Toura Golf Irons Build Test: 2024 Forum Review

[vandyland]

Took me a while to catchup but this is a very cool test and insight into the building process that I don't normally see. Also, @azstu324, that picture of the toura blade chopping onions is one of the funnier pictures I have seen on here. Keep up the good work guys!

[ejgaudette]

19 minutes ago, JRDuck40 said:

*****UPDATE****

There is none. Thanks to the river system that is currently parked over the Midwest, we had to cancel our Tuesday night league. Thankfully I have 99, yes Ninety Nine holes booked for this weekend. I will be brining the Toura CBs along with my Takomo 101Ts for a full comparison test. I'm thinking I will be going with the CBs all day Friday. Takomo Saturday and then one 18 for each set on Sunday. They will be getting the FULL workout as well as we will be playing the courses of Lawsonia. https://www.lawsonia.com/

This is going to be legit amazing! Cannot wait for Friday! 

Onward. 

Looks like a great trip, the Links course in particular looks wonderful. Hope you hit them well!

[TSauer]

47 minutes ago, JRDuck40 said:

*****UPDATE****

There is none. Thanks to the river system that is currently parked over the Midwest, we had to cancel our Tuesday night league. Thankfully I have 99, yes Ninety Nine holes booked for this weekend. I will be brining the Toura CBs along with my Takomo 101Ts for a full comparison test. I'm thinking I will be going with the CBs all day Friday. Takomo Saturday and then one 18 for each set on Sunday. They will be getting the FULL workout as well as we will be playing the courses of Lawsonia. https://www.lawsonia.com/

This is going to be legit amazing! Cannot wait for Friday! 

Onward. 

99... phew! That is going to be an awesome weekend. Those courses look amazing, btw!

[ctg44]

I got in another walking 9 holes yesterday.  Shot a pretty terrible 44, but most of that was due to not being able to keep either the driver or the 3W on the planet and taking at least 4-5 penalty strokes.  Iron play was solid again, including a roped draw of a 7 iron from inside a penalty area on the other side of a creek to the back side of the green on the 7th hole.  I didn't get up and down, but then again, I can't chip or putt right now either, so yeah, about ALL that's working is my iron game I guess...

[jbern]

23 hours ago, JRDuck40 said:

*****UPDATE****

There is none. Thanks to the river system that is currently parked over the Midwest, we had to cancel our Tuesday night league. Thankfully I have 99, yes Ninety Nine holes booked for this weekend. I will be brining the Toura CBs along with my Takomo 101Ts for a full comparison test. I'm thinking I will be going with the CBs all day Friday. Takomo Saturday and then one 18 for each set on Sunday. They will be getting the FULL workout as well as we will be playing the courses of Lawsonia. https://www.lawsonia.com/

This is going to be legit amazing! Cannot wait for Friday! 

Onward. 

Wow, that's an epic golf trip! Should be able to do a pretty thorough comparison with 99 holes coming up over such a short period of time! I'm very curious how they stack up to your Takomo's! Have fun!

[JRDuck40]

22 hours ago, ejgaudette said:

Looks like a great trip, the Links course in particular looks wonderful. Hope you hit them well!

 

22 hours ago, TSauer said:

99... phew! That is going to be an awesome weekend. Those courses look amazing, btw!

If either of you make it up to WI, you NEED to put Lawsonia on your short list to visit. The courses are always in amazing shape and for a top tier experience, they are reasonably priced as well. Typically around $100 for greens fees with cart.... Or THIS GUY! We were lucky enough to snag the last two motor carts last time I played there. It was honestly the MOST fun I have had between shots. If you want to snag one of these for your round, you need to show up stupid early though. They only have a finite amount of them available. 

