Toura Golf Irons Build Test: 2024 Forum Review

[ctg44]

Spent an hour playing my son on the simulator at PGA Superstore last night, and while he kicked my butt as usual, I hit a lot of good shots and don't feel as bad about my golf game as I did after that round Sunday!  Hit some sick shots with the Toura irons too, so they got a little redemption too.

[ctg44]

I worked early and late on Monday and went in early on Tuesday so I could get out of the office an hour early yesterday.  I was able to get to the club in time to meet my son to get in 9 holes with him (played from the Gold / back tees) and then another 9 holes (played from the white / senior men's tees) when he had to leave to go ref a couple of adult hockey games.  Unlike this weekend when I couldn't chip, putt, hit an iron, or hit a driver, I played pretty well, and the @Toura Golf CB irons felt great and performed better than they did on Sunday (which to be fair, was their 1st time back in the bag after about a month of using the P7MCs).... 

 

I still need to REALLY spend a decent amount of time with REAL golf balls getting my distances dialed in (the wet spring here combined w/ NO range time and even then, what range time we have is with terrible range balls or with windy conditions), but I felt like I made a lot more good contact yesterday.  I had a couple of holes that ended up with double bogeys due to balls being buried in deep wet sand in fairway bunkers that hadn't been raked since Sunday morning before we got a couple of inches of rain Sunday - Tuesday morning.  Basically, those shots were nothing but basic punchouts, and that left me a long way out for my 3rd shot with a ball covered in sand and / or mud. 

 

That all said, between the 2 sets of 9 holes, I shot a combined 81.  I didn't allow my son to offer mulligans, re-tees, etc., and played it tournament-style, trying to redeem myself mentally that I can, in fact, play golf at some level reasonably below that of a 30 handicap.  I finished with a combined course handicap of 8 - 5 from the gold tees and 3 from the white on what is a par 70, so my 11 over total works out basically the equivalent of a 3 over.  That's a far cry better than my 30-over total on Sunday when I went 44/56 in nasty pouring rain and couldn't chip, putt, or keep a drive in play.  The front 9 of our Pecan course is slightly harder (handicap total of 81 versus handicap total of 90 for the back) than the back 9, and has tighter fairways with much tighter launch windows, so it can be harder to get approaches onto the very small greens because it's hard to get onto the fairways into the first place.  Keeping the ball on the green from the rough is generally hard to do unless there's been a ton of rain, and even though WAS raining Sunday, it had been dry all of July, so the greens were still surprisingly fast and hard until the very end of the day, and with thick wet rough around the greens, that was a nasty combo.

 

Yesterday morning, we had some rain, but it stopped around 10AM, and we were able to play via cart path only (too tired to walk 18 yesterday after 22 hours of work in 2 days).  The biggest thing I'll still say that I love about the @Toura Golf CB irons is that they just absolutely feel amazing.  The only thing that isn't GREAT about them is that sometimes you can hit a thin shot that still goes quite a long way, and you don't get the same feedback you might get from other irons that aren't as heavy at the bottom of the irons.  I'll still give them a 2 huge thumbs endorsement...they're just so solid, and the ball flight is so pure.   If there's anything bad for me, it's that they are so heavy down low that with that CG point being way under the center point, their ball flight characteristics tend to be very high, and that's not always great in Texas.  Now, I generally use Maxfli Tour or Tour X balls, and I've found those to be about the most wind-resistant balls on the market from side-to-side slippage.  The height does tend to lead to the occasional short shot because the wind and the massive backspin numbers = hit on the front of the green and roll back off, but hey, who doesn't want to have their shots look like a tour pro once in a while? 

 

I am leaning towards putting my Toura CB heads on a set of heavy and stiff graphite shafts in the near future, but that won't be until I can test out some other options on a similar-style head and really get a feel for what works for me for dispersion and spin. I am willing to deal with the occasional elbow pain IF I can get back to playing better golf like I was earlier this spring.

 

Seriously, go get some @Toura Golf irons.  They're on sale, come in a raw carbon steel version that looks AMAZING, and even better, their customer service and attention to detail is outstanding.

