WisecrackWard

Thanks to @ctg44 for mentioning the Toura testing crew. 
I took on the CBs for my build. They are a cheat code. I'm not just blowing smoke on that. The center of gravity for these irons is so unbelievably low that even on thin shots, they get up. Center hits launch. Off center, heel / toe hits just go as well. 
Also, the completely blank heads are super sexy. If you want to go completely custom, I highly suggest that route. If not, their Toura Signa is very sleek as well. 
If you are going to build, they do it right. @Toura Golf sends you tipped and ready to cut shafts, grips and ferrules. Outside of the norm build gear that one should have, they set you up from the get go.... For a quick list of what you will need... 
1 - Grip Tape
2 - Vice 
3 - Vice Club Grip (to hold shafts in place when installing heads / grips)
4 - Epoxy (I prefer JB Weld)
5 - Grip solvent / lighter fluid 
6 - Miter saw / pipe cutter (to trim shafts) 
7 - High grit sand paper (to sand off tips of shafts where you are installing the heads)
7.5 - Goobegone (to clean up any sticky messes)
That's pretty much it. 
Enjoy the build and have fun with it! Feel free to DM any of us for any questions. Happy to assist. 🙂

Has anybody swing these clubs? Can anybody give me any advice concerning them? I'm in the market for a new set of irons and I really love these two brands from what I can see online but it's a little harder to find stuff about them online. Found on vid review of Toura and it seems good. One written of AR and it was positive too. But if there's anyone out there with more info on them I'd.love to hear thoughts! I know there was recently a tester spot for Toura MB irons on here (I signed up wishfully) but I haven't seen anything come.of that yet.

I don't see that this was suggested but if it already was my apologies. 
This is the link to the Toura Golf build and club testing that the 4 of us mentioned by @ctg44 are in the middle of. It's been a really fun project and just a great demonstration of what's possible with these clubs, the build process, and how they have performed so far. 
 

I am posting from my phone, so my signature probably won't include the link to my page on the Toura Build and Review thread, but I suggest going to the Forum Review section and finding the 18+ pages of data, questions, and answers from me, @azstu324, @David Leighton Reid, and @JRDuck40.

In short, while the Toura CB irons, which I built in the Pure Raw version on True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts, feel nothing short of amazing. Now, a caveat...if you play in a windy area, as I do, they tend to launch very high and generate a metric ****-ton of spin (like 9,000 RPM from the set PW) on a full swing fairway type shot), so you will give up some distance. If you're also like me and 6'4" / 210-215 and can afford to give up a few yards to gain spin and control, it's not a bad thing when you play courses that are tight with tiny and hard greens.

Hello all,

My name is David Warren, and I am excited to be testing Byrdie Golf Design’s Complete Set through MyGolfSpy. This is my third test with My Golf Spy, having previously reviewed the Lean Lock Putter and System as well as being a part of the Titleist White Box Testing Event late in 2023. I am currently living near Raleigh, North Carolina, and work as a teacher and soccer coach at a local middle school. I am very much a recreational golfer, playing off and on since I was around 13, playing most weekends, and keeping to around a 15 handicap. I did score my first (hopefully of many) hole-in-one in July 2022.
My golf game would be best described as inconsistent. Lately, I have been fighting a bit of a hook while on the golf course. My irons are hit or miss; but, when they and my driver are on, I can compete with almost anyone. My putting and short game have lately been the best part of my game. I am very “streaky” with the putter and usually tend to cycle through putters often, usually between the Lean Lock putter I tested last year (see link below) and a Yes! Marilyn C. For a full what’s in the bag, see the signature below. 

For this test, I will be testing the full set from Byrdie Golf Design, the BGD Essentials Full Bag outfitted with the OG Collection Irons (the Vandal collection were unavailable at the time).

I will be curious to see how the clubs hold up over the testing period, especially the black finish on the irons and wedges. I also would love to see if my yardages will stay fairly constant despite the change in clubs. I plan to both test these on the golf course and on simulators, to gather the numbers for the comparison. I also want to see how forgiving the clubs are compared to what I am currently using. Finally, I will be very interested in seeing if I can find more consistency with every club, but especially the putter. 

