Are These the Easiest Irons to Hit Right Now?

Rick Shiels tests Srixon’s new ZXiR and ZXiR HL game-improvement irons on the H.I.T Golf channel, looking at distance, forgiveness and launch. If you’re a mid-to-high handicapper wondering which model suits your game, this is the review to watch before you buy.

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Over the last few years, Shrixs have been known for making incredible irons. This latest version of Zedexi range has been unbelievably wellreceived. I test it here on the channel. I was blown away by the performance. Well, now Shrixen are bringing out the ZedX R and the RHL. These are game improvement irons, but offer a lot of the key features already. So loved in the ZXI range and I must admit they look fantastic. Now often game improvement irons do get a little bit of an ugly makeover. That’s not the case here with the Shrixen. They’ve made again very popular ZXi range which is all kind of this chrome very sharp edges. They look fantastic. Well, all they’ve really done is they’ve made a more forgiving model. Now, this is brand new I alloy. So, it’s a brand new material just for the ZXIR range. Apparently, it’s 10% softer, quieter, and you get more feedback. I mean, that sounds like a lot of things you’d want from a better players iron as well. Now, as I mentioned, we’ve got two models, the ZX IR and the HL, which is the high launch. I’m going to hit both the seven irons in this video. Uh there’s a longer blade length, a wider sole, and slightly more offset. So again, this is offering so much forgiveness. There’s a few more features also, but we’ll come on to that in a moment. Let’s hit some shots first. They look really nice. You know what they remind me of on on looks like when Mazuno make a uh a game improvement iron. like it has all of those really nice classic points you want from a Shrixen or a Mazuno Iron, but they’ve just blown it up. Like just stuck a little bit of uh gaming game enhancement drugs in there to kind of give it that fuller profile. Yeah, I really like it. And I’ll tell you what, lookswise behind the ball, you can definitely tell it’s a bigger blade length. I think for a higher handicapper, they’d get a lot of confidence looking down at the iron. 79 is strong. 28.5 degrees of loft. So, I’m expecting this to go a long way, but hopefully still launches high and kind of stops quickly as well. So, I’ve got the green out there at 190. Oh, but it felt fantastic. Slightly pulled it, but that might be that more of an offset. Again, they’ve kind of created more angle here between the the huzzle and that front edge. Again, that’s to help the ball leaking off short and right. And that didn’t go short and right. That went pretty long. One 91 carry. And you can see it just pulled that left hand side, which I would expect this iron to do. One thing I didn’t expect this iron to do was to feel that good. Like that felt really, really soft. The kind of same softness you get in almost like a forged iron. That was really nice. Oh, that is a gorgeous feeling iron. Maybe they’re on to something with this eye alloy. They’ve got that printed on the huzzle there. That harness that feels and sounds phenomenal. Not what you’d expect from a game improvement iron, honestly. Normally, they’re a little bit more clunkier. They’re not quite as nice feeling. This feels like a players performance iron. Wow. 192 carry of the seven iron there. Like I say, it’s strong lofted, but it’s got plenty of height. No worries about that. Yeah. Again, as well felt great. That one, Troopy, was a little bit cleaner struck, but I mean, it’s still landing 190. You can just tell there’s a little bit more of a run out once it lands. The spin there is below 5,000 RPM, which is quite low for a seven iron, but the height is super super high. And what’s interesting there, from right to left, it only had eight sid spin. Eight RPMs sid spin. So like it’s going dead straight. Unbelievably straight. Let’s hit a couple more with this seven iron. Oh, that was a little bit of a chunky one. That was a I mean, look at that, though. You can see I chunked it. Look how far it’s rolled out. But do you see where it landed front edge of the green now? Apparently because of this new milling effect they’ve used on the club face here. They’ve actually managed to distribute the weight and they’ve actually moved the center of gravity lower. So the sweet spot is lower there. You again you see a lot of higher handicappers, they’ll strike it kind of clean quite off the bottom of the face. They’ve actually adjusted the sweet spot to allow for that. Even I hit it off low off the face quite a lot. That one, not so much. That was a That was a chunky one, but it still did. Unbelievable. 