hit it in the middle.
04:16 It is quite a compact head, but with the speed pocket in the sole
04:20 and the firm they've got in the head in the right hands, I've seen people use this
04:24 and they get it a very long way and very accurately as well.
04:28 So you do need the club head speed and the accuracy to get the most out of it.
04:31 But that would be my pick if you are an elite player.
04:34 So that's my personal choices here.
04:37 We've reviewed all of these clubs, and if you want to find out more about them,
04:40 there are full in-depth reviews on the Golf Monthly website.
04:43 If you've got any questions or comments, please put them in the comment section below.
04:46 Thank you for watching the video.
04:48 We'll see you again soon.
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