Editor’s note: The latest iteration of Titleist’s T-Series irons began tour seeding — or as Titleist calls it, Tour Validation — this week. Brian Knudson gave his impressions of the new artillery here. Additionally, Andrew Tursky caught up with a few pros who are putting the new irons in play, filing a story on the switches for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report, in conjunction with our ongoing partnership. The following is an excerpt from that piece, which you can read in full here.

Titleist staffer Lanto Griffin

“They’re beautiful. All-matte this year, they’re very similar to the old ones. I don’t notice much of a difference, other than they feel more solid. Maybe they launch just slightly higher for me. But just the overall look of them is incredible, so it’s an easy change,” said Griffin.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever done it [had this grind on the leading edge], but basically softening the leading edge so it has a little bit more bounce. So I’m a little steeper into the ground, so just by shaving it down, it kind of bounces off the turf, get through the turf a little easier, a little shallower.

“The new U505 is really sleek, they made it a little bit skinnier, so it’s not quite as wide [in the back], but then they moved some weighting around on the bottom to where it’ll launch just as high. So it looks a little bit more like a blade – more blade-ish looking than the other ones, but it performs just as good or better.”

Titleist staffer Doug Ghim

“So, just before they came out with the new ones [this week], we tried the T150, and this year’s version of the T150 actually launches just as high as the T200 before, and that’s been a huge plus. Being able to have a smaller head that launches just as high as the big head, it’s obviously what everybody wants, and it makes workability a little easier with the smaller head as well,” Ghim shared.

“They were explaining to me that they added a groove [on the new T100 irons], and the grooves in general are a little bit more aggressive. What we found when we tried them today was on mishits, the spin stays up and the speed has been a little bit better. So if I thin it, or if I hit it a little bit heavier, like typically if you thin it, the spin goes way up and it floats, and it doesn’t quite get there, and when you hit it a little heavier it kind of gets that flier, and sometimes it even goes further, but we saw a lot tighter windows. So with the 9-iron, we were within like 300 rpm between a mishit and a solid hit. So yeah, it’s just a little bit more forgiving. To me, the way that the club looks, they said they changed a little bit with the sole, it looks like, especially with the 9 and the shorter irons, it looks more like a Vokey to me. The club sits a little bit lower to the ground, and to me that’s a huge plus because I have four Vokeys in the bag.

“As a player … that’s one of the first things you always look at. I’ve always told Nick from Titleist that I wish I could have raw irons – I know that they have them in the Callaways – and yeah, I think this is their compromise, because I know they love their traditional chrome. I don’t like shiny, so that was kind of the first thing with the 9-iron, when I put it down, was it reminds of a brand new Vokey wedge like when they’re raw but not rusted yet. They look really good to me. They’re not as shiny. For me, the finish of the actual face where the grooves are, where there are no grooves on the toe, it’s usually a lot shinier on the toe, these are a lot more monochromatic, so to me it’s a little less distracting, so it’s nice … on the old ones, you could kind of see the back of it on the T200, they looked a little bit clunky, but these [T250 irons] look a little more one-piece, which is nice.”

For more, including Titleist fitter Nick Geyser’s insights, check out the full piece.