183 carry. And I And I battered that. Yeah. First one that’s just leaked a little bit right, but again, it’s fine in the green. It’s a little bit open there with the face. But again, look at that. Still pin eye. Still finding the fringe of the green at least at 190 yards. That’s pretty impressive. Okay. Um, what I might do, I’m going to come back to the high launch iron in a minute. Let’s hit the four iron and the pitching wedge and then we’ll come back to the high launch 7 iron and then we can compare the numbers. Okay, a couple of things to come on to before I hit the four iron. First off, price for a set of irons. the ZXIR. Quite the mouthful. £959. So, under that 1,000 price point. It’s not bad. It’s not terrible. Second thing is the four iron. I don’t think a lot of people who buying the full set of these would actually even compl comp wouldn’t even consider, it’s the word I’m looking for, the four iron. But what would be quite interesting here is I think this 4 iron might be, you know, if you’ve got a ZX ii5 or ZXI7, you might go, hold on a minute. Could I just do with that little bit of extra forgiveness with a 4 iron? Therefore, this could be that club. You know, it’s for that kind of long iron replacement. Um, let’s give it a hit. It’s lot strong lofted 19.5 degrees. I mean, that is a strong for three iron, never mind a four iron. So, I think this is honestly going to go a million miles. Oh, slightly fatted. It slightly. And it’s nearly flirted with the hole as it’s gone past at 230. Slightly chunked it. I suppose that extra bit of soul is going to help that kind of turf interaction. It kind of obviously I’m hitting off a mat here, but it didn’t dig in. It kind of still managed to put as much energy into the golf ball as it could do. I’ll be tr totally honest. I don’t love the look of the foreign behind the ball. It feels like the blade length is a bit too long. A little bit too much offset. And actually the back of the club just sticks out a touch too much as well. It’s not the prettiest for iron. Actually like the look of the seven, but this I don’t know. It’s just a bit more clunky. It’s not quite as refined. [Music] Maybe I’m not good enough to hit this for. Come on. I can do better than that. Those two weren’t very good. There we go. That was a better contact. I think what’s weird is obviously it’s a four iron on the bottom. When I’m looking down at it, it kind of looks so much stronger. It looks like a two iron or a three iron even. I think the first couple of shots I was almost trying to hit down on it a little bit more like a four iron where kind of needs to be caught clean off the surface. That one was very much off the bottom of the head. I’m definitely testing enough parts of this club face. That’s for sure. That was that was skinny. It’s 207 carry, 225 total distance, only 4.4 yards off line. Just don’t feel like I’ve absolutely middled one yet. It’s I don’t look throwing me off a little bit. Kind of loft is throwing me out a little bit as well. I’m using all the excuses I can, but let’s find a good one on this one. Better strike. Not perfect, but better. Yeah, I’m not going to spend loads of time on the 4 iron here because again, I don’t think people who are interested in the ZX IR are are probably going to be using the four iron. Don’t know. For me, the looks is putting me off too much. I’m sure I could get over it, but it’s not it’s not blowing me away. The four iron. Let’s move to the pitching wedge next. Okay, pitching wedge. This actually looks like a big faced clunky wedge. Um, yeah. I mean, it looks confident boosting. It just for me, I feel like it’s going to go a long way. 43° is the loft of this pitching wedge. That’s kind of more like a nine iron. And it looks it and it looks it looks big. Like the face looks like it’s got a lot of surface area. Uh, let’s see how this flies now. feels. I think what’s interesting here when I hit it and I’ve got speed, I can get the height, I can get the stop, I can create a little bit of spin. My worry is slower swing speeds aren’t going to be able to create quite as much spin or height. So, definitely if you consider them, go and hit them first and make sure you can actually get the balls up in the air. Um, see what the wedge does. It reminds me, I used to have this when I first started playing golf, I had a set. They were called Mazuno Shaw, S U R E. And I used to nickname them the shovels. And it kind of reminds me of that. Like the Shaw was a big forgiving massive faced iron. And this kind of very much looks like that. Lots of face. And it definitely feels like it’s going to go left on me for some reason. Offset, one thing. Maybe that kind of extra blade length. another that feels like the face almost feels like the face because it’s so big has more time to rotate and turn. Again, for a game improvement iron, you might want a bit of that. It’s just an observation that I’m finding it’s the face is because it’s so big, it kind of feels like it’s it’s having more of an impact as it comes in to hit the ball. Feels like everything’s going to go left on me. It feels good. That’s a positive. I think for a lot of golfers, they’re going to look down at that and it’ll be confidence inspiring. I think for me, for such a a more precise iron where I’m wanting to try and hit this