I will have a more detailed plan of attack for my testing posted for everyone soon, but I would love to hear from everyone as the other testers and I go.

I am super excited for this new opportunity to test clubs through My Golf Spy and plan to give it my all to provide y’all with the best review possible.
 
Old Reviews
 
First Impressions (17out of 20 pts.)
On April 3rd, I first received an email from Byrdie Golf Designs letting me know that the order had been received and shipped out. The email read that I should receive the set of clubs sometime between April 11th and April 16th. Luckily for me, the clubs arrived on the earlier end of this spectrum, arriving on April 11th.
 
When I received the set from Byrdie Golf Design, they were packaged just like any other clubs I have received by mail: a large brown cardboard box with plastic protecting the shaft and grip while bubble wrap was wrapping the club head. See the below image to see an example.

After unwrapping each of the clubs, I began to inspect and take notes of each club, looking at the condition in which each arrived and how they looked aesthetically. 
For the most part, everything looked phenomenal. I saw no major scratches, and nothing was broken. I am not someone who normally loves muscle-back irons, but I was impressed by the quality of each iron’s clubhead. The logo on the clubheads is tasteful and looks great. I will say that the clubheads seem to be a little smaller than I am used to in irons; but, overall, I am very pleased with the irons. All of this can be said for the wedge as well.
     
I was very curious about the putter when I learned I was getting one in this test set. In most package and direct-to-consumer sets I have seen in the past, the putter can be an afterthought and is usually not great. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the putter, and it might be my favorite club in the set looks-wise. It is a very simple Anser-style putter head, but I love the sight line on the putter and how the logo pops off the backside. The milling on the face looks fantastic as well.
 

 
As for the driver and three wood, everything again looks good. The driver and three wood are almost entirely black with some white and gold lettering. The three wood has a very deep face; it will be interesting to see how that plays off the deck during testing. Neither club is adjustable, but I think that might be the best for this style of product. Overall, both look great.
3-Wood                                                      Driver
      
 
Now for the negatives. When I was looking over each of the clubs, I noticed some things that were not quite right on the club when I received them. One of the first clubs I pulled out was the sixty-degree wedge that was provided as a part of the set. As I was looking at the face, I noticed a black mark inside one of the grooves. I thought this might have just been something that was trapped inside before packaging, but when I tried to get it out, it stayed. I may need to do a full-on wash and see if that gets it out; but, for now, it is there.

 
Another issue I found was with the grip on one of the irons. On the eight-iron’s grip, there is a slight bulge on the clubface side of the grip, close to the logo. While not a major issue, it is surprising to see with brand-new clubs.

 
My last complaint about the clubs would be the grips. This was a concern I had coming into testing; and, unfortunately, I find the grips to be lacking. I know that this set is for people who want to spend less on great equipment, and the cost-cutting for the company to provide this seems to be with the grips. While they look good, I hate the feel (they are rubbery and feel like an old PE basketball to me). I will see how they perform in testing, but I wanted to make sure it was brought up.

Overall aesthetics, I would give these clubs an 8.5 out of 10, due to the imperfections found in the wedge and eight-iron as well as my concerns over the grips.
 
The Numbers
I took the clubs out for a practice session on Saturday, and I was impressed with the results of my first try with them. The first club I hit was the sixty-degree wedge and it went very well. I was able to hit different types of shots with it and it was fairly versatile when I tried different short-game shots I tend to hit (no flops though: I was indoors at a sim).
Once I transitioned to the irons, I did find they were a little harder to hit and not going the same yardage I am used to with my irons. Part of this can be explained by the fact that the Byrdie Golf Design irons are higher lofted than my Cobra Irons, even after I lowered the lofts on my irons (loft charts for both can be found below). When I struck the irons well, that went about the distance I would expect out of irons around that loft; but the irons were harder to hit. I was also hitting these BGD irons straighter than my Cobras but will need to do 1-on-1 testing to see by how much and the difference in distances. It has been a while since I have hit muscle-backs so the learning curve will take some getting used to, but overall I have no complaints as of right now.
The driver and three wood were my favorite clubs to hit out of the set when I tested them over the weekend. The deep face on the three wood did make it difficult to hit off the deck; but, off the tee, it was a rocket. I tend to use my three wood off the tee more than most, but I have not had one fly this well in a while. The ball came out with decent spin (an issue I have is low spin, so getting any spin is great) and flew with a nice medium ball flight. With the driver, the ball came out hot as well, getting good spin and distance with a fade, something I have wanted it to do for a long time. I prefer the fade, so getting one back was great. Unfortunately, the three wood did get scratched up during my first day of testing. While I was not expecting them to stay pristine all testing long, it would have been nice to see it last a little longer.
For all clubs, I will have more concrete numbers soon. I was unable to save my numbers from this weekend.
The putter is hot. Testing it on the putting green at my local PGA Superstore, I barely had to hit the putt and it was making it to the hole. This will be interesting to take out on the course, especially as the greens around me speed up with summer coming in.
 
