If you struggle to find the middle of the club with your irons, you might need a more forgiving set of clubs. If that’s you, it’s time you checked out the best game improvement irons 2025 has to offer.
Perfect for mid-to-high handicap golfers who want a bit more distance and consistency on off-centre strikes, game improvement irons are the answer. If you game one of these sets, you’re likely to see your handicap dropping.
James and Lewis took the latest game improvement irons to the Golf It! Trackman simulator to see how they perform.
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Video shot on location at Golf It, Homepage | Golf It
We have nine of the most forgiving irons going head-to-head today in these categories. And we’re going to be putting them to the test in the Trackman simulator to see which one comes out on top. All right. So, kicking us off is our first category, and that is the looks, which is pretty important. It’s very important. Yeah. Yeah. But in third place for me was the Strickson ZXI 4. Just a really good looking club. Not that much offset, relatively thin top line, I would say, and just looked great behind the ball. Really, really enjoyed that. In second place for me, Ping. Again, there’s a little bit more offset on this, however, with it being a slightly kind of wider sole. That top line really kind of takes your eye away from that. Very thin and again, just classic ping. Looks great behind the ball. And I really enjoyed that one as well. My number one, no, the Callaway Elite. The shelf appeal in this is fantastic. Not too much color going on. Very classic in design, very shiny, but again behind the ball, it looks class as well. Absolutely love this. A little bit more offset, but again, just an all round great looking iron. And those are my top three. Excellent. I’m going with the Stricken ZXI4 in my third place as well. Really like this good shelf appeal. Stricksen Iron’s really, really, you know, popular right now. You can see why. I really like what they’ve done on the sole here, which is going to help you with turf interaction, but also looks great behind the ball. You don’t really think this is a game improvement iron, which is a positive. Still enough help behind it, but when it’s over over the ball, you’re quite happy looking down at that. Next is the Titus T350. Now, you can see that there’s a lot of help here. But when it’s behind the ball, there’s not a lot of offset, which I quite like. Some people might prefer more, but for me, I really like looking down at that. Just inspires a lot of confidence when you’re going to hit it, which is a really good thing for this category. Finally, Callaway. Look, for shelf appeal wise, you’re not going to get much better than this for game improvement iron. The Callaway Elite X is just so hard to beat in that department. Little bit of offset, which is nice for for some players going to be gaming these. I think this just looks stunning. Shiny, clean, everything that you’d want in a game improvement iron looks wise. Right, next category, we’re going sound and feel. This is very important. Game improvement irons, you might think it’s all about just distance, but you want something a bit of control as well. Going to start with my third place. It’s one we haven’t spoken about yet. PXG Black Ops. Felt like I could get quite a bit of control from this, which is good. That’s what you want. Very solid, wasn’t it? Solid. Yeah. But not kind of jumpy too much, which is really, really good. Got my Callaway in second. Yeah. Again, like really, really nice feel to this. I play Callaway Irons anyway, the Apexes. And this wasn’t massively different. A little bit hotter, but that’s no bad things. It’s going to go a long way, which we’ll get on to soon. Soundwise, really, really pleasant. I think there was some that were really loud. This wasn’t one of them. quite muted sound which is good. Yeah. Number one stricksen really really soft you know almost buttery which you’re not gonna you’re not going to find a lot in game improvement irons. Really really like this. It’s quiet just really refined sophisticated iron and it’s still performing really nicely. So yeah and I’m going to take that one straight off your hands because this is my number three. Just like what said really soft, crisp, buttery kind of feel. Comes off that I Forge face really nicely. What I liked as well is even when it was a little bit kind of toe side or heel side, the consistency of the strike was also really nice, which is why I really enjoyed that as well. Second place is Callaway. Very crisp, very, I would say, consistent as well. Comes off that brand new AI 10X face really, really nicely. And again, the forgiveness across, you know, toe, heel, low, high, the distances were were impressive, which we will get on to in a second. But I absolutely love that. And number one, it is ping. It sounds so good. What I really liked about it was again on those m hits, it just comes off like so consistently, but you get some incredible speeds. So, you’re always going to get that consistent distance off this as well. But for me, just that sound and feel off this iron was just superb. All right, dispersion. In third place, I have Callaway. You can just see the distances are good. It’s very consistent, but from front to back, it’s just not quite as consistent obviously as Shrixen and Ping. In second place is Shrixen. Again, just a little bit of difference from kind of right to left, but the