New PING, Titleist & Callaway Irons | Our Initial Impressions

PING, Titleist and Callaway have all released new irons in July. So what does 2nd Swing Master Fitter Kevin Kraft think of the new PING i240 Irons, the new Callaway X Forged, X Forged Max, Apex Ai150 Irons, and the new 2025 Titleist T-Series Irons?

Then, in celebration of the 100th episode of the 2nd Swing Thoughts Podcast, we are giving away a 2nd Swing Gift Card to one lucky golfer! We will announce the winner on next week’s podcast!

Plus 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald and Sean Bower discuss the latest PGA Tour & LIV Golf News, and some potentially game-changing news regarding L.A.B. Golf.

00:00 Introduction
01:45 Gift Card Giveaway
02:50 PGA Tour 3M Open
06:05 Kurt Kitayama WITB
08:40 Joaquin Niemann
10:25 L.A.B. Golf News
14:10 Kevin Kraft’s Favorite New Irons
15:10 Callaway X Forged Irons
20:50 Callaway Apex Ai150 Irons
23:55 PING i240 Irons
28:08 Titleist T-Series Irons
35:23 Conclusion

The 2nd Swing Thoughts podcast, presented by 2nd Swing Golf, covers anything and everything in golf equipment and club fitting. The 2nd Swing Thoughts will feature experts in the golf industry sharing insights and latest trends in golf clubs and club fittings. 2nd Swing Thoughts will also cover the latest in professional golf.

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On this episode of Second Swing Thoughts, Kevin Craft, our guy, is back. He’s going to talk through his impressions of uh the big iron launches here in July. We’ve got the Callaway with the X Forge family, kind of a resurgence of that lineup, Ping I240, and the Titleless T series. We’ll get Kevin’s thoughts on each of those. And of course, we’ll talk about the professional game. Uh some big events. We had one locally here in Minnesota, the 3M Open. So, we’ll talk about that and a lot more on this episode of Second Swing Thoughts. Hey golfers, I’m Drew Mahol with Second Swing Golf joined by Sean Bower here in the studio for another episode. It’s going to be a good one. We’ve got a ton of information packed in here. We had um quite a weekend from Kurt Kittyama that we’ll go over um and some al some interesting news in the golf equipment world as well. Um, so that plus again, uh, Kevin Craft joining to talk about the latest iron releases out there and, um, I know he was really impressed by kind of, you know, one of them in particular, I think. Yeah, absolutely. He definitely one of the looks he was a big fan of, uh, one might say the best looking pitching wedge ever. Yeah, that um, so you want to you’ll want to stick around for that from Kevin. That was I’ve never heard someone ever describe clubs like that, but you know, that’s why he’s Kevin Craft and that’s why we all love him. there. But yeah, we’re going to get into the turn as we had a busy week in golf. And before we get into our PJ tour, uh news and breakdowns, we got a special uh this is a special episode. This is our hundth episode of the Second Swing Thoughts podcast. So, to celebrate that, we are uh doing a little bit of a giveaway. Um we’re going to give a $100 Second Swing gift card to one lucky golfer that’s watching this podcast or listening. Um, all you got to do is, um, on our YouTube channel, on this specific video, whether if you’re listening, you know, on your podcast platform, just come to our YouTube channel, find this video, and you’re just going to comment uh what you would use that $100 gift card for. Which club are you replacing, and what do you want to replace it with? Um, and then we’ll just pick one kind of random winner there. So, the more information you add, yeah, a little more storyline you give to it, the better. or so just uh little work. We’ve had we’ve done giveaways like this before asking for people to give their feedback and it’s, you know, not it’s amazing what people are still playing with and how much experience the club has, if you will, how much use it’s it’s gotten. And um so if there’s a club in your bag that you you’ve had for a long time or that’s gotten a lot of wear and tear on it, um you know, drop the details in a comment um and we’ll give you $100 credit towards replacing it. So it’ be a lot of fun. Yeah. There. Yeah, let’s get right into uh the PJ2 tournament. And yeah, right up just up the road here from us, you know, not too far up in Bla, Minnesota, TPC Twin Cities, the 3M Open happened and uh you know, it was a it was a pretty good finish there. I mean, it was it was very it was wide open going into Sunday. There was so many players within, you know, a few shots of the lead and as you saw, there were low scores out there due to just all the rain we’ve gotten up here making the course super soft. Um, and it was Kurt Kittyama. I mean, he shoots a 60 on Saturday, ties the was it the tournament record or course record. Y um, which was set on Thursday where you saw and then almost had a couple people hit 59, but shoots a 60 to get himself into contention and then starts his final round off with three straight birdies, including a chip in. I think he had six birdies on his front nine there. Um he went he just