Edited July 24 by ctg44

[Shrek74]

These are so sick!!!!

https://touragolf.com/shop-all/ols/products/lh-custom-studio-designed

Only 1 set left!

[ctg44]

15 minutes ago, Shrek74 said:

These are so sick!!!!

https://touragolf.com/shop-all/ols/products/lh-custom-studio-designed

Only 1 set left!

Yeah, I could surely go broke (or at least get myself on the verge of a divorce) pretty quickly by freely playing the "Add to Cart" game on the Toura website...

[Shrek74]

6 minutes ago, ctg44 said:

Yeah, I could surely go broke (or at least get myself on the verge of a divorce) pretty quickly by freely playing the "Add to Cart" game on the Toura website...

If I had the game for them, these would be on the way to me.

[ctg44]

Just now, Shrek74 said:

If I had the game for them, these would be on the way to me.

I think you'd be surprised at how forgiving they are.  They aren't long by any means, but they aren't penal when you consider how good they feel.

[JRDuck40]

So i was able to finally sneak away from work and snap a few photos of the 'wear and tear' of the @Toura Golf CBs. The heads are holding up great. Faces are not showing as much wear / usage as I would've suspected after the Lawsonia trip. Dear lord that range was a sandbox.... Ugh. 

The one thing that is a little concerning is the shafts / paint chipping. The 4 iron, 7 iron and PW (7 and PW are probably my most used) have quite a bit of wear on them. 4 iron, only because it's sitting higher in the bag and receives more chatter. Oh well. Nothing a little painters tape and extra can of spray paint can't handle. 

Onward. 

[ctg44]

Got out for 9 holes Friday with my son after working 4/10s last week, and then 18 yesterday with my son and my wife.  My wedge game and putting have utterly deserted me, and I'm not driving the ball particulary well, but I did hit a lot more good iron shots yesterday after spending a long time at the range Saturday morning.  I had spent some time Friday afternoon after we played and then I'd done a Callaway driver fitting looking at various Golfpass videos and found a couple Lee Trevino did where he talked about "covering" the left foot with your hands at address once you were set on your target line.  Not surprisingly given how good of a ball-striker Trevino is still in his 80s, this really helps bring the club to the ball flatter and more consistently.  On the other hand, having had the clubs set a 1.5° upright on average isn't a great fit with this setup, but I adjusted pretty well to a combination of the 2 setups and hit a ton more greens yesterday....I just missed all of the birdie putts...well, literally all but 1.   I had 2 3-putts Friday in 9 holes and another 2 3-putts yesterday, which is driving me insane, because I have never really needed to spend more than few minutes during warmups practicing putting to have great 3-putt avoidance and overall great putting stats.  Still shot an overall 86 yesterday which is still going in the wrong direction, but that's largely because I was not hitting driver well, leaving long approaches into the greens on some holes that I couldn't reach in 2, resulting in pressure on my currently suspect wedge game.  It wasn't until about the 13th hole that my wedge game decided to arrive for the day and started to help me out a bit...

 

Speaking of my driver fitting, man, that AiSmoke Triple Diamond (8°) is a cannon that A) I couldn't hit left (which is great) and B) was gettting 270-280 carries regularly with a STOCK (i.e. not the upgraded / Velocore+ version) Ventus Blue shaft.  Now, I was as shocked as anyone to see him fit me into a blue shaft given how high I normally hit the ball, but it was working.  The fitter (who was genuinely awesome to work with) said I might get a little more stability and ball speed out of the Velocore or the 2024 version of the Blue shaft, but that he wouldn't recommend paying $250 for it.  I might have to see about finding that combo elsewhere used a little cheaper, but through the club after a fitting, we get a 10% discount, so I might just buy it new anyway...by hitting more fairways and being closer in general to the greens, it would mean I'm relying less on my suspect wedge game when I hit more greens with the @Toura Golf CB irons in the first place, right?  It's just money, right? 

[David Leighton Reid]

The Toura CB irons are still working wonderfully and I actually had my best ball striking day of the year last week.  Everything was working, from driver to wedges, with the only exception being my putter decided to take a day off and I missed several makeable birdie putts.  The only greens I missed in regulation were shots just off the green with good distance.  If only I could bottle up that magic, because my next outing wasn't nearly as good.  

Edited July 30 by David Leighton Reid

[ctg44]

I did the Golf Galaxy "Major Series" Trackman event on Monday that allows you to play the back 9 of Le Golf Nationale, where the 2018 Ryder Cup was held and 2024 Olympics are being played.  Man, is that course a tight, watery pile of nastiness...literally no driver holes on the back 9 from the tees the system had me at.  Once I'd finished 2 trips through that beast, I had 20+ minutes left in my simulator time, so I was looking for other ongoing events and found a closest to pin event using the 4 Par 3s at Pebble Beach.  It gives you 3 shots at each hole to try and beat the best distance to pin numbers from other players who've signed up for that.  The Toura CB PW (and my Edison 2.0 59° wedge for the 2 short holes) not only came through on the 1st trip through to get me 1st place, but I beat my own scores on the 2nd trip through and won again.  

Even still, my elbows are feeling 50-51 years of abuse, so last night I took the PW off the X100 shaft and put it on an MMT125TX shaft I had left over from my former Mizuno Pro 223 build I'd done w/ those shafts.  Since the PW seems to be the iron I use the most, I figured that would work out as a good test club to see if the @Toura Golf CB irons and a graphite shaft were a good fit.  Hopefully, I'll have some time to hit the range this afternoon and see.

[ctg44]

Well, I've made a final decision on the @Toura Golf CB irons....

 

I am selling the 2020 TaylorMade P7MC irons and sticking with the Touras.  Even though I'm a little longer and a little better with the TaylorMade irons when I'm good, my bad shots with those are far worse than a bad shot w/ the TouraCBs.  I am going to take the Touras back to Golf Galaxy and have the 1.5° on average upright lies bent back down to standard or even maybe a little flat.  I did the free Golf Galaxy TaylorMade P770 (the new ones) fitting last week and found the flatter irons worked better for me overall to avoid fat shots and hard-pulled left shots.  The few toe hits I did have with them (and the Touras before they were bent upright) were less punishing than losing a ball hard left out of play.

[ctg44]

Good afternoon everyone:

 

I did a quick update at the end of my main review post at the T+2 month mark and after testing some other irons over the past few weeks.  See here:

 

[JRDuck40]

Quick update....

I cannot believe that I'm typing this, but I am more than likely going to be selling my Takomo set. The Toura JCB Raw CB's have officially won the showdown. 

Last rounds with irons. 

Takomo - 101T - July 25th 

GIR - 6 / 18 - Most misses to the right. Final 18 - 85

Toura JCB CBs - July 27th 

GIR - 13 / 18 - Anything missed was due to a bad drive / leave. Final - 78

Yardage, dispersion, overall consistency and fell have kept. If I could honestly report a better overall score, I'd have to add a few points. In all seriousness, if you are in the market for a new iron set, you need to give @Toura Golf a fair shake. 

Only thing I hate right now, painting the shafts. Not doing this again.. Haha. 

Onward. 

[bardezart]

On 5/27/2024 at 3:14 PM, azstu324 said:

1st round with the Toura MB's..

(Apologies for the blasphemy) but.. Sweet Jesus these things are SO NICE!  I've always known not to judge a club's feel and actual performance off of how they play on the mats. Typically performance drops off some due to mats being overly forgiving, but feel is enhanced on the grass with pure shots and good turf interaction. 

One thing I'm noticing in my short time and limited field experience thus far is that finding the middle of the face is not nearly as difficult as I expected it to be. In fact it just seemed downright easy to flush shot after shot. I'm not sure if it's the stiffer and heavier shafts, heavier heads, or combination of both that just really allowed me to sync up well and keep a nice, repeatable path.

I've had a few sessions in my home setup. The Garmin R10 has a "distance" function where you hit 10 shots and it gives you an average distance and disbursement variance for those shots. I did 4 rounds with 3 sets of clubs and was pretty much dumbfounded that the Toura kept a tighter disbursement than the 2 sets of Maltbys. Also, distance variations were tighter with the Touras. How could this be? Maltby is a pioneer in making players style clubs with uncharacteristic levels of forgiveness designed in. Well of course I held back a bit of skepticism knowing that once I got out on the course things could really easily change from what I saw at home. Well my time today with these clubs confirms that what I saw at home definitely was the real deal.

Today I shot 80 on a par 72 from the Gold which plays around 6500 yds. Not that long but definitely not short. My best score on this course is a 72 from the silver which is the next tee market forward, and 76 from the Gold so I'm not angry at 80 at all. I'm happily saying that the 80 that I shot had 0% to do with the new irons and 100% to do with poor putting (which is very uncharacteristic of my game). Every iron shot seemed absolutely flushed and completely on the mark for distance. The ONLY greens that I didn't hit the entire round were on a par 3 where I actually used my 50° from my TS4 set that was short, and on a long par 4 with a 205 yd approach that I just pushed to the right of the green but was pin high. 

Shot of the day was on a 210 yd par 3 where I absolutely blistered this tiny 4 iron pin high and within 10 yds. Trust me when I say.. this thing is slim! 

Overall I'd say today was a fantastic first round with the Touras! It's one of those rounds that has me replaying all of the great shots I my head and thinking about how excited I am to get them back out. 

FYI, here's what happens to nice clubs in the desert..

It wasn't even any gravel and was just off the dirt. I ended up on the green though.. but at a price

 

Here's some more profile pics of the 7 irons from Toura, Maltby TS4, and Maltby TS3 

 

Can someone post top line photos like the first one here, but of the CBs? All of the pics don’t really do a great job of showing offset behind the ball. 

[ctg44]

3 hours ago, bardezart said:

Can someone post top line photos like the first one here, but of the CBs? All of the pics don’t really do a great job of showing offset behind the ball. 

I am a couple hours from being able to take fresh pictures, but maybe this folder has some of my @Toura Golf CB irons that would work for you (most are "pre-patina" though):  https://photos.app.goo.gl/f2LnqsSqQd2hZABYA

[ctg44]

On 7/24/2024 at 3:11 PM, ctg44 said:

I think you'd be surprised at how forgiving they are.  They aren't long by any means, but they aren't penal when you consider how good they feel.

And to follow up on this, if you pair these with the right shaft, I think you'd be REALLY surprised at how straight they send the ball when you want them to do that, but still allow for shot making when you want to do that too...particularly with flighting the ball down to play under the wind.  I've found myself almost intentionally "thinning" the ball on windy days and laughing at how close to stock distances they go because of the huge mass below the CB that has the CG super low in these.

[bardezart]

3 minutes ago, ctg44 said:

I am a couple hours from being able to take fresh pictures, but maybe this folder has some of my @Toura Golf CB irons that would work for you (most are "pre-patina" though):  https://photos.app.goo.gl/f2LnqsSqQd2hZABYA

Yeah, I looked through those. Some good ones, but still looking for a straight on view behind the ball. Just surprised that the Toura website doesn't even have the stock behind the ball angle. In photos I've seen here they seem to have a rather large amount of offset but it's difficult to tell for sure.

[Bunkerbum11]

They have the specs listed on the site (Face Progression). With a FP6 on the PW - depending on the exact hosel size, I would say this would probably be somewhere between 1.3 mm and 1.5mm of offset. This is just my rough estimate, but would probably be in the ball park. Based on this value, I would say these are low offset clubs - not high. But maybe the testers have some thoughts on this from an optical/ over the ball perspective? I don't have these irons, just going off the specs i see and general rules of thumb. 

[bardezart]

1 minute ago, Bunkerbum11 said:

They have the specs listed on the site (Face Progression). With a FP6 on the PW - depending on the exact hosel size, I would say this would probably be somewhere between 1.3 mm and 1.5mm of offset. This is just my rough estimate, but would probably be in the ball park. Based on this value, I would say these are low offset clubs - not high. But maybe the testers have some thoughts on this from an optical/ over the ball perspective? I don't have these irons, just going off the specs i see and general rules of thumb. 

Yeah I saw the numbers and compared to some other brands I am familiar with/have played. However, in my original reply to the photo of the MB, the Toura MB, despite being "low" offset still looks like it has a good amount behind the ball in the photo. 

[JRDuck40]

29 minutes ago, bardezart said:

Yeah I saw the numbers and compared to some other brands I am familiar with/have played. However, in my original reply to the photo of the MB, the Toura MB, despite being "low" offset still looks like it has a good amount behind the ball in the photo. 

Ask and you shall receive. Very little offset if any. 

 

[bardezart]

7 minutes ago, JRDuck40 said:

Ask and you shall receive. Very little offset if any. 

 

Idk, that looks like quite a bit of offset to me.

Edited August 21 by bardezart

[azstu324]

3 hours ago, bardezart said:

Yeah I saw the numbers and compared to some other brands I am familiar with/have played. However, in my original reply to the photo of the MB, the Toura MB, despite being "low" offset still looks like it has a good amount behind the ball in the photo. 

So just in response and hopefully to help a little bit, and speaking only for the MB's they're definitely is more noticeable offset on the four iron and possibly a little bit on the five iron. I think what you're seeing in the seven iron is actually part of the design that makes it look like there's offset but if you look at the alignment of the leading edge and a shaft they're nearly on the same plane. I think what they've done is tucked the heel in just a little bit so it might look like it has more offset than it really does. Keep in mind that offset is is pretty common for the more traditional JDM companies like this, Miura, Bridgestone, etc. It's kind of something that you just need to live with for the trade-off of Japanese forged, hand ground clubs. 

Edited August 21 by azstu324

[Bunkerbum11]

Think that's well said with the face progression. in the MBs, it looks to me like they have moderate offset in the high irons, then it really drops off to around 1.5mm in low irons 8-PW which is what you would like to see in the lower half in particular I would think

[ctg44]

I will say this...if there was ACTUALLY much offset, with the little bit of upright status I have on my irons, I'd have a constant left pull with them, and I don't.  I'm not terribly consistent with the @Toura Golf CBs right now, which is why I shortened them and added some tungsten tape to the top as a counterbalance the other day, but I was NEVER pulling the ball hard left, so their offset amount is not as bad as my old Mizuno Pro 223s were. 

I have a practice session booked tomorrow to avoid having to practice outside on mats where it's hotter than the inside of a crematorium here in Dallas.  On that note, I hope @azstu324 has air-conditioned underwear for playing in AZ right now...I heard Rocco Mediate on his show say it was 102° at freaking 03:45 AM (yes, IN THE MORNING) when he left for Michigan the other day. WTAF?!?!?! (yes, that temperature is going to force swearing from me every time, sorry folks).  I'm pretty tough, but man, 102° at 03:45?  No thanks!  I'd go back to playing ice hockey instead of just reffing it and playing golf.  Coincidentally, there's a decent amount of ice hockey to be played in Phoenix if you're into that, and the climate, heat notwithstanding, isn't terrible for ice, because humidity is far worse at creating bad ice for skating on that is heat.  It's much easier to cool a building down no matter the ambient temperature than it is to get rid of swamp-like humidity AND heat, because you're never going to do both.

 

Edited August 23 by ctg44

[bardezart]

50 minutes ago, ctg44 said:

I will say this...if there was ACTUALLY much offset, with the little bit of upright status I have on my irons, I'd have a constant left pull with them, and I don't.  I'm not terribly consistent with the @Toura Golf CBs right now, which is why I shortened them and added some tungsten tape to the top as a counterbalance the other day, but I was NEVER pulling the ball hard left, so their offset amount is not as bad as my old Mizuno Pro 223s were. 

I have a practice session booked tomorrow to avoid having to practice outside on mats where it's hotter than the inside of a crematorium here in Dallas.  On that note, I hope @azstu324 has air-conditioned underwear for playing in AZ right now...I heard Rocco Mediate on his show say it was 102° at freaking 03:45 AM (yes, IN THE MORNING) when he left for Michigan the other day. WTAF?!?!?! (yes, that temperature is going to force swearing from me every time, sorry folks).  I'm pretty tough, but man, 102° at 03:45?  No thanks!  I'd go back to playing ice hockey instead of just reffing it and playing golf.  Coincidentally, there's a decent amount of ice hockey to be played in Phoenix if you're into that, and the climate, heat notwithstanding, isn't terrible for ice, because humidity is far worse at creating bad ice for skating on that is heat.  It's much easier to cool a building down no matter the ambient temperature than it is to get rid of swamp-like humidity AND heat, because you're never going to do both.

 

I suppose I care more about perceived offset than the actual number. To me they look terribly offset even if they’re not. These being kyoei blanks, I’ll be curious to see what they look like in future iterations as some of the newer kyoei’s seem to have less perceived offset. 

[Shrek74]

10 minutes ago, bardezart said:

I suppose I care more about perceived offset than the actual number. To me they look terribly offset even if they’re not. These being kyoei blanks, I’ll be curious to see what they look like in future iterations as some of the newer kyoei’s seem to have less perceived offset. 

Also be aware that JRDuck40's image of the club isn't straight down the shaft. It is slightly to the right of the shaft, thus making the offset look more than it likely is. Unless the image is straight down the center of the shaft, you won't know exactly what the offset really looks like.

[ctg44]

@bardezart   Here are a couple of pictures each of the 4 iron (1st 2 pics) and 9 (2nd 2 pics) iron from as dead straight down the iron as possible.  Note, my clubs are bent about 1.5° upright on average, so that accentuates the appearance of offset.

Edited August 24 by ctg44

[ctg44]

After playing the shortened clubs yesterday, I definitely need to have these bent flatter to match how I want to swing them.  I'm trying to reduce the impact of the heavy heads and the still fairly high D5+ swing weights, and in combination with the fact that I have a bit of an ongoing love / hate relationship (ok...yeah, it's 100% pure hate) with arthritis in my left elbow, I needed to adjust my swing plane a touch to make swinging any clubs more comfortable.  It's even more necessary with heavy-shafted steel clubs.

[ctg44]

That said, I DID shoot an 83 with 3 triple bogeys yesterday, so it wasn't all bad.  Unfortunately for the @Toura Golf CBs, they were the cause of all 3 triples, with a 6 iron disappearing into the sun and being lost forever even though it seemed well struck on #3, a random PW falling short into the water on #10, and a combo of a drive long OB followed by the next shot short into the water w/ a decently struck 5 iron (which should have been almost 1 1/2 clubs TOO much for the pin distance, rather than 2 clubs short of the green which is where the water was).  Then again, that 5 iron has been an enigma off and on since I started testing these, occasionally being my favorite feeling club in the bag and then sending the worst shots EVER down range...

[JRDuck40]

2 hours ago, ctg44 said:

That said, I DID shoot an 83 with 3 triple bogeys yesterday, so it wasn't all bad.  Unfortunately for the @Toura Golf CBs, they were the cause of all 3 triples, with a 6 iron disappearing into the sun and being lost forever even though it seemed well struck on #3, a random PW falling short into the water on #10, and a combo of a drive long OB followed by the next shot short into the water w/ a decently struck 5 iron (which should have been almost 1 1/2 clubs TOO much for the pin distance, rather than 2 clubs short of the green which is where the water was).  Then again, that 5 iron has been an enigma off and on since I started testing these, occasionally being my favorite feeling club in the bag and then sending the worst shots EVER down range...

@ctg44 Ouch! Double train has been my biggest issue this summer. I can knock out a few pars / birds in a row. Then one hole, wheels come off and log a double or trip bogey... UGH! Knock that out, I'm back to shooting 75-80s instead of 82-88. 
All that being said, I've seen pretty consistent ball flight as of late. However, quite a few of my misses are going left. I've made some adjustments to my aim line on 4i thru PW and now, knock on wood, hopefully have this knocked out. Did a 2 hour range session on Saturday. Worked almost exclusively on ball striking and aim for the irons. Min - 10-12 shots on each iron. Also did another practice session on my new net setup. Good for getting my consistency down... that's about it.

Excited for the week ahead. 

League night - Tuesday 

Friday - 18 at Kettle Hills GC

Saturday - 18 at Songbird Hills CC

Sunday - 18 at Oakwood GC

Onward