Low handicap golfers or competent ball strikers may well be after a new set of golf blades to get the best feel and workability from a set of irons - but how do you know which set to choose? Well in this video, staff writer and irons expert Joe 'The Pro' Ferguson shares his thoughts on the best golf blade irons out there having tested 11 of them at the start of the year.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Okay, so Best Blades 2024.
00:03Now this is a category for the real purists,
00:06the elite ball striker,
00:07and maybe the more traditional golfer, if I'm honest.
00:10And I'm really excited about this.
00:12I've got 11 of the best blades
00:14that I've tested over the last few weeks,
00:16and I'm gonna put them through their paces,
00:18and I'm gonna talk about their looks,
00:19their feel, their overall performance,
00:21and stay to the very end,
00:22where I'm gonna crown my Best Blade of 2024.
00:26So looks, now of all the iron categories
00:31that I'm looking at this year,
00:33looks might be the most pertinent in this blade category.
00:36The Best Blades tend to follow a really established blueprint
00:40of minimal offset, thin top lines,
00:44and the shaping can really make or break
00:46whether a blade looks great or not.
00:48So I've picked out three of my favorites.
00:50Let's take a look.
00:52The Mizuno Pro 241.
00:55So it won't be a surprise to anyone, I wouldn't think,
00:58my first choice in the looks category for Best Blades
01:01is the Mizuno Pro 241.
01:04It's just a really stunningly crafted Mizuno iron,
01:09and they do a great job.
01:10They always have,
01:12so this shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone.
01:14The branding is minimal.
01:17I love how they've not bothered to put paint fill
01:19in the Mizuno logo there.
01:20I just think that gives it a really premium,
01:22sort of minimalist look.
01:25And from a shelf appeal point of view, sat in your bag,
01:27these are just absolutely stunning.
01:29The only reason it probably hasn't won
01:31this overall category for me,
01:32and this is just a me thing more than a Mizuno thing,
01:35down by the ball, just the head profiles
01:37of Mizuno irons have never quite fitted my eye.
01:40They just lack a bit of the symmetry
01:41of some of the other models.
01:43Like I said, that's a me thing,
01:44and some Mizuno purists out there
01:46will be banging their head against the sofa hearing that,
01:48but that's just what I think.
01:50But like I said, from a shelf appeal
01:52and sitting in the bag point of view,
01:55it just doesn't get any better than this.
01:57The Ping Blueprint T.
02:00Right, maybe not one for the complete purists
02:02and traditionalists, but I've got the Ping Blueprint T here.
02:06And to my eye, again, it's a more modern blade, if you like.
02:10It's a modern take on the traditional blade.
02:12So it hasn't got the harsh, very bright chrome
02:16that a lot of the blades have.
02:17And this little notch is a little bit off-putting for some,
02:20but the overall look of the head,
02:22it's so clean on the back here, really minimalist,
02:26and the shaping is just stunning.
02:28Ping this year, they've increased the height of the heel,
02:30transitioned into the hosel here,
02:32and down behind the ball, it just frames it so, so well.
02:37They're intimidatingly small.
02:38They are quite tight from heel to toe,
02:41and the top line is basically non-existent,
02:43and there's no offset whatsoever.
02:45So from a traditional down-by-the-ball look, it's there.
02:49Little bit more of a modern take on the back,
02:50but I like something a bit different.
02:53So that's why it's in there.
02:55Wilson Staff Model Blade.
02:57So this is a bit of an emotive pick for me.
02:59It's something about picking up this set
03:01of Wilson Staff Model Blades,
03:03conjures up images of the 62 major victories,
03:07slightly longer ferrules,
03:09the little fluted bit on the hosel here,
03:12a really, really sort of a trip back in time, if you like.
03:15And it's, I really like that sort of nostalgia element
03:18to these irons, but that's not,
03:19that's probably not doing it justice.
03:21Overall, they've added a bit more modern branding,
03:24some more modern fonts,
03:25and changed the badge up a little bit.
03:27So they just look super cool in the bag.
03:29Down-by-the-ball, really, really classic profile.
03:33They've got slightly longer heel to toe
03:35than some of the others that I'd pick in this category,
03:37but a really thin top line, minimal offset,
03:39and a really classic look.
03:41I just, I do, I love the more traditional feel of this
03:44and what it conjures up.
03:46Like I said, a bit of an emotional pick for me, this one.
03:50Titleist 620MB.