[ejgaudette]

5 minutes ago, JRDuck40 said:

 

If either of you make it up to WI, you NEED to put Lawsonia on your short list to visit. The courses are always in amazing shape and for a top tier experience, they are reasonably priced as well. Typically around $100 for greens fees with cart.... Or THIS GUY! We were lucky enough to snag the last two motor carts last time I played there. It was honestly the MOST fun I have had between shots. If you want to snag one of these for your round, you need to show up stupid early though. They only have a finite amount of them available. 

Those do look like some fun for a test run.

[TSauer]

5 hours ago, JRDuck40 said:

 

If either of you make it up to WI, you NEED to put Lawsonia on your short list to visit. The courses are always in amazing shape and for a top tier experience, they are reasonably priced as well. Typically around $100 for greens fees with cart.... Or THIS GUY! We were lucky enough to snag the last two motor carts last time I played there. It was honestly the MOST fun I have had between shots. If you want to snag one of these for your round, you need to show up stupid early though. They only have a finite amount of them available. 

I’m sold, those bikes are awesome! I keep seeing so many great WI courses, a trip there is definitely getting added to my bucket list. 

[Josh Parker]

5 hours ago, JRDuck40 said:

 

If either of you make it up to WI, you NEED to put Lawsonia on your short list to visit. The courses are always in amazing shape and for a top tier experience, they are reasonably priced as well. Typically around $100 for greens fees with cart.... Or THIS GUY! We were lucky enough to snag the last two motor carts last time I played there. It was honestly the MOST fun I have had between shots. If you want to snag one of these for your round, you need to show up stupid early though. They only have a finite amount of them available. 

This thing is awesome!  We could never have those at my course. Haha. A bunch of rednecks jumping the sand traps and rolling them down the hills. Haha. 

[Willie T]

On 5/30/2024 at 9:23 AM, JRDuck40 said:

 

If either of you make it up to WI, you NEED to put Lawsonia on your short list to visit. The courses are always in amazing shape and for a top tier experience, they are reasonably priced as well. Typically around $100 for greens fees with cart.... Or THIS GUY! We were lucky enough to snag the last two motor carts last time I played there. It was honestly the MOST fun I have had between shots. If you want to snag one of these for your round, you need to show up stupid early though. They only have a finite amount of them available. 

If they ever make it to here in Eastern NC - they would cure my former biker itch while swinging the clubs.

[azstu324]

14 hours ago, Willie T said:

If they ever make it to here in Eastern NC - they would cure my former biker itch while swinging the clubs.

I know this is completely off topic.. but this is what I refer back to when I want to reminisce about the good old days.

This is my cycle trader ad video from 12 years ago that's saved in my YouTube archive. I think about her often. I wonder if she's been taken care of and if she ever thinks about me. Sometimes I find myself looking for her on the highway. We had some great times together. Another significant occurrence that happened 12 years ago is.. we found out we were having our first kid. 

Some day my lady.. we shall dance again

 

 

Edited June 1 by azstu324

[Josh Parker]

59 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

I know this is completely off topic.. but this is what I refer back to when I want to reminisce about the good old days.

This is my cycle trader ad video from 12 years ago that's saved in my YouTube archive. I think about her often. I wonder if she's been taken care of and if she ever thinks about me. Sometimes I find myself looking for her on the highway. We had some great times together. Another significant occurrence that happened 12 years ago is.. we found out we were having our first kid. 

Some day my lady.. we shall dance again

 

 

Haha. I was just looking at bikes again. Missing a few of mine as well.  It will be a long time before I get another one with having small kiddos. 

[Rob Person]

5 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

Haha. I was just looking at bikes again. Missing a few of mine as well.  It will be a long time before I get another one with having small kiddos. 

See, I never gave up riding. In fact, I was able to teach all my boys to wrench and ride their own bikes. (I'm also a former MSF coach) we found each of them their own non-running bikes, and they had to tear them down and rebuild them to good running condition before they could learn to ride.  

[Josh Parker]

3 hours ago, Rob Person said:

See, I never gave up riding. In fact, I was able to teach all my boys to wrench and ride their own bikes. (I'm also a former MSF coach) we found each of them their own non-running bikes, and they had to tear them down and rebuild them to good running condition before they could learn to ride.  

