Unofficial New Level 902 Forged Review using Trackman Data (SS of 90mph w/ 7 iron)

[vandyland]

Cross-post from my search for a new set of irons on another thread but wanted to leave what I hope is useful information on the New Level 902 Forged. Quickly, a bit about me, I am a 5-6 HDCP and I am a recovering one lengther (I have the Cobra F9 One Lengths which were fun for a few years but I am missing the "precision" of shorter short irons so I am moving back to a traditional length set). Iron play is not a strength, I am an accurate driver of the golf ball, an above average wedge player, an average putter and an average to below average iron player based on strokes gained and GIRs with non-wedge in my hand. My main issue/miss is catching the ball on the toe and my attack angle can get a bit steep. With that out of the way, let me show you these clubs:

 

 

 

I came into this with very high hopes. The 902 forged irons looked good and were the kind of irons I was hoping would have the magic mixture of feel and forgiveness. Quite lofty expectations, I am afraid. Out of the box they looked good and had a shorter blade length which I appreciated. 

Customer Service (8/10): New Level has the most expensive demo program out of the DTCs, straight up. They charge $30 per club as well as shipping. Also, the box I got was not in great shape which could be a UPS problem instead of a New Level problem (I am not going to show the picture because, again, it may not be New Level's fault). The clubs were fine when they came in with almost no wear on them and iron covers to keep them looking fresh. The owner, Eric, called me to discuss the clubs before I demoed them which was cool and I will bump them back up to an 8 as a result. I will update this post for any additional interactions with them. 

Looks/Aesthetics (8.6/10): These look good. The offset and blade length is good, the sole width is not crazy narrow but is on the slimmer side and is attractive. Construction looks and feels solid. 

Feel (9/10): Obviously a very subjective area but one that am I compelled to try to capture. Now, I have never played true one piece forged clubs before all this testing. I have typically had two piece cast or multi-material clubs. The "softness" and "muted sound at impact" that I had always heard people wax poetically about is mostly present here with these. Compared to a players distance or game improvement iron these were excellent. Middle of the pack against the other players one-piece forged CBs I have played. Feedback is good and pretty specific with mishits being slightly harsh but not as harsh as some others I have tried (Sub 70 639CB and MP-20 MMC were both "softer" on center strikes but also harsher on mishits) for me these felt a touch more forgiving and slightly less specific in feedback to the top top end of feel for this type of iron. Which for me was a good thing since those other clubs proved to be too much for me. 

Performance (8.8/10): This is strictly trackman numbers, see below table, strike quality is based on feel in the moment and AAA is best while A is decent contact:

Playability* (for me) (8.2/10): This is where I take a hard look at the numbers above and note a couple of things. 1) For me, this was an average ball striking day 2) I was able to groove a swing with these since I was testing them against several other clubs and switching every 5 shots so I was definitely warm. Based on those two facts, I have to be honest and note the positives and negatives:

Positives - the left to right dispersion is tight. These clubs are rather accurate. Average spin, launch and carry are all good numbers. 

Negatives - long to short dispersion was pretty wide on OK to perfect strikes. There is more variability across all the metrics than I would normally like. Ball speed was on the slow side.

Ultimately, these felt more forgiving than 639CBs and less forgiving than Cobra MIM Tours. I could game these but there are better options out there for me. On my bad days I would be 10-15 yards short on most approaches. 

 

Value (8.1/10): Value seems good as construction quality is good and the results were excellent. I am dinging them slightly on the fact that the demo is more expensive than other DTC demos in the marketplace. If you are looking for a players distance iron a set of these can be had at a below market price for what I think is a very solidly performing iron. 

Final Positives: Clubs are a good value, nice looking and well constructed. For me, they are a players cavity back which will give you feel and feedback at reasonable level. Very good feeling at impact on center strikes and they can flight the ball well for 3/4 shots. If you are looking at Players CB irons, this is certainly worthy of consideration and it is probably on the more forgiving side for that category. Left to right dispersion was very tight. 

Final Negatives: For me, the playability was not quite there. This is not a fault of New Level but more of the same as with my other Players CB reviews. I'm just worried of what happens when I am not on my game. I also had the most mishits that I throw out with this club than any other in the category. Granted, majority of those were bad swings but I couldn't ignore that in the end. Dispersion between longest and shortest shots was a bit too big for me to seriously consider these. 

