Srixon FINALLY Made This!

I take the Srixon ZXiR irons on course for a 9 hole review.

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Well, last year for the first time ever, I put a set of Stricks on irons in my bag. Now, I’m not sponsored by Stricks in any way, shape, or form, but I just loved the feel. I loved the distance I was getting out of them. I loved the entire package. In fact, I built a bit of a combo set with those irons. I had the ZXi 4s in the four through six irons and seven through pitching wedge. I had the ZXI5s to have a little bit more of a players look. This year, this club might be the best of both worlds. This might be the set that I was dreaming of in the beginning. This is the ZXIR series. Strixon’s first ever game improvement club. A club really for the masses, for the mere mortals out there. And on today’s video, we are going to dive into the technology that’s fascinating behind these clubs. We’re going to take them out on course and play nine holes of golf. Let’s take a closer look first. Here’s your closer look at the Strixon ZXIR. Boy, these are gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. and they have a very unique look to them because there’s so much technology happening inside. First off, let’s just look at the bare aesthetics. I would call this a medium top line. It’s not super thick, but it’s certainly not thin. And really, Stricks, most of their irons are leaning towards the thicker side for their category. So, these are probably going to be very close to the ZXi4s that are in my bag at the top end of my bag and not too far away from the ZXI5s, which skew a little bit bigger on the top line as well. Now, one other thing to note though is offset. Minimal for a game improvement club. Certainly, there is some offset there, but it’s definitely towards the low low end of offset, which I think will affect probably who I think these clubs are best suited for. But more on that as we dive deeper into the video. Let’s continue with the technology. The first thing I want to note is what we see here on the Hosle Eye Alloy. This is a unique blend of metals that Srixon has developed. And what this is going to do is make these clubs feel exceptional. I think Srixon has the best feeling irons on the market right now of any manufacturer, but also make it very, very strong. So, it’s got the strength of a much stronger cast steel, but it has an exceptional forged feel to it. Now, you may or may not be able to see it, but it says mainframe, and that technology is very important to this ZXIR line. This face was developed with AI, which we see in a lot of club manufacturers, to create a variable thickness. This was mil to give it some thicker areas, some thinner areas, and a multitude of control points in order to develop a face that really absorbs shock better than most, but also provides maximum forgiveness where people actually hit the ball on the face. Now, turning it over to the sole here, another piece of technology that has been in all of the line of Srixon ZXi irons is this VT sole. We’ll see how this works out on course, but basically there’s a ridge running right through the middle of the sole of this club. So, there is a ton of relief towards the face and towards the rear of this club in order to provide maximum turf interaction. And what the T does is actually allows more mass to be shifted towards the bottom here. Again, allowing for a little higher trajectory. These clubs should be real high launching, but we’ll find out here as we go. Taking a look at the shaft. The stock shaft here is going to be a KBS Tour Light. I’ve got this in a stiff configuration. And the grip is going to be a Golf Pride Tour Velvet. Very beautiful looking club. Let’s take it out on course. And our overrun today is going to be plus one. See if we can go low with them. All right, first hole here. Pretty straightaway shorter par4. Now, I’m playing a forward set of TE’s cuz we’re playing irons only. I got four iron in hand here. Oh my gosh, that feel is amazing. Boy, that’s really good. All right. So, 214 is how far I hit that. And I’ve got 129 into the pin here. I was pretty impressed with the higher peak height there onto that 4 iron. It’s not crazy crazy high. If you need a little higher, they’ve got the high launching version of these irons, which is going to be about 2 1/2° weaker, but pretty nice and high for a 19 and 12 degree four iron. Shot two here. Pitching wedge. Boy, the feel of these is really exceptional. You just don’t have many game improvement clubs that feel like this. I’ve got to say, we’ve got a first birdie putt. And I’ll be interested here in checking the stopping power. Of course, this is a pitching wedge, so it should stop pretty quickly, but let’s take a look. That’s always the fear when you’ve got a set of pressed loft irons. Can you actually generate spin on the greens? Let’s find out. All right, here we go. Here’s the pitch mark. Stopped pretty good. Rolled out about 3 ft there. And I’ve got a very nice crack at birdie to start the day, which boy, I’d love to do. Last video I made, we uh birdied this hole and see if we can go back to back on it. Got to get it to the hole. If you’re going to make a birdie, you got to get the ball to the hole. All right, we are headed to hole number two, which is going to be another kind of straightaway par4. be a little harder shot