dominated the front nine. Um on Saturday 28 on the front nine, Sunday 29. Um yeah, six under 65. Held off Sam Stevens by one shot there. The two putt easy two putt par on the 72nd hole and second career win for Kurt. Yeah, the shot of the tournament I thought was uh the 14th hole on Sunday when it started to get a little close. uh the gap did where I think um Jake Knap and Stevens at the time maybe were two shots behind and he had kind of flared a T-OT into the ferry bunker. He’s 190 yards out um and just goes flag hunting with a seven iron and hits it. I think it was like 3 ft away and tap and birdie which obviously you know he ends up winning by one. Pretty big difference there to come away with a birdie there when you know the situation presented there could have easily yielded a bogey. Um, so that shot to me with all the awesome approach shots he hit throughout Saturday and Sunday, he was absolutely dialed with his irons. Um, but to hit that one in that moment when things maybe started to get a little squirly for him, uh, was a huge one. So, deserving winner. Um, second win of his career on the PJ tour. And, uh, now after being kind of well outside that top 70, if we talk about FedEx Cup, um, he gets uh, firmly into the top 70. I think he’s 53rd now. So, pretty big win for for Kittyama. And uh kind of a fun story, too, to have his um brother on the bag. And I believe it was actually the Caddy who his previous Caddy actually uh left Kurt versus the other way around is a story I read. And so, kind of cool for for him to get the win there. Yeah. And I mean, you’re talking about his irons. I think he led the field in strokes gain approach. Um if you watched Saturday and Sunday, especially early, I mean, it was just a flag hunting round. It was really, really impressive. Um, yeah, he hit so many really close ones uh throughout. I mean, you can look at his proximity. It was crazy. But that one from the ferry bunker was kind of the like you have to have it tough tough shot from the fairway bunker and he just absolutely nailed it. Yeah. And then the the bunker shot on 18 um just with the situation. Yeah, that was tricky too. It was a little tricky lie. You’re going down towards the water down the hill. all the pressure there to just get that to within, you know, was it 15 feet or so for a birdie putt that he could just lag right up there, give himself that was pretty impressive. And uh he’s got a fun little what’s in the bag, especially up at the top of his bag. Um Titus GT3, not anything crazy. You see lots of those out on tour, but he’s playing it with the 11 degree head, which is a little rare, but now it is down at the D1 setting, so playing down 3/4 of a degrees, but uh still little interesting there to go with the 11 degree head. You don’t see too many of those, especially on the PGA Tour. And then here’s where I think his bag is the most fun. And you get to his fairway woods. Um 3-wood. He’s playing the Titus GT13 Tour. So, this was a club that had a lot of tour feedback. That’s why they made it. Um first, as far as I know, was the first time that’s been in a PJ tour winners bag. Of course, it fully launches here in August, but then he plays that in the A3 setting. And then he stays in GT1 going with the GT1 7wood 21 degrees playing that one just at standard in the A1 setting. And as we you know we talked to some of the team members down at Titalist when we were down there and that was the whole reason behind this GT13 kind of tour model was there had been more players in a GT1 Ferrywood than they maybe anticipated when they launched the GT lineup. Kurt Kyama looks like he was one of them. And so then they kind of crafted this this tour model of the GT1 to offer the bigger footprint, right, but still some of the low spinning and kind of players um workability characteristics with it. So obviously works for Kittyama. I mean, that’s a pretty quick win for a club that, you know, within the GT lineup, it’s probably not going to be the the most played, but to see it, you know, it fits his eye and he obviously hit it really good over the over the week. I know you are a big fan of that club. I’ve been I’ve hit that plenty. Um, still trying to make a commitment as to if it’s going to stay in the bag or if it’s going to come out of the bag with uh for me personally, but uh it’s a really good product. I think a lot of people will like it. Yeah. Then his irons tailor made P7 CB4 iron P7 MB5 to pitching wedge Voki SM10s. And then he actually goes with a Scotty Cameron the studio style Newport 2 tour prototype. So yeah, kind of one of the based off the newer line from Scotty that came out, you know, this year. uh really sharp looking putters. He’s kind of just got his own, you know, tour version of that. Yeah, I think it’s just maybe a little bit of the um it looks like there’s a single dot alignment there that could be part of it kind of just customized to him. But overall, it looks like just based on the image we have from Golf DX that it’s pretty similar to the the the stock uh Newport 2 model from that fat Scotty Cameron family. So, so yeah, there’s a look at Kurt Kyama’s