Overall Grade: 8.5 out of 10 (due to the lack of forgiveness in the irons and the question marks around the putter and three wood performance on the regular course)

Side note: I played 9 holes with these clubs on the simulator used for this practice session and shot 1 under. It was a short course, but I was still pleased with my (and the clubs’) performance.


 
Full Final Review - BGD Full Set
You will see a repeat of my first post, but I wanted the whole review all in one post.
First Impressions (17 out of 20 pts.)
On April 3rd, I first received an email from Byrdie Golf Designs letting me know that the order had been received and shipped out. The email read that I should receive the set of clubs sometime between April 11th and April 16th. Luckily for me, the clubs arrived on the earlier end of this spectrum, arriving on April 11th.
 
When I received the set from Byrdie Golf Design, they were packaged just like any other clubs I have received by mail: a large brown cardboard box with plastic protecting the shaft and grip while bubble wrap was wrapping the club head. See the below image to see an example.

After unwrapping each of the clubs, I began to inspect and take notes of each club, looking at the condition in which each arrived and how they looked aesthetically. 
 
For the most part, everything looked phenomenal. I saw no major scratches, and nothing was broken. I am not someone who normally loves muscle-back irons, but I was impressed by the quality of each iron’s clubhead. The logo on the clubheads is tasteful and looks great. I will say that the clubheads seem to be a little smaller than I am used to in irons; but, overall, I am very pleased with the irons. All of this can be said for the wedge as well.

I was very curious about the putter when I learned I was getting one in this test set. In most package and direct-to-consumer sets I have seen in the past, the putter can be an afterthought and is usually not great. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the putter, and it might be my favorite club in the set looks-wise. It is a very simple Anser-style putter head, but I love the sight line on the putter and how the logo pops off the backside. The milling on the face looks fantastic as well.
                                   
As for the driver and three wood, everything again looks good. The driver and three wood are almost entirely black with some white and gold lettering. The three wood has a very deep face; it will be interesting to see how that plays off the deck during testing. Neither club is adjustable, but I think that might be the best for this style of product. Overall, both look great.
                                   
Now for the negatives. When I was looking over each of the clubs, I noticed some things that were not quite right on the club when I received them. One of the first clubs I pulled out was the sixty-degree wedge that was provided as a part of the set. As I was looking at the face, I noticed a black mark inside one of the grooves. I thought this might have just been something that was trapped inside before packaging, but when I tried to get it out, it stayed. I may need to do a full-on wash and see if that gets it out; but, for now, it is there.

Another issue I found was with the grip on one of the irons. On the eight-iron’s grip, there is a slight bulge on the clubface side of the grip, close to the logo. While not a major issue, it is surprising to see with brand-new clubs.

My last complaint about the clubs would be the grips. This was a concern I had coming into testing; and, unfortunately, I find the grips to be lacking. I know that this set is for people who want to spend less on great equipment, and the cost-cutting for the company to provide this seems to be with the grips. While they look good, I hate the feel (they are rubbery and feel like an old PE basketball to me). I will see how they perform in testing, but I wanted to make sure it was brought up.

Overall aesthetics, I would give these clubs an 8.5 out of 10, due to the imperfections found in the wedge and eight-iron as well as my concerns over the grips.
 