coming in though with an elevated green. All right, on this hole, I’m going to test a little bit of the workability these clubs. Again, generally with a game improvement club that’s a very straight club, very forgiving club, you’re going to not necessarily have a lot of movement either left to right or right to left. So, shot shaping characteristics can be really important to better players. Not so important to who these clubs are necessarily aimed at, the mid to high handicappers, but even the mid handicappers will want to move their shots from time to time. Let’s just give it a shot here. I’m going to try to hit more of a cut here. Well, that was more of a chunk than anything. So, I didn’t I didn’t learn a whole lot there at all. Luckily, these clubs have that nice big face or I might have even missed the ball. Yeah, I’ve got 224 in. Now, I am in the rough as well. It’s not very thick rough today. This would be one heck of a shot to get it onto the green. I would just like to be somewhere near it would be nice. I do not want to be right. There’s water there. I chunked it again. Boy, two backto-back pretty poor strikes from these. It’s hard to learn a lot when you hit them like that. Certainly had no problem getting through the rough, but like I said, I hit about a/ an inch behind that ball. One good thing is these clubs are going straight. So, I’m going to be in the fairway and I’ll be able to put a wedge in my hand and maybe we can make a miracle par. So, after two brutal shots, we’re actually in fine shape. I’m middle of the fairway about 75 yards. So, we get a lot of comments, hey, can you have higher handicappers or uh poorer golfers test these clubs with you when you’re testing game improvements? Well, you’re getting it from me today. So, the good news again is that these clubs are going straight and not putting us in any bad spots just yet. That’s got to go a little. Oh, that’s short. Par’s not looking too good right now, but you never know, I suppose. All right, decent chip, but I came up a little short here. This is for my bogey. I don’t want to double. And I did double. I did double. So, we got a par three coming up. I got to hit a good shot and get back on track. All right, par three. Time to uh bear down. I’ve got 144. I probably could get there with a pitching wedge, but it is morning and in the morning you lose a little bit of distance. So, I’m going to go nine. I’d also rather be a little long than short here on this particular hole. There’s a good swing. Just a little left of the pin. That came up short, though. Wow. That was unexpected cuz I thought I had plenty of club there, but you never know. Maybe there’s a little wind up there I didn’t feel. It can happen on this hole cuz it’s kind of guarded by these trees. Getting back to the big face on these clubs, they are bigger than Shrixon has ever made in an iron, but they’re also the lightest due to that alloy, that special eye alloy that they produced. But I would say all in all, I would call this kind of a mediumw weighted club. Some clubs feel real light in hand, some feel real heavy to me. These, I’d say, are kind of in the middle. Honestly, if you’re looking for a lightweight game improvement iron, this might not be the ticket for that. All right, another chance to get up and down here. I know these greens are running a little slower, so I’m going to give it a little bit more. Come on. That’s better. Now, if you’ve been watching the show, I’ve been missing this distance of putt a lot. Way more than I should. And I got a great tip from this guy over at Titalist who said you should kind of feel it out with your feet. Which I know seems awkward and I’m not a huge fan of that myself, but it seems to work. And he says, “You’re either going to have nothing, you feel nothing in your feet, you feel a little or you feel a lot. If you feel a little, which is kind of what I feel right now, it’s just inside the edge. If you feel a lot, it’s just outside the edge, kind of like here. And if you feel nothing, it’s a straight putt. I’m feeling a little. Let’s see if it works.” This is specifically with three-foot putts, by the way. That’s my distance I’ve been missing. All right, it works. There’s so much like instruction on YouTube and often times it’s very theoretical. This one is something like really useful. So, I’ve really enjoyed that video. I’ll link to that video for you if you want to check it out as well. But, I think it was a great great golf tip. Another hole. Another chance to test that workability. I did not get a good taste of it there on the second hole when I fatted that shot. So, let’s see if I can hit a nice butter cut here on hole number four. Yep, there we go. Came off the club face very nice. I’d say in the game improvement category, one of the better clubs in terms of workability. We’ll continue to test, but just from that shot, I could tell with the swing I took, the club path I had, and the movement I got out of it, you’re going to get enough. You don’t want a lot. Again, especially if you are a high to mid handicapper, you probably don’t want a ton of that workability. You probably sacrifice some of that for straighter shots, more forgiving shots. But it’s nice to have, especially when you get yourself into trouble. If you’re in the trees or the woods, you got to hook one low out of there or try to cut one around, that sort of thing. It