winning. What’s in the bag? And we’re actually going to flip over to live tour next. uh walking Neman. Um you know whether what no matter what your thoughts are on Liv, what he’s doing is quite impressive. It’s uh five wins in 11 events. It’s a 45% winning percentage. I know I saw some Liv media types trying to compare that to Tigers. It’s not the same. Stop it. But either way, I don’t care what tour you’re on. If you’re winning almost 50% of your starts, that’s really impressive. I think the only thing missing for him is he’s got to start performing in majors because he he’s only 26. Yeah. So, he’s still plenty young and kind of entering that prime of his career. But, uh, you know, and obviously if you don’t watch Liv, you don’t see him quite as often as he was the PJ tour. So, but yeah, I think he’s clearly got talent. Um, he’s actually got a fun what’s in the bag, too. He doesn’t I believe his irons only go up to a five. He plays um a couple fairywoods. I believe a five hybrid also from from Ping. So, um, he’s got a fun bag, but as far as, uh, you know, the results go, you got to you got to do something in a major, um, to be, I guess, for a lack of a better term, be taken seriously in the professional golf world. Um, these live events, it’s impressive for sure. I’m not I’m not trying to kind of, you know, take away from that right now, but there’s a certain validity in contending in a major that I think he’s missing from his his career. One career top 10 that happened at this year’s PJ Championship and then he missed the next two cuts. So, he’s got to step that up if he truly wants to be considered among the games elite. Yeah. And also says something, you know, I think I think Liv fans or Liv um players probably too are kind of like, “Hey, dude, we need you. We need you in the majors right now to validate our entire tour right now.” If he keeps winning these events, but won’t show up in the majors contending against, you know, the PGA Tour uh elites. Yeah. You know, this kind of says something. Yeah. And then uh finally, just some big golf equipment news. Um lab golf especially. So, if you are a a fan of Lab Golf, this could, you know, impact you. According to the Wall Street Journal, they have had a majority stake purchased for $200 million. Um, which Golf Digest was saying was the highest uh buyout of a putter company since Callaway bought Odyssey for I think it was 130 million or so back in the 90s. Um, so obviously, you know, Lab Golf has exploded onto the scene. Um I truly think this is my personal opinion this I’m not saying it’s a new technology that zero torque but just the way that they’ve gone about building it has been one of the biggest stories in golf for it has the last 5 years and you can see all the other companies trying to make their way into that area of putting and so clearly they’ve done some things um bought by a private equity firm backed by the same uh companies that owns like Louis Vuitton and stuff so some luxury brands um there. So, I think Sam Han, as far as I know, Sam Han and Bill Pressie are still going to be involved. Um, but just getting a a huge cash flow into there. What does that do for Lab? We’ll see. Does that, you know, is that, you know, distribution, whatnot? But pretty big news, especially when you consider how hot of a brand it’s been. Yeah, I think I mean first of all it’s awesome for them to I think you know this the zero torque idea has been around for a long time but I think Lab is the first company that has really embraced it and kind of uh put it at the top as far as this is how putters should be made and this is the design that is best for golfers and so they’ve embraced it and they they’ve built their entire strategy around it and now it’s 2025 and everybody every golf brand out there um whether they’ve got one on the market now or maybe they’re working on one is is is kind of joining the zero torque uh trend. So, they’ve kind of the ones that have really brought it to the forefront and they’ve done a great job doing so. Their their brand has grown tremendously. So, it’s good for them that they should be celebrating uh they should be celebrated and celebrating this. I think obviously the the the fans of Lab out there are just trying are hoping nothing changes as far as the brand or or um the innovation that they continue to do and and because uh what they’ve done for the game is is really impressive. So kudos to Lab. It’s awesome to see. And obviously since JJ Spawn’s US Open win, I mean, that just took it to give even another level when you finally get a major winner. It’s kind of like we were talking about Nean where that almost just cements your status. You you have a club that helps win, especially such an iconic putt. Yes. When you think about the distance and what it did, now all of a sudden that cementss you among, you know, and they’re one of the top top five most popular putter brands out there, which is pretty crazy to think about considering where they were, especially Yeah. You think about lab four or five years ago, things have changed quite a bit for them and they really just stuck to their same formula. Y