The Numbers
I took the clubs out for a practice session on Saturday, and I was impressed with the results of my first try with them. The first club I hit was the sixty-degree wedge and it went very well. I was able to hit different types of shots with it and it was fairly versatile when I tried different short-game shots I tend to hit (no flops though: I was indoors at a sim).
Once I transitioned to the irons, I did find they were a little harder to hit and not going the same yardage I am used to with my irons. Part of this can be explained by the fact that the Byrdie Golf Design irons are higher lofted than my Cobra Irons, even after I lowered the lofts on my irons (loft charts for both can be found below). When I struck the irons well, that went about the distance I would expect out of irons around that loft; but the irons were harder to hit. I was also hitting these BGD irons straighter than my Cobras but will need to do 1-on-1 testing to see by how much and the difference in distances. It has been a while since I have hit muscle-backs so the learning curve will take some getting used to, but overall I have no complaints as of right now.
BGD 7-Iron Distance

Cobra 8-Iron Distance

The driver and three wood were my favorite clubs to hit out of the set when I tested them over the weekend. The deep face on the three wood did make it difficult to hit off the deck; but, off the tee, it was a rocket. I tend to use my three wood off the tee more than most, but I have not had one fly this well in a while. The ball came out with decent spin (an issue I have is low spin, so getting any spin is great) and flew with a nice medium ball flight. With the driver, the ball came out hot as well, getting good spin and distance with a fade, something I have wanted it to do for a long time. I prefer the fade, so getting one back was great. Unfortunately, the three wood did get scratched up during my first day of testing. While I was not expecting them to stay pristine all testing long, it would have been nice to see it last a little longer.
For all clubs, I will have more concrete numbers soon. I was unable to save my numbers from this weekend.
The putter is hot. Testing it on the putting green at my local PGA Superstore, I barely had to hit the putt and it was making it to the hole. This will be interesting to take out on the course, especially as the greens around me speed up with summer coming in.
Overall Grade: 8.5 out of 10 (due to the lack of forgiveness in the irons and the question marks around the putter and three wood performance on the regular course)
Side note: Played 9 holes with these clubs on the simulator used for this practice session and shot 1 under. It was a short course, but I was still pleased with my (and the clubs’) performance.
 
On the Course (16 Out Of 20)
More on-course reports can be found at the following links:
Update #1
Update #2
Over the course of my last two rounds with the BGD set, I continued to see success with the long clubs, hitting more fairways and greens. I even shot a 2-under solo scramble on my last nine holes of the testing period. This being said, I continued to feel uneasy over certain shots with these clubs, especially the wedge in the set. This was not only due to the wedge being a lower degree of bounce than I need/have been fitted for, but also because the extremely milled face was hard to adjust to. I would hit shots the exact same way, and they would go very different distances. For more, check back to my updates made throughout testing.
 
The putter was also where I had some issues adjusting. I tend to use putters with larger grips (see below); and, as you can see with the BGD putter, that is not the case with this grip. Couple my discomfort with the grip with my natural tendency to be a streaky putter, and you get an adventure with the flatstick during this testing period. I was constantly leaving putts short with this putter (the hot face from my first impressions post must just be on turf) and, again, could never get just quite comfortable with the putter. This being said, when the putter and I were cooperating with each other, it did feel good; I had some great putts during this session, including a 20 ft. putt I made on my first hole during my last round during this test.
 
On-course, the irons, fairway wood, and driver performed as I expected based on my time in practice. The irons were more difficult to hit than what I am used to, but I believe this made me concentrate more and perform better. This being said, the irons were nerve-wracking every time I hit them due to the lack of forgiveness. I’m glad this testing period was during a warmer part of the year with the number of shots I hit thin with these blades (Ouch!). Below is a side-by-side comparison of the top-lines of both irons (I used the 5-Irons in both sets). However, the driver was very forgiving; and I was able to really launch a few drives with it over the course of the testing period, including one that went 325 yards. 
Cobra LTDx 5-Iron                                                                                BGD 5-Iron
                                                      
Overall, the clubs performed well for me; and I did see improvements over the course of the testing. While some of the clubs were not my favorites (mainly the wedge and putter), I found the clubs to be of good value and performed very well. 
 