could be really handy. So, Stricks, of course, historically being a club really for the better ball strikers, it’s not completely lost here in the ZXIR. All right. Well, here I am on the right side of this fairway. The green is clearing for me. 127’s the number pitching wedge is going to be the club again. It’s the think that’s the same distance I had on the first hole or 128, something like that. Now, I came up short with that 9 iron. I took a little bit, maybe two off of it. Maybe there’s a little wind up there. So, either way, I’m going to take a real full swing at this shot here. It’s drawn in. Oh yeah. Got some nice check and spin on the green as well. Let’s go see if we can get one back. The hallmark of a great set of irons to me is just being able to bounce back. And that it’s what we did right here. We’ve got a really nice cracked birdie here. Uphill putt right to left. Extremely makeable. It’s going to be about 12 ft, maybe less. Maybe 11. Let’s see. Let’s walk it off and find out. Three, six, nine. It’s 10footer. 10footer. As makeable as birdie putts get me enough chances, it’s going to happen. So, we’re still two over. Heading to a par five. Let’s see. Maybe we have a chance to get home in two with two really good shots. These irons are strong enough to do it, I think. Took a cut at it. It’s good. Good shot. Heading down the right hand side. It’s going to be close if it’s in the fairway or the rough, but it was a good strike and basically exactly where I was aiming. I really do feel like I got great control with these clubs in terms of shot direction. And that’s again going to be a big benefit to anyone who plays these clubs, but it’s certainly the higher handicaps out there. But so far early on here, I’m feeling like this is more of a mid- handicap club. I’d love to test that high launching club. I would bet that’s a club that maybe even mid to even some of the single digits could use. Still, I think this tricks online is going to skew towards better golfers. I don’t think this is a club for a real beginner out there. It’s got to be someone who’s played golf for some time and maybe you’re getting up there in years. You need a little bit more distance and you really appreciate great feel. I think that’s who this club is really suited for. All right. Well, I caught one of the poor lies here in the rough today and I’m 240 ounce. There’s no sense in trying to be a hero. I can’t make it to the green with these irons. If I was using a hybrid, maybe. But not not an iron. So, what we’re going to do is just use a seven iron and put it into position. Again, this will be a little better test hopefully of the VT sole here through the rough, assuming I don’t hit this one fat. Yeah, it flew right out of there. and we’ll have a little wedge in our hands here. One thing I kind of expected that club to do just because I’m used to clubs doing it is to turn over in the rough in a lie like that. And so I kind of aimed a little more right than I normally would. And because it did cut through so well, it kind of stayed out to the right. They are going to move through the grass a little bit easier than certainly most game improvement clubs. The sole on these clubs, as we talked about, more of like a medium width sole. uh skewing certainly towards a thinner sole in the game improvement category, which is also going to lend itself to turf conditions that are not ideal. So, if you’re looking for a club with great turf interaction in a game improvement style, this one is as good as it’s going to be. So, yeah, again, because I hit that so straight, I’m actually just boy two feet into the rough here, foot and a half. But, uh again, with the sole on these clubs, should have no problem. Now, my set came four through pitching wedge, but they also offer an approach wedge and a 54° sand wedge. With these stronger lofted clubs, you need more wedges in your bag. I’ve never I don’t think seen any clubs that I can remember, and I’m sure someone will correct me in the comments, but I can’t remember a set that had a sand wedge as part of the iron structure. Pretty cool. So, 107. I definitely got to take a little bit off of this pitching wedge here. All right, we’re going to have a longer putt at birdie because I got a little chicken there, but we got a putt at birdie. I wasn’t ready to uh make a big mistake there and go in the bunker. I’d rather be a little bit more conservative with that particular pin position. If you’re going to play good golf, you’ve got to think about things like that. So, if you’re a higher handicapper, the quickest way for you to get down to the mid handicap range or from a mid to the low handicap range is to really think strategically about which pins you can attack and which pins you got to just take your medicine on. That was a medicine there. I’m starting to dial in the distances with these clubs, though. And that one is as uh pin high as it’s going to get. Let’s call it 22 ft here for birdie. I gave it more credit than I should have. All right, so we’re headed to the sixth hole here. Good news is we have steadied the ship on a string of pars and I’m giving myself birdie chances. So, no complaints right now. You put good swings on these clubs, you’re going to get good results. Let’s keep doing it. All right, back to the par4. Here we got a dog leg right. Again, this shot probably lends itself to more of a fade and