Philippines Golf Academy

It’s been quite a while since TaylorMade Golf produced a forged iron for its ardent admirers and now it’s got three; the MB (a muscle back blade), the MC (a forged muscle-cavity back) and the CB (full under-cut cavity back). Since all three are Tour Preferred or TP class irons, they all require a measure of skill to use effectively but as we’ll see later in this piece, the CB reaches out to a demographic heretofore untouched by anything TP.

Professional golfers and top amateurs are just like the rest of us; they want golf clubs that will allow them to play their best while being somewhat forgiving of their miscues. There is quite a bit of variance in these tastes as ultimately individual preferences often lead back to what the golfer grew up with and his style of play. A look at the golf bags of the pros on the Philippine Golf confirms this; you’ll see irons of all shapes and sizes. Some play game improvement irons, some play smaller headed cavity backs and a number play old school blades.

Cognizant of this because of their extensive work with golfers on the world’s professional tours, TaylorMade covered all the bases with the three forged irons detailed above. The MB is the least forgiving but allows the greatest latitude in shaping shots. The MC is somewhat forgiving and still allows the skilled golfer to move the ball around at will and the CB is almost downright easy to hit but in exchange limits the lateral movement of the golf ball more than the other two.

Forged TP CB 7-iron

The CB’s manufacture distinguishes it further from its forged brethren. For one thing, it is just partly forged. TaylorMade utilized a cast 8620 chassis with a high-strength forged face plasma welded on. This allowed designers to achieve a deep undercut cavity design which pushes the center of gravity down and further back behind the clubface, creating more forgiveness on off-center hits and a higher ball flight.

7-iron view at address

The face also features TaylorMade’s Inverted Cone Technology, which varies the thickness of the face itself so shots that are slightly miss-hit create nearly the same ball speed as shots hit in the sweet spot. A carbon composite badge on the back of the face helps to dampen the impact sound and further enhance feel. The TP CB irons have a thin topline, but the widest sole of the three new forged irons, as well as the most offset and slightly stronger lofts.

Sole is the widest of the Forged TP line but with enough relief that it plays like a thinner sole

What impresses me the most about the Forged TP series irons is the thought and technology that TM’s put into their manufacture. Forged irons have always been more difficult to produce consistently than castings and the majority of that is due to how much work needs to be done manually. In the past, after an iron head is forged, it goes to a grinder who gives the head the final shape of the leading edge and sole. No matter how good the grinder, there is bound to be inconsistencies in his work from clubhead to clubhead. Multiply that with the number of people in the production line of most forging houses and it’s a wonder that we can play with most forgings at all.

Much of the credit for the design refinements on the new line of TP irons goes to Sir Nick Faldo, major winner and member of TaylorMade’s professional staff.

Ever the perfectionist, Faldo would ask to select each iron head in his set individually before assembly. So TM would give him boxes of heads of the individual irons and Faldo went though them all until he had a full set that he could play with. He had an eye for the leading edge and the sole grinds that would work for them and would settle for nothing less.

This got TM thinking about how to produce forged iron heads that were consistent from clubhead to clubhead. The obvious answer was to reduce the amount of manual labor that went into them. So TM designed a 6-step forging process that built the leading edge radius and the sole grinds INTO THE MOLDS. This way, the only thing left to manual intervention at the end of the forging process was to clean of the flash (excess metal) and polish the head. NO GRINDING IS REQUIRED. This insures that each clubhead is identical to every other directly off the production line.

The other issue that affects consistency is weighting during assembly. Anyone that’s ever had a custom set made up for him has seen how a weight plug, tungsten or lead powder is inserted in the hosel at the point of assembly. This is to make sure that each iron swing weights the same through the set. The down side to this is that the more weight that’s added, the closer the CG moves towards the heel of the clubhead. This creates a draw bias in the clubhead and inconsistencies from club to club within the set.

This is where the weight screws in the back of the Forged TP iron heads come in. The screws are of different weights and replace the weight plugs/tugsten or lead powder in the assembly process. But by positioning the screw directly behind the CG of each clubhead, the weighting process no longer creates inequities in the clubheads during assembly. This adds to the consistency of each club in the set and from each set to the other making the Forged TP line the most consistent forged irons currently in production today.

The TaylorMade Forged TP CB is a joy to use. The demo set I was given to play was supremely easy to play; so much so that I put it in play without benefit of a range session. Distances from club to club are as consistent any iron that I’ve tested. Feel is surprisingly good with no indication that the club is not a pure forging. Given the right shaft this is a club that I would put into play immediately. It’s that good.

Wherever Sir Nick is, he must have a big smile on his face.

Read the whole story on:http://pinoygolfer.com

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