Mizuno

What it does: Although it strongly resembles a players cavity-back iron, this design makes a more brazen push towards distance. Notably, the long and middle irons are forged from a variant of chromoly steel – the same metal at the root of the company’s Hot Metal game-improvement iron – to boost distance and to spread out the distance gaps in the clubs where the gaps tend to be more compressed.

Why we like it: Legend has it that Mizuno founder Rihachi Mizuno required the company’s baseballs to bounce precisely to his eye level – 4 feet, 5 inches – when dropped from a height of 16.5 feet, or they were rejected. Such dedication to precision continues in this iron. Consider the hidden milled slots in the soles of the 4 through 7-iron. Those slot shapes are distinct for each iron­ – the slot on the 4-iron is wider and deeper to enhance distance. The slots on the 5 and 6-iron are slightly T-shape to provide a measure of heel-toe weighting, and the slot on the 7-iron is as thin as possible to smooth the transition to the one-piece forgings used in the 8 and 9-iron and pitching wedge. Some might say this set is ahead of its time. We say it’s a potential template for players irons right now.

7-iron loft 32 degrees; PW Loft 46 degrees