that’s what we’ve done. That’ll be good. Can’t say I made great contact there. Hit that a little hosley. You probably heard the sound. But again, I mean, of all those tricks on clubs I play, these are certainly the most forgiving. The ZXi4s are very forgiving clubs in their own right. I would say these are probably on par with those. Maybe slightly more forgiving possibly. But one thing to get back to here is feel and sound. Because that shot was so different. It really highlights the fact these clubs have immediate audio visual feedback. You’re going to hear it if you hit it off where I just hit that on the club. But you’re also going to really love the sound when you make good contact with these. Probably some of the best sounding clubs on the market right now for my money. All right, time to test a club we haven’t hit, I don’t think. Eight iron. Yeah, it’s still unwrapped. We’ll take the plastic off of that one. I’ve got 155. Pin is in the back. So, I just want to take a nice smooth swing. I don’t need to kill it because this could probably go 165 if I needed it to. And that was a great swing. Again, no problem cutting through that rough. Wasn’t a bad lie again, but no issues turning the club face, anything like that. And that was indicative of that beautiful sound and feel. Again, you can probably hear it on the video. I know we’ve had comments people think we’re adding effects or something. We definitely never add sound effects to the shots. What you’re hearing is what I’m hearing. And uh it’s pretty pretty gorgeous. Moy, a much better crack at birdie than I thought I would have. Thought I was going to have about 25 ft, but I’ve got more like 17 feet here. Again, pin high to perfection. And we got a little extra roll out there out of the rough and with an eight iron, but I think you’re going to hold most greens with these clubs. All right, we’ve had a lot of birdie putts. None of them have gone in, so we’re due. Boy, that putt just did not break. It stayed exactly where I hit it. All right. All right. Well, we got one more chance at the ace here on this next hole and then we’re going to have a couple fun holes to finish. All right. What’s the number? Should be about a 9 iron shot. Yep. 138. Again, I think these clubs have plenty of pop. So, right now, just in the mode, I’d rather swing a little easy. So, another club we haven’t used, nine iron. The pin again is in a a bit of a tricky place because the green’s pretty narrow over there, at least in terms of the depth of this green. If I’m going to miss, I’d rather miss a little right. That’s on a great line. That was on hole in one line there, but I think I hit it too hard. Here’s my pitch mark. If this could have stopped and stuck, that would have been really nice. But as it stands, I actually ran off the green here. Probably caught that a groove too low and we didn’t get quite as much spin. So, we’re going to have to get up and down. Go, go, go, go, go. That was not great. Not great at all. Short game’s what me down today. We’re three. We’re heading to the par five. I’ve hit a few cuts today, but now I’m going to really try to draw one. Kind of low and drawn. That’s the exact shot shape I wanted. That should be perfect. So, like I said, I felt early, it’s been ringing true here. These clubs, you can move them more than most game improvement clubs for sure. Again, just leads me to believe these are, even though they’re marketed as a high handicap club, probably more of a, if we’re going to talk about like handicap ranges, I wouldn’t go as high as 30 with these. I’d be more along the lines of the low 20s. So, we’ll call it 22 to about 12 is probably the sweet spot for these clubs. Now, could they be played by lower handicappers? As I mentioned, yes. Especially people that are aging up, need a little bit more distance, but still want that feel, sound, a little bit of workability built into it. Can these be played by the 30s? Sure, they could be, but I think there might be some better options on the market for the real extreme high-end of the handicap range. All right, because we haven’t hit it yet today and probably won’t have another chance to, I’m going to pull out the last club we have not hit in this set. I always try to hit as many as I can. This is the sixiron. Again, I’m just trying to get into like 50 yard range. I’m 250 out right here. If I could be like 60, 70 yards, even better, honestly. Caught that one thin, but it’s going to be just fine. Again, just goes to the forgiveness of these clubs. Caught it very, very thin. Didn’t even take a divot there. All right, so I took about 10 yards off with that poor strike. But again, straight down the middle. We have 88 yards. Should be a real good distance here for this 58 degree wedge. All right, longer birdie put was not a great wedge shot. Again, those wedges kind of the ones let me down here today. I haven’t chipped anything close. Certainly haven’t putt well either. The irons are doing the job, but I hadn’t played in like a week. That’s where the rush shows up quickest is in the short game. Boy, that could be bad. They had this pin right on a ledge. And now it comes to a stop. Oh, I was a little worried about that. That’s a bogey that should not have been. So, we’re headed to our last hole. After I hit this shot, I’m going to rank these clubs. And my actual golf score won’t have any effect on how I rank