[GolfSpy SAM]

On 7/19/2021 at 10:07 AM, vandyland said:

Cross-post from my search for a new set of irons on another thread but wanted to leave what I hope is useful information on the New Level 902 Forged. Quickly, a bit about me, I am a 5-6 HDCP and I am a recovering one lengther (I have the Cobra F9 One Lengths which were fun for a few years but I am missing the "precision" of shorter short irons so I am moving back to a traditional length set). Iron play is not a strength, I am an accurate driver of the golf ball, an above average wedge player, an average putter and an average to below average iron player based on strokes gained and GIRs with non-wedge in my hand. My main issue/miss is catching the ball on the toe and my attack angle can get a bit steep. With that out of the way, let me show you these clubs:

 

 

 

I came into this with very high hopes. The 902 forged irons looked good and were the kind of irons I was hoping would have the magic mixture of feel and forgiveness. Quite lofty expectations, I am afraid. Out of the box they looked good and had a shorter blade length which I appreciated. 

Customer Service (8/10): New Level has the most expensive demo program out of the DTCs, straight up. They charge $30 per club as well as shipping. Also, the box I got was not in great shape which could be a UPS problem instead of a New Level problem (I am not going to show the picture because, again, it may not be New Level's fault). The clubs were fine when they came in with almost no wear on them and iron covers to keep them looking fresh. The owner, Eric, called me to discuss the clubs before I demoed them which was cool and I will bump them back up to an 8 as a result. I will update this post for any additional interactions with them. 

Looks/Aesthetics (8.6/10): These look good. The offset and blade length is good, the sole width is not crazy narrow but is on the slimmer side and is attractive. Construction looks and feels solid. 

Feel (9/10): Obviously a very subjective area but one that am I compelled to try to capture. Now, I have never played true one piece forged clubs before all this testing. I have typically had two piece cast or multi-material clubs. The "softness" and "muted sound at impact" that I had always heard people wax poetically about is mostly present here with these. Compared to a players distance or game improvement iron these were excellent. Middle of the pack against the other players one-piece forged CBs I have played. Feedback is good and pretty specific with mishits being slightly harsh but not as harsh as some others I have tried (Sub 70 639CB and MP-20 MMC were both "softer" on center strikes but also harsher on mishits) for me these felt a touch more forgiving and slightly less specific in feedback to the top top end of feel for this type of iron. Which for me was a good thing since those other clubs proved to be too much for me. 

Performance (8.8/10): This is strictly trackman numbers, see below table, strike quality is based on feel in the moment and AAA is best while A is decent contact:

Playability* (for me) (8.2/10): This is where I take a hard look at the numbers above and note a couple of things. 1) For me, this was an average ball striking day 2) I was able to groove a swing with these since I was testing them against several other clubs and switching every 5 shots so I was definitely warm. Based on those two facts, I have to be honest and note the positives and negatives:

Positives - the left to right dispersion is tight. These clubs are rather accurate. Average spin, launch and carry are all good numbers. 

Negatives - long to short dispersion was pretty wide on OK to perfect strikes. There is more variability across all the metrics than I would normally like. Ball speed was on the slow side.

Ultimately, these felt more forgiving than 639CBs and less forgiving than Cobra MIM Tours. I could game these but there are better options out there for me. On my bad days I would be 10-15 yards short on most approaches. 

 

Value (8.1/10): Value seems good as construction quality is good and the results were excellent. I am dinging them slightly on the fact that the demo is more expensive than other DTC demos in the marketplace. If you are looking for a players distance iron a set of these can be had at a below market price for what I think is a very solidly performing iron. 

Final Positives: Clubs are a good value, nice looking and well constructed. For me, they are a players cavity back which will give you feel and feedback at reasonable level. Very good feeling at impact on center strikes and they can flight the ball well for 3/4 shots. If you are looking at Players CB irons, this is certainly worthy of consideration and it is probably on the more forgiving side for that category. Left to right dispersion was very tight. 

Final Negatives: For me, the playability was not quite there. This is not a fault of New Level but more of the same as with my other Players CB reviews. I'm just worried of what happens when I am not on my game. I also had the most mishits that I throw out with this club than any other in the category. Granted, majority of those were bad swings but I couldn't ignore that in the end. Dispersion between longest and shortest shots was a bit too big for me to seriously consider these. 

Nice work, nice write-up.  Thanks for the info.