It's not that I don't want to.  It's just the idiots that live around here can't drive let alone stay off their phones. Our road into town is super dangerous and we prob have 1 wreck every other week. 

[azstu324]

49 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

It's not that I don't want to.  It's just the idiots that live around here can't drive let alone stay off their phones. Our road into town is super dangerous and we prob have 1 wreck every other week. 

I had to look up your profile just in case you lived here in Chandler Arizona. People here drive like complete asshat $hitheads. We live by the fire station and they're constantly running to wrecks. 

[Josh Parker]

3 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

I had to look up your profile just in case you lived here in Chandler Arizona. People here drive like complete asshat $hitheads. We live by the fire station and they're constantly running to wrecks. 

Yeah it's terrible here. We almost got hit going into town this morning from someone on their phone in the lane next to us. Came flying by halfway in my lane. 

[azstu324]

11 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

Yeah it's terrible here. We almost got hit going into town this morning from someone on their phone in the lane next to us. Came flying by halfway in my lane. 

We have a BIG wrong way driver problem here. Half of it is drunk driving and the other half is the elderly. My wife and son almost got in a head-on yesterday with an elderly man going the wrong way on a major street. 

Everybody drive safe!

Edited June 2 by azstu324

[Northern Monkey]

London is a nightmare for driving! Not necessarily a bad thing in my line of work as it keeps me in a job

We have a big problem with delivery drivers on scooters who ride like lunatics and the standard of car drivers has definitely got worse over the years

[JRDuck40]

Morning spies! 
The trip was soggy, foggy and sandwiched between some amazing weather on Friday and Sunday. Irons held up great and I was surprised with the shafts on how weld the paint held. I'll have a full initial review up at some point this week. Now time to get caught up. 

JRD

[JRDuck40]

Also, another "off topic" item. 

SIGN UP FOR MASTERS TIX!!!! https://www.masters.com/index.html

Application for tickets opened as of June 1st. Good luck!

JRD

[David Leighton Reid]

Update June 3rd

It is a rainy afternoon, so I decided to check the lofts and lies on the Toura CB irons.  No change from my initial adjustments.  The swingweight on the 6 iron was a couple of points higher than the 5 or 7 irons, so I removed the grip and added lead tape on the butt end of the shaft.  Did the same thing with the GW to bring it down closer to my Corey Paul SW and LW.  I played 18 holes this morning and continue to enjoy playing the Toura CB irons.  The less offset of the Toura CB irons makes it easier for me to work the ball compared to my PXG Gen 3 0311XP irons.  

[David Leighton Reid]

On 6/1/2024 at 9:15 AM, azstu324 said:

I know this is completely off topic.. but this is what I refer back to when I want to reminisce about the good old days.

This is my cycle trader ad video from 12 years ago that's saved in my YouTube archive. I think about her often. I wonder if she's been taken care of and if she ever thinks about me. Sometimes I find myself looking for her on the highway. We had some great times together. Another significant occurrence that happened 12 years ago is.. we found out we were having our first kid. 

Some day my lady.. we shall dance again

 

 

My wife and I used to be bikers as well.  

 

[Javs]

7 hours ago, JRDuck40 said:

Also, another "off topic" item. 

SIGN UP FOR MASTERS TIX!!!! https://www.masters.com/index.html

Application for tickets opened as of June 1st. Good luck!