these because I think I hit the irons really well. Again, just uh the short game is what has come up short quite literally. All right, here we go. One last four iron. Oh, I lost it to the right. Carry might be right behind a clump of trees. It felt good though. I’ll tell you that much. And again, the sound is awesome. Let’s go ahead and rank these clubs. There’s five criteria I always rank clubs by. The first one is distance. For me, I think you’re getting really good distance, but of course it comes with that, you know, loft structure. You’re going to expect that at this loft. I have seen some clubs that go just a little further for sure. They certainly don’t have that feel and sound, but uh they can go a little further, but these are long. I’m going to call it four and a half out of five. If we’re talking about forgiveness, I’m going to give these clubs a four out of five. Again, very forgiving on these thin shots I’ve hit here today. And for the most part, the ball flew very straight. The real bad shots I had is when I hit it behind the ball today. Overall, I think very forgiving club, but they’re also a very workable club. And so, I’m going to give it also a four out of five, which for a game improvement club is a very high score because I find these clubs to be at the high end of workability for game improvement clubs. So, it’s a really good balance. Honestly, I like a 44 score because you’re going to get enough forgiveness and enough workability where it really balances each other out very well. In terms of aesthetics, looks, feel, and sound. 100% five out of five. Uh there is not a better feeling game improvement club out there. I can 100% unequivocally tell you that in terms of sound, it’s right up there with my favorites, if not my favorite. It’s a little different. It’s a little more of a clunk coming off the club. Not clicky, but clunky. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a really pleasant sound. And then in terms of the looks, I mean, irons don’t look this good in the game improvement category very often. And with all that technology packed inside to boot, they still managed to make it look really nice, really clean. And when it comes to value, that’s where these clubs are not going to be the value play. If you’re a value shopper, you’re looking for a $300 set of irons, Maltby exists. But if you are a person who wants that next level, then you’re looking at something like these strixons. Now, one other thing to consider though with these tricks on clubs is resale value is going to be off the charts with these up there at the high end. And so long-term as an investment coupled with the quality you’re getting out of a game improvement club, we’re going to call it a four. And we’re going to call it 124 for my last shot. One more pitching wedge here to finish it off. I wish I had that a wedge because that would be the perfect club for this shot. But take a little bit off this pitching wedge. Hopefully not too much. And try to finish strong here. I like the line it’s on. Hopefully it held the green. Again, this pin was on one of those spots where you miss it to the left of that pin, it rolls way down a hill. If you miss it to the right, you’re probably off the green. So, there wasn’t a lot of room for error. Let’s see where we finished. Either way, I’ve had so much fun with these clubs. And if I were to play them for two, three rounds, we’d see some seriously low scores because again, putting and chipping was the main factor here today. On that second hole, I hit two bad four iron shots back to back, which cost me at least one stroke, but it was the short game that lost the other stroke there. And we didn’t get anything back putting either. I didn’t make any putts. I had a few good cracks at 10 ft. So, all I really could ask for out of a set of irons. And this would be a set that I would be more than happy to put in the back of my bag. Maybe a little strong lofted for me, but if you again are getting up there in age, I think this is extremely compelling option. And I’ve actually got a really good crack at birdie here to finish. So, one more chance for redemption with the putter. 15 ft. Moving a little left to right. Although putts have not been breaking too much today, so I’m not going to give it a lot. And we continue the trend. I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I had playing with these irons out here. And again, if you are in the market for more honest, independent golf reviews, not getting paid or sponsored by any of these club manufacturers, there’s two things you can do. First off, very simply, hit subscribe. Second of all, check out some merch. We’ve got some new drops here for the holiday season on the channel. I’ve got a new beautiful fourpiece gift set with ball markers and divid tools in a nice gift box. So, if you’ve got a golf in your life that you want to bless, that would be a nice one. We’ve also got some nice new water bottles on the site as well. You’ll be doing a little help to the environment by uh getting rid of some of that single-use plastic out there. I try to price everything as reasonably as possible on the website, but we’re not selling cheap stuff. We’re selling really nice high-end stuff at an affordable price. So, couple things you can do to help this channel out. And I’ll catch you back here next time on another edition of Let’s Play Through.