distance consistency is very, very good. But the best one is Ping. You can see how tight that grouping is obviously with those five shots. And you can also see just the kind of the similarity in ball flight. I’m hitting that kind of nice high fade, pretty straight in a lot of shots as well. But those are my top three and very very impressive when it comes to dispersion. Okay, in my top three, Cobra stand out in this category. A lot of people say you can throw a blanket over some shots. I honestly think those five, we could have done that. Little bit longer. We’ve got Wilson. Really good grip in here. Again, a little bit left to target. That’s more me than the clubs, but really, really solid. All of those going to be on the green. Then a little bit shorter and a little bit of a mix of sides, but still very good, especially distance-wise is Strickson. Three very solid irons here. All right, next up we have ball speed. Now in third place, that was Ping with 158.5 mph. In second place, really close was the Titus T350s at 159.1. But in first place was Callaway with a really impressive 159.2 too. Just edging it as soon as you catch it off the middle of the face. Jesus, it just jumps. Not only that, it’s very consistent even if you slightly misit it. Ball speed for me. Third and second was very close. That was Tailor Made and Ping. Both hovering around 119. I think Tailor made slightly less. Ping just a little bit more. About a mile an hour faster on average was this Wilson Dino Power Max. We spoke about it in the last one. Good dispersion and a lot of those really, really fast ball speeds for me. That’s going to give you a few extra yards and that could be all the difference. All right, so up next is the longest iron. Now in third place was Ping 247.1 yards. Obviously the hollow body design, the support off that perlex as well. It really does come off that face like a rocket which is why it goes so far as well. Now the tailor made again in that Qi design. Each club head is individually obviously optimized with that flight to CG placement that’s going 249.6 six for me. Came off like an absolute rocket. Really impressive. But in first place is the Callaway. 253.9 yards. That brand new AI 10X face is an absolute dream. Comes off like a rocket. Hollow body design. You’re still going to get those great speeds as you would expect off that type of iron. But that is the number one for me. Now, distance. This is important. This is important for me because I don’t hit the ball that far. Chances are if you’re watching this, you’re probably similar. In third place, it was tailor made. Now, the Qi flying about 195 yards for me. That’s pretty good for a sixiron. That is much further than what I usually hit it. Slightly further. The ping averaging about 197. So, very close to 200 yards. And for a sixiron for me, that is brilliant. Leading the way, as you can see, no surprise. It was the fastest ball speed. It’s the Wilson. I’m calling that 200 yards. I don’t care. It’s close enough to that, which for me is a really long way. That’s just going to make such a big difference. Hitting into par threes at 200 yards. You can at six iron then it’s just going to be such a big help. Wilson Dino Power Max, that’s the longest. Okay, so before we go into our top three winners, just a quick mention about Ben Ross. Surprisingly surprised, shall we say, by the performance of this. These are only £449 for a set from six to sand wedge. But again, the forgiveness in these if you are on a budget, very, very good. A lot of people might be looking for something on a budget that’s going to help them get around the golf course, these really do that. Found they’re fairly forgiving and missips, which I put to the test quite nicely. But when you do get one out the middle, really, really good. So, you’re not going to lose too much distance. I think they look great. For the price point, I mean, you really can’t go wrong. Under 500 quid for a full brand new set of irons, you’re doing pretty well with these. Yeah, it’s hard to beat. Okay, so my top three overall picks in third place is the Shrixen ZX i4. Looks great, feels great, and does exactly what you want it to do. In second place is the Callaway Elite X. Great looking iron, very forgiving, and comes off like an absolute rocket. And in first place is the Ping G440. This thing is just overall very, very impressive. Very consistent, great speeds, and just great feel as well. Looks great at dress, ticks all the boxes. This is exactly what you want in a forgiving iron. Excellent. I’m going to take that ping straight off, sir. Not too much else I can add on that. Really like the way the ping irons feel. If you want something that’s super forgiving, G440 is going to do you very nicely. I really liked it. Second for me, Cobra DS Adapt Max. Now, you saw the dispersion with this. I mean, that’s shocked me. I’m someone who hits the ball pretty straight, but never that straight, especially with a sixiron. Absolutely love that. Impossible not to give it a mention here. But the winner, what a game improvement iron’s all about. Hitting it longer, hitting it further, higher into greens. That’s what this was doing. Hitting a six iron 200 yards to me is unheard of. So the Wilson just does that so well. Hits the ball miles. And if that’s what you’re wanting to do with game improvement irons, you’ll do well to beat this. Now, if you’ve enjoyed the video, remember to give us a like, give us a sub, and we’ll see you next time.