JRD

I try ever year and every year I don’t get picked……

[ctg44]

I played in an 18-hole scramble at the Fazio Course at Stonebriar CC in Frisco, TX, yesterday.  For most of the round, my driver was in "full send" mode, and I was firing on all cylinders with it, which is nice for a change since it's been brutal for me this spring.   It was also helpful because most of the foursome couldn't hit the fairway, so my drives got used almost every hole.  The course was really soggy because Frisco got almost 4" of rain on Sunday afternoon in about 2 hours, which left us in a cart-path-only status all day, too.  That also meant that the ball was not rolling out at all, especially on the greens.  The Toura irons, while looking great in the bag, were a mixed blessing yesterday for most of the round.  I was struggling to find the face with them a bit, which is more on me than the clubs...but on our 18th hole, the par 4 13th, I hit a massive drive up the left side of the fairway to 128 yards out into the wind.  I pulled the Tour PW, which is about 135-yard club for me with no wind, and sent an absolute bullet right at the flag.  It landed and stuck in its ball mark about 2' from the pin, earning me the closest to the pin winner on that hole by about 6" over the previous closest shot.  I then drained the putt to get our 3rd birdie of the day (yeah, not great scoring from our crew on a scramble) to get us something like a T22 finish overall.  Of our 3 birdies, I made the wedge and putt on 2 of them and made the putt on the 3rd, but between the very soft conditions and the lack of stable footing (even in my almost new pair of Sqairz shoes that are normally rock solid connected to the ground) due to all of the rain, I did struggle with my iron play a little more than I had lately.  That said, I did hit a sweet 4 iron late in the round to over 210 yards and 6 iron into the wind to 185 yards to a very tucked pin location when the wind was at its highest all day on a par 3, so it wasn't all bad.

[ctg44]

Just as an aside for anyone struggling with drivers and spin rates being out of control...don't be afraid to experiment with tungsten tape...lots of it.  If you have the swing speed to handle adding more to your club, it can be a game changer in bringing down excessive launch angles and decreasing excessive side spin from 1 direction or another.  I have about 6 grams of it added to my driver, along with the heaviest weight Billy Bob's Golf sells for the Callaway Epic Flash driver (19 grams), all pushed out to the far right side.  Shockingly, this is helping me get a medium level of ball flight and a little bit of draw bias.  I can't explain the physics, but the 310 yard carry numbers I was getting on the simulator Sunday and the real-world results that were just as good even with the soggy fairways yesterday show it's working.

[azstu324]

Ok back to business 

Heading to the course right now for 18. I want to do a 9 hole vs 9 hole head to head with my Maltby TS3's and the Toura MB's. For those who aren't familiar with the Maltby TS3's, I'd argue that they're probably the most forgiving iron that you can find in a "players" profile

I'm really enjoying the Toura Golf  KCM MB's! Like really really enjoying them! The couple rounds and practice that I've had with them anyway. The course I plan to play is an executive but It's got a great layout. Obviously the majority of the holes are par 3's.. but it's really designed to allow you to play every club in the bag. 

I think I'll start the front nine with the Maltbys And then finish with the Touras. 

I'll follow up later with the results and report of how the round went. 

[ctg44]

Well, I was going to go into work early today and try to play after work, but it is, of course, raining like it's monsoon season again here in the DFW area.  After getting several inches of rain last week, it sounds like we're in for almost another inch this week.  I'm getting really tired (REALLY...like punch a *&@# wall tired) of all this rain.  It would be one thing if I could easily go hit every club in the bag in the simulator at PGA Superstore and have it translate to the course, but that clearly isn't the case, especially where my inconsistent iron game and putrid short game are concerned.

I'm kinda tempted to book a tee time this afternoon, and even though it'll be cart path only, go out and drop 2-3 balls at various iron distances and hit those into the greens, then hit several wedges, collect the balls for some chipping, and putt a bit.  It's not like the greens won't still be rock hard even after all this rain on our Pecan course, and it's not like there won't be at least one 5-some in front of me taking forever to play a money game with every one of the guys in the group playing off 25 handicaps (oh, and of course, having too big of egos NOT to tee off from the blue tees and needing 3 shots in the par 4s) to slow everyone on the course down....but I digress.

