What are the best irons in golf for 2019 and possibly 2020?

It’s an interesting question to ask anyone who works in the golf equipment industry since it opens up a Pandora’s box of debate and discussion, which inevitably results in the conclusion that every player has to go out, work with a fitter, and find the best set for him/her. There is no one single best iron for every golfer in 2019, but there is a best iron of 2019 for you—and that’s where we come in to help you find your ideal set.

2019 has been a big year for irons, with OEMs taking bigger steps to push the science of structure, materials, and processing to move mass and further optimize MOI and COG to provide improvements across the board. In certain iron categories, clubheads are generating maximum potential speed over larger areas of the face, just like a driver, while in other parts of the market, some iron models have been shrunk to improve workability for the players looking for shot-shaping control.

So what do you look for? What do you need? With so many great irons released in 2019, the decision-making process can be overwhelming, and that’s why at GolfWRX, we are here to help you go through that process and help you ask the right questions to find the iron set for you.

Best irons of 2019: How we did it

Even before starting the process of building the survey, we reached out to our trusted fitters to discuss how they sort through the endless number of iron options available to golfers. The consensus was simple—the best fitters in the world see all the options available in the marketplace, analyze their performance traits, and pull from that internal database of knowledge and experience like a supercomputer whenever they are working with a golfer.

It’s essentially a huge decision tree derived from experience and boiled down to a starting point of options—and it has nothing to do with handicap.

Since modern iron sets are designed into player categories that overlap the traditional “what’s your handicap” model, we at GolfWRX believe it was important to go beyond handicap and ask specific questions about the most crucial performance elements fitters are looking at to help golfers find the best set of irons for them. From overall performance, to shotmaking, to helping players achieve better trajectories and speed, we strived to ask the right questions.

We have developed separate categories that will help you the reader determine what rankings are most important for your swing and game.

• Most technology packed
• The shotmakers
• Pure enjoyment
• Easiest to launch
• Overall top performers

Just like with our Best Drivers of 2019 survey, we consulted leading fitters in the industry and compiled our results anonymously. The methodology is simple: We want to give you the tools to go out and find what works best for you, with recommendations for your individual needs, with feedback from the people that work every single day to help golfers get peak performance out of their equipment.

We at GolfWRX then worked internally to craft a survey that allowed the fitters to be honest…we want the truth just as much as you do, and to prevent anyone from feeling they couldn’t be, we allowed all of the results and quotes to remain anonymous unless otherwise stated. We can’t thank the fitters enough for their time!

Best irons of 2019: Meet the fitters

Ben Giunta: Owner, The Tour Van
Alex Panigas: Fitter, TXG
Chris Kendall: Fitter, TXG
Cam Kennedy: Fitter, TXG
John Sawatsky: Fitter, TXG
Ryan Johnson: Fitter, Carl’s Golfland
Brent Norton: VP Shop Operations, Miles of Golf
Craig Allan: Golf Performance Manager, Sea Island Performance Center
Timothy Briand: SVP Customer Experience, True Spec Golf
Shawn Zawodni: Fitter, Miles of Golf
Nick Sherburne: Founder, Club Champion
Dominic Choma: Fitter, Miles of Golf
Matthew Sim: Fitter/Director of Operations, Modern Golf

Best irons of 2019: Overall performance

This category is the perfect place to start if you’re not quite sure what you are looking for. Distance? Check. Forgiveness? Check. Sleek looking? Check. The top five in the All-Around Performance category are perfect for those golfers that appreciate technology and want something that is going to give them shot options.

These are the top 5

(Q: What are the best irons for golfers that provide the best overall performance?)

TaylorMade P790: It has been hard to talk about irons over the last couple of years without mentioning the TaylorMade P790, since it was total a game-changer for TaylorMade in the iron market. It has been TaylorMade’s most successful iron ever, and what also makes the P790 so popular is its mass appeal across player categories, either as a full set or combo’d into longer irons.

From the fitters: “Amazing combination of technology and looks/feel. Better players who are looking for a little more distance tend to flock to this iron, yet it will is playable for the 10-15 handicap range. In my opinion, this is the players distance iron that is the closest to a pure forging when it comes to looks and feel. This was a deciding factor in many of my fittings when the data between this and other models was close.”