For my On the Course rating, I would give the set a 16 out of 20. The main criticisms that bring the score down are the lack of playability of the wedge, my discomfort over the putter (which did improve with time), and the nerves that came with every iron shot (even if they weren’t always necessary).
 
The Good, the bad, and the in-between (15 out of 20)
In this section, the main things I want to bring up are the looks of the clubs and the grips. No matter how I felt they performed, almost everyone to whom I showed the BGD set thought that everything looked great. I also had a friend as well as some people at my local PGA Superstore try the clubs out to see what they thought, and they all were mainly positive when talking about the club heads and their performance.
The main thing they and I seemed to dislike the most were the grips. One person I asked to try the clubs told me that he could tell that these were not the best quality of grips that could have been used, even at this price. I have made my feelings very clear about the grips on these clubs in my previous posts; but I will say again that these grips are not for me, and I would change them if I continue to use these clubs. To me they feel very thin and not comfortable in my hands.

The last thing I’ll mention in this section is that, while playing my final round with these clubs for the review, the three-wood face was scratched up pretty badly from a tee ball. I have never had this happen before with a club on a regular tee shot. This is a concern for me that it may not last as long as others I have owned. 

Side Note: I wish they made a cavity back with a stiff shaft.
 
Play it or Trade It? (15 out of 20)
Let’s get the easy ones out of the way. The putter and the wedge are a no. They were way too inconsistent for my liking, especially the wedge.
The driver and three wood were in contention to stay in the bag, but the damage to the three wood’s face and my regular driver’s performance during the comparisons made me reconsider. I will probably break them out if I need a change or if my regulars aren’t behaving. Having the giant faces on them makes them good for going full force with them, but I don’t need to do that too often.
The irons are a tricky story. I am definitely considering putting them in the bag. They performed well, and I enjoyed working with them during the testing. I want to try my usual irons again to see how they perform after using the BGD irons. This will be a wait-and-see for me on this front, but I will update the score if it changes.
 
Conclusion
Overall, Byrdie Golf Design puts out a pretty good product for the price and is definitely worth the money. If you are someone who knows their specs and wants to buy new clubs for a lower price, I would consider them for that. The irons I tested are not for the faint of heart when it comes to ball-striking, but they perform. Give them a shot if you're curious - - they may be what you are looking for. 
 
OVERALL GRADE: 80 out of 100

It worked! While I don't mind the sound of the BGD driver at all, I definitely like the Callaway sound better. That's to be expected though I think. BGD sounds good though I think!

From what I can tell, they look like about what you'd get for the price. Maybe a little better. Not a bad thing. Just good to have expectations in check. I can deal with a couple small nicks for a good price as long as soon and dispersion and sound aren't way off the mark. Appreciate your initial rang thoughts. Can't wait to see when you run the through 18-36 holes.

So far it sounds like a really decent set of clubs for the overall price. The 60° I always find to be a finicky club anyway. I've found so old OLD 60s I love and then new fancy and shiny ones that suck. Personally with that club I find it's more about the confidence at address than it is the actual club. That being said there are certainly ones that spin better than others. What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't be to worried about the set if the 60 is the only "problem"

You are correct. Eveyone I have spoken with loves the aesthetic but Little spoiler I was able to get a few friends together to text them at a sim and the results were mixed. 
 
 

Hello Spies, 
The goats were taken out to graze for my first impression. Give it a read and let me know if you have any questions. 


 

So far it sounds like a really decent set of clubs for the overall price. The 60° I always find to be a finicky club anyway. I've found so old OLD 60s I love and then new fancy and shiny ones that suck. Personally with that club I find it's more about the confidence at address than it is the actual club. That being said there are certainly ones that spin better than others. What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't be to worried about the set if the 60 is the only "problem"

I know I sound extremely critical of the wedge, but I will say, on fuller shots (for me 60-80 yds) the wedge has been very good. I have played several different 60 degrees and I usually can play every shot with it, just not this one for some reason. It definitely is not ruining the rest of the set for me though.