one close, it just feels like a lot of club. Let’s go. One more. Yeah, it’s it’s a really weird feeling for me. Just feels like because the face is so big, it just it turns. Feels like a a barn door coming in and and slamming shut. Hence why I’m kind of pulling that a little bit left. But it does feel good. I just don’t think for me it’s not perfect for me. But for again, for a lot of game improvement golfers who want to more help, that kind of left shot would would be way better than a leaky right shot. Right, let’s just hit the high launch one because I want to see the difference between standard len standard iron, sorry, the ZX IR, which is 28 1/2° compared to the [Music] You know what I’m talking about. Okay, I didn’t quite explain that that well just on that last sentence. The ZX IIR 7i is 28 and a half degrees of loft. They’ve also brought out a set, the ZX IRL. The Shrixen ZX X I R HL. That’s actually ridiculous, isn’t it? That’s actually I would be probably worth a lot of points in Scrabble. You could probably make a decent word out of that. Um, this iron is weaker lofted. It’s 32.5 degrees of loft. So, it’s going to go much more traditional height. Again, I think they know that the standard model is a bit strong and I think a lot of golfers in simulators will hit it and go, “Oh, yeah. I’m hitting my 79 the furthest that I’ve ever hit it.” But you’ve really got to watch out for height and how quick the ball’s going to stop. You have to look out for that. Don’t just go on the number of how far you’re hitting it. I think this iron’s not going to go as far. Well, it’s not going to go as far. It’s four degrees weaker. But is that going to be more beneficial for height and stopping power? Often it is. Let’s give this one a hit. Looks exactly the same as the ZXIR 7 iron, but obviously this has got more loft. That was nice. That was really nice. And like already it stopped so much quicker. It landed and it slammed on the brakes. Spins up, heights up, distances down. Exactly what you’d expect. Felt great. Felt really, really good off the face. Yeah, that’s really nice. That’s really nice. Watch how quick that stops. A little little tiny run out, but it’s stopping so much quicker. For me, I I slightly get worried when game improvement irons go too strong in loft. So, I think in a simulator, if you’re getting fitted, the nice ego boost. Oh, I’m making my seven iron the furthest I’ve ever hit it. But the reality out on the golf course, if you’re not getting the height, you’re not getting the stop, the clubs become very difficult to play with. They really do. Right, I’m gonna hit one more, then we’ll compare some numbers. And I feel you get all the benefits from the ZXIR. I didn’t quite catch that one as well. You’re still getting the forgiveness. You’re still getting the wide sole. You’re still getting the the huge face, the offset, but it’s just so much easier to hit up in the air. So much easier. Right, let’s have a look at some numbers. Okay, data wise, it’s pretty much what we expected. We’ll start off with the standard ZXIR7. I mean, carry distance was off the charts. 188 yards for a 7 iron is ridiculous. Asterx 28.5 degree loft. It’s going to go that far. Uh spin rate was low, very low. 5,000 RPM, but to be honest, the flight was still up but still landing. and it’s just not going to stop really really quickly. While we’ve got that up on screen, I’ll just throw in the ZX IRL7. Um, we lost 17 yards in distance. I think that last one wasn’t the best struck one to be fair, but the spin rate went up by a,000 RPM. The height was so much higher and the and the descent was dropping down quicker. Um, so you’re not going to get as much ball speed. You’re not going to get as much distance, but you’re going to be able to probably hold the green a lot more. So, you’ve got a decision to make there. Four iron 209 carry, 3,300 spin. Again, a little bit on the low side on the spin, but really high on the distance. Pitching wedge I did actually think would go a bit further at 43 degrees of loft. I kind of wasn’t striking it perfect. Um, but 140 carry distance, again, for a pitching wedge, 7 and a half th,000 RPM is super super super low. Um, you want really from a pitching wedge getting closer to 10,000 if you can. Um, but in its defense because the club, the way the club is made, it was going up in the air and stopping, but just not with spin, just with descent. I think they’re good irons. I really do. I think they feel fantastic. I think the middle irons, the seven irons were my favorite. I got up to four and wasn’t in love. I got down to pitching wedge and wasn’t in love. But those middle irons were really, really good. Um, and again, if you’re looking for a game improvement iron that looks incredible and genuinely feels as good as these do, these could be right up the street. Guys, thanks for watching. Stay tuned. Lots more to come. And that was the review of the Shrixen ZXIR and the Shrixen ZX IIR HL Ions. We’ll see you next time. Make your name shorter, please shenon.