and it’s been successful. Yeah. So yeah, that wraps up the turn. Um FedEx Cup playoffs kind of around the corner here in the PJ tour. So a lot to look forward to there and lot of drama. Um yeah, and then slowly but surely we are going to be getting closer and closer to that RDER Cup. So yeah, that’s going to be a lot of fun. Um there’s a lot of drama for that as well in terms of points and who’s going to be selected and everything. But uh we’ll get to Kevin Craft here. So Kevin talks about it’s Kevin time. Yeah, it’s Kevin time. Uh, you know, for episode 100, we had to have Kevin uh as the the main main segment here. So he’s going to talk about uh the big time Iron releases this summer. We, as we mentioned, Callaway, XForge, XForge Max, he’s a huge fan of those. Ping i2 240 entitled T-Series. We get Kevin’s thoughts on each of those releases. Um, and of course we know it’s Kevin’s got his own interesting quirks as we know and he shares a little bit of insight into that. So a great interview here with Kevin. Now back in studio, we welcome on to the Second Swing Thoughts podcast, Kevin Craft. You guys know who he is if you’ve watched really any of the YouTube channel or you’ve been a follower of the podcast for, you know, the last few months, you’ve seen him. Uh Kevin, it’s July 2025 and there’ve been a bunch of new irons that have hit the market. Um, and it’s been, this is always exciting for us. Obviously, the most exciting time for us in terms of gear junkies and new stuff is typically January where all the new stuff hits. But this was actually, we kind of had a little bit of a, you know, mini gold mine of sorts in July here with new stuff from Callaoy, new stuff from Ping, new stuff um, from Titalist in the iron category. So, I’m just going to go in order of kind of the you know what I in in in my case and what um you know what we do with the video stuff in order of the embargo times. So, we had Callaway first with their new XForgged irons. Have you done any testing with these? What’s your first impression so far? Um I’m actually really impressed. Um a lot of that comes down to the aesthetic. Um it’s really good looking. It is. I mean, like these are stunning looking irons. Um, and it’s interesting, you know, we get all geeked up about the the players stuff and it’s such a small segment of what we what we actually fit, but these are the things that we get, you know, maybe almost the most excited about, I I guess. And Callaway’s shape has changed a bit through the last generation or so. And, you know, this is completely subjective. I have not liked the look of their players irons. You can go back into some of our iron testing with with with Kevin and he has said as such. Yeah. Yeah. And I’ve always like Callaway was always one of those brands that had the shape that I really liked. So, you know, that that morphing in in shape was not to my to my liking, but the X Forged looks awesome and the XForge Max looks awesome. M um I I will actually say that the pitching wedge in the X Forge set is the best looking pitching wedge I’ve ever seen. Really? Yep. I said it. So there you go. And this means something coming from someone as picky about club aesthetics as Kevin. Yeah. When it comes to irons. So why just the pitching wedge out of curiosity? So I will I will go a little bit further. The eight iron is awesome. So why why is it different? I hate eight irons. I do not like the shape of eight irons. They always seem to be in limbo between the seven iron that we do most of our testing with. Right. So that’s the club that I I kind of base most things on, but then you know you go down the bag and there’s this eight iron and it’s like they’ve developed this great looking seven iron and then they’re like, “Well, I don’t really know what to do with this, so I’m just going to throw this shape in there.” And I I traditionally in every set of irons, I pretty much don’t like the eight iron. It is the one club in the set that I don’t like. I don’t understand this at all cuz it’s just the same to me. It’s always the same shape. It is not the same. It is not even close to it. No, no, no, no, no. Eight iron is not a a more lofted seven iron. It has a completely different shape than any seven iron out there. and traditionally been that way. There’s no way I’m going to notice that. There’s no way. Oh my goodness. Look at your golf clubs. All right, this this is a can of worms I should not have opened. So, the eight iron in the in the in the new X Forge looks amazing. As a matter of fact, so does mine in my, you know, either the King Tours that I was playing or the the CB MBs that I’m now playing. So, um it’s nice to have an eight iron that I pull out of the bag and, you know, I’m not disgusted by it. Okay. All right. So, yeah. So, I haven’t actually looked at the 9iron, but I imagine it probably looks pretty good considering the eight really looks good and the wedge really looks good. I’m guessing that 9 iron is going to look really good, too. And the 7 iron is pretty and the 5iron’s pretty. So, I’m kind of high on the aesthetics of the of the X-Forgged. Okay. And the X-Forge Max. Yeah, I