So far it sounds like a really decent set of clubs for the overall price. The 60° I always find to be a finicky club anyway. I've found so old OLD 60s I love and then new fancy and shiny ones that suck. Personally with that club I find it's more about the confidence at address than it is the actual club. That being said there are certainly ones that spin better than others. What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't be to worried about the set if the 60 is the only "problem"

Update
This is an update based off a round played on Sunday, May 5th. Will have another for this past weekend later this week.
I played a full round with the set on Sunday the 5th and the results were pretty good, but there were some struggles. I am still struggling with the 60 degree, to the point where I stopped using it after 9 holes and went back to my Vokey. I could tell a big difference between the two on the shorter shots around the green. Now, this could be that I am more used to the Vokey than the BGD wedge, but even after practicing with it, I still find it to not be for me.
With the negative out of the way, the irons and driver were performing very well for me after getting a couple holes in to warm up. I didn't need to use the driver a lot, but when I did, it delivered. The irons performed well, and I was beginning to see my usual baby draw coming with them on this day. The putter, which I am still not the biggest fan of, did perform better on this day, especially in terms of speed.
Plan to get one more range session and round in before my final thoughts. We'll see what happens.

I played nine holes this afternoon. I wasn't able to try any bunker shots with any of the Byrdie Design Grind Wedges, because they were all full of water and or debris from yesterday's storm we had. I was able to to do multiple approach shots with each of them from various yardages and am pleased with the results. On one shot I was 58 yards away from the pin and a 52 degree wedge chip shot hit the flag stick and dropped beside the cup. Hopefully, the next time I'm out on a course they'll be drier bunkers. 

This sounds about as expected. So far anyway. Surprised at the driver honestly! How far do you typically hit your driver? 325 is big hit! Is the driver sound gross and ting-y? Or is it nice and solid sounding? You said you haven't played many blades, but I still wanna hear forgiveness compared to your Cobra's. Does it look good at address to the ball? Nice thin top line? Does it instill confidence in your hit or make you nervous? Does it just go to a 4i? Or to a 3? Easy to tell if it's a toe or heel hit? That's one thing I like about blades is you can more easily tell where you mishit it to try and correct it better. Glad you finally got to use them!! Excited to hear more! You gotta be hitting stuff shaft correct?

Very helpful! Thanks for answering 😁

Took the wedges to a different range today and used their hitting mats. The 52 degree wedge was shooting darts to a pin @ 50 yards out, over and over and over. I was truly impressed with this point and shoot club. The 56 degree wedge wasn't as accurate, but it was landing the range balls within ten feet or so of the same pin. The 60 degree wedge had similar results to the 56. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so possibly Wednesday I can hit a course? Stay tuned 😉

Very helpful! Thanks for answering 😁

I'll try to answer your questions in order as much as I can for now. In regards to the sound of the driver, I plan to get a recording next time I'm on the range or course with it. I think that that would be a better gauge of how it sounds. I will say it is not unpleasant to hear when you strike it well though. When my driver is cooperating (which it doesn't always want to), I average around 250-260 total distance. This driver has been more cooperative so far than not.
For the irons, they do look good at address, especially the lower irons to me. The 4- and 5-iron in the set are very thin at the top line and that does let the nerves creep in some. The shorter irons, the thin top line is not much of a bother. You can definitely tell when you mishit the irons, especially when you thin the long irons. I'm glad I'm not trying to play these in the cold. I've actually been striking the irons well, out side of a few off the toe, and I think that they are making me concentrate more as I play. My Cobras are definitely more forgiving, but I think that I am playing better with these blades due to this concentration. I am playing a stiff in everything, and I feel the shafts are pretty good quality for the price range, but I am by no means an expert on shafts.
Hope this all helps.

This sounds about as expected. So far anyway. Surprised at the driver honestly! How far do you typically hit your driver? 325 is big hit! Is the driver sound gross and ting-y? Or is it nice and solid sounding? You said you haven't played many blades, but I still wanna hear forgiveness compared to your Cobra's. Does it look good at address to the ball? Nice thin top line? Does it instill confidence in your hit or make you nervous? Does it just go to a 4i? Or to a 3? Easy to tell if it's a toe or heel hit? That's one thing I like about blades is you can more easily tell where you mishit it to try and correct it better. Glad you finally got to use them!! Excited to hear more! You gotta be hitting stuff shaft correct?