The last time I played with my son, it had rained a bunch the night before and I brought a 2023 ProV1x in with a 60* wedge and with what was probably a 50* descent angle from 65 yards with an apex of over 100 feet from over a tree and it didn't make the slightest dent as it bounced 5' back up into the air.  This past weekend, I was doing some testing in the simulator and that same shot was getting almost 12,000 RPM of spin from the MG5 60.07LBV wedge...and yet it still bounced and rolled out rather than spinning and stopping when it hit the green last week.  Comparing that to Stonebriar's Fazio course where I played Monday and was able to basically sit a 125 yard shot w/ the Toura PW into the wind in it's own pitch mark, and you can see why with small greens, lots of trees, and strategically placed water and sand, the Pecan course can be a real beating to one's scoring average sometimes.  It's also why kids that get good on it do well in college golf because they're battle-tested.

Speaking of the Toura CB irons, I am really happy with how my build-out looks, and how they are performing overall.  I am not swinging them great right now, and part of that is probably the swingweighting still needing a little fine-tuning...and the absolute lack of consistent on-course playing time I been able to get with them.  If the weather had even just been as good as last year, when it still rained a ton in the spring, I would have 25-30+ 9-hole sessions on them by now, and I have the equivalent of less than half of that.  I'd love to be testing these shot for shot against the P7MC at some point, but I can't even say I feel like I've spent enough on-course time with them to feel like I am 100% there with them yet.  If anything, that is the one thing I loved about the 2020 set of P7MCs I picked up....even with the brutally awful (like HOW can anyone actually use those) Tour Velvet grips that came on them, and even though they were all about 1/8" too short for me, I went right out the 1st day I had them and was able to hit them better club for club than the Mizuno Pro 223s I'd had for 2 years. 

 

If there's any small thing holding me back from saying the Toura CB irons will be a permanent addition to the bag, it's that I'm not sure they're a better fit for me than the 2020 edition of the P7MC irons that were released almost 5 years ago now.

[ctg44]

On Saturday (06-01) and Sunday (06-02), I spent about 90 minutes each in the simulator at PGA Superstore practicing irons and wedges. Here is just some of that data for your review. I hit a lot more shots than this, but this is what I forwarded myself for review.  I did my best to go back and try to piece together which clubs were which after the fact because some of the names were cut off.  

Frankly, after all of these shots off artificial mats, I'm kind of surprised that my 50 1/2-year-old elbows aren't sore. However, I am guessing that the Toura irons are soft enough that I'm not getting a lot of vibration up into the elbows with them, even with the X100 shafts and taking 100s of shots each day.

[azstu324]

36 minutes ago, ctg44 said:

even with the X100 shafts

Honestly I'm finding these X100's to be quite smooth and enjoyable. I was afraid I was getting in over my head with 130g XS shafts but I actually really love this combo quite a lot. 

[ctg44]

8 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Honestly I'm finding these X100's to be quite smooth and enjoyable. I was afraid I was getting in over my head with 130g XS shafts but I actually really love this combo quite a lot. 

I was SHOCKED at how much I liked them when I tried the set off the used rack at Golf Galaxy that was in a set of P7MCs back in the fall, and that's what led me to get the used set of P7MCs this spring off Facebook Marketplace I'd been working on learning when I started this build and review process.  I had only been in the P7MCs fully for about 2 months tops when I got the notification I was going to be doing this test, but I'd also been in MMT125TX shafts in my Mizuno irons before that too.  I just didn't think that my 50+ year old elbows, which had been in real pain last year using the Nippon 1150gh shafts in the Mizuno Pro 223 irons, would tolerate going back to steel full time.  However, I was so depressed with how I was playing with the Mizuno irons, I was willing to try anything, and was so pleasantly surprised by the results and the lack of elbow pain that I couldn't be happier.  Given how badly I hit the S300 and S400 shafts in the past, and how much pain I had last year, to be hitting the irons pain-free and as well as I am now just by moving to the X100 version of the DG shaft is kind of mind-blowing honestly.  I guess there's a reason why about 75% of the PGA Tour has these shafts in their irons though...