03:52From a looks point of view for me,
03:54this was the absolute standout.
03:57And when I talk about looks,
03:58especially in the blade category,
03:59I'm not just talking about this,
04:00it's kind of two-dimensional.
04:01I'm not just talking about sat in the bag,
04:03and I'm not just talking about
04:04how it looks down behind the ball.
04:05It's a combination of those,
04:06and this has absolutely everything.
04:09Behind the ball, so clean.
04:10All we've got on the back here
04:11is just a really nice, plain, simple Titleist,
04:14and then the beautiful chrome
04:16just does the rest of the talking for it.
04:18Really unfussy, really clean,
04:20and exactly what you'd want.
04:22Coupled with that, down behind the ball,
04:24I just cannot fault the shape of the head.
04:27Such a square leading edge,
04:29no sort of chamfering, no offset, no onset,
04:31just perfectly lined up.
04:34Leading edge, sorry, top edge is really thin,
04:37and the head shape's just throughout the set,
04:38even from pitching edge all the way up to the longer irons.
04:41The dimensions are just great.
04:42They frame the ball perfectly.
04:44So for those reasons,
04:46this is my best looking blade of 2024.
04:51So feel is a super important category for blades here.
04:56There's just really no compromise.
04:57They've got to feel buttery soft,
04:59and they've got to provide maximum feedback
05:01so you know exactly where you're striking them.
05:04There are nuances within that, however,
05:06and they can feel slightly different.
05:08So I'm going to take a look at those,
05:09and I've picked out a few of my favorites.
05:12Right, but before we get to that,
05:13if you do enjoy this video,
05:14please do hit the like button and comment down below
05:17what's your favorite blade of 2024.
05:18I'd be really interested to hear it.
05:20And please subscribe to the channel
05:21so you can see all of our upcoming videos.
05:25The Cobra King MB.
05:27Okay, so these were a real surprise to me
05:29because I hadn't really gotten much
05:30into Cobra blades before now.
05:33But the first strike really, really got me.
05:36Super, super soft, one of the softest, probably,
05:39of the bunch, and the feedback's really, really good.
05:41So I'm just going to hit one away
05:43just so you can get a feeling for the audio
05:45and see if you can pick it up.
05:53Yeah, so as I said, that was really nicely struck.
05:55And on the centered hits,
05:57you can barely feel it off the face.
05:58It's super, super soft.
06:00I will say, you certainly know when you've missed the middle
06:03which is absolutely fine
06:04because that's what you want in this category.
06:06But overall, this is a great feeling iron.
06:10The Mizuno Pro 241.
06:13So Mizuno fans, relax.
06:15It's in here, the Pro 241.
06:18Years of forging experience and you can absolutely tell
06:22it just feels fantastic.
06:25Super, super smooth.
06:27It's got a lovely sort of profile of soft, smooth,
06:30but solid all at the same time.
06:32And I think that's really to do
06:34with the exquisite forging process
06:36that goes into these irons.
06:37So again, let me just hit one away
06:38and see if you can pick it up in terms of sound.
06:42Yeah.
06:48Just slightly, yeah, it's slightly more nuanced
06:51than the Cobra.
06:52It has got that softness but maybe not quite as much.
06:56It's just a little bit more depth,
06:57a little more solidity to that strike
06:59which I really, really like.
07:01And it was very close to winning this category
07:03but it didn't because of the Tacomo 301 MB.
07:09Now this might be a surprise to some people
07:10but some of you might not have even heard of Tacoma.
07:13They're a direct-to-consumer brand.
07:15They've been around a little while now
07:16and they're starting to get some tour traction
07:18with players like Wesley Bryan from the Bryan Brothers
07:21who plays on the PGA Tour.
07:22He's got these in the bag or a combo of these in the CBs.
07:26And I was just so surprised by the performance
07:28when I got them.
07:30To take on some of the more established blades
07:32and in my opinion come out on top in terms of feel
07:35is pretty remarkable.
07:37They're super, super soft.
07:39Again, the ball, when you hit it,
07:40it just sort of melts into the face
07:42and it's just a joyful impact really.
07:45Like the rest of them, again, off-center,
07:47you do know about that but I would want that in a blade.
07:49If I'm taking a blade, I want the feedback
07:51of where my strike is.
07:53So that's another plus point.
07:54The narrow soles and the slight grinding of the leading edge,
07:57just a pre-worn leading edge,
07:58help it slip through the turf.