Update for testing
After working with the clubs for a couple of weeks or so, I wanted to post yardage comparisons between the Byrdie Golf Design Set and my set. For the comparison, I put the 7-iron from the Byrdie Golf Set up against my Cobra LTDx 8-iron. All tests were performed indoors with a Trackman Simulator and Callaway Chrome Soft X golf balls. The statistics I tracked are as follows: Swing Speed, Ball Speed, Launch Angle, Spin Rate, Smash Factor, Carry Yardage, Total Yardage.
7-iron vs 8-iron
The reason I am testing a 7 in the BGD set against the 8 of my Cobra irons is very simple: the lofts are closer together. I wanted to be fair with my testing and obviously my Cobra 7-iron will go farther since it is a stronger loft (see full bag lofts below). 
           
With the 7-iron from the BGD set, it took a couple of swings to get the strike down; but, after that, I found the irons to play really well. I am not someone who tends to hit a lot of modern muscle back or blade irons, so I cannot determine how close they feel comparatively. I can say that, when they are struck well, they feel great. When you’re a little quick with them and thin them, you will feel it (especially the 4- and 5-irons). Below are the averages I had from the better strikes with the 7-iron.

As you can see, the BGD 7-iron performed pretty well for me. I am used to having my 7-iron going further, averaging around 165 carry, but I am happy with the results.
For the comparison, I did use the 8-iron from my current set of Cobra LTDx’s. Again,I did this because I wanted to get as similar to the same lofts as I could for the comparison. I took a few warm-up swings with my 8-iron as well (I wanted to be fair), and below is the data I collected.

From the data, we can see that the Cobra LTDx 8-iron was almost identical to the 7-iron from BGD during this test. In fact, the 7-iron actually provided a slightly better launch angle, smash factor and spin rate compared to the LTDx. This was surprising to see and I was thoroughly impressed by the performance of the BGD irons. The change in distances will take some getting used to, though.
On Course
I also wanted to describe my first couple of times out on the course with the set. I took the set out for their first true-on course rounds the weekend of 4/26 - 4/28: one on a Par Three Course (Knight's Play Golf Center), the other a traditional Par 72 (Raleigh Golf Association - Public Course).
The irons and driver performed well enough for my skill level, although I am long enough on the course I played that the 2-iron sufficed off the tee most of the time. That being said, I did bomb one around 325 on one of the par 5s. I am having to club up a lot more due to the differences in loft on the irons. My Cobras are stronger lofted and about one club longer than the BGD irons (See Specs above), but I think I am making the adjustment well. 
My biggest challenges on the course this weekend were those with the wedge and putter. I will say that I am a streaky putter to begin with, but I was struggling with pace all day on Sunday  (The par 3 course had just aerated and sanded their greens - - not much I could do there). The wedge was also very inconsistent this weekend for me, making adventures out of even the easiest chips. I'm hoping with some more practice these won't be issues for me, but we'll see. 
Despite the issues with the wedge and putter on Sunday, the irons and woods did their jobs well enough for me to shoot an 81. Here's hoping what happened yesterday continues, but not the experiences with the wedge and putter.
I played again with the BGD set yesterday and will have my thoughts on that round coming sometime this week. 
 
Let me know if y'all have any questions or thoughts on the information. Now that my coaching season is over, I will be able to practice and play more with the set to better form my opinions about the clubs.
 

Happy to share additional details on this:
Most OEM's have multiple settings, as the lofts change, so do the lie angles (usually 0.25/0.75º)
As an example, if you look at the TM spec chart, their upright is also 4º and will show the lie angle changing at all various settings.

Regardless of costs, if as a consumer you put your hard earned money up for a product, you expect quality. 
Now, as an affordable/entry leveI line of clubs , i can understand the finish and faces showing some wear after a range session. 
Good intro. 

From what I can tell, they look like about what you'd get for the price. Maybe a little better. Not a bad thing. Just good to have expectations in check. I can deal with a couple small nicks for a good price as long as soon and dispersion and sound aren't way off the mark. Appreciate your initial rang thoughts. Can't wait to see when you run the through 18-36 holes.