think the X-Forge Max is going to be an incredible golf club. Yeah. So, that one is particularly interesting to me because I don’t know, we’ve talked about it. There’s so many irons from Cali right now. There’s so many in the tour van. There’s so many you can get fit for and there’s a lot of overlap there. Um I think though I think in a sense I’m I’m predicting that these X-Forge models are going to almost dwarf or or even like eliminate from people’s brains a couple models out there from Callaway just because XForge is going to be a phenomenal players iron, players cavity iron, and it’s fully forged so you’re going to get super soft feel compared to, you know, some of the Apex models. And the XForge Max is I mean to me like a ZXI5 but like one piece forging. Is that is that a weird des uh a weird comparison? It’s it’s like a ZXI6 cuz that’s pretty good. That’s a good way to put it. Yeah. It’s not It’s not quite a five, but it’s not quite a seven either. So that’s a good way to put it. Yeah. A ZXI6 cuz it looks I mean it does look like a trick iron in a sense. I mean it’s a little bit thicker, right? It’s got a little W. It’s It’s could be a little more forgiving, which a lot of people want that, but they still want that players look overall and they want that feel. It’s going to be a great club for a lot of people. Yeah, I think they’ve done something special I think with these. Like I I I’m blown away by them and I’m not I haven’t been blown away by Callaway Iron in a while. Like it’s I think they’re going to do really really good. So I was I mean I really like the Tai Fusion. Uh, I liked it in black and since we’ve had it in black for a while, seeing it in chrome, stunning. Really, really good. I think that iron feels amazing. Yeah, it comes with an amazing price tag, but it’s it’s a great feeling golf club. performs so very well, spins really well, and for that, you know, individual that that isn’t as price conscious, uh, and is looking for a golf club that that gives you all the feels and everything, it’s it’s a it’s a great great golf club. Yeah, I think, you know, I think Callaway has been almost it seems like in some senses they’ve been sort of throwing some darts to see what kind of sticks in a lot of ways and it I I think they found something that’s going to stick here. Yeah. Um, so you know, we look in the the Apex line and now we have the 150. So, yeah, we should talk about that, too. Yeah. Yeah. I just don’t know like if you’re if you’re in a fitting with a player Yeah. and they’re like, I need a Callaway iron. Where does 150 fit in now after XForgged and XForge Max are an option, too? What’s the I mean, how do you what player is going to go with 150, I guess, or what what player is going to go maybe they’ve been maybe they love Apex. How are you going to get that player into an X forge? Like there’s there’s a lot of overlap there. There is one of the ways could be aesthetics because the Yeah, the the the Pro line, the Apex Pros and the Apex line has a different shape. So, some people are going to like that. Some people are gonna want are gonna like the the X Forge look better. The the Apex Pro or sorry the the 150 same thing. Yeah. Um has the cup face above the seven iron. So there’s a bit of a difference there. Sure. Ball speed, right? So um there’s some things we can look at there. Um, but we’re going to present both those options and be like, “Hey, you know, let’s let’s hit them both and and see what see what the feel you want is and what the look you want is.” Some people don’t care about looks at all. It’s all about numbers and that’s fine. We we we should see a little bit of a separation. This forge max seems like it’s the club that is for a player who maybe needs a little bit of help and forgiveness, but just can’t get away from a fully forged iron. Sure. Whereas the Apex AI 150 is for like a player that’s like in that distance space, needs some distance, wants that high ball speeds and some forgiveness off center, but it’s a look thing primarily for them where like they want a a smaller look. They have this shape that they like AI50. Well, think about it from a blending perspective though, right? That’s that’s one of the beautiful things about everything that’s coming down the line now is everybody’s making it much easier to do blended sets and we should be doing blended sets as as much as possible. I don’t know about you, you know, if I was going to go X forged, I’d probably go max in the five and six and then seven on down in the standard. I’d love to have a little bit extra help on the on those longer iron shots. Yeah, you know, why wouldn’t we? And that seems to be the trend on tour. Yeah. You know, we’re seeing more forgiveness, especially at the at the top end of the bag. So, everybody else should have the same thing. You know, if you’re even if you’re a good player and maybe four you you like a 4 iron and you want to carry a 4 iron, having a little bit bigger 4 iron, it’s fine. It’s really good. Can help you a lot. Yeah. Um, and we’ll talk about the combo blending piece with T series as we get there because those are very I mean that’s