Forged Irons Without The Teeth

Filed under: by: golf clubs showcase


Titleist is synonymous with the best golfers in the world and also synonymous with making some of the best golf clubs you can buy. I'm always excited to get my hands on a new Titleist product to take on the course, because everything about the clubs are usually superb. This spring, one of the golfers at my home course walked up to the first tee with a shiny new set of Titleist AP2 Forged Irons in his bag. Even without looking at the profile and shape of them too closely, I was instantly attracted to them for a number of reasons. They're Titleist's, they're forged, and they're insanely beautiful which is a winning combination. I knew that I just had to get my hands on a set of these beauties to see how they stack up to the rest of the forged irons out there.

These irons are a little bit different than the traditional forged irons of old. The design is not a muscle back or cavity back, but more of a combination of the two. A high density "box" made of Tungsten is welded onto the bottom half of the irons to create two different cavities. The tungsten material also tunes the majority of the vibrations created upon impact for a nice solid feel I can associate with forged irons. To pile onto the amount of technical features these irons have, a metallic cavity plate makes the irons look simply delicious in your bag and improve the way the ball sounds on impact.

You can tell that few expenses were spared when Titleist was putting these clubs together. The stock shaft from the factory are the excellent Project X Rifle shafts. The majority of places I've seen these irons only have the shaft in stiff flex. I was a little disappointed to see that the stock grips are Golf Pride Tour Velvets, but I prefer cords so the disappointment was inevitable.

So when I finally got some AP2 Irons to hit, the first looks at them were a little surprising. Looking at them from address and in the bag you can tell that they're a little thicker in the topline and sole than most forged irons. They honestly look like Callaway made them, but the lines are still eye-pleasing and confidence building. You don't really get that peculiar if-you-hit-this-off-center-people-will-die feeling. Like almost any Titleist club, the swingweight feels almost perfectly dialed and you just feel good making a swing with them in your hands.

The ball really pops off the thin face of these AP2 irons. I found myself hitting the ball a club length or two past where I currently do with cast irons. I also found hitting the right trajectory rather effortless because the length of the hosel is shortened or lengthened based on the club. Long Irons fly a little bit higher and short irons a little lower, just the way it should be. With the AP2's neutral setup and no offset, hitting fades and draws are a snap as well. Overall hitting good shots was just effortless with these clubs in my hands, and they have good looks and good feel to boot.

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