08:00I just want you to experience the sound with me,
08:02the sound and the feel.
08:03So I'm just gonna clip one away.
08:09So just, again, it's just so nice.
08:15That was a little bit towards the toe,
08:17a couple of mil towards the toe.
08:18So it wasn't totally, totally flush
08:20but that absorbed it quite well.
08:22I think just because the softness of this material,
08:24the softness of the forging,
08:26it's just something really, really special about this iron
08:29and I really like it.
08:30So that's why it's won the Best Feeling Blade of 2024.
08:34It's all very well making a beautiful looking,
08:39sounding and feeling blade
08:40but it still has to perform right.
08:42So it's probably a good time to pop up
08:44some data on the screen
08:45so you can see the numbers that I got during my testing.
08:48Now there's a lot to take in there in terms of data
08:50so if you need to pause the video,
08:51feel free to and then come back to me.
08:54But once you have, let's take a look
08:56at some of my favorites that I've picked out.
08:59PXG ST milled blades.
09:02So the first mention in the performance category
09:04was a little bit of a surprise to me.
09:06And if you look at the data table,
09:07it was a little bit shorter on carry
09:09than some of the other irons that I've tested
09:11but that's not what you enter the blade market for.
09:14You enter the blade market for that consistency,
09:17the workability, all those things
09:19that come along with a blade.
09:21And this PXG blade provided that in abundance.
09:24There was a real consistency of flight
09:25and a really tight dispersion
09:27that I absolutely loved about these irons
09:29and that's why this is mentioned
09:30in that performance category.
09:33Vega Mizar Pro.
09:36So my second mention in performance
09:37is something of a niche product.
09:39So it won't suit everyone this
09:40but I wanted to mention it
09:42because I think it's a really nice option
09:43in the blade category.
09:45Traditionally, in seven iron,
09:47we're looking around 34, 35 degrees of loft
09:49in the blade category.
09:51But this comes in at 32.
09:54So instead of having to bend your iron strong
09:56if you're a high ball hitter in blade,
09:57which increases offset and reduces bounce
10:00and things like that,
10:01the Vega Mizar Pro comes strong lofted.
10:04So you get all the benefits of the blade
10:06in terms of the lovely feel,
10:07the lovely look and the feedback
10:09but you still get a much more penetrating ball strike
10:12and ball flight rather.
10:13So for me, I think it's a really nice option.
10:16I don't know why more manufacturers
10:18aren't offering some stronger lofts to counteract that.
10:22Vega have done it.
10:23So if you are someone who wants to play blades
10:25and you want a more penetrating ball flight
10:27and you want to really pop the rest up,
10:28then the Mizar Pro might be the one for you.
10:32The PING Blueprint T.
10:34So the reason I've picked the PING Blueprint T
10:36for performance is it's just a really high performing iron
10:40across all of the data categories.
10:42Good ball speed numbers, good levels of spin,
10:44good peak height.
10:46It just did exactly what I wanted it to do.
10:48But again, the unquantifiable,
10:50the immeasurables that don't come up on launch monitor
10:52like workability and trajectory control,
10:56the PING allowed me to do anything I wanted to do with it.
10:58It's got such little offsets.
10:59You can manipulate that leading edge
11:01to create any sort of ball flight that you want.
11:04This is a really superb performing blade.
11:08Okay, so the time has come to name my best blade of 2024.
11:12I've got it here in my hand.
11:13It might be a surprise to you.
11:14It was certainly a surprise to me,
11:16but the winner is the Tacomo 301 MB.
11:21I've already alluded to the feel
11:23by naming it the best feeling blade of 2024,
11:26which I thought was super impressive.
11:27But it's raw data numbers were fantastic.
11:30It was very competitive with everything else, if not better.
11:33The immeasurable stuff such as shot shaping,
11:35trajectory control was also there.
11:38You get into the aesthetics.
11:40It's just super clean, so minimal,
11:42and it just really suits my eye.
11:43The head shapes from four iron
11:45all the way down to the pitching wedge
11:46were just absolutely spot on.
11:48And one other point that you have to note
11:51is a direct-to-consumer brand,
11:53the Forza Pitching Wedge set comes in nearly half the price
11:56of some of the other major manufacturers.
11:58So when you've got a great-looking blade
12:00that feels as good or better and performs as well
12:03and is nearly half the price, what's not to like?
12:06And that's why the Tacomo 301 MB is my best blade of 2024.