talk about blending. It’s going to be perfect. But let’s first hit on the Ping I240s. So, um, the Ping I210s were awesome for many years. I230s have been really good for a few years. Now we have I240. Your first impression of these ones? Love it. I think it’s great. Uh, I’ve hit it. I think it looks good. I know some people were not sure about the back badging. I I kind of in that I have no problem with it. I think it’s I think it’s perfectly reasonable and I’m you know it’s it’s not as pure as the X Forged is, but it’s Yeah, but it’s not designed to be. No, exactly. So, yeah, I think that’s the piece. It’s a really And it’s designed for consistency. And I210 was super consistent. I played them. I230 super consistent. Gave you a little bit of spin where maybe so in this day and age so many irons don’t spin enough. I240, there seems to be no, I guess drop off or or or anything performance-wise that is any of any concern. Um, and you know, there are some people, again, the badge thing, if you’re super picky about aesthetics, might not like that badge on the back. It’s a little different than the past two models. I230 was so clean back there, right? Um, but I think in terms of fitting players and the look at the dress, doesn’t have anything different. It looks clean. Yeah, it’s gonna be a great club. I think it’s fantastic. I I spent a little bit of time with it. Um there’s been a trend in this category toward maybe a bit of clickiness coming off faces and I did not get that. Okay. Withant the i240. So, um that was one of the first things I wanted to know is what’s it going to sound like, right? So, I I thought it’s great. I love Ping products. Yeah. Uh across the board. They’re phenomenal to fit with. great for so many people. Um, you know, this from a slightly stronger lofted players category, just fantastic. Yeah, and it is in the bag of some tour pros on their staff already. Um, when I was on the tour truck down at uh down in Texas, they had a set. I don’t know if actually Victor put us in the bag for sure yet, but they had a set right there built for Victor Havland to test out that week. Um, so they’re right away they it was being picked up and and getting some use already from players. Specs are cuz my guess is he’s not playing standard. No, he might not be playing retro. He might be playing even more retroer. That’s very possible. Um, we have another visit with Ping coming up here so we we can maybe get that information. Um because I I know in talking to the guys on the on the truck, this is sort of an aside a little bit, but he played his best golf two years ago, three years ago, and so he’s very reluctant to change out of the old, you know, I think as of leading up to that event, this was the Charles Schwab in May. He was still playing a G425 LST driver, still playing I210 irons. And so they were really trying to he just changed his golf swing. They were trying to say, “Hey, you know, this is some our latest stuff. Can help you out.” And so, they’re trying to work with him on that. And that’s what the I240 set was built for. I’m not Someone can maybe tell me if he’s put that in the bag or not if But um anyway, that’s that’s There’s a lot of that, though. There’s a lot of guys. A lot of tour guys. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nice. Cool. Very, very nice. I like it. Looks good. I’m just playing this. Chris Got her up just won the Scottish and he was playing a 2014 tailor made UDI, you know, from it was like the TP UDI from back then. You know, there’s they’ve had seven or eight models of that since, but that’s what he wants to play. So, it happens. I tip my cap to those guys that can keep a keep an iron or or Yeah, you would never you would never think of that. So, I think the longest I’ve carried any the burner mini, it’s been in there for a while. Okay. So, I’ve had it since 2023, but like I carried Callaway uh Epic Flash Subzero 3 and fivewood for like three and a half years. That’s those were also awesome fairway woods. Yeah. I really truly can’t see myself switching out of these fairway woods anytime. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we never know with Kevin Craft. So, uh we want to get to these T- series irons now. Yes. So, we talked a lot about blending. I think that’s exactly what Titus clearly is going for here. Not only from a performance standpoint, but they all look very similar. Um, just in in the the back, you know, design, shaping, um, doing they’ve done a really good job with that. They did. And even when we were down at Titalist, um, they made it they made it clear like we didn’t change a ton in T100 or T150. There’s no need to. There’s no need to. They’re so good. They refined some things. They had a couple of spec changes based on tour feedback um from both LPJ and PGA tours, but other than that, they they left alone what was working. And so, and then they obviously made some tweaks on the back end of of the T series with new T250. Now, that is an inspired change. Yeah, I think the aesthetic on on both the 250 and the 350 is vastly improved. Yeah. um they just look much more exciting I guess. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s I mean they’ve gone to it’s a much cleaner looking Yeah. hollow body design. You know I think T200 they had that back piece that um and they’ve even admitted you know the sound and the feel of that was not so good or you know could be improved. Yeah. They went from plasticky to a very thin metal and it just It still sounded kind of ting tinky when you when you played around with it. And yeah, now it’s now it looks solid. Yeah. And then I also we should bring up a little bit here too, but the T250 launch spec is going to be interesting. So still I’m sure there’s going to be some um you know what’s the use cases for for that and how is that going to work? But it’s important. I think it’s brilliant though because it it gives us a a new dimension for juniors. Yes. Which is great and for those who need a higher launching product. Um and a lot of people need a higher launching product. All these brands have an HL, you know, a lot of them do, right? But this is like another level with the loft that it’s actually at. And then you can play around in the custom fittings with with the weight of the head too and you can mess around with that. It’s like they’ve taken that HL idea to a different level, I think, with just how much loft it is. And of course, you can customize it and do what you got to do, but um 35 and a 7 iron is and that’s it’s it’s loft. It’s a lot of loft. Yeah. But there’s a lot of people that need a lot of loft, right? I mean, it’s that’s one of the problems that we’ve seen through the years is that as spin has gone down, are we able to create enough height to have a landing angle that we should have any expectation of the ball being able to stop? You know, I it’s great when you update somebody, you know, five, six, seven, 10 generations, right? Or somebody comes in with something from the 1990s, right? and it’s a completely different world, but my goodness, you know, spin has has changed so drastically. So, if we’re not getting the height, then we can’t get good stopping numbers. And so, that’s that’s why my obsession in any fitting is spin, height, and landing angle. You like, I mean, we’re going to focus on on carry because almost to a man, people come in and say, “Well, you I’d like a little more distance, and I’d like to hit it, you know, straighter or have more forgiveness.” So the way clubs have evolved, we can do that with most people, but can we create, you know, if I can find somebody 20 extra yards with an iron, is that 20 good yards where the ball stops the way it carry yardage with a high launch and it stops. Exactly. That’s the important part. Um because total distance can be achieved if you just move the loft, you know, get something stronger lofted, but that’s not always good. Slower swing speeds, right? So they naturally don’t produce as much spin. They have to have height because they’re if they’re not spinning a bunch, trajectory is the only way in which they’re going to get any kind of stopping power at all. So the higher I can make that ball go, the more it can actually stay in the air so they can get more distance. So which is what the launch spec here is going to help a lot of people a lot of people do. Um, so I I I like the way that they’ve sort of thought outside the box a little bit and they’ve actually they talked too that there was, you know, should we do the 250 or the 350 with this launch spec? And um, you know, there’s it sounds like the overwhelming favorites in all the testing that they did was the 250 is going to be going to be the best way for them to make that work for a the widest amount of golfers because you could have some skilled younger players that need it or something like that. Um, I applaud Titleist for doing that. I think it’s going to be good. They have it in utility as well, the T250U, um, which I think will be a big win for, you know, if you’re if you need that driving iron and it’s a little compact for that part of the bag, but it’s going to be very versatile and workable. And then one thing I wanted to add was the U505 a looks a lot better. Yes, it does than the previous one. And two, feels good, too. I was also told it’s essentially designed the same way with the same materials and shape and everything as the T350 irons. So, if you were to, you know, you’re looking, you’re like, I need a T250 or a T350 4 iron and, you know, they don’t have one in that set, you could just get a U5054 iron and it’s probably going to be basically the same thing. So, something to think about in that respect. I think they’ve combined them because the the goals of each club are pretty similar. It’s just that you have shorter shafts and higher more more loft with the T350 irons, but the club heads are are almost the same in in design. So, yeah, pretty good tidbit there. But, um, T series, I think it’s going to be I mean, every time they release one, it’s going to be a big win. So, you’re going to get the T100s and the a lot of them and the better players. It’s probably going to be number one iron on tour pretty soon here because that happens pretty quickly when they they launch a new T100. has been uh in the last several generations have taken um the tours by storm. Yeah. Um but yeah, it seems like it’s going to be awesome. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s a wonderful time in golf and golf is continuing to explode which is yeah really really cool having all these new offerings especially in mid-season where you know it just gives us a bit of a boost of you know freshens things up a little bit and well it’s true you know if you’re the if it was March April the golf season starting and you were like ah for whatever reason you were really wanting to get fit but you know whether it was a budget thing or whether it was like I just couldn’t find the time for it. Whatever it might be, now there’s another opportunity to and there’s all these new items and new models that are in the second swing fitting bay that you can now test out and might be in your bag. So So Kevin, thanks for joining talking new irons. I know that’s always, you know, one of your favorite topics. It’s golf. It’s always one of my favorite topics. It’s golf. Yeah, absolutely. And that was Kevin Craft uh when he was in town. Uh again, it’s, you know, I guess he likes to look down at the pitching wedge of clubs and the eight iron of clubs uh to kind of determine how much he likes them. Not uh not the typical fashion in which golfers judge the the appearance of irons. I feel like that’s very that’s a new one. I’ve never heard of that before. Yeah. So, I mean, I think, you know, and I guess it’s probably because he’s in fitting, so he sees the seven irons every single day. And obviously when we’re hitting clubs, that’s usually the club you’re hitting, but I never like really I was kind of like you. I’m like, “Oh, it’s just got a little more loft to it. Not much difference.” But then it was kind of funny. So, I kind of was talking about this once I was listening back to it and uh Zack Loenstein, who’s one of our videographers here, he was saying how he just can’t stand the look of seven irons. And I was like, “What is up with this?” Well, it reminded me we were I mean this kind of transitions to what we’ve got coming up on the YouTube channel. So, obviously we have uh we had a full day of of filming in the Bay with Kevin and we did all kinds of, you know, head-to-head comparisons, the new irons, we did some Ferrywood stuff. Uh just awesome, you know, awesome to get Kevin in there and with that content. So, the YouTube channel have a ton of Kevin Craft here in the near future. We were also out at the uh 3M Open. Our team was for some uh tour truck content. We were the Ping truck. We were at the uh Cleveland and Trickxon truck and then uh we were out with Callaway as well and again that reminds me of of Sah Dala um with his you know hates seven iron so he has two eight irons he’s got an 11 iron in there so he there’s the mental kind of insanity of golfers peeking through there a little bit with Kevin with Zach as you mentioned and now Sah Gala there’s just you know golfers are an interesting bunch we’re we’re a unique bunch for sure. Yeah. So that’s uh that’s coming soon on the YouTube channel. We have stuff from the 3M open. We’ll have stuff with Kevin in the Bay. Um, we got a ton a ton coming here. We got our schedule packed out for the next month and a half or so on YouTube, so stay tuned. Yeah. Podcast side of things. Uh, we shot a few episodes with Kevin, so we’ll have much more, you know, I think indoor wedge fittings. Yeah. What’s in his bag, you know, we haven’t talked to him since February for that. So, uh, you can just guess what’s all changed because I think what he said is there was like two clubs that hadn’t changed since then. I I do want to do a quick little spoiler that I think will will be of interest to to people. We asked Kevin what driver he’s playing and the first response he gave was I don’t know. So that’s a good little peek into what’s in his bag. Yeah, we got some uh some really cool kind of uh top clubs of the year content coming your way here soon. Um we, you know, have some stuff out from TPI. Um that’s right. Talking about, you know, the new T-series, kind of getting the inside look at the tech and the design behind it. Those are always really interesting to see with Tom Fischer there. So, lots of really good stuff on the podcast side. On the second swing side, just, you know, keep your eyes out open here for early August. Got some cool stuff coming your way. So, yeah, that’s all I will say. First week of August is always a big one. Just rhyming like I’m Happy Gilmore. So, there you go. Perfect. Yeah. Speaking of, that’s another uh new thing that’s been going on in the game of golf, I guess, if you want to loop it in there is the new movie. So, um but yeah, another great episode of the Second Ring Thoughts podcast. If you’re not subscribed, make sure you do so on YouTube or on Spotify or on Amazon Music or wherever you listen or consume the content. Um, stay tuned for all the stuff that we just talked about. Uh, it’s going to be awesome and we appreciate you tuning in, watching, and um, we’ll see you next week on the Second Swing Thoughts podcast.