New Ben Hogan PTX Tour - Genuinely New Idea?

[GolfSpy SAM]

So, I was scrolling through YouTube yesterday, and I saw that Gabe over at "Let's Play Thru" had a new video about these irons, and it was the first I'd even heard of them.  

I'll link the video below - it does a really good job of breaking down the distinctions between each of the irons and why the set was built that way, as well as how it performed for him. 

But the more I thought about it, after I'd seen it, the more I KEPT thinking about them.  How is it this is the first I've heard of this concept of building out a set - it's essentially a "combo" set within one set, and I think it's pretty brilliant.

Here's a general breakdown, cribbed from Hogan's website (you can see the irons for yourselves here: (https://www.benhogangolf.com/ptx-tour-irons/)

Long Irons (4-5) : use a four-piece construction to help golfers hit their longest irons higher and farther, particularly on mis-hits. The bodies and faces of their irons are forged from 1025 carbon steel to deliver the best feel and consistency. The inside of the irons is foam filled for enhanced perimeter weighting and a soft, solid feel.  Inside the 4 and 5 irons, we added tungsten weights to further enhance forgiveness and move weight lower in the club heads to help golfers increase peak height and maintain ideal distance gapping.

The PTx 6 iron has a three-piece construction. Its design does not require a tungsten weight, as its weighting is already precisely tuned. It is the transitional iron in the set that bridges the gap between the PTx Tour’s high-horsepower long irons and scoring-minded mid-and-short irons. (I kind of love that the 6 iron is completely unique among the set)

Mid Irons (7-8) : use a three-piece construction to help golfers create the lower, more consistent trajectories that are ideal for scoring. Between the 1025 forged carbon steel bodies and faces lies a co-forged titanium insert that enhances forgiveness while also moving weight higher to prevent ballooning. 

Short Irons (9-PW) : They are one-piece irons forged from 1025 carbon steel to deliver the ultimate in shotmaking performance and control. These are true scoring clubs made with the highest level of precision. Even golfers who have shied away from blades will be surprised with how forgiving these clubs are and what a joy they are to hit.

I find them to be A) crazy beautiful to look at, B) REALLY clever, C) VERY well-priced ($899 for 5-PW, $999 for 4-PW, and you can do heads only for $559/$649), D) A really, REALLY intriguing offer for those iron strikers who need a little help at the long end and really want to shape the ball on the short end (basically, most low-to-mid handicappers?); and E) I LOVE the idea that the 7/8 are designed to keep the ball flight down, which is such a clever design to move the weight up in those clubs only.

Anyway, I was just super impressed with them on paper, and thought I'd make a little post.  What do you think?  Would you be interested in a Non-combo-set Combo-set?  I know a LOT of folks here on the forum list the PTX's as one of their favorite irons (previous iterations, of course), but I will fully admit I've never really thought about them when pondering clubs, but this one for sure has my attention.

Thoughts?

[Chubbs1991]

Love the older Hogan Apex irons.

[Josh Parker]

Price point is great and the concept makes perfect sense. The clubs are clean looking and we are seeing even the pros going for more forgiveness in clubs.  

[Shrek74]

Price is definitely in a sweet spot for irons, especially of this design/type. I think the concept is brilliant, but I'd love to actually get my hands on them to see if they actually work as intended. That 7-8 iron grouping is where my concerns are, with that lower ball flight thing. Holding greens is done primarily with landing angle. But if the trajectory is low, that might not be possible. I'm working on my ball striking, so I might not be too far away from being able to game something like this. Plus, with heads-only as an option, I can easily see building a custom set of these. Welcome back Hogan!

Edited May 15 by Shrek74

[russtopherb]

This kind of reminds me of the Cobra F7 irons, where there were 4 different clubhead designs across the set based on long vs short irons vs set wedge. 

[GolfSpy SAM]

Just realized I forgot to put this in the original post - I'll link it here instead
 

 

[Sammur]

I don't feel this is a new concept. WISHON GOLF on the Sterling 1 length irons had 2 different designs, hot face in longer irons and a softer forged feel I  8 iron down.  The new line of Callaway clubs are built to do this exactly only 100   % individually custom. With the APEX line Pro are foam filled, cb are a forged Cavity, and of course the MB. However the Hogan price is way better

[J.B. TexasEx]

It's a great looking set that was very tempting to me, as well. Love the concept, anyway. I hate it when my short irons balloon on me, so raising the CG in those definitely makes sense.

[J.B. TexasEx]

On 5/15/2024 at 2:40 PM, Shrek74 said:

Price is definitely in a sweet spot for irons, especially of this design/type. I think the concept is brilliant, but I'd love to actually get my hands on them to see if they actually work as intended. That 7-8 iron grouping is where my concerns are, with that lower ball flight thing. Holding greens is done primarily with landing angle. But if the trajectory is low, that might not be possible. I'm working on my ball striking, so I might not be too far away from being able to game something like this. Plus, with heads-only as an option, I can easily see building a custom set of these. Welcome back Hogan!

Respectfully, "holding greens" is also heavily influenced by spin. I remember being amazed at how low touring professionals hit their wedges. Descent angle is more important for low-spin approaches. But, maybe a physicist will interject on our behalf?

[Shrek74]

Respectfully, "holding greens" is also heavily influenced by spin. I remember being amazed at how low touring professionals hit their wedges. Descent angle is more important for low-spin approaches. But, maybe a physicist will interject on our behalf?

It is heavily influenced by spin for professionals with wedges.

But we're not professionals. Every fitter I've gone to have all said the same thing - spin is important and needs to be at a certain level, but landing angle for us amateurs who don't have PGA Tour speed is the most important factor to stop a ball on the green. This is one of the big reasons we're seeing more traditional lofts coming back for slower swing speeds and lower ball flight players (JPX923 Hot Metal High Launch) - add some spin, yes, but to get the ball high and increase the landing angle.

You may not agree, and that's totally fine. This is what I've seen, been told, and learned myself.

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk

[Will A]

I game the straight PTx Pros and love them.  Doesn't mean I always hit them well, but that's a me problem, not a club problem.  

I got into them as a result of demo-ing them (the $25, keep it for a few weeks thing).  But as it happened, the week I shipped them back is when they lost the Hogan license and folded, so they got returned as undeliverable.  Now they're back, back again (sorry, Em).

Haven't tried the blended set, but I have their UiHi 4i and an Edge Ex 7 in addition to the PTx Pro set.  I hit the PTx Pros better than both.

They're beautiful clubs and the tech is on par with major brands. 

[vandyland]

I had PTxPros for a few years and liked them. To me, this is a little overcomplicated and Hogan's blend points may not fit someone else's. I think the whole point of a blended set comes from rather detailed testing and where someone has real differences iron to iron. Just my thoughts. I applaud them for trying something different. 

[bens197]

I recommended this setup to a friend who wanted a new set of irons but did not want to pay new retail irons prices.  I played the original Fort Worth and the blended set in separate years and could not say enough good things about the blended set.  

He’s a casual player with a solid swing and athletic background…all around great guy to play with who shoots mid 90’s.

After two rounds he said he’s never hit irons that felt this good.  The DTC pipeline is competitive and these stood out on name recognition, reputation and overall looks.  If you’re in the market, give these a look.

[Adamman84]

Love the look of these...but I